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Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts

The Brain, Baseball, and Geography

I read a lot about how the brain learns and remembers. Why? Because I find it absolutely fascinating. I also want my students to learn, so I'm always searching for ways to help them remember what I've taught.

The Brain, Baseball and Geography! Do you want to teach some geography skills in a way children will remember? Here are some brain based ideas to help!

I've found that kids learn best when they get a little bit at a time, frequently, rather than one big lesson all at once, then never to see it again. (Unfortunately, our present Math program does the latter.)

There's plenty of evidence out there to prove that frequent review and practice are the best way for children to remember what they're learning.

There's also plenty of evidence to prove that connecting learning to the passions of the children helps the learning process as well.

So, what does this have to do with baseball?  That's the passion that I connect to learning geography!

I write a letter every morning to the children, letting them know of anything special happening that day. I also post the learning targets of the day. Then I usually put in some fun little questions and/ or graphics:  you know, to motivate the kids to read the letter!

The Brain, Baseball and Geography! Do you want to teach some geography skills in a way children will remember? Here are some brain based ideas to help!
This movie shows the
insane loyalty of Red Sox fans!

Here in New Hampshire, we are die-hard Red Sox fans. Those of us who grew up in the Boston area have developed a loyalty that we just can't shake. Since the official start of baseball season a couple of weeks ago, I've been writing a little "Red Sox Geography" question in the morning letter, complete with a map and labels.



It might look like this:
The Brain, Baseball and Geography! Do you want to teach some geography skills in a way children will remember? Here are some brain based ideas to help!

or like this:

The Brain, Baseball and Geography! Do you want to teach some geography skills in a way children will remember? Here are some brain based ideas to help!

I admit, I'm as almost as passionate about geography as I am about the Red Sox. If the little ones aren't baseball fans when they come into my class, they certainly are by the time they leave!


I make sure we have plenty of maps around, and the children scramble to be the first ones with the answer! It's just a little bit every day, but they become familiar with the names of the states, the bodies of water, and the cardinal directions. 

The timing is good, since their reading skills and their mapping skills are strong enough for these activities by April, and since we won't get out until the last week of June, they'll be getting almost daily practice!

Want to know more about brain-based learning? See Ten Brain Based Learning Strategies or 10 Key Brainy Points.

See also this resource with Geography Baseball Task Cards!

The Brain, Baseball and Geography! Do you want to teach some geography skills in a way children will remember? Here are some brain based ideas to help!

 How do you use their passions to get them interested in schoolwork?

 
The Brain, Baseball and Geography! Do you want to teach some geography skills in a way children will remember? Here are some brain based ideas to help!

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!

Celebrate Spring with Games! Spring is here and the children are feeling the excitement of the season! Here are some spring games and activities to help keep that spring excitement focused!

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!

Explore this image for a link to this word work game

 
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.

Explore this image for a link to this fun game.


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!

Explore this image for a link to this fun word work game.

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.  

Explore this image for a link to this fun word work game.


Mental Math Addition and Subtraction Game With a Spring Theme allows the students to add or subtract multiples of ten mentally.  
Explore this image for a link to this fun math game.

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!
Explore this image for a link to this baseball themed word work game!

Home Run Two Digit Addition is a BINGO type of game to practice two-digit addition skills (with or without regrouping).
Explore this image for a link to this baseball themed math Bingo game!


Looking for more sports-related resources? See HERE!

How are you celebrating Spring in your classroom?


Celebrate Spring with Games! Spring is here and the children are feeling the excitement of the season! Here are some spring games and activities to help keep that spring excitement focused!




Golfing for Tens

I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!

Thursday I had 3 doctor's appointments.  Not 1, not 2, but 3. (I'm fine, just happened to schedule them on the same day!) I also went to the dentist on Tuesday and had my flu shot on Wednesday, so I should be all set for a while!

Since 2 of the 3 doctors are a half hour away, I was looking to fill time between appointments, so I went into the local dollar store.

I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!I'm always looking for cute ideas for school in the dollar store. I'm either looking for organizational ideas or game ideas.  As I was browsing through the toy section, I saw the perfect game for my sports themed classroom:  golf sets!
I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!I was planning the math game I was going to make while standing in line to make my purchase. (Do all teachers do this sort of thing when they take a day for doctors appointments?)

I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!We've been working with addition of single digit numbers in our new math pilot program:  enVisions. The math part was so easy, I wanted to bump it up to adding tens. I figured they could work in teams, working on adding tens. I set up 3 lines, each a foot apart, and decided they could and take a few shots from different level.

As you might have guessed, the kids loved it! They were even good about working quietly while the other groups did their "sitting down" work, which is not easy for adults, never mind second graders! However, they knew they'd lose the privilege, so they worked hard to golf quietly!

The only problem? Those plastic golf balls were so light, the kids had trouble aiming them. Therefore, hardly any balls went into the cup, so they didn't get much practicing adding up points. I'm going to bring in real golf balls tomorrow, and I'm sure the extra weight will help them have more real "adding tens" practice. In the meantime, it was a great lesson in adding zeroes, and the kids really enjoyed it!

See the picture or HERE for your "golfing for tens" resource. I'm sure they have the golf sets in the toy section of most dollar stores!  

 Enjoy your golfing!

I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!

 
I found a child's golf set at the local dollar store, and decided it would be great for a math game! Here's how it worked!



 


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?

Playing Math Games to Strengthen Important Skills: This post tells why it's important to play math games, and has some suggestions on how to teach them and what to play!
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!

This post tells why it's important to play math games, and has some suggestions on how to teach them and what to play!


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:

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!
Playing Math Games to Strengthen Important Skills: This post tells why it's important to play math games, and has some suggestions on how to teach them and what to play!

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