Bringing Back Some Old Favorite Activities

It might be a NEW YEAR, but I'm bringing back a few of activities that I had completely forgot about.

Over the holiday break I was going through some old files trying to PURGE the pile and I came across some old games I used a long time ago.  They were ragged and I threw them out.

WHAT!!!!!

Then I realized that the game pieces were trash, but the concept was a WINNER!

Old fashioned memory cards and letter tiles need to be added to my stations STAT!

I found a cute packet on TPT for New Years and SNAP....  it had letter tiles!  We had the best time moving the tiles around and trying to make as many words as we could!  It was a great way to celebrate our first day of 2017 together!

I loved to walk around and watch how each of them organized their paper letter tiles differently.  Some of them lined up the vowels and then lined up the consonants. Some of them had them in random rows or just in a pile.  This little one spelled out Happy New Year and then pulled tiles out to try and make a word.  Then she put them right back into their original place.  When I asked her about it, she said well I already found three words just by organizing them into Happy New Year!  I love listening to them explain the whys and hows of their methods of doing things. It really makes me understand their thinking so much better.  

Another good old game we have brought back was MEMORY MATCH!  How did I ever forget this one?  I have no idea!

We have been studying geometric shapes and are struggling to recognize some of them.  A pentagon is a tough one!  Not to mention if a hexagon is thrown into the mix.

The words are on the blue cards and the pictures on the green cards.  The kids pick one blue card and try to match it with a green.  It they make a match, they keep the pair.  If they don't, it goes back into the game.

We played in groups and had the best time trying to remember where the different cards were. Not only did we practice identifying the shapes, but we had a great lesson on the strategies to help you win. Did I mention that we had two lose a turn cards and two put one pair back into the game cards?  This helped make the game last a little longer so they could work on their strategies to remember which cards were where.

I hope everyone is enjoying 2017 with their kiddos!

Happy Teaching!

St. Patrick's Day!

I can't believe that it is already the middle of March.  Only one week until spring break!

Here is a little taste of what we are doing this week!

Today we read There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover!  This is part of series of books that we have read throughout the year.  The kids are familiar with the format and were so excited when they saw it in the book basket.

After we read the book we worked in groups to see if we could recall all the things she ate and put them in the right order.  We have done this type of activity with all the books, except this was the first time they didn't have retelling cards.  They had to make them up themselves.

Each group had a stack of large index cards and went to work.

Once the group had all of their cards done, they sorted them into the right order.

Then, we came back and reread the book again to see if they had them in the correct order.  I am happy to report that 5 out of 6 groups had them right!  We were all so excited!

We glued the cards onto sentence strips so we could hang them up!  The kids were so proud of their work.  When we do projects like these I like to have them do some reflecting.  Not only on their work, but comparing it to what others came up with.  It really helps them improve their ideas and creativity.  Some groups numbered their cards, while some added backgrounds, and one drew a picture of the Old Lady.  

Being good during the week before spring break is hard....  even for me!  So to help use remember to do our best we have a daily contest.  Each morning a new friend at the table gets to be keeper of the group's bucket.  We earn coins all day long for staying on task, being kind, answering tough questions with correct or thoughtful answers, and everything else that makes a happy classroom.  At the end of the day each table counts up their money.  The table with the most money gets a treat from the candy jar!  The only thing is they better be sure they have counted correctly.  If they tell me an incorrect amount their group is disqualified.  It is great for reviewing coins and makes them work so hard to earn them. If your kiddos are having a tough time this week, you might want to give it a try.

This is the BIG WINNER for today!

We usually have time for a game of SCOOT on Tuesdays.  This week we will be reviewing time with this little packet called What Time is it Mr. Leprechaun?

   

It focuses on telling time to the 5 minutes and is something we can always use more practice with.  It has 20 game cards and answer sheet.

SCOOT might be my most FAVORITE game of all time!  It is super easy.  Just post the task cards around the room and the kids move from card to card and write their answers on their answer sheet. SO MUCH FUN!  It gets them up and moving.

We are also doing a little work care of the Easter Bunny!

Like it or not, state testing is right around the corner.  So I try to hit at least 5 tested skills during the week for review.  We will become "Editing EGGSberts" by editing some Easter themed sentences to practice capitals, dates, and commas.

I'm also still "a work in progress" with organizing my classroom.  Every time I think I'm finished something else catches my eye and start moving things again.  Here is the best way I found to keep all my anchor charts organized.

I attach them to hangers with binder clips.  I can usually put 2 or 3 on each hanger.

One $12 clothes rack from Walmart holds all my hangers.  The best part is when someone needs a refresher or we are reviewing, I can quickly pull the chart off the hanger.  Easy as PIE!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Teaching!

Is it really almost February? Celebrating 500 Followers with a Freebie!

I can't believe how fast January is going.  It did help that we had a SNOW DAY Friday!  I don't know what it is about snow, but teachers LOVE IT!

