Just stopping in for a quick minute tonight to share a few things that have been keeping us busy this week. Write the Room has been keeping us up on our feet and moving around. This is my kids’ absolute FAVORITE activity so it’s no surprise that I have to change these out quite frequently. These last couple of days my kids have been identifying word families and writing CVC words {from my January Write the Room packet}. In our sight word center, the kids have been digging through the snow to find words. Once they find a word they know, they count out the number of letters in the word and use the paper snowballs in the bucket to spell it out and glue it in the box. After they spell it out, they write the word. This has quickly become a class favorite. Looks like I’ll be keeping this center out for a little while longer! You can download a free copy of this little activity by clicking on the picture below. We did this little Snowmen at Night writing activity last year and the year before that. This is one of those writing craftivities I haven’t tired of yet. I love their sweet responses and adore how different and unique each little snowman turns out. This little craftivity is not my original idea. You can find the original HERE at The Elementary Art Room. I absolutely ADORED this little math craftivity from Julie at Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten. My kids had a BLAST making them and creating their own patterns. We used little button die cuts. This was the perfect activity as a spiral review for our first week back from break. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this little picture of the game we played earlier today. I love getting a new family of kids every year. It challenges me to come up with fun & engaging activities to meet the needs of ALL learners. I feel like I’m never doing the exact same things from year to year because no two class is ever the same and each class has such a different set of needs. So it only stands to reason that we have to create/modify/adapt lessons/activities to fit the needs of the kids we have in the present. This week we’ve used our little Race to the Snowman game for both math and literacy. I used these great little snowflake ornaments {I bought last year after Christmas for about 10cents a piece!} as game pieces. For one of our literacy activities, I divided the class into two groups. We had an odd number of kids in the class that day so I voluntold one of the kids to be the game master and move the game pieces to race to the snowman. I used one of my handheld white boards and paired kids up from both teams. I wrote a sight word on the board, turned it around and showed it to the pair, and the first person to say the word correctly earned their team a snowflake on the “game board”. The first team to make it all the way to the snowman first, wins. They couldn’t get enough!!! For math, we practiced one more/one less. Again, I divided the class into two groups. I randomly gave each kiddo in both groups a number card. Since there were 9 kids in both groups, I only set out 9 snowballs {game board spots} out for both groups. I had a separate stack of number cards to call from that I was holding. Each kiddo also got a snowflake to use to cover up a spot on the game board. From the stack of number cards I was holding, I called out a number and said “one more/one less” before each number I called. For example, if I pulled out the number 7, I would say “ONE MORE THAN 7” and then the person holding the number 8 would use their snowflake to cover up a game spot on their team’s game path. Whichever team reached the snowman first, won. Another winner, winner chicken dinner. What I love about a “race to whatever” game is that you can use it with ANY skill. These are just a couple of ways we used it this week!! Now it’s time to catch up on the zombie apocalypse. We are on the 3rd season of The Walking Dead and I’m completely HOOKED!!!! I also have this completely irrational fear of zombies at the moment. FREAKY. But darn if I don’t love this show!!! TGIF!!!!!
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Katie Knight says
Amen SISTER it's TGIF. Have a great Friday. I am going to play a little games called RACE TO THE CAR and go home for a nap! But race to the snowman rocks! I love the Snowmen at Night art and appreciate you linking the original post. I have seen a million people pin their snowmen, but never knew who the original creator was!
Mrs. Richardson says
"Voluntold". LOVE IT!!! It cracked me up this morning!!! Have a fabulous Friday!!!
Amanda
Mrs. Richardson's Class
Maryann says
I love the snowmen projects! The activities are great for kids to do. Any chance you have the dimensions for the patterning snowmen activity on TPT?
Thanks,
Maryann
brennemm@carlisleschools.org
Amber says
Can't wait to do the snowball sight words!
Amber
SSSTeaching
Holly says
"Voluntold" HA! I love it! 🙂
Everyone deServes to Learn says
Great idea! I love how you incorporated listening comprehension into the game!
-Maria
Everyone deServes to Learn
Mary Church says
Loving the snowman theme! Adorable.
http://aclassroomfullofsmiles.blogspot.com/
Ashley says
How did you make the writing response page to the Snowmen at night? I would love a copy or know how to make my own!
Ashley
Ashley.baker@usd453.org
Amanda says
I LOLed at "voluntold". Have a great weekend!
Amanda
A Very Curious Class
Leslie says
Like you, I can't get enough of The Walking Dead! Bwahaha!
Ellen Briggs says
Love this idea! Just like when we played "around the world" when we were kids!
http://mrsbriggsclass.blogspot.com
Bethany Louise says
I love your snowball sight word center idea! I just made up some snowball sight words and got the whole thing prepped and ready to go for Monday! Thank you for sharing all of your brilliant ideas!
Bethany
Ship Shape First Grade
TheElementary MathManiac says
Love the sight word snowball activity. Thinking about how I could use this for math.
Tara
The Math Maniac
Mrs. Shaddock says
You could totally do it with math: decomposing numbers (draw out a number and use snowballs to decompose the number into two numbers), building number sets (draw out number, write number and glue a set of snowballs to match)…lots of possibilities!
Anniina-ope says
Hi! I love to read your writings and I´ve got many ideas from your blog, thanks! But this "stupid" teacher from Finland doesn´t know how "write the room"-activity works? Could you explain? I use a lot of activities with includes moving around the classroom and I would like to know if your method would work in my classroom too.
– Anniina
http://openideat.blogspot.fi
Mrs. Shaddock says
Love the snowball sight words! Love keeping up with your blog!!
Whitney
Thefirstgraderoundup.blogspot.com
Julie says
LOVE the snowman activities! I've been using the greater than/less than snowball fight activity you posted about whenever?? for two years now and my class LOVES that game. I think the whole school knows when we are playing, we are THAT excited about it! Now I have another use for my snowman… my class will be THRILLED!
My husband got me hooked on Walking Dead. I swear I walk up the stairs with my back to the wall every night now. It doesn't help that my three year old can do a spot on zombie impression and sometimes I find her sleeping in my bed when I get upstairs!
You asked for show suggestions a while back and I just found a good one if you were a Gilmore Girls fan. It's called Hart of Dixie and it's on Netflix. I doubt there are any zombies in Bluebell!
ashley simpson says
I love all of your activities!! You are so creative and FUN!! I look forward to all your posts!!
Ashley
sunshineloveandlaughterashley.blogspot.com
EEvans says
A few years ago you posted the snowmen at night writing and I loved it! For the last two years, it has been our favorite winter writing activity! I can't wait to try your sight word snowballs, it's destined to be an instant hit! Thank you for all you do!
Erin
mrsevanssclass.blogspot.com
Jessica says
Cara- as a fellow kindergarten teacher I appreciate the time you put into your creations and the fact that you share them with us! You don't know how much you have inspired me to be a better teacher! I love the freebie and can't wait to use it with my kids! They will LOVE it! And the race to snowman game is an excellent idea! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Jessica
underthealphabettree.blogspot.com
May Munro says
I Love the snowman theme! its Adorable, my kids will love it and the race to snowman game will be an excellent idea.
Snow Skiing
Regina Frazier says
I just love your Snowball Sight word activity. You are so creative and I want to thank you for sharing your talents. I can't wait to try it with my kinders tomorrow. I just want to let you know that I found a small typo in your directions .It says to "Right the sight word in the right column." It should say to "Write the sight word in the right column." Hee! Hee! Don't feel bad. I'm famous for typos and I am so happy when people point them out to me. Keep up the great work. I enjoy your blog.
http://123kteacher.blogspot.com/