Teachers answer questions all day long… and it’s exhausting! I saw this phrase up on a classroom and just HAD to share it! The teacher’s rule is that students must ask 3 other students their question before coming to the teacher with the question. Chances are one of those 3 other students will know the answer and the teacher can keep his/her sanity a little bit longer!
So you’ve probably heard about the classroom game, Around the World (IN A NUT SHELL: The teacher shows 2 students a math flash card. The first one to blurt out the answer moves to stand next to a new student’s seat and faces off with them using a new flash card. The winner gets to advance to a new student and the kids try to move as many seats as possible.) Here’s a fun twist on the classic game.
TEACHER PREP:
PLAY: Instead of telling you the answer to a math fact (like in regular Around the World), the student must name the place value underlined on the card to win the face-off.
Submitted by a 2nd grade teacher in AZ. Thanks!
Click here for more free math stuff!
I love playing math games… and what student can’t benefit from some basic math facts practice. So here’s a game for you.
Make sure you choose the operation you want: basic addition, basic subtraction, basic multiplication or basic division. Happy Spring!
Click here for more free math stuff!
I just found this website that provides downloadable calendar blank templates for Microsoft Word and Excel. You can choose from weekly, monthly calendars and yearly calendars for specific years. To quote the website, “Why spend millions developing what Microsoft has already spent Billions developing?”
More story starters (can you tell I’ve enjoyed having these in my classroom?)! What’s not to love about easy, self-explanatory writing projects?! I often add extra requirements to the story (use spelling/vocab words, figurative languages, underline adjectives, etc.) to make it even more educational. Right click on the page, choose “save image as” and save it to your computer so you can print it later. Yay for writing!
6th graders tell me they don’t like to color… until I show them these geometric coloring pages. At the Charter school I’m currently working with, I don’t seem to be able to copy enough to keep up with the demand! (Everyone likes them… kindergarten through high school). There are lots of websites that have these for free, so just do a search for “geometric coloring pages” and you’ll find gobs.
Here’s one of my favorite websites to get geometric coloring pages!
Many, many activities in today’s classrooms involve partner/group work. But you don’t want kids to work with the same partner/group every time. So you need methods for grouping kids in a variety of ways. Below are a variety of table mats that teachers have used so that they can easily group kids by number, color, letter, etc.
This kindergarten teacher used masking tape to give each student space at the desk (and the tape holds down her partner sheet).
Many kids have a hard time retelling/summarizing a passage or story. This simple hand trick helps them tell only the most important parts of the story. One teacher I know keeps these two hand cut-outs on the wall near their guided reading table, so the kids can refer to it often. She says it’s really helpful for tons of her students.
If you wanted, you could have each student trace their own hand and label each finger at the beginning of the year. You could put them on the wall to, or glue them to the front of a folder or reading journal, etc.
Squarehead Teachers 