Classic Classroom Games + a FREEBIE!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Don't you just love classic classroom games? I'm thinking about games like Bingo and Four-in-a-Row.  There are so many advantages to using these games for reinforcing skills...

Students LOVE them! (so they want to play them again and again... more review! Yay!)

They are versatile. A good classic game is usually adaptable to a multitude of skills across the curriculum. You can make one basic game board, dress it up a bit by putting a different sticker on it or using different playing pieces, and use it all year!

They are not age-specific. They're simple enough for our little guys to grasp and apply the rules, but not babyish for the older kids.

The rules don't need to be retaught each time a new version is introduced.  This alone is worth its weight in time-saving gold!! Here's a little trick: For any classic game, appoint a class expert, e.g Four-in-a-Row Expert. Post a chart of your experts, and save yourself many interruptions as the other students go to the expert rather than you for rule reminders.

When I think of classic classroom games, I also think of the newer classics, like Zap! (which you may know as Boo!, Zing!, or one of its thousand other reincarnations!), Sparkle, and Bump. Wow, sounds like a noisy bunch of noisy games! Which they usually are, right? :)

Here's Spiderweb, a free game for you which I hope will become a go-to in your classroom.

Spiderweb is of course cool at this time of year, but with Spidey and his movies being so popular, you can use this game all year!

The game  was designed to use with word wall words, but here are a few more ideas to increase the versatility.

For ELA:  Have students write proper nouns in each diamond. How about spelling words, vocabulary words, abbreviations, contractions, antonyms, or synonyms?  You could provide a list for each pair of partners (or put it up on your SMART board for all groups), e.g. hot, early, short, hard -
students would write cold, late, long, or soft in their diamond.

For math: Provide a list as above, but this time you might use addition or subtraction facts, numbers (they'd write 10 more 10 less), coin groups (count coins, they'd write the amount), analog clocks (they'd write the time in digital format), or pictures of geometric shapes (they'd write the name).

Science or Social Studies: For the older kids, how about state capitals? Or state map outlines (they'd write the state name or abbreviation)?  For younger kids, do a quick shared writing as a review of your current topic, making a word web of vocabulary on your current teaching topic. Then have students use the words to play Spiderweb.

Here's the game board.

Click on the cover below to get your free copy at my TeachersPayTeachers store.

If you're looking for more games that you can program to the skill of your choice, please take a look at my resource "Programmable Board Games". Each set (there are sets for K-1, 2-3, and 4-5) includes
20 gameboards, cards, spinners, game cube, and more than a dozen ideas for grade-appropriate programming. There are 3 basic ways to play the games, so each set can actually provide you with 60 different games!

Click here for the K-1 version.

Click here for the 2-3 version.

Click here for the 4-5 version.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! What are some of the classic games your class enjoys playing?

 

Happy Teaching!





Fall Place Value Game Freebie

Hello, Friends!

Are you having the beginnings of some autumn weather where you are? Fall is arriving so beautifully here in New Jersey. There's just a hint of color starting on the leaves, and the temperatures are perfect - it was 47 degrees this morning and came up to the lower 70s during the day. Time to be thinking about apples and pumpkins!


I've been working on a set of Common Core math games for place value, so wouldn't you know, the games are filled with apples, candy corn, bright leaves, and pumpkins!

The five games range in difficulty from tens and ones on up through a quite challenging game with place value through thousands. Although they address second grade standard 2.NBT.2, these games would also be appropriate for review or remediation in third grade. Click on the collage to learn more about this resource at my TPT store.

Here's a free sample, just for you at GoogleDocs! Just print on cardstock, insert paper fasteners and paperclips for the spinners... or use the nice-and-easy pencil point and paperclip trick, and you're ready to go!

Happy Teaching!





Autumn Inference Riddle Cards

Do you use riddles in your teaching? They're such an engaging teaching tool and they give you opportunities to introduce and practice so many important reading and thinking skills! Keep reading ⬇⬇ for some special info about free autumn riddle cards!   

Once upon a time, as a fairly new teacher, I had my first graders prepare a riddle to tell the class on April Fools Day. That's what's known as a tactical error. :) One child would mistell the riddle way beyond the point of making sense, and 20 others would be convulsed in hysterical laughter. Again. And again. It was a verrrry long day. :)

No doubt about it, the little guys love riddles, and riddles actually do have a useful place in the curriculum. As children learn to connect the information in the clues and discard choices that don't fit across all the clues, they are determining key details. This foundational understanding will lead to making inferences and drawing conclusions.


