Don’t Eat Pete Game Template

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Squarehead Teachers

Don’t Eat Pete is one of my family’s favorite games. It’s also been a favorite in my classroom! Since so many people have been sheltering-in-place because of the coronavirus, my mom (and former teacher herself) had the genius idea to make Don’t Eat Pete kits to drop off to local families with kids. She made each family a game board (or included stickers so the kids could decorate it themselves) and also included candies to use to play the game. (Click here or here to read my posts on how to play.)

So, here’s the template and you can let your kids decorate their own board! Crayons, stickers, markers, glitter*, paint* or colored pencil, just let your kids get creative!

Click here to download the PDF: Don’t Eat Pete – game template

*If you use craft supplies like these, I suggest putting the board in a page protector sleeve if you’ll be playing with something edible.

Click here to check out my other Don’t Eat Pete boards to download.

Easy Die Cut “Don’t Eat Pete” Board

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

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I’ve written about Don’t Eat Pete before (How to play, How to play/easy Valentine’s board and St. Patrick’s Day board), but I just love this game and it’s perfect for any holiday. Seriously, I played it at every single classroom party (as a kid since my mom was often the Room Mom and again as a teacher) because it just continues to be a kid favorite… the there’s hardly ANY prep involved!!

But if you’re that teacher who wants to make something once and never have to worry about it again, here’s a post for you. My mom made this style of Don’t Eat Pete board for each holiday and then all she ever had to do was buy the candy, cereal or snack she was going to use for the game.

Step 1 – choose 9 die cuts from your school’s Halloween collection. If your school doesn’t have die cuts and you don’t want to head down to the district office to do it, just wing it and cut some simple shapes yourself. Cut them out of colored construction paper (Be careful which construction paper pack you get! one I recently purchased from Amazon didn’t include purple! Here’s a small low-priced pack that has all the basic colors!)

Step 2 – Lay them out 3 across in 3 rows on big construction paper (here’s a low-priced pack) and place small strips of construction paper between them to form a grid. If you’re in a pinch, just draw in lines using a sharpie or other permanent marker (here are some awesome metallic ones that work great for writing on black!)

Step 3 – Write numbers on each shape. This just makes it easier to remember which one is “Pete” for that round. You can also silently remind your kids by holding up fingers.

Step 4 – Laminate the entire thing! Now enjoy!

Halloween Classroom Attention Getters

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

It’s Halloween time, so it’s time to change things up! No more “Get it? Got it! Good!” when you need to get your students’ attention! We’ve come up with a list of fun, Halloween attention getters for the classroom!

Teacher: “Who you gonna call?”
Students: “Ghostbusters!”

Teacher: “Monster!”
Students: “Mash!”

Teacher: “Knock, knock!”
Students: “Trick or Treat!!”

Teacher: “Skeleton!”
Students: “Bones!”

Teacher: “Scare me!”
Students: “Boo!”

Teacher: “Pumpkin, pumpkin shining bright!”
Students: “Halloween’s a scary night!”

Teacher: “It’s not Santa Claus!”
Students: “It’s the Great Pumpkin!”

Teacher: “Vegan Zombie!”
Students: “Graaaaaaiiiiinnnnss!” (like how zombies say “brains”)

Teacher: “If you’ve got it…”
Students: “…haunt it!”

Teacher: “Boil, boil…!”
Students: “Toil and trouble!”

Teacher: “I feel cold!”
Students: “Goosebumps!”

If you’ve taught your class any fun Halloween poems, you might consider using lines from those also. For example, if you taught your class the popular “Five little pumpkins” poem, you could use a line and have the students respond with the following line. If you’re not familiar with that poem, you’re missing out! Here it is:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, “Oh, my, it’s getting late!”
The second one said, “There are witches in the air!”
The third one said, “But we don’t care!”
The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run!”
The fifth one said, “It’s Halloween fun!”
Then woooooo, went the wind
And out went the light
And the five little pumpkins
Rolled out of sight!

Click here for more fun Halloween stuff!

Halloween Coin Counting Practice

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

Happy Halloween!! Do you have your costume figured out yet? I don’t, but I’m working on it! Anyway, use the excitement for Halloween to sneak in some coin counting practice. Enjoy another freebie!

Click here to download the free PDF: Coin Counting Practice – Halloween Costumes
Click here to download the free PDF: Coin Counting Practice – Halloween Costumes – Answer Key

Line Plot Practice Page

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

Line plot practice worksheet! Free! Hot off the press! I made this (and the other line plot practice pages yet I’ll be posting in the future) for a friend who teaches second grade. If your classroom is already be buzzing with Halloween excitement, good luck! 🙂

Click here to download the free PDF: Line Plot practice pages -Toy Cars
Click here to download the free answer key: Line Plot – Toy Cars Answer Key

More free math worksheets! Click here.

Fall Fractions – Beginning Fractions Practice

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

Want to add some fall fun to your math curriculum? Here’s a super self-explanatory beginning fractions worksheet for kids. Younger kids may need you to read the directions, but the basic idea is to color the numerator to depict the fraction. I’ve also uploaded an answer key. Happy fall!

Click here to download the PDFs:
Fall Fractions
Fall Fractions – Answer Key

Check out more of my fall freebies!

Skip Counting with Pictures

Posted on August 15, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

Check out this awesome idea for practicing skip counting or number sequencing. Put the picture together by putting the sequence in the right order. You can do this with any picture, but the ones we used were from a calendar. Here are the steps (steps 1 and 2 can be done in either order, but this is probably the best):

Step 1: Put numbers on the bottom of your picture. We put them on dot stickers first so we could easily tell which belonged to each set (example – yellow dots all belong to the same set). You could just write them on the bottom with a permanent marker if you wanted to be faster. Just make sure they’re easy to see against your picture.

Step 2: Laminate your picture. This step is sometimes so annoying, but it will definitely help your project will last longer!

Step 3: Cut your picture into strips, making sure there’s only one number on each strip.

Step 4: Enjoy! This makes a good “fast-finisher” activity, since it is still kind of fun. Depending on the size of your finished picture, you can store them in baggies or envelopes. I recommend writing the number of pieces on the outside of your container.

Here are some skip counting ones we made:

Then we got tricky and did a few with fractions. Here’s one of them:

Click here to check out some other number sequencing stuff:
Before, Between, After – Numbers Worksheet
Holiday Number Sequences Worksheet

Summary Graphic Organizer

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

Welcome back, teachers! How is it the 2019-2020 school year already?! Mind. Blown.

Anyway, here’s your first freebie of the year: a summarizing graphic organizer! This is often referred to as the “somebody wanted but so then” style of summarizing a story. Enjoy!

Click here to download the PDF: Summary graphic organizer PDF