Teacher's Activity Page

Classroom Support

Welcome! Below you will find activities that support each of the books I have written. Scroll down to the book of your choice and select from the offering. The Miss Alaineus Parade directions are wildly popular, replacing a Halloween parade in many schools across the country. Photos of some of the wonderfully creative parade costumes are available here.

If your school should try a parade, please send pictures of the students and faculty involved. With your permission we will add selected images to our School Gallery! In fact, send pictures of anything you try!

A Birthday Cake Is
No Ordinary Cake
is my newest book and I have created several classroom extensions to extend the theme of circling the Sun. Thank you for visiting and let me know how I can help you further in using my books in your classroom.

Click on any of the icons below to download a PDF file of each curriculum guide.

A Birthday Cake Is No Ordinary Cake
	VOCABULARY SHEET Follows a baker as he collects seasonal ingredients for a birthday cake. Use the vocabulary sheet to highlight words the story introduces. The words are divided into three categories: Earth and Space Words, Seasonal Words, and Cooking Words. Act out all the verbs; draw pictures for the nouns. (1 page)
	BIRTHDAY BOOKLET Print, cut, fold, and staple each eight-page booklet and have each child color it and fill in details about her or his name, birth date, months of the year, number of days in a year, seasons, and cake vocabulary. Have the children draw the cakes of their dreams! (2 pages)
	HOW MANY DAYS TO YOUR BIRTHDAY? The How Many Days to YOUR Birthday? Map makes the idea of the Earth’s journey around the Sun concrete and visual. Here’s how it works: Find your birthday. Find today. Follow the direction of the arrows and plot how many days before your NEXT cake is due! This project involves map skills (abstraction), counting by 5’s, the months, the seasons with a solstice or an equinox, as well as leap day. (1 page)
	BOOKMARKS Distribute bookmarks and have each child add his or her name and the number of years he or she has circled the Sun—with a matching number of candles. Save this activity for birthday celebrations, or use it as a counting review. (1 page)
	MAKE BAKER HATS Make baker hats! With three sheets of tissue paper, a band of construction paper, tape, and a large paper clip, create the tall floppy hat that makes everyone think of baking. (1 page).
	3D PAPER BIRTHDAY CAKES Build three-dimensional cake display posters for bulletin boards. Using cut-paper collage techniques like the author-illustrator, Debra Frasier; cut construction paper strips and decorate flat “cake layers.” Then watch delight grow when the 3-D effect makes the cake “pop out.” Colored paper, tape, glue, and scissors are needed. Cardboard backing is optional. (1 page)
	COLORING PAGE Debra Frasier sends birthday cakes flying through space on her dedication page. This coloring page is many students’ favorite page! Each child can add candles to match her or his age to the center cake. (1 page)
	PAPER PLATE CAKE CLOCK With just a few inexpensive supplies you can build a clock with the Sun in the center and revolving "hands" to show where the Earth is now and another to mark your birthday. The distance between the hands indicates how how long it is until your birthday. (1 page)
	DONATE CAKE FOOD SHELF PROJECT Share the joy of birthday celebrations by decorating bakery cake boxes, then adding cake making supplies: a cake mix, icing, candles, sprinkles, etc. Deliver the celebration to your foodshelf. (1 page)
	DREAMCAKES! DreamCakes! Contest: Send out a call for collaged cakes based on the themes in the book. Use paper, boxes, or even flour and sugar. (1 page)
Send students on a Web search for pictures of the Earth and Sun as seen from space. These government sites offer excellent pictures to download and print: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/target/Sun http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/ To receive daily astronomy pictures visit: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

The Incredible Water Show
	Would you like to download the entire six page curriculum support kit for The Incredible Water Show? (3.6 Mb) OR! Print only the pages you would like, as described below.
	Stage your own Incredible Water Show...Two pages of performance notes and ideas. Divide the class into ten scenes and tell the story small, medium, or grand! (2 pages)
	Turn facts into performances with staging ideas, plus great websites for further research. Performance related jobs are included, too. (1 page)
	Includes water vocabulary games, plus a brief author biography and pictures. (1 page)
	Make puppets on a stick! Here is a single page reproducible of the six main characters, plus the dog and cat. Print on paper or card stock, color with markers, just like the book. (1 page)
	Color the entire water cycle in a black & white reprint of Mrs. Page's students performing the hydrocycle! (1 page)
	A very watery bibliography of eight picture books to extend your water studies (2 pages)

Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster
	Irresistible Vocabulary Fun... This word-play bibliography was compiled by word-loving librarian Julie Reimer. It's a great resource for turning kids on to word play and word meaning. (7 pages, 673 Kb)
	Stage Your Own Vocabulary Parade...Three pages of ideas and directions. Perfect classroom or school-wide project. (3 pages)
	Word Games from Miss Alaineus...Vocbulary Swap, Name Nouns, Miscellaneous-isms, and Mrs. Pages' Extra Credit Assignment. (2 pages)
	Art Project directions...Use classroom lined paper to build striped pictures. Or, design costumes for the Mis-characters, or create a scrapbook of past costumes, like Sage's album. (1 page)

Out of the Ocean
	Out of the Ocean Where did it come from? An Essay by Debra Frasier
	Bring the ocean to you! Simple directions for creating a classroom Photo Booth.

On the Day You Were Born
	I AM UNIQUE! A cut-paper portrait reproducible. Just add construction paper, scissors and glue.
	On the Day You Were Born, THE PLAY...Stage your own version of this story! Stage directions and prop instructions included in four easy-to-follow pages.

Cut Paper Bibliography
	Cut Paper Illustrated Picture Books An Annotated Bibliography
	Debra's Tips for Working with Cut Paper (1.2 Mb)