Here's an autumn riddle set that will have your K-2 students determining key details in 24 riddles, applying their prior knowledge, and inferring the answers.

These riddles are a form of informational text, featuring autumn social studies and science vocabulary, like apples, Johnny Appleseed,  Columbus, fire safety, pumpkins, leaves, autumn months, bats, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

                            Want to save this to come back to later? Click the red Pinterest button!

Use the cards for whole class or small group lessons on key details and inference. They'll also make a good matching or pocket chart activity for a literacy center. There's a four-in-a-row game board for more practice with the same vocabulary, matching cards for memory games, and even a riddle writing activity included in this set!

Would you like to try some free autumn riddles and matching cards with your students? Click here or on the picture below to download this free resource from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Want to save this to come back to? Click the red Pinterest button!

Click here to see lots more riddle sets like this one!

Find more fall resources on my Autumn Learning Pinterest board!

Happy Teaching!



Little Friendly Ghosties on a Free Numberline!

Hi, Everybody!

Have you noticed all of the little friendly ghost activities popping up all over the Pinterest boards?
They're the brainchild of  Mel at Graphics From the Pond. Mel had the brilliant idea of offering these graphics to TPT authors, who would then use them in a variety of resources for your classrooms. How fun to use these little cuties instead of scary images! You can find a great variety of Little Friendly Ghost activities at Mel's linky party. There are more than 20 activities there, and more will be added right up until Halloween! While you're there, why not pick up a set of ghostie graphics to jazz up your own resources, too?

Here's a free sample from my contribution to the linky. It's a number line that you can print and make as either 1-10 or 1-20.  Click to download from Googledocs.

This number line is part of a larger set at my TpT store.  Here are a few ideas for using the complete set:

* Match numerals to addition cards, using either 1-10 or 1-20

* Match numerals to subtraction cards, using either 1-10 or 1-20

* Place either addition or subtraction number model cards (1-10 or 1-20) around your classroom and have students find the cards and write the number model next to the numeral on their Read Around the Room recording sheet. Four recording sheets are included: addition (1-10 and 11-20) and subtraction (1-10 and 11-20).

* Use the number model cards for practice counting up and back on the numberline. Here's where you'll use your  Little Friendly Ghost number lines!  Great idea for a document camera lesson, with each child also having his or her own number line.

* Play Go Fish, with students drawing cards and matching sets of 3: numeral, addition number model and subtraction number model.

* Use the 26 two-step operation cards in a math center for practice moving up and back on the numberline.

* Mix up either the addition model cards or the subtraction model cards. Have students place them in order according to the answer as a math center activity. A recording sheet for one to ten is included. 

Happy Teaching!



Free Autumn Sight Word Phrases

           Once upon a time in the primary grades, comprehension skills were "taught" only after foundational reading skills like decoding and sight words had been mastered. Now research has shown us that comprehension instruction needs to begin even before a child reads - with listening comprehension, as children listen to stories and even in conversations! What seems so obvious now would have been a wild and crazy thought. Once upon a time.

Now we also know that the reading skill/strategy of fluency plays a critical role in comprehension. Now we nip that word-by-word reading in the bud - hooray!! Fluent reading, in terms of appropriate rate, phrasing, and expression, have a direct effect on comprehension.

Here's a set of 19 free autumn sight word phrase cards that you can put in a literacy center for independent or partner practice. The theme is fall, so your students will also be increasing their familiarity with basic fall seasonal words like apple, pumpkin, rake, and leaves. Click here to download your copy!

Hover on the picture & click the Pinterest button to save this to use later!

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You'll also like this set of fall riddles, a fun way to build autumn vocabulary and to model comprehension skills like identifying key details, inferring, and drawing conclusions! Includes riddle/picture/word matching cards for 24 autumn words, a board game, a writing activity, and more! Click here or on the cover to see this set.

Happy Teaching!



What's New at TPT?

Hi, Friends!

Hope you are all well, enjoying your new kiddos, and SURVIVING!!  Got to survive before you can thrive!


Today I'd like to show you a few of my recently posted resources at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I've been busy getting some new fall items ready and, at the request of a very organized customer, there's even a new item there for your winter writing lessons!

Everybody loves a fast game of I Have, Who Has...?, so here's one designed to align with CCCS 1.NBT.5 and 2.NBT.8. Your students will practice adding 10 to numbers 1-110.

