Modeling Multiplication and Division as Equal Groups Hands on Activity

 Would you like to help your students practice the multiplication and division  skills of equal groups and repeated addition or repeated subtraction in a hands on way?  Try this interactive math activity using hula hoops! Using hula hoops as equal group models, students will place themselves inside the hoops to model multiplication  and division equations. 

A visual PowerPoint slideshow or PDF file has 26 multiplication or division problems for students to act out. Your class will have so much fun with Multiplication Hoopla or  Division Hoopla!

Buy the bundle of both for 20% off.

 

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Sight Word Swat It Games

A great way I've practiced sight words is with my team Swat It games.

Split your class into teams. Display one of my Swat It Sets word cards on your board or under your document camera and let the swatting begin. Call off a sight word and the first student to hit the right word gets a point for their team. What a great way to reinforce mastery of sight words and get some energy out to boot!

 

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Fun Word Generator

I wanted  to share with you a fun word generator from Game Gal that you can 

use for quick game time fillers, indoor PE, or rainy day activities. I plan to bookmark this to have quick access to fun games like Charades or Pictionary. It does the "thinking" of the word for you. So cool!

I can also see how you could use this for vocabulary games or writing topics. Display it on your projector and have students brainstorm about the word shown, in this case, picnics. You could ask the class, "What would you take with you on a picnic?" or brainstorm as many picnic foods as you can.

The possibilities are endless. Give it a try.

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Roll and Build Geometry Math

Lakeshore Learning sent me this fun game Roll and Build Geometry for at your seat fun!

The dice is rolled and you build and match the shape with the sticks and pegs.

A variety of 2D and 3D shapes can be built.
It comes in a handy pouch for storage too.

I made up this recording sheet to go along with this great game.

Grab it {HERE}

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Educational Time Fillers for the Classroom

It's my last Sunday of summer. My first day with my students is tomorrow. 3-6 Free Resources is hosting a great Educational Time Filler linky that's perfect for starting the year.  Here are some of my fun but worthwhile time fillers and brain break ideas.

Line Up

See how quickly your class can get lined up in ABC order by first names. Then try last names.

See how quickly your class can get lined up in birthday order.

See how quickly your class can get lined up by height either tallest to shortest or shortest to tallest.

Let them line up  in a designated pattern:  ABAB    AABAAB

The possiblilities or endless with  this and it's quick and easy.


I've already shared about my Zoom Around the Room game. But it's worth sharing again.
Pairs of students race to call off a correct answer to a designated category to be able to move around the room.  I keep a copy of this handy on my desk and sub tub! Read more about this activity {HERE}

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Swat It Games Giveaway

Click pictures to view

So my Dollar Tree shopping spree landed me with these Jumbo fly swatters.

My first thought was that these were some overkill fly swatters for a tiny fly.

But I'm not using them to kill flies.

I'm using them for my Swat It team games.

More games to come too! I'm working on one for place value as well as Sight Word sets. So go grab your Jumbo Swatters!

Display the concept cards on your board, split into teams, and call off questions.

Teams have a swatting good time to hit the answers first!

I'm having a giveaway for these games

1 winner will win all 8 games I've made so far

7 winners will get to choose 1 game of their choice

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bottle Cap Math Game Activities

My project today was to make more Bottle Cap Math sets.

If you want to read my original introduction post about my Bottle Cap math product look HERE.

This is a popular center in my classroom so I wanted to make multiple sets with the collection of caps I lugged home for summer break prep. 

First, I sorted all the different style caps and threw out the ones I didn't like. I'm picky like that.

I tried to keep the same color whites together as well as kept in mind the cap heights.

Then I broke out all my colored Sharpie pens and went to work. 

I suggest that you use different colors as much as possible to help separate sets.

Light colors like yellow and orange don't show well on the caps from my experience.

I labeled caps with a variety of numbers. Some were simply numbered 0-9 and others depending on the skill were 2 or 3 digit numbers. The best part about many of the worksheets are they are open ended and you can add more numbers or change them out as needed.

I also printed up the Bottle Cap concept worksheets and laminated them for yearly reuse.

Concepts include place value, rounding, sequencing, fractions, skip counting, probability, measuring, multiplication, and addition and subtraction

Here are game sets in action

You can get any of the sets {HERE}

Comparing Numbers

Place Value

Sequencing Before and After

Rounding

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Spin a Frame Probability Math Activity

Here's my touch of creativity for probability lessons.

It's a Spin a Frame!

This idea came from a simple motion picture frame like this

I made clip art frames to fit each of the 9 frames and it becomes an instant probability center.

Students spin each frame to explore data and outcomes.

I plan to interchange my clip art for year long practice.

What do you think?

I even posted the freebies for you in case you want them.

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

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Skee Ball School Style

One of my favorite childhood games was Skee Ball.

I could spend hours upon hours playing it at the beach arcades during summer to collect as many tickets as I possibly could manage.

So I made a school style Skee Ball for PE.
I made 3 sets, as I plan to use them relay team style. Each student on the team will toss a tennis ball into the marked buckets. At the end of each round teams will total their point value using white boards.

