Rules are an important part of life. They help us stay safe and help us learn and grow in a positive environment. Teaching students the difference between a rule and not a rule will help them to distinguish the difference from something they must follow to keep them safe, healthy and happy from something that is not a rule and not required to keep them safe, healthy and happy. 

Objective: To help students understand what a rule is

How will learning take place? Through an engaging game to help students distinguish the difference between rules and not rules.  

Additional Components (not included in the digital version on boom learning): There will also be a printable activity sheet to go right along with this game, a transition activity to close the lesson as well as an extended learning idea on how to embed this casually into your classroom throughout the week or even better the year!

Find the game here: Is It A Rule Or Not?

Similar Digital Version on Boom Learning: Is It A Rule Or Not?

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Unit 2- Rules And Routines 

The Best Of Me Full Social Emotional & Mental Wellness Curriculum

My boys have been LOVING fishing in our backyard lately so I have been thinking about a simple “fish” activity for Ollie (4).  He enjoys doing patterns now and he loved the last pattern flower activity I posted so I thought having him make the fish’s bubble pattern would be fun for him! I had the stickers laying around but kids could also draw them  or fingerpaint!

If your child is just beginning to learn about patterns I would start the pattern for them, if your child understands patterns they can create their own pattern from start to finish! **Make sure you always read the pattern out loud so that kids can begin to hear the pattern instead of just visualizing!

It has been SO HOT here in Minnesota–Like 100 degrees and SO Humid (100 degrees doesn’t look good on MN)-the grass is dying! So we have had to do a lot of indoor activities and since we couldn’t spend time outside in the sun, we brought the sun in! I  wrote about it before but most of the time I try to include 2 or more different components in one activity. This really helps me in the classroom to quickly get assessments in many different areas.

In this activity for example, I could get an assessment on writing, numbers, counting, measuring and patterning! That is a whole lot of assessments in one! Not only were these activities good for assessments but they also encouraged the kids to expand their thinking and think about multiple tasks at once. Now this isn’t for every child so you have to see where your kids are developmentally.  One component is just fine to work on but if your child needs to be challenged this is a great activity! Happy Sunshine:)

I took out the watercolors yesterday to keep Ollie busy and had him “Paint By Number” using watercolors and his name!  He already asked for the watercolors again today so I know it was a winner of an activity but today I might make him something with letters instead of numbers or another concept!  Turn it into whatever skill your child is working in! This activity works on matching, recognizing numbers, recognizing letters and fine motor!

Effective yet simple. Both of my kids LOVE math and numbers so this was a perfect activity for Ollie (4). He worked on recognizing numbers and counting while he daubed the numbers in order from 1-30!  Adapt the numbers according to what your child is working on. If your child doesn’t recognize numbers yet you could write the numbers 1-10 on the paper and then put the same amount of dots next to each number. That way they can count the dots to know which number is which!

Flowers are blooming! This is an easy activity to work on patterns. I only had Ollie (4) working on ABAB patterns because he is new to patterns but depending on your child’s ability you could create a lot of patterns such as AABB, ABCABC, AABAAB. I started the pattern for him so that he knew what the pattern was going to be and he glued the flowers on the rest of the stems! 

Skip counting by 5’s! I had Max (6) work on this activity this weekend and he loved it!  I put the initial number in the middle of where he should start counting and then he rotated around the flower with the dot stickers counting by 5!

I have created a similar Digital Boom Card Deck that you can find in my Boom Card Store in the link in bio! Under “Skip Counting Flowers by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s!  This easy activity fits right in with our busy schedule!

Ollie has been LOVING playing outside lately as it has really warmed up here.  He loves looking for creatures and recently we have seen a lot of caterpillars. He loves watching them move and is fascinated by the fact that they will turn into butterflies! So to continue the theme of caterpillars inside, I made Ollie a simple activity that focuses on counting, number recognition and matching! I used my circle hole punch from Michael’s to punch the circles and then added the “amount” to each circle to represent the number it would be connected to and then Ollie glued them on in order of the rainbow colors as well as matching the amount to the amount on its head to turn into cute number caterpillars!

I had Ollie make his way through this subitizing Maze this morning (Subitizing is the ability to rapidly identify a set of 5-6 objects without counting–see my previous subitizing post for more explanation).  Since he was “4” I had him do the #4 maze –so I showed him where to start and then he had to color and connect all the squares with 4 dots in them! I didn’t have time to make a printable but I am hoping to do so this weekend!

*Tip* When doing this make the number pattern first in the boxes and then fill in the rest of the boxes with ONLY the numbers you did not use (makes it so much easier)