I loved this phrase, and I love chevron, so why not put them together into a fun poster for your classroom! Free printable poster is formatted to print on a regular 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper. Click here for the free printable PDF: Study Maybe snarky poster
This game is one of my favorite games ever. It’s killer easy and it’s way fun. You can use candy (M&Ms are my favorite) or any other type of marker (I’ve used Cheerios, Goldfish, paper markers, etc.). Here’s how to play:
1. Using a grid game board (here is my Don’t Eat Pete Game Template or click here to download my other free holiday game boards), place one M&M on each square.
2. Send one player away from the board where they can’t see/hear you.
3. The remaining players choose 1 square or candy to be “Pete”. Make sure everyone (except the player sent away) knows what the square is.
4. Invite the player back and they get to take as many candies as they can until they get to Pete. When they touch Pete, everyone says “Don’t eat Pete!”
5. At the end, clear off the board (I give the candy to the kid that just played) and put new candy on for the next kid.
This is especially fun in a group and players who know which one is Pete can trick the guessing player by say “Don’t eat Penelope!” or something just to make them jump! Enjoy!
(You could turn this into a more academic game by requiring the player to answer a question before they get to take a piece of candy…)
Here are some of my favorite treats for this game:
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Sometimes it’s hard to remember to add words to your classroom’s word wall. Here’s a genius idea I saw in a kindergarten classroom recently. The teacher prints up the words at the beginning of the year and tacks them to the board backwards. When they learn a new word, all she has to do is flip it over and wa-la… organized, done-in-a-second word wall!
Here’s another easy way… magnets!
Teaching vocabulary is only good for students if they actually LEARN the words. Here’s one way a teacher uses a bulletin board to increase students’ vocabulary:
Make sure to post:
1. the vocab word (big enough to see from every desk)
2. a simple definition
3. a simple picture to help explain the definition
4. a list of previously learned vocab words
This teacher introduces the words (10 each week) on Monday and then reviews all the words every morning (only takes a few minutes on Tues-Friday). The class also comes up with a gesture for each word. I’ve seen her class do these vocab activities, and let me tell ya, these kids really learn the words!
The teacher I learned this idea from swears by it… and I totally see why! It doesn’t take very much effort on the teacher’s part, and it’s an entertaining way for kids to practice vocab! Here’s how it works:
Week Before: Using the week’s vocabulary words, write a few fill-in-the-blank style questions to test student’s vocabulary knowledge. For example, if the vocabulary list included the word “clumsy”, the teacher wrote this sentence: “The _____ girl bumped into the table and broke the vase.” Since the vocabulary list this teacher uses has 10 words on it, she writes 2 fill-in-the-blanks for each word. She says this takes her about 5 minutes a week to type and print these questions. She cuts them up into strips or cards on Microsoft Word and makes a set for each game board (see below). She uses the same game board for an entire season (changing to the next theme/holiday’s game board).
Week Of: When kids are done with an assignment (especially during the literacy block), they can play 5 in a row tic-tac-toe. Her game boards sometimes use a 3 x 3 grid, but when I talked to her, she suggested making 5 x 5 grids so the students have to practice more questions before the game ends. The teacher keeps each set so she can use it next year (their school uses the same vocabulary lists every year for each grade).
The Game Boards: I’ve made 8 game boards for different seasons. I suggest printing each one on different colored card stock so it’s easy to tell which ones go with which season and they will last longer than regular paper. In addition, laminate them if you can.
Click here for the free printable PDFs I made for this activity:
School themed game board
Valentines game board
St Patrick’s game board
Spring game board
Summer game board
Halloween game board
Thanksgiving game board
Winter game board
Here’s what the boards look like:
Submitted by an awesome teacher (Thanks!):
“This is a matching game to help our 2nd graders learn abbreviations. We ran the months off on one color, days of the week on another and the miscellaneous on another so that they could have a better chance at matching them. You can do it as a whole class activity or as a center during your literacy block. Once they do them, they are going to write them in their literacy journals.”
Click here to see the Word document matching game.
Need a filler that ties into your curriculum? How about American history, government or patriotic holidays? Here’s another word scramble that’s sure to keep your students busy for a while. Enjoy!
Right click, choose “save image as” to save this worksheet to your computer so you can resize it later (half sheet, full sheet, etc.).
Another good time filler for teachers… to buy you some quiet time when you need it!
Click here to download the printable PDF and answer key: School Theme – Word Scramble with Answer Key
Right click, choose “save image as” to save it to your computer so you can resize it later (half sheet, full sheet, etc.)
Squarehead Teachers 