Items filtered by date: February 2012

Egg-sactly What Time Is It? It's Time For FUN!

Looking for a seasonal game to reinforce time?  You’ve come to the right place.  What’s the Eggs-act Time packet is filled with some fun activities just in time for spring.

Your students will have fun making the large egg manipulative clock and teachers can easily whole group assess by asking students to show them the “egg-sact” time when they hold up their clock.

I’ve also included an egg spinning game as well.  Children play in groups of 2-4 and take turns spinning.

Whatever number they land on, they trace and then write the time to the hour.  The student who fills up their time card first is the winner.

There are also digital and analog traceable time cards so you can make Memory Match games as well as Itty Bitty booklets, or play the game “I Have Who Has?” i.e.

The child with the analog 2:00 O’clock card, asks for the digital 2:00 time card.  Students can also sequence these cards.

Play “Speed-Flash” where the teacher flashes a time card and students show that time on their egg clock.  The child who shows the correct time the quickest, by holding up their clock, earns a sticker for the back of their egg.

Match Three is yet another game with 3 matching time cards to the hour: an analog clock, a large digital time and a written out time.   Students can play a Memory Match game with these by finding all 3 matches, or play a card game with another partner that works like Go Fish.

This game is called, Do You Have The Time?  Deal out 5 cards and put the rest face down.  Students match their groups of 3 with the cards they have.  When it is their turn they may take a card from the pile or ask their partner “Do you have 2:00 0’clock? “

If their partner has any time card that is 2 O’clock they give it to them etc.  Play continues ‘til all of the cards are matched or when the timer rings.

The student with the most matches of 3 is the winner.  When you are done with the various activities, you can reward your students with a time praise bookmark.

Click on the link to view/download Eggs-actly What Time Is It? packet.  Thanks for visiting today, feel free to PIN anything from my blog or shopping cart.  I'm all about sharing.

Do you have a teaching tip you'd like to share with us?  I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com  or feel free to leave a comment here especially if you use one of my ideas.  Thanks in advance for your time.

"Spring is Nature's way of saying: "Let's party." -Robin Williams

15 pages. Common Core State Math Standard: 1.MD.3 Fun springtime telling time games.

Fun With Plastic Eggs!

Eggs are an easily recognized symbol for spring; you see them everywhere.  The plastic eggs are also an inexpensive manipulative.

I use them in a zillion different ways in my classroom.

IDEAS:

• Put part of a contraction on one side of the egg, put the other part of the contraction on the other and have students match them up.
• Have students find a half and then locate their partner with the matching half.
• Sort them by color.

• I have now collected eggs that are small, medium, large and jumbo and have students also sort by size.  They enjoy hiding them inside each other as well.
• Put a number on one side and a specified number of dots equaling that number on the other side and have students find the matching set.
• After they have found all the numbered eggs, have them sequence them.

• Put the eggs in rainbow color order.
• After my students have completed their tabletop work, they may choose a prize-filled egg from the Easter basket to take home.
• I fill them with jellybeans for jellybean sorting & graphing activities.

• Put math equations inside for students to solve.
• Put a writing prompt inside for students to write a sentence or a 1-paragraph story about.
• Put 3 stickers inside that students have to use, when writing 3 sentences or a 1-paragraph story.

• Hide them around the room and allow your students to find 1 to 2 to keep.

• Put an uppercase letter on one half and the lowercase letter on the other half. Break the eggs apart and sprinkle them around the room.  Set a timer and have students find the matches.  After they have found and put together all of the eggs, have them put them in alphabetical order and sing the ABC song.

• Make a set of eggs for all of the skip counted numbers that you have learned. Have students sequence them.

• 
• Put CVC words on the eggs as well as some word wall words so that students can choose 5-7 eggs and write sentences for Daily 5.
• Challenge students to learn a new word for the week.  Write a different new word in each egg and have students pick an egg out of the basket.  They crack open their egg and share it with the class.  This will be their bonus word on their spelling test and the one that they use in their work during reading and writing block time.
• Have students make long lines with the eggs and measure how long their line is.  Then have them take them apart and make a tower.  How tall can they build a tower before it topples?
• Have students make ABAB, ABCABC etc patterns with the eggs. How many patterns can they think of? 
• Use half an egg to make a circle stamp art picture by dipping the circle shape into paint and pressing it on paper or tracing it.
• Put pictures of flat and 3-D shapes inside the eggs.  Have students sit in a circle and choose an egg out of the basket.  They crack it open and identify what shape is inside their egg.  If they can identify it, they get to keep the egg.  If they cannot, the egg goes back in the basket.
• You can put anything inside an egg that you want to review.  Students choose an egg.  Play “I Have Who Has” with the contents of the eggs.  i.e. “I have uppercase letter A who has lowercase letter a? “Lowercase letter a asks “Who has the a ah apple word/sound?”etc.
• Play Doggy Doggy Who Has Your Bone? with a plastic egg and call it, Hen Hen Who Has Your Egg?
• Play Hot Potato and call it, Hot Egg

