HeidiSongs Teaching Resource

CVC Eggs are a fun little way to have kids practice building three letter words. I created this activity last year, but never got the chance to blog on it!  So now, before it is too late to enjoy it, here is my little idea, which is just one of so many wonderful ideas that integrate plastic eggs into the classroom!  At the end of the post, please tell us YOUR best idea for using plastic eggs, and leave a link, too, if there is one! Here is the link to the downloadable freebie recording page that goes with it. I hope that it’s not too late for you to enjoy this!  I usually continue to do bunny rabbit and egg themed activities after the big day anyway.  Do you? View this post on Instagram Have tried CVC Eggs yet? The recording sheet is free! 😃 Link in bio! #Lovemyjob #teachersofinstagram #iteachtoo #iteachk #iteachkinder #iteachkindergarten #iteacktk #cvc A post shared by HeidiSongs (Heidi Butkus) ...

Hi, there, everyone!  Today I am going to tell you how to take a worksheet and turn it into a manipulative that you could use for a literacy center!  This is essentially the art of turning lemons into lemonade. In a lot of cases, this turns an activity that is NOT developmentally appropriate into one that IS!  You could do this with any worksheets included in your school district’s adopted language arts books, or with any worksheets you already own.  But I will be showing you how to do this with my own HeidiSongs worksheets, of course.  You will have to use your own creativity to apply these techniques to your own personal collection of worksheets. Word Pokers “Word Pokers” are very simple to make out of the right kind of worksheet.  All you have to do is copy the worksheet on to card stock paper and and then laminate it.  Cut the boxes apart as shown.  Then punch a hole under each answer shown.  Turn the paper over and draw...

This year we received so many wonderful video contest entries, that is it was almost impossible to choose!  In fact, we are thinking of letting everyone vote next year and count the number of "likes" on YouTube to determine the winner!  We are sorry that it took so long to come up with a winner, but getting all of the videos posted online took a while, so that was the cause of the delay.  And so now, without further ado, here is our big winner of the $300 in HeidiSongs Products ! Grand Prize Winner! Three Fires Elementary - Active Learners sing-along I think that my husband Greg got it right when he decided to name this entry "Active Learners Sing Along," LOL!  I love the way all of the children in this class are totally involved and engaged with every song.  They are moving and bouncing that carpeted area while they learn, and are obviously extremely happy while they are doing it.  And it just goes to show you- YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIT D...

This week I am going to share with you some fun things for March, including a St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun guided drawing lesson and a new free downloadable game.  So buckle up, here we go! Guided Drawing Leprechaun Lesson I started drawing up the directions for this lesson while sitting on the plane from LAX to Columbia,  on my way to SDE’s South Carolina Kindergarten Conference , and then finished it in Chicago at the IL ASCD PreK/K Conference !  (Both conferences were GREAT, by the way!) Since it has been a really long time since I had posted a guided drawing lesson freebie, I thought it would be a fun to post another timely one here.   If you do this with your students, I would love it if you send me a photo of their completed pictures, or post one on Facebook or Pinterest and let me know that it is there! My wonderful job share partner and my aide did this lesson with my little ones while I was gone this week and then sent me the pict...

Today, I am going to tell you how you can help your class make their own Mother’s Day Guided Drawing plates!  This was an easy, one day project for my Kindergarten class.  All I had to do was collect $7.00 per child, and make sure that we got the drawings done early enough to get them shipped back in plenty of time for Mother’s Day.  That’s why I am posting this now, so that you will be reminded to get it done in time for that special day! If you don’t think your student’s families can come up with seven dollars each, then you could also just have your students make these cute drawings into cards, but that is not nearly as much fun!  (See my blog post on that here.)  I have done this project just about every year for many years, and once the parents realize that it is for a keepsake like this, they are happy to give the money.  When I collect the money from parents, I also ask them if anyone would like to donate a little extra for a needy child, an...