Glyphs

Glyphs are a form of data interpretation. In the photos below I show some of the glyphs I do with my students. When doing a glyph, the class should be able to look at a finished creation and be able to tell you about the person who made it. For example, with a pizza glyph, if there is a bite removed, 5 pepperonis, 2 mushrooms, 4 olives and 2 green pepper we would know the pizza was made by a boy who is 5 years old, likes Pizza hut best, has 4 people in his family and likes pizza (see photo of chart below). We usually do glyphs whole group (step by step).

I have listed below some of my favorite books to help you get started with doing glyphs. I love doing them!

(Click on an image to see a larger image in another window)


Hat Glyph - We make the hat glyph on Hat Day during H week. I have changed the glyph a little since I went to full day kindergarten so the new one doesn't match the photo of the poster. The hats are the same. I have also recommended some of my favorite hat books.

Click here for the PDF student size key.

Click here for the large words to make your key poster.


Scarecrow Glyph - We make this glyph in the fall. I added a lot of questions because we made our scarecrows with our 5th Grade Buddies. You can make your own a little simpler if you do it by yourself.

Click Here for the PDF directions.
Click here for enlarged words to make your poster key.

These are some of my favorite scarecrow books to read when we make our glyph.


During Aa week, we learned about apples and apple trees. This is a photo of what our Apple Glyph looked like when it was done.

Click here for the direction sheet that goes home with the apples to help parents interpret the glyph.

Click here for the enlarged text to make you own poster key.

After doing a glyph with your class, you should analyze the glyphs. Click here for a blackline to analyze your class apple glyphs.


Pumpkin Glyph - We made this pumpkin glyph the week before Halloween, when we started doing all of our pumpkin math and science activities. It was very easy for the kids to make. The eyes and nose shapes were precut with the paper cutter or die cut machine.

Click here for the PDF student size key.
Click here for the large words to make your own key poster. I have listed some of my favorite pumpkin books below.


Haunted House Glyph - We made this glyph on Halloween Day. It turned out to be my favorite. The items on the glyph are Foam Shapes from Creative Hands. The kids traced a template for the house. The moon was a die cut circle. The windows and door were also precut. All of my kids wanted to show their house so here they all are.

Click here for the student size key.
Click here for the enlarged words to make the poster key.


Turkey Glyph - This turkey glyph gave me a lot of information about what my kids would be doing for Thanksgiving and what kind of foods they like.

Click here for the student size legend PDF.
Click here for the large words to make your poster..


Christmas Tree Glyph - To make this glyph, the kids trace a tree pattern. I precut the different color circles using a 1" punch from the craft store. We did this glyph on December 22. It was quite exciting!

Click here for the student size legend PDF.
Click here for the large words for the poster.


Ladybug Glyph - This was a lot of fun to do with the kids. It was fun to see if they were afraid of bugs and grouchy! Not many of the kids were.

Click Here for the Student Size Key.
Click Here For Large Words For Poster.


Owl Glyph - My favorite question on this glyph was "Are you a good listener?" Sometimes my opinion and theirs differed a little.

Click Here for Student Size Key.
Click Here for Poster Size Large Words.


Monster Glyph - We do this monster glyph on our Monster theme day (which happens to fall close to Halloween.) The kids cut all of the shapes from rectangles and squares that they are given.

Click Here for PDF student sized key.

Click Here for enlarged words to make poster.