Fabulous Finds

One of my projects this summer has been to create a Words with Friends poster. I first found a couple of fonts that look like scrabble tiles, printed them on card stock, and had them laminated. While working on this I came up with a bunch of literacy ideas, so I made several sets of tiles and had them laminated as well.



Here comes the fabulous find part of this entry.  Today I went to Sam's Club looking for classroom books.  What I found was this:

What a fabulous resource for my letter tiles!  I am going to use these activities for everything - there are 130 different ones in the book, and then you figure those 130 generate at least as many new ideas.  Some of the activities are more involved, so I'm thinking I will have them made into file folder games.  What I love is that the book has some great activities for specific skills; such as for bossy r and long 'a' words.  Great find. 

Here are a few other things I bought there for great prices:

They had these Brain Quest games for every grade level - the topics and questions are aligned with the latest common core standards.

I have a similar set like this and my first graders loved it.  This one isn't color coded, but still seems like a good game to develop various different skills.  Last year I made a few different activity sheets that went with the game I already had, and they should work with this one as well. 

I didn't find any books, but I think these items are great finds that will be great fun for my students!







Pin It

Olympic Pride

On the final two days of our Sports and Games mini-unit, my students learned about the Olympic Games.  They were excited to learn about the history, but were also engaged as we completed science and math activities.  It was especially interesting to see the students make connections to their Foss Science units of Air and Weather and Balance and Motion.  As a literacy extension, the children learned about the goals set by athletes hoping to make it to the London 2012 games, and the commitment it takes to achieve these goals.  The students completed a writing assignment about what event they might like to compete in, and what they think it would take to be part of the Olympics.  Some students even created new events, complete with rules and diagrams. 

Download "If I Were and Olympian" writing prompt here.

As a final piece, the students created a patriotic decoration they could display throughout the summer: Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and during the Olympics. I let each student choose a piece of construction paper for a background, and the rest of the paper came from our scrap collection. The students were given minimal directions, and had creative freedom to design a "Olympic poster".  Many of the students included the Olympic rings and the torch into their designs.  When the posters were complete, each student chose 12 strips of paper that I had them glue to the bottom.  Since I wanted the outcome to be a surprise, I did not tell them why - they all thought I was crazy!  After this step, I had them curl the poster into a tube and glue.  We then added a string hanger to the top, and all of the kids figured it out: a paper wind sock.  I love mystery projects, because the kids have to listen carefully to directions if they want to get to the final product.  These turned out great.  We sent them home with their writing piece, and many of the kids even attached their writing to the final project.  I told them to display them with pride, and one of my students replied, "Olympic Pride!"

Pin It

Game Time! Classroom Sudoku & Boggle

As we finish up the year, my first and second graders are doing a mini unit on Sports, Games, and Play.  We are talking about the different types of play and activities, and what good sportsmanship looks like in all types of games.  Since my first grade literacy students are familiar with Boggle, and my second grade mathematicians have been playing Sudoku since the beginning of the year, I decided to make poster games for both activities.  For the rest of the year, I will change the games every couple of days.  The students will be allowed to work on the games individually as a fast finisher activity, and with partners at other times. 

I have seen numerous versions of Boggle on Pinterest, and decided to use various ideas to make my own.  I found the letters on mrsrojasteaches.blogspot.com , and printed them on card stock.  I had both the poster and letters laminated, and then put Velcro on all of the pieces.  I barely had the game on the wall and the kids were finding words!  I also made simple worksheets for the kids to use as they find words.

My second graders love playing Sudoku.  We started the year playing the 4 x 4 version, moved to the 6 x 6, and now we are working on the full 9 x 9 version.  What I like about this activity, is that it teaches logical and spatial reasoning in a way that is engaging and enjoyable for my class.  The board I made does not have grid lines.  I did this on purpose so that I could change between all 3 versions of the game.  For 4 x 4, I will only use the 4 squares in the top corner, for 6 x 6 the top two rows, and the whole board for 9 x 9.  I will be able to use this activity in class no matter what grades I teach in the future.  I wish that I had had this for an activity to complete with my high school reading students who were working on inference and logic skills! 

I used a 22" x 28" piece of tag board, pre-cut letters, and 7" x 7" squares of card stock - that is it!  I made two separate sets of numbers - a larger set for 4 x 4, and smaller for the other versions.  I will post pictures of the Sudoku game with numbers tomorrow.  The kids are so excited to start playing the "big board" version!

Sudoku Tiles 1

Sudoku Tiles 2Pin It

Math - What's the Decade?

Yesterday in my 2nd grade math class, I introduced the concept of rounding to the nearsted ten.  I was suprised how confused many of the students were, even while using a number line.  I woke up at 4:45 this morning with an idea: a game to practice rounding.  This is what I came up with:

The first student draws two cards from a deck, and makes a two digit number.  They then write that number down, as well as the nearest decade number, ten, to practice their rounding skills.  The students played with a partner, and I found that the peer support they received while practicing made a huge difference.  Each student had their own worksheet, but they wrote down both player's numbers.  The kids had fun and did not want to stop.  I think I will use this for a math warm-up activiity once in a while to keep skills sharp.  This game could also be played with dice, or by drawing three cards.

You can download the free worksheet herePin It