There are so many different ways to use conversation hearts instead of saving them for a sweet treat. Here are 6 different ways to use conversation hearts in the classroom and will definitely have your kids looking at candy in a whole new way! 1. WAR OF HEARTS War of Hearts has always been a class favorite and there are a few ways to incorporate this one into your instruction. This game is played like the card game, War, and here are a few different ideas for play... Partner Play - both players grab a conversation heart from a bag/container and count the number of letters on each. Players write the numbers in the matching heart … [Read more...] about 6 Conversation Heart Activities
*Math
Candy Heart Math {& A Making Words Activity}
I know Valentine’s Day is over, but I like to extend my Valentine-ish activities throughout the month. After all, February is the month of LOVE, right?! Well, that’s what I’m goin’ with anyway. Candy hearts are my favorite February math manipulative and here are a couple of little math printables & activities for you!! The first is a little candy heart graph. I know there are a GAJILLION of these floating around right now. I like to graph the number of letters in the conversation. I pass out a large conversation heart to each kiddo and have them count the number of letters on the heart. Then we create a big ol’ graph on a giant … [Read more...] about Candy Heart Math {& A Making Words Activity}
Penguin Fun!
Oh how I LOVE learning about penguins!! They are just the dang cutest things, aren’t they?! I’ve tried to get my boys into Happy Feet, but they aren’t big fans just yet. Boo. Anyway, we had a lot of penguin fun this week and I can’t wait to continue with more in the week to come! First off, if you haven’t had a chance to purchase Deanna Jump’s Penguin Unit, GO.NOW. It’s FULL of awesome ideas and activities which is one of the reasons I’ve extended our penguin learning for another week. AND…you need to check out Babbling Abby’s post about her week of Penguin fun! She has some DARLING ideas too and a 5-day lesson plan to download. LOVE … [Read more...] about Penguin Fun!
Place Value, MLK, and Snowmen!
Here's a fun little place value activity I made for my kids to do in their math tubs last week. It’s a snowman place value spinner! Graphics courtesy of Digi Web Studio Last week we were working on place value with teen numbers, so that’s what this particular activity reinforces. The kids spin the spinner on the middle portion of the snowman and collect that amount of ones cubes...or whatever kind of counter you want! Then they spin the spinner on the bottom portion of the snowman and collect the same amount of ones cubes as well. Then they count their cubes and see if they can make a set of ten. I always tell them, “If you can … [Read more...] about Place Value, MLK, and Snowmen!
Snow Day Stats
So…which of you has been the lucky recipient of a snow day, or two, this week?! Don’tcha just love those days?! I thought we’d for sure have one Monday because the entire city shuts.down. at the sight of flurries. It snowed cats & dogs & fluffy white rabbits on Sunday. You KNOW I was up about an hour earlier than normal checking the local news to see if our district was giving us a day to cozy up by the fire. No such luck, but I did get to sleep in. We were on a 2 hour delay. I’ll take it! Since snow is such a novelty in these areas, I knew the kids would have nothing but SNOW on their minds, … [Read more...] about Snow Day Stats
Winter Math Games
Happy first day back after a niiiiiiiiiice long break :) I know we’re all excited, right?! Just 10 short weeks ‘til the next vacation, but who’s counting?! Seriously though…I’m already missing my little boys during the day, but I’m SO happy the whole family is back in a routine! Since I’m currently raising the two wildest boys under the age of 4, I didn’t have much time to create a whole lot over the break. I had to spend all my *down time* {yeah right} being a mommy & tending to domestic duties. Thankfully I had lots of planning time today to try and get caught up! Here are a few little games I’ll be putting in our math tubs this … [Read more...] about Winter Math Games
Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town
I have a thing for Santas. I really do. I have a HUGE collection here at the house and I just can’t get enough of him! He’s so dang cute! SO…it would only stand to reason that I’d want to include a few Santa activities in the classroom as well :) I know that a lot of kids don’t celebrate Christmas, but this year EVERY single one of my kiddos does…so that makes planning a little bit easier for me. However, this hasn’t always been the case! I guess you could say I’m taking advantage of it this year :) I read a book about Santa the other day…can’t remember which one…and had the kids make these cute little scrapbook Santas after we read … [Read more...] about Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town
A Few More Math Ideas Before The Holidays
Here are a couple more ideas for you to *squeeze in* {HA!!!} before Thanksgiving break :) How funky is your turkey?! Here’s a little fact family activity your kids will love! Each kiddo gets a half circle {turkey body} and a triangle {turkey head}. The kids take two dice and roll. Let’s say they roll a 4 & 2. They have to add the numbers together to get the sum {third #}. They write these numbers in each corner of the turkey head with the sum sitting in the beak. Then the kiddos take 4 different feathers and write a different number sentence on each to match the fact family in the turkey … [Read more...] about A Few More Math Ideas Before The Holidays
Turkey Math
