Oh Snap! It's Almost October!

I'm linking up with the fantastic bloggers over at Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals for their fun (and helpful) Oh Snap! It's Almost October! linky party.

I know that school just started, but it's already the middle of September and that means that October is right around the corner, (YIKES) so it's time to start prepping and planning for next month. (Some people might find that a chore- but I secretly love it!)

Here is one of my favorite activities for October.

I love having my kids work on Logic Puzzles.  It helps them with critical thinking skills and problem solving.  My kiddos love it because they only have to read simple words and follow the picture clues. The cards are self-checking so when they are done they just need to turn the card over to check to see if they got it right.

I also love this activity for October because the Wild Kids are dressed in costumes (like Halloween) but it's connected to literature so it's not Halloweeny (is that a real word?).  So if you aren't allowed to do Halloween related things, you can still do this!  Win-Win!

Pop on over to my store to grab this for yourself.

Once you use these logic puzzles, you will want them all.  

I keep one of my math center bins filled with logic puzzles.  I change them out to keep it fresh and interesting for the kids, but the beauty of this task is that you only have to explain it once and they can do them all!  Just change the theme of the puzzles and you've got a new center- voila!  Easy peasy!

And the best part is that you can grab these for only $1 for the next two days.
That's the perfect way to try them out to see if you like them.

Thanks for stopping by!
Click here to head back over to the linky party.

Leave a Comment Common Core, Linky Party, Math, Math Centers, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Printing on Scrapbook Paper

Here's a fun tip that I use to keep my learning centers and games organized (and cute).  I look through my old scrapbook supplies and I find sheets of patterned paper that have white on the back side.  I print the activity on the white side of the paper and when I cut it out and put it in a center, it is easy to see what pieces go with what game.  The kids love it because it makes the activity look more like a deck of cards.

It's a really easy and really inexpensive way to spice up your learning centers and help with classroom organization.  If one piece gets separated from the others (which happens all the time in kindergarten), it is easy for the kids (and me too) to find the center activity where the piece belongs.

I love to store my activities in gallon Ziploc bags.  This allows me to simply change one bag with another and place it in my Math or Literacy Tub.

I hope you found this little hint helpful.

4 comments Literacy Centers, Math Centers, Organization

Friends of Ten

Knowing combinations of numbers to ten is a very important kindergarten concept.  (In fact it is CCSC K.OA.4- For any given number from 1 to 9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number.)

We do a lot of activities in my classroom to understand this concept- the more practice the better, right?

One activity that my kids love is called Bears on the Bus.  

Kids can work in pairs or individually at a math center.  I introduce the game in partner pairs so that they can work cooperatively to make groups of tens.  This helps everyone understand the game (because no matter how long I explain it, model it, etc, there are always a handful of kids who still don't understand the directions)  and my partnering kids up for the first go-round, hopefully one of those partners understood and can explain it t" is to fill up the bus with bears.  Simple really.

Each child needs 10 bears of one color.  The other child needs 10 bears of a different color.  One player spins a number and puts that many bears on the bus.  They then look at the empty seats in the ten frame to see how many bears of the other color are needed to make ten.  They fill up the bus with the second color and record their answers on the sheet.  Then player two spins and they repeat the process.



Another way to practice fact families of ten is to play Friends of Ten with a deck of cards.  I love using playing cards in the classroom!  They are sturdy, easy to replace, require no prep, AND the kids always consider any activity that we do with them a "game".   Their faces light up when I bring out the cards.

Here's how I play "Friends of Ten."  I love it because it is a cooperative game with no winner.  We work together to find the "Friends of Ten."

All you need to play is an ordinary deck of cards.  Before beginning, take out the face cards (jacks, queens, and kings).  Aces will be used as ones.  To play, lay out seven cards face up.  Students are looking for pairs of numbers that make ten.  If they see one, they show me a silent thumb up to their chest.  I call on a student and they say the equation and take the cards.  The ten is used by itself, but the students must say 10 + 0 = 10.  We all echo the number sentence stated by the student.

Replace the cards that were taken with two more from the deck, always leaving seven cards facing up. Continue finding pairs, taking them off, and replacing them.  If there are no pairs for ten in the seven cards showing, lay down another seven cards on top of the others.  Now when students take off the pair of cards that equals ten, the cards underneath will be revealed, so you don't need to replace them with new cards.

I love this game because with the quiet thumb up to their chest, I can give everyone "think time" to find a match and I choose who to call upon so that I can make sure everyone gets matches.  All the kids feel successful at the end of the game.

1 comment Common Core, Fun Stuff, Math, Math Centers

My Week- It's not always what you had planned

Well, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for her fun Five for Friday Linky Party.  Love visiting all the blogs and reading about everyone's week.

This week didn't go as I had planned. (Do they ever really?)  

Instead of teaching Force and Motion activities in my classroom I was home for a few days with a sick child.  She's 16 and fully capable of taking care of herself when she is a LITTLE sick, but she was running a HIGH fever and I couldn't risk her being alone to deal with that.  Here she is snuggling with her puppy.  (She will not be happy to see this picture on my blog... let's hope she never finds out)

On the plus side of that, I got a lot of TpT products made and did a fair amount of planning for my classroom. (Always have to look for the plus side)

My new products!!  I told you there was a plus side!

Here's a FREEBIE!  Click on the picture below.

The Christmas decorations are finally coming down!  Yes, it took a sick child, and me home with her for two days, to finally give me the time to take down our tree and put away all the Christmas decorations.  Sad but true... it is the middle of January for Pete's sake!  Fortunately, our neighbors don't know that the inside still looks like December.  We took our outside lights down on New Year's Day.  We try to be good neighbors.  Farewell Christmas!

Java chip Frap.  A weekday treat.  Enough said.

I love it when my guided reading groups have a few extra minutes.  The kids love it too!  Here we are playing an I Have... Who Has? game.  Check out my TpT store for lots of these.  I have all different levels and skills (math too!).    I currently have 12 different games and I'm always adding more. Give one a try- you'll love it!  Like my store to get updates when I add new products.

And that was my week.  Thanks for stopping by!  

Make sure to head back to Doodlebugs and read more blogs.

2 comments Linky Party, Literacy Actvities, Math Centers

ABC and 123 FREEBIES

I've been busy making some fun centers for my Kinders.  We are busy learning our ABCs and 123s at this time in the year.  I have made a couple of fun puzzles that you can put in math or literacy centers.  They are free on my TpT site- just link to the photo and it will take you right there.

The first fun activity is a number puzzle that goes from zero to ten.  Students put the pieces in order.  They use the dots to help them count and the rainbow colors stair step up to help kids see that each number increases the amount of dots by one.  It looks easy, but it is quite challenging for many kids.

The second activity is for your literacy center.   It is a simple alphabet puzzle, but the letters are lower case, and if your classroom is like mine, kids recognize upper case more easily than lower case, so the practice putting this puzzle together helps them with lower case letters identification.  The puzzle uses super cute Wild Things and is so much fun.  I like to print a copy that I don't cut apart so my kids who need extra scaffolding can use that to help them.  My more advanced learners like to put it together without looking at the completed puzzle.

Both of the activities are super easy to prep and you can have them in a learning center in no time.
If you find them useful in your classroom, please leave feedback.
Thanks!

I hope your kids love these as much as mine do.

Leave a Comment Back to School, Common Core, Literacy Centers, Math Centers