I used my time off Friday to get some ideas and projects ready for this week and next month.  Yes, I said next month!  I can't believe it either.

We are still working on arrays this week, so I decided to revamp an old project. I made new task cards and added a few new pages.  I'm going to use this to reteach this week.

It is a combination of my favorite things.  I have really fell in love with projecting anchor charts on my screen.  It keeps me on track and the students are so much more engaged.

If you aren't familiar with how to do this, it is SO easy!  Just open any pdf you have - select view- select full screen or slideshow (this part depends on your operating system)  That is it!  Now it works just like Powerpoint!  If I go and teach without something on the screen, by kids start asking where are the pictures.  So I know this keeping them engaged!

I added some extra anchor charts to this packet so we could discuss and do a few problems together on white boards.  It has 2 versions of a memory game.  One set that is pre-made and another one that is blank.  I'm going to work with my below level kids at my table, while the on level kids do the pre-made game.  That leaves the blank one for my above kiddos.  I'm going to have them work with a partner and create their own game.  Then they can "show off" their game to another group if they finish before I do. This will give me at least a good 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to work with my low kids, with the rest of the class actively playing the game or creating their own.

It also has 5 different array tasks for us to use each day.  I wanted one good problem for us to work each afternoon right after recess.  They keep saying practice makes perfect!

We need to review author's purpose next month to keep it fresh for state testing.  So I created this little flip book.  It has cut and paste situations (of course related to Valentine's Day) to get the kids thinking about what the purpose would be.  It is part of a larger file that just got revamped with new activities!

We work on telling time - every single day!  The way I do this is through an app.  I just downloaded a free alarm app and I set it to go off several times during the day.  When ever it goes off, all the kids hands shoot up!  I call on someone and if they can tell me the time, they clip up or get a treat.  It is so fun and the kids enjoy it.  It has gone off during evaluations and the administrators LOVE it!  

This game is hot off the press!  I just made it this morning.  My class loves SCOOT games and I didn't have many for February.  So I made one to practice telling time to the nearest 5 minutes.  It turned out real cute and I can't wait to laminate it this afternoon.  To celebrate my 500th TPT follower, this game will be free all day today!  Download it quick and let me know what you think!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Happy Teaching!

Halloween FUN!

What a weekend of baseball and RAIN!  Only competitive baseball moms can understand that pure torture of a tournament where it rained EVERY SINGLE GAME!  My feet may never dry out and I am frozen!  The only good thing is a rain delay where you can run to the car and write your lesson plans and get some papers graded.  Of course an extra bonus is if the team eats between games in a fantastic place that has Wifi!  I know I am crazy, but I realize that I only have a few more years and my youngest will be done with these weekend baseball tournaments and that does make me a little sad.

So BIG plans for the week in second grade!  It's Halloween and the kids will be crazy!  So I've planned, planned, and planned activities to keep them busy!

We just finished the first 9 weeks.  In talking with our team, we really wanted to reward the honor roll kids that had perfect conduct.  So much of our time is spent on the struggling students or those with "not so perfect" behavior.  On Friday, we are going to celebrate the best of our grade!   Some of us will be taking those amazing kiddos for some outside fun including some parachute play!  We are going to have treats and drinks for them, but we still wanted to do more.  These are the kids that hang on every word we say and do everything they can to please us.  So we decided that they need bags of FUN! Each of the teachers will be buying Halloween themed "stuff" for their bags of fun!  I bought glow necklaces, pencils, and huge Halloween erasers.  I can't wait to see how excited these kiddos are on Friday.  Time to celebrate them! Time to tell them we appreciate them and that they matter!

Here are some of my favorites activities we will be doing!

We have already started working on two digit addition and subtraction.  I know it's early in the year, but this bunch really seems to have great math skills.  One day last week they asked how you would do it and I jumped on the chance to teach them.

We LOVE, LOVE, SCOOT!  So we will be starting our math lesson off one day this week with this little group of happy ghosts!  If you haven't ever played with you kids, YOU MUST!  They love it!

We are also doing a lot of review on some important skills with some cut and paste activities.  We are covering main idea/supporting details, subject/predicate, common/proper nouns, and a bunch of others! The kids love doing these and they give me a quick look at who really has this mastered and who I need to work with in the next few weeks.

Here is a peek at the main idea/supporting detail activity.

These are the cut and paste pages - I love them because it is 2 to a page, so less copies!

We are also reading some great Halloween stories.  This year I'm giving them more choices.  After we do our read aloud I'm going to let them pick what they want to create to show me the main idea, main characters, and setting.  They can write, color, create!  

I'll be sure to post some pictures of their creations!

Time to get some time in with my kids and carve pumpkins! 

I hope everyone has a great week and a fantastic halloween!

Getting ready for testing!

April is right around the corner....  let the testing count down begin!

No matter how much we try, it always worries us!  Will those kiddos do good?
OF COURSE THEY WILL!