Use them for a quick and easy art activity and make a fat bumble bee, owl, bunny or pig (my personal favorites!)

Or simply add some wiggle eyes and a smile to make an egg creature.

Children can insert an "I love you!" note inside and give them to a family member or friend as a sweet Easter or springtime gift.

• Click on the link to visit Designs That Inspire for the directions for these cute animal "craftivities".

Have you thought of ways to include plastic eggs in your day? I'd enjoy hearing from you.diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here.

Thanks in advance.  Be sure and pop back tomorrow for some more fun "Spring Has Sprung" teaching tips!

Show Me A Pattern

A quick way to whole-group assess patterns is with these “High Flying” kites.

Run them off on a variety of brightly colored construction paper.

Students cut them out, punch a hole in the bottom and tape on a yarn tail.

Pre-cut a variety of brightly colored “tail” strips so that students can show you ABAB, ABCABC, AABBAABB, ABBA, AABAAB etc patterns.

Students raise their hand when they have completed placing a pattern on their kite string.

Afterwards children can choose a particular pattern that they like, write it on their kite and glue the strips to the string.

Mount them on a bulletin board, or hang them back-to-back from the ceiling for a super spring decoration in the hallway.

They look great hung in a row at the top of the wall as a pretty border as well.

Make it a special keepsake by having students glue their school photo to the kite.

You can also turn this into a partner game by using the pattern cards.

Students choose a partner, flip over a pattern card and see who can make that pattern the fastest. 

The one who does so, gets to keep that pattern card. When all of the cards are gone, or when the timer rings, the one with the most cards is the winner.

Click on the link to view/download Pattterning With Kites

Be sure and pop back tomorrow for another teacher tip.

Do you have one you can share?  I’d enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com Or…feel free to leave a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas!  Thanks in advance for your time.

Smooth Sailing

There’s nothing like a game to get students interested in learning.

I try to incorporate several subjects when I design a game so I get more “bang for my time-buck” so to speak.

Smooth Sailing does just that.

It involves the science of weather and the math concept of skip counting + those valuable life skills children learn when they play games with other classmates and learn patience and cooperation etc.

4 different game boards have students skip count by 2's, 3's, or 5's.

I’ve also included a board for counting by 1’s for younger students.

The object of the game, is to get a sailboat safely through the various weather to the port.

There are 24 different sailboats to choose from, directions for the various games and 2 certificates of praise.

Encourage older students to skip count as they move their sailboats around the board.

Laminate the game boards so you can use them each year, or run them off so students can trace the skip counted numbers, take the board home and play with their families to reinforce lessons.

Click on the link to view/download Smooth Sailing Weather-Skip Counting Science-Math Game

Happy sailing!

Be sure and pop in tomorrow for some more teaching tips!

4 pages. A fun way to whole-group assess patterning skills. Students can also pick a partner and play "speed patterning" against them to see who can make the flipped up pattern card the quickest. The one with the most pattern cards at the end of the g

Look Out The Window! What's The Weather Like?

Studying the weather offers a nice chance to plug in a bit of science along with math-graphing skills.

I designed the easy reader booklet What’s The Weather so that students would become familiar with the various kinds of weather as well as those weather words.

To help in that endeavor, I’ve included 10 traceable weather word cards + matching picture cards and a cover, so students can make an Itty Bitty Weather Word booklet.

This weather packet includes a data collection sheet where students record the date and type of weather that’s taking place, as well as a graphing extension to see what everyone’s favorite kind of weather is.

Students trace and then write the weather words, and then cut and glue the matching picture to the appropriate page.

When everyone is done, read the book together as a whole group to reinforce concepts of print.

Click on the link to view/download What’s The Weather booklet.

Be sure to pop back tomorrow for more teaching tips.