Clothespins on a Ruler

So, here I am back with some teaching ideas. Sorry for the delay -- I got pneumonia and then was in the ER for tearing an ab muscle during a coughing fit and have had to rest in bed for several days. But tomorrow I will be back in the classroom! We are doing our gingerbread houses which I am then going to use to introduce area and perimeter. We also have a parent who is a biologist coming in to do a lab with the children about germs. We'll be growing germs in petri dishes for four days, comparing the dishes with fingerprints from unwashed hands vs. the dishes with fingerprints from hands that were washed and then cleansed with antibacterial hand sanitizer. She also wants to have the children swab some places in the classroom where they think germs might be growing. That should be really interesting. Tuesday afternoon I'm going to some training at The Kennedy Center in DC. Then Wednesday is an Open House where parents can visit the classroom.

I recently read some ideas about strengthening the hand muscles in children with poor handwriting. One which I am going to introduce tomorrow is clothespin work. I am using the Scrabble tiles (100) to write one letter on each clothespin with a Sharpie and then have the children arrange them on the blank side of a ruler to form words. We can then do sentences on a yardstick if it catches on. I can think of lots of ways to use this -- practicing spelling words from dictation, word games where I think of a word and mix up the letters and they have to unscramble it to come up with the answer (or they can try to trick me, or a partner), or the game where you have a big word and have to make as many small words as possible from it. I think it will appeal to my kids who are just starting to read "cat" as much as the higher ones.

Here is the Scrabble tile distribution. The clothespins that I got came in a box of 100 which made it easy.

A - 9
B - 2
C - 2
D - 4
E - 12
F - 2
G - 3
H - 2
I - 9
J - 1
K - 1
L - 4
M - 2
N - 6
O - 8
P - 2
Q - 1
R - 6
S - 4
T - 6
U - 4
V - 2
W - 2
X - 1
Y - 2
Z - 1
blank - 2