Celebrate Spring With Games!

I am so ready for Spring!  

Here in New Hampshire, the temperature seems to have trouble getting past the 40s, and there are still patches of snow everywhere, including my garden!

But Spring is in my heart, as well as my classroom.  

Here are some of my Spring Products that you'll find my students using!  

Earth Day Vocabulary Match is a fun way to review words related to Earth Day and protecting the environment.  There are several variations of play!

 

Spring Flower "Go Fish" Game is a great way to practice the prefixes un-, dis-, re-, and pre- as well as the meanings of these prefixes.

Here's another game with prefixes, with suffix practice as well!

Rainy Day Prefixes and Suffixes gives the children practice finding the base word of words with prefixes and suffixes.  The children can focus on just prefixes, just suffixes, or combine the two!

Two Rainbow Games:  Nouns and Adjectives, Verbs and Adverbs is a great opportunity to practice making up adjectives to go with nouns, and making up adverbs to go with verbs.  

Mental Math Addition and Subtraction Game With a Spring Theme allows the students to add or subtract multiples of ten mentally.  

I have a whole lot of sports-related products, and baseball season is upon us!  Here are a few baseball-themed games:

Baseball Antonyms is a simple matching game for antonyms.  It can also be played as an "Old Maid" game, which the kids love!

Home Run Two Digit Addition is a BINGO type of game to practice two-digit addition skills (with or without regrouping).

Looking for more sports-related resources? See HERE!

How are you celebrating Spring in your classroom?

Valentine Fun

 What is it about Valentine's Day that's so much fun for kids? 

They're not involved in romance, so that couldn't be it! 

 

We give them some class time to exchange some silly cards. Well, that's definitely fun. And there's all that candy... plus, it's something fun during the "longest" month of the year!

Yes, I know, February is really the shortest month of the year, and around here we have the last week off. But for those of us in New England who are totally sick of the winter cold by this point, February is the "longest" month of the year! Valentine's Day is a nice break from the mundane.

Well, as I was strolling through the Dollar Store yesterday, I saw packages of plastic heart containers. Immediately I started thinking about what I could do with them in the classroom. (Do "normal" people stroll through the Dollar Store and try to find stuff they can buy for their jobs?)

I found myself thinking of the activity I did last year with Easter Eggs, and I thought I'd adapt it to Valentine Hearts.

I made Valentine Synonym or Antonym Match Up.  I can't wait to show the kids!  I even found some shiny red bags to put the pieces in! 

Speaking of Valentine's Day, be sure to check out this fun resource: Valentine's Day Mini-Books!

There's a mini book with Valentine's Trivia, and a mini book for the children to list all the things they love!  Plus, it comes with directions on how to fold and cut the mini-books.

 

Here's my newest treasure! If you're a fan of Boom Learning like I am, you'll love this one: Valentine's Day Fun Facts Trivia

Do you have a day off or a meeting coming? These activities are one way to continue keep the children engaged and learning, without making extra work for you! 

Valentine's Day No Prep Activities

I have one more activity to show you:  it's a math facts board game:  Have a Heart Math Facts Game! It practices basic addition and subtraction facts. The kiddos can play just addition, just subtraction, or combine both!

I can't blog about Valentine's Day without mentioning my very favorite Valentine's Day book: Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch!  This book will warm your heart, without a doubt. It can actually be read any time of year, but it's a MUST-READ for Valentine's Week!

• Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch

I love children's books!  I can't resist once I start looking at books, but here are several more with a Valentine's Day or a LOVE theme.  Be sure to click on each book for a link to Amazon to learn more about that book.  (For the Love of Autumn is another one of my all-time favorites - Patricia Polacco is an amazing author!) Each link is an Amazon affiliate.

• Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse (If you give..._

• Olive You!: And Other Knock Knock Jokes You'll Adore

• The Night Before Valentine's Day

• Junie Be Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine

• For the Love of Autumn

Have a great Valentine's Day!  I hope your kiddos LOVE the day!

Are You Ready for Day 100?

Holy cow, Day 100 is right around the corner! 

 

There are loads of ideas on Pinterest and teaching blogs all over the internet. The hard part is choosing the best stuff without having to spend a month on Day 100!  

In the Common Core State Standards, most of the second grade focuses on Numbers and Operations in Base Ten. Day 100 is a great day to celebrate the concepts of Place Value and Base Ten. Luckily, most of these activities go right along with these standards for this level!

Last year I posted about my tradition: Day 100 Caroling!  We really do go from classroom to classroom and sing a song. I wish I could share all the songs I've collected, but they're not mine to share, but I'd be glad to share my own: 100 Days Smarter. I think it's a nice reminder of all the work we've done so far this year! Plus, music, movement, and fun are all ways to help the brain remember things! Day 100 Caroling is one thing that kids tell me they remember about being in my second-grade classroom.

Here's an activity we've already been playing for a couple of weeks, since it's directly related to what we're working on in Math. (Adding and subtracting with 2 digits.) They really need to master the idea of adding and subtracting tens, and this freebie game is doing the trick!  Beanie Toss to 100

For some of my kids, I need to challenge them with more complex computations. This game is a popular one, and makes them think. With my second graders, I have them figure out the number they're waiting for ahead of time, but older kids probably wouldn't need to do that. I Have... Who Has...? gives the children practice figuring out compliments of 100.  (57 +  = 100)

Color-Coded Number Grid There are tons of games that can be played on the Number Grid! My favorite is simply Race to 100 with dice or Race from 100 with dice. The children roll two dice and proceed along the number line from 0 to 100. The subtraction version has them starting at 100 and counting backward to 0. The conversations that go along with these games are as valuable as the number grid itself. For more of a challenge or a quicker game, use 3 or 4 dice!