I really want to make this year as fun as I can while we spend time reviewing.  We are going to have table contests daily.  I'm using little cheap buckets from the Dollar Tree and every time someone from the table gets a correct answer their team gets a coin.  I'm going to use the plastic coins we have in our math kits. At the end of the day we count up our money to see who has the most.  The winners get a treat on the way out the door!  So simple and they love it!

We also made an anchor chart for answering multiple choice questions.  We went over this everyday this week and it made a big difference for my low kiddos when we took Friday tests.

I have been working on some big projects and tonight with the help of my teaching buddy who did the editing for me, they are finally ready to go!

I wanted a set of games that my on-level kids could play during RTI time.  I only have one student in RTI, but I pull a few friends to his small group time who need the extra practice.  So that leaves about 15 friends that need something to do.  It is always a challenge to keep everyone on task and a little quiet.

The packet has 4 pre-made games and one blank game.  I am planning to use the blank one for my advanced kids.  A few weeks ago I had them make a math game and they loved it.  So, when I was creating this packet I made a set that they could use to create games.  We are learning all about pronouns next week, so their first challenge will be a pronoun game!  I can't wait to see what they come up with!

The pre-made games cover phonics, story elements, language, and reference book skills.  All of the stuff on SAT10 that we need to keep fresh in our minds!

The game boards come in color and black and white!

These are the game cards.  One from each of the different games!

Story Elements!

                    

Phonics!

Reference Books!

Grammar!

Differentiation is a big deal for my class!  I want everyone to be engaged.  I knew that my advanced kids would enjoy the pre-made games, but I knew they would finish quickly and might need a challenge.  These are two of the projectable pages to use to make your own game.  It also has blank game boards and cards.  I will review the directions with them and the leave the example page up for them to refer back to while they work.

We also had a great time this week playing SCOOT!  My kids love it!  They are always so quiet and on task when we play.  We practiced contractions and telling time.  I print off the cards and laminate them. I let my weekly helper tape them all over the walls of the classroom in the morning before we get started.  We grab clipboards and away we go!  They jump right to work and move so quietly! SCOOT might be the best game I ever learned!  Here is a picture I snapped real quick when 2 kiddos were at the same card and using their pencils to count by 5's.  LOVE IT!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

The End is NEAR!

Well today was our field day....  guess I am getting old because I feel like a truck ran me over!  I'm going to keep it short tonight.  After we finished state testing it seems that everyone has checked out... not just the kids but I think me as well!  Ha Ha....  just kidding!

To keep the kids engaged and wanting to finish out these last few days I put together all of my favorite end of the year activities into one HUGE packet.

This has a bunch of writing, math, and just plain fun activities to end the year.  The best part is other than running copies it requires no teacher prep at all.

Here are some pictures of some of my favorite parts.  I love making and ABC of Third Grade book. The kids have to write a page for each letter of the alphabet.  They turn out so cute!  I also love the graphic organizers and writing papers for all the fun things we did this year.  It has several activities that have sheets tailored to each grade that you can use as keepsakes.  For math it includes everything they need to make their own math games and even develop a class game of SCOOT.

To celebrate a TPT milestone and thank all of the teachers that have helped me to reach it I am putting this packet on a special sale for the next  five days!  Click on the picture to go to TPT to purchase it.

Enjoy those last few days!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

Fun with Polygons and Comparing Fractions!

We took a little break from fractions to revisit polygons last week.  First, we created an anchor chart about polygons to revisit the concept.  Then, I gave the kids pieces of yarn and they used Elmer's glue to draw a shape and cover it with yarn.  When I came up with the idea it seemed really easy, but it took us a bit of trial and error to get the yarn stuck to the paper.  This was a case where more glue was something I encouraged!  Didn't think I would ever tell them that!  We didn't do really well with spelling, but sometimes it happens.   Try this out for a quick review of polygons!  The kids loved it!

We are back working on comparing fractions next week.  We love to play SCOOT in my class.  If you haven't ever played before, you have to try it out!  Before class, you post cards with questions around the classroom.  Each card has a number on it and the kids read it and come up with an answer.  They write the answer on their answer sheet.  When it looks like most of the kids have finished, you say SCOOT!  Then, they move to the next card.  They keep moving until they have answered all of the questions.

I like to have 20 cards for a game.  I pair the kids up with a partner and have them all pick a place to start.  I encourage the kids to talk through the problem before they write down their answer.  My kids love it!  It gets them up and moving and they usually do great on the problems!

Here is my latest SCOOT game!  Click on the picture to see a sample of the game.  Once you start playing SCOOT with your kids, they will beg you to play it all the time!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

My Newest Freebie!

Hi Everyone!  Today was a stay at home and work on new things for next year.  One of the completed projects is a new addition to my freebies!  I love the game BUMP and so do my kids.  I found the game a few years ago and I have figured out how to use it with lots of different math concepts.  Once you teach the kids how to play, you can change up the skills by changing the numbers.  You can download it for FREE.  Just click on the picture!