Click on the cover to see I Have, Who Has: Mentally Adding 10..

Here's another math game to help you meet the standards. It's All Fun and Games in the 120 Chart! has four themed game boards (dinosaurs, pirates, space, and zoo)  for counting to 120 and mentally adding and subtracting 1 and 10 to/from 2 digit numbers, CCCS 1.NBT.1, 1.NBT.5. A blank game board is also included, so you and your students can use mini-stickers to make up your own games.

 

Another math set: School Time Math Games

This resource includes 3 games, all CCCS-aligned:

               The Wheels on the Bus: 1.NBT.1, 1.NBT.5
               Backpack Cover-up: 1.NBT.5
               Collect 10: 1.NBT.3

                    
On to literacy!! Are you working on getting the pre-primer sight words secured? Here's a way to meet CCCS RF.K.3 with an apple theme. This set of apple sight word cards includes all of the pre-primer Dolch words, as well as directions for 4 activities and a recording booklet for your students to use with a Read Around the Room activity.

I just love making class books, and I guess a lot of you do, too!  Since the individual sets of class books have been so popular, I've decided to offer the alternative of purchasing them in a bundled set. Sold separately, the 5 sets would be $25. Purchased as a bundle, they are $18, which is 75 cents per book for this set of 24 books to take you through the whole school year. Each book in the Class Book Collection includes a cover, student template, and whole class data collection activity. I've also gone back and included grayscale versions for many of the pages as an ink-saving alternative. Download the preview at TPT to see just how much this resource includes!

 

 

 

Last item for today is a set of 14 Winter Picture Prompts for Writing.

 

 



Whether you use them with your document camera, put them in your Writing Center, or leave a few in your emergency plans for subs, I think both you and your students will enjoy using these prompts!



 

Thanks for your patience with this long post. I hope you'll stop by my TPT store   and become a follower to receive notice of new products whenever they're posted. I'm always cooking up new ideas for freebies and other items to make your life as a teacher a bit easier!

Happy Teaching!

Singular and Plural Autumn Nouns Freebie

Hello, Everyone!

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the hot and humid days to move along and make way for some crisp fall ones. Sooo much more energizing, don't you think?

I think it's easy for me as a teacher to forget that what's obvious to an adult might be overlooked by some of our littles. You know the kinds of things that I mean ...

Bathroom stalls have doors so they can be closed.

Saving your ice cream in your lunchbox for an afternoon snack doesn't work out well.

... and adding an s to the end of a noun is usually the way to form a plural.

Every year, it would amaze me to see a new reader who hadn't picked up on that and would read the word "cat" and in the next sentence would start from scratch to sound out the word "cats".

Here's a card set to help you set your mind toward fall AND to remind your little learners that many plural nouns are formed by adding an s.  There are 8 autumn nouns, given in both singular and plural forms (16 cards). Students can sort them on the included mat or use them for matching games like memory.

Click here or on the cover to download your copy.

Happy Teaching!



Hidden Treasure(s)

Hello, Everyone!

I hope that you're enjoying a lovely long weekend!

A few posts ago, I shared with you a message of encouragement for teachers from Kylene Beers, who is an author and former present of NCTE.  I hope that you got the opportunity to read it, and also to read the many beautiful and moving replies that were received. Click on the picture to go to the link, if you missed it.

Here's the hidden treasure:  Scroll down to the comments of September 1st to be further touched by this piece.  It will encourage you and help keep you focused on the huge value of what you do each day. It will also give you a new appreciation for how the internet is making this a smaller world! So amazing!

Now,

if

you

are

really

hanging

in

there

with

me,

...here's another "hidden treasure", of a different sort!  I just posted another new item at Teachers Notebook.

.
As all of you first grade teachers know, September is all about apples! Use them as an excuse to review the Dolch pre-primer sight words when you use "Apples Everywhere!". There are 40 apple sight word cards to use for literacy center games like Memory and Applesauce - cards and directions included. You might like to put these cards around the frame of your classroom door for a bit of quick review each time your class lines up to leave the classroom. Use them for a Read Around the Room activity by having your students complete the My Apple Words booklet, which is included.

The set is $2.50 at my Teachers Notebook shop, but ... if you've really hung in there and are one of the first 10 people to leave a comment here, it's yours, free! Heh, heh, heh, just havin' a little bit of fun - good for you for reading all the way to the end! :) Remember to leave your email address!

Happy Teaching!

Happy Teaching!