Each day I have a student that is my classroom helper.  At the end of the day the classroom helper gets to take a backpack buddy home.  The backpack buddy may consist of several books, an instruction sheet, a stuffed animal or toy, or a game.  The student is expected to follow the directions of the backpack buddy and return it to school the next day for our next classroom helper.  I also send home a photo album of class pictures with the backpack buddy. Below are some ideas of backpack buddies that I use throughout the year.  Use the ideas to create your own.

Items Needed:

Stuffed teddy bear

Any first day of school book

Sample Letter

Dear Backpack Buddy,

Hello!  I am Tigger and I want to help you learn more about my favorite season, Fall.  Please have someone read two of my favorite stories to you, Tigger Bounces into Fall by Ronald Kidd and Fall Leaves Change Colors by Kathleen W. Zoehfeld.  After reading the stories please look for a beautiful leaf to create a leaf rubbing in our ‘Leaves of Fall’ book. 

Be responsible and take care of everything in the backpack buddy. Please return everything to school the next day for a new friend to enjoy.  Have fun reading and bouncing!

                                       TTFN,

                                       Tigger

Items Needed:

Stuffed Tigger from Winnie the Pooh

Books: “Tigger Bounces into Fall” by Ronald Kidd and “Fall Leaves Change Colors” by Kathleen Zoehfeld

Leaves of Fall Book– created by making a cover page in word and gluing onto front of a paper, 3-prong folder.  Laminate the folder for durability.  Fill with plain white paper. Use the first page as an instruction sheet.

Write name.

Find a leaf.

Place leaf under your page.

Use the side of a crayon and rub over your leaf.

Write about your leaf.

(example: I see a red maple leaf.)

Be sure to make your own page as an example!

Items Needed:

Stuffed animal (I use a cat with a ribbon collar that can be tied.)

Books:

What Will I Do If I Can’t Tie My Shoe by Heidi Kilgras

 I Can Tie My Shoes!  by Kris Hirschmann

Amazing Lacing book by the editors of Klutz.

Items Needed:

A large rubber or plastic spider

Book-The Itsy Bitsy Spider and cassette tape as told by Iza Trapani

Magazine- Zoobooks: Spiders

Items Needed:

Stuffed snowman

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Snow is Falling by Franklyn Branley

The Snowman classroom book

 

Click the snowman to see the instructions

and the snowman book pages to print.

Items Needed:

Stuffed animal (Zat the Cat, Fig the Pig, Nog the Dog)

Any two or three rhyming books, I used Fat Cat on a Mat, Ted in a red Bed, and Big Pig on a Dig

My Mitten’s Are Missing!  game from Mailbox—match the rhyming pictures on the mittens to put on the snowman.

Items Needed:

Stuffed animal (I used a bunny named Honey)

Book: The Penny Pot by Stuart J. Murphy

Race to the Bank game from Mailbox magazine:

the child spins a spinner, says the amount on the spinner and moves his/her counter to the first space with the corresponding coin and names the coin. 

Items Needed:

Stuffed animal (I used a dog  named Diddley who had a nose for sniffing out punctuation)

Book: Yo! Yes?” By Chris Raschka

Time to Play! game from Mailbox magazine:

the child chooses a playing card and reads the sentence, chooses the correct punctuation, and moves his/her game piece to the next space with that punctuation.

Items Needed:

Plastic dinosaur counters

Book: Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons and Dinosaur Train by Steven Gurney

Use the dinosaur counters to act out addition stories.

Items Needed:

Large sunglasses (can be found at Dollar Tree stores)

Book: Mary Had a Little Ham by Margie Palatini

Famous Words game from Mailbox magazine:

The student will choose a site word card and read it.  If it is read correctly the student will roll a dice, and move game piece to that space on a gameboard.

Click on picture of the pig to see this backpack buddy.

Backpack Buddies

Yo! Yes? Working With Punctuation

Dinosaur Addition

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