This would also be a great summer party game too.

The red, white, and blue tubs came from Dollar Tree.

I laminated the numbered labels to then hot glue onto painted clothespins.

Wala! Just clip the pins to the tubs and play SkeeBall to your heart's content!

Here's an online SkeeBall version too!

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Listening Skills in the Classroom

Here are some ways I support listening skills in my class.

I Have/Who Has or Follow Me activities are such a hit with my students and you target content area learning while you are at it.

The basic guidelines involve giving one prompt card to each student. One student begins by stating "I Have ________ Who has ___________?  Whoever has the answer to that prompt shares their card until you've looped around to all the cards.

Here's a site that lets you generate your own cards

My Zoom Around the Room game is a favorite too. Students race to answer a category type question. I use it for a quick time filler and always leave it in my sub plans for an additional resource as needed.

I posted about it {HERE}

What ideas do you have for listening?

~Enjoy

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

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Tic Tac Toe Task Cards

One of the many ways I use task cards is by using Tic Tac Toe boards. Students pair up with a board, cute lil' X and O markers, and a task card set. Each player answers a card and if correct marks the board with a X or an O to get 3 in a row.

Wondering where to get the X and O markers? Head to Target and look for this box of Table Scatter!

I organize my task cards on a hanging bulletin board display that students use during centers or independent time. I also have ALL my task cards organized in tubs by subject so I can add them to my bulletin board and rotate them as I teach various concepts.

~Enjoy

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Multiplication Card Games: Deck Out Your Holidays with a Deck of Cards

Give your students a holiday gift that keeps them learning!

I put my rhyming skills to practice with this little number:

"Your teacher is so smart

She wants you to do your part

For learning fame

Do a card game"

I typed up the rhyme and 4 card game directions.

I made 2 different versions: One set focuses on addition and subtraction and the other set includes addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

Attach a deck of cards to the game set and you have a gift for students to "Deck Out their Holidays"

Like this idea?  Grab your copy {HERE}

2 packs of cards at Dollar Tree makes your gift only 50 cents per student.

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Trick or Treat Mats

After reading this I hope you never look at a doormat the same way!  Can you believe that thanks to Dollar Tree I've made learning game doormats! They are portable, sturdy, don't need laminating or cutting and BEST of all are cute. All I did was write various language or math concepts on each candy corn with a sharpie. Take a peek of a few I've made. I also have sets for antonyms, synonyms, compound words, place value,  and rounding. Grab a few mats and make some yourself!

I've made recording sheets to go with each mat  and posted a couple for you.

Click pictures to download

Give me a Halloween holler if you like this idea please.

Nifty Game Piece Pockets

So I've spent a good part of today printing, prepping and laminating games I've gotten from great blogs.
I found a wonderful Post It pocket that can hold all those game pieces or flashcards that miraculously always seem to go missing upon clean up time. The pockets are self sticking and can be removed easily and then reattached! Here's one of the games I prepped today with a pocket attached for you to see. Want your own pockets? I got mine at Office Depot.

Task Card Easy Does It Game

Grab an Easy button and play this game with a set of task cards.

Click image to get a free copy

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Task Card Battleship

One activity I use often with task cards is Task Card Battleship which is played in the same manner as the familiar game Battleship.  Click the image below to grab a free copy.

Looking for task cards for your classroom? I have many to choose from in my TPT store, including a MEGA bundle of all by Reading and Language sets (at a huge discount)!

40 sets at a 20% discount

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Memory Game for Student of the Week Activities

This team building game is great for building classroom relationships and was inspired by a familiar baby shower game. Of all the games played at baby showers...grabbing baby pins in rice, stealing clothespins from shower guests, and wrapping toilet paper around the  mother to be, I must admit that the baby item memory tray game is my favorite.  

I use this concept in my classroom as a Get to Know You activity at the beginning of the school year, but it can also be used as a part of your star Student of the Week activities. Students bring in 15 small items that are special in some way to them to display on a memory tray. The tray is passed around to classmates as they study and memorize the items.

Once the tray is out of sight, give students a {classmate memory tray worksheet} to fill out. Afterwards the star student gets to share about the items. I used to always do "Me Bag" sharing for Back to Schoolbut this now takes its place. The classmate memory trays build classmate connections as well as recall and memory skills.  Can't beat that! 

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!  (Freebie ideas and giveaways are sometimes shared there!)

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The BEST Brain Break Game

This is a must have Brain Break game in my classroom. Students don't even realize they are learning in this fast paced category game.  Students compete in pairs to name a category answer. The winner gets to race/advance around the room until beat by another opponent. It's a great listening skill game as well.  The 100 + category cards I've made are open ended making this a game to come back to AGAIN and AGAIN. It's perfect as a quick time filler which my students beg for.  

I always leave a copy of this game in my sub tub and I don't know how many "Thank You's" I've gotten from appreciative substitutes! 

Sidenote: I also modify this and use it for transition times like waiting in line. When I do, I just call off a category and call on random students to share their ideas.  Do you have more great transition tips?
       

                                        You can RACE to grab your copy here.

 

 

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I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

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