We are learning about traditions and customs & I swear I’m LOVING all this Thanksgiving talk!! I know you’re probably all planned out for the next couple of weeks, but just incase you aren’t, here are a few math tub activities you might like to incorporate :) This is a little addition & subtraction activity where the kids have to solve the problem on the turkey’s belly and add the number of feathers to show the sum/difference. They kids LOVE the feathers :) This is a little fact family activity that the kids are loving! And this is just a little skip counting reinforcement activity. I found this in … [Read more...] about Turkey Math
Anytime Math
Do you ever have those weeks where you feel like you’re just behind?! I had to jet outta school early on Friday because BOTH my sweet boys were sick with a 24 hour tummy bug…my oldest one {3 years old}, threw up for the first time. Poor baby!! ANYWAY…Mommy had to leave early and come to the rescue :) Then my sweet family came in town to celebrate Halloween with our little family of 4, so needless to say…I’m BEHIND this week!!! I knew this was the perfect week to pull out my “anytime math” stations!! I love the kind of activities you can just pull out when you’re in a bind! And thankfully, the kids … [Read more...] about Anytime Math
Math “Board” Games
When I taught Kindergarten, one of the girls on my team made these one-to-one correspondence math games for the kids. We kept them in our math tubs pretty much all year long because they were great for the kids to play when they were finished with their work, plus they were great for reinforcing rote counting and one-to-one correspondence. To kick it up a notch and make it “First Grade friendly”, I made a little addition/subtraction game out of similar game “boards”. The kids LOVE these games!! I have the kids play with a partner and both players get a matching game board, a set of {seasonal} counters, a stack of … [Read more...] about Math “Board” Games
A Couple of Math Things…
This is a CRAZY week!! Our schedule is a little off and we’re planning a FUN “Pumpkin Day” on Friday, so I set out a fewer number of math tubs this week. Here are just a couple of things that we’re working on… Greater than/less than candy jars. Each piece of candy is programmed with a number {1-50}. There is also a set of number cards {1-50}. The kids have to pick a number card and then sort the candy into the corresponding candy jars. This was just a little review that they’ve really loved! I’ll definitely keep this in my "when I’m finished…” tubs for them to revisit :) Here’s just … [Read more...] about A Couple of Math Things…
I Want Candy!
Since it’s so close to Halloween…and the kids are SO very crazy about candy right now…I popped this little activity into a math tub this week! The kids were SO excited to work with candy and immediately wanted to know if they could eat it ;) No shocker there. I glued these little signs onto 4-5 different paper bags and filled each with different amounts of candy. The kids reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of candy and recorded the # of pieces they grabbed onto a corresponding recording sheet. Then they reached in a second time and pulled out another handful of candy and recorded that amount as … [Read more...] about I Want Candy!
Addition Games & Activities
I really love teaching addition. There is SO much you can do to reinforce the concept! Right now we’re knee deep in addition concepts so I wanted to share with you a few games and activities we’ve been working on in our classroom! Here’s a little game I created to reinforce number sentences. I got the original idea from Mailbox Magazine and just adjusted a few things to fit the needs of my classroom. You can download a copy of the game and instructions, too! Just click the link below the pic. click to download FIND THE SUMS The kids LOVED this activity. It’ll just take a little prep work on your part. I created student name cards … [Read more...] about Addition Games & Activities
Number Order
Here’s a little activity I created that’s great for reinforcing number order…especially for the kids who still struggle in this area! I put this in one of my Math Tubs this week and ALL of my kids loved it! You can download the activity and instructions by clicking on the link below. NUMBER ORDER … [Read more...] about Number Order
Skip Counting
My kids are really getting the hang of skip counting! At least, I think they are ;) Here are just a few little activities/ideas that I’ve incorporated to help reinforce this concept! I requested that the parents send in {labeled} socks with the kids. I hung these on a clothesline to reinforce skip counting by 2’s. The week that we introduced skip counting, we had the kids help us create these skip counting “anchor charts” to hang in the room as a visual. I guess I missed the 10’s chart! Ooops! The 10’s chart used pairs of feet for counting by 10’s. I created this little … [Read more...] about Skip Counting
Apples, Apples, Everywhere!
My kids this year are SO very much into non-fiction stories. I LOVE IT!!! We started our week of apples with a KWL. I set out this little KWL and fill it out with the kids as we go along… After reading a few short non-fiction books about apples, we filled out the “What You LEARNED” apple and had the kids complete their own KWL to keep in their Reader’s Response Journals. They LOVED this activity! I told them to choose 1 thing from each apple to write down.KWL Printable: APPLE KWL And we labeled the parts of an apple… I also had the kids fill out their own version. I found it on Mrs. Nelson’s Apple Unit Page. We also start out the week … [Read more...] about Apples, Apples, Everywhere!