Again, with second graders, I want to celebrate 100 with more than just counting to 100. This game gives the children practice adding and subtracting 100 to 4-digit numbers.

Mental Math 100 Game

Want to make your life easier? Grab this bundle! It's got a little bit of everything, for lots of math levels and interests! 

Day 100 Games and Activities for Older Students

 

And, of course, a few books for the occasion! Explore each image for an affiliate link to Amazon to learn more about the book! I never miss an opportunity to include literature in my math lessons.  My students love books!

 

• 100th Day Worries
• Fancy Nancy: The 100th Day of School
• 100 Days of Cool
• The Night Before the 100th Day of School

I find Day 100 brings much excitement from all levels. How will you be celebrating Day 100?

Almost October? Time for Some Deals!

Can it really be almost October already? 

October just happens to be one of my favorite months! And it just so happens I have lots of dollar deals for you!

Brain Breaks are an important part of the day! Here are 12 with an October theme. October Brain Breaks!

 

 

 

October is Fire Safety Month! I've found these "Fire Safety What Ifs" can really get the children talking about some fire problem-solving! Click the image to download these!

 

And of course, it's football season! Be sure to click the image for a football-themed game that practices numbers through 1,000! 

Football Counting to 1,000.

  

Isn't Halloween one of the biggest holidays of the year? Here are two more dollar deals to keep your students interested in classwork during the Halloween Days! 

 

Halloween No Prep Sample

Halloween Sentence Reading

Even if you can't celebrate Halloween, you can certainly celebrate bats! Click the image to download this booklet:  

Bats Informational Mini-book

If you love these dollar deals, you'll love this: 

October Bundle!

 

Isn't October fantastic? 

I love this time of year!

Playing Math Games to Strengthen Important Skills

I find games to be a great way to learn and develop skills.

Brain research tells us that adding the element of fun helps to connect the memory. Isn't that a great reason to play learning games?

I like to teach a game during small group instruction time, so I can watch the children play and make sure they are focused on the learning goal. I'll have them play a couple of times with guidance before I let them play on their own.

After a game has been introduced and practiced, it will be available as a choice during math stations or centers.  There are times when certain children are assigned a particular game as well.

It's a good idea to allow the children to play games below their level, as these are important skills that should be mastered in order to perform the higher skills with ease. Just because the skills are easy for the child doesn't mean they don't have value! In fact, if the game isn't somewhat easy, it won't be fun for the children. Also, if the game isn't somewhat easy, the children will be more likely to make mistakes, which won't help them master the skills. I've learned "practice makes permanent," and we don't want to make incorrect skills permanent, do we? If you've ever had to unlearn a bad habit, you'll know just what I mean!

I have a series of BINGO games that I designed to go along with second-grade skills. They all have a sports theme, which is a big draw for the kids. I find once they learn the format of a particular game, it takes less time to teach a similar game, meaning more time practicing each skill!

You can find this resource here:  Par 3 Adding 3 Addends

As mentioned above, once the students know the format and how the game works, they can play similar games to strengthen similar skills. It just so happens that I have several math games that follow this same format with different sports themes that can be found here:

Sports Themed Bingo Math Games

Still looking for more math games to strengthen their skills?

Here are plenty more Math games, including several freebies! Math Games Category
 

Games are a great way to build skills AND have fun!  Enjoy!

10 Strategies for Surviving Until Summer

We have 21 school days left. I'm trying not to get stressed out about all the work I have to complete in 21 days. I much prefer to spend the 21 days enjoying my days with my students. 

But then again.... these kids are "cooked". They've taken in as much information as they can, and they're starting to get really cranky. These little angels who have worked hard all year are struggling!

I need to complete the next couple of weeks of our reading program, then the unit test, and then the end-of-the-year test!

Here's what I really want to happen in the next couple of weeks: I want to read all my very favorite books and leave the kids with a desire to read this summer!

I also want to finish the curriculum and all the tests, I want to make the end-of-the-year memory books.  I want the children to have pleasant memories of their second-grade year.

I want to be ready for my summer vacation!

But we do have to get through the next 21 days.  Somehow!

So, here are some things I plan to do:

1. Play a lot of music-  I do like a variety... soft music for concentration, lively music to get them moving, rowdy music to burn off steam...

2. Bring them outside- Work in opportunities to bring the children outside wherever I can.

3. Loving books- Celebrate books in every way possible!

4. Make 'em laugh- Find plenty of opportunities for laughter.  Laughter is good, and healing as well!

5. Fun- Work plenty of games and fun learning into the day.

6. Move- Get them out of their seats whenever I can.  Get their blood moving to bring oxygen to their brains.

7. Shake it up- Rearrange things... move desks, change the schedule, do something completely different.

8. Pair them up for projects- Being social increases learning and productivity.  Plus, it's fun!

9. Have a contest- Get their pulses moving!

10.Visuals- Find some good educational videos.

These are all things the brain needs for learning.  I try to do this stuff anyway.  I suspect they need it even more than usual this time of year.  It's a hard time of year for all of us, but it's even harder on the kids.  

We WILL make it!  

Summer vacation, here we come!

What are your ideas for the end of the year?