Christmas Bingo Freebie

This was a quick, and I mean quick, bingo game that I threw together for my students this morning. The only materials needed in order to play is a piece of paper and something to write with.

Students made their own board by drawing a 3x3 grid on their paper.  In each space, they chose a word from the SMART Board to write down.  They did not have a free space. They used their board multiple times.  Instead of placing markers on the space, they made a different symbol each time to represent each round.  A very easy impromptu game that they loved to play!

I made the file available for download in my store, Teacher Store 365.  In order to use the file you will need SMART Notebook.  The first slide was made using words from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  The second slide contains random words related to Christmas.

Many of you may have the privilege of being on break by now, but for those of you that have the privilege of still being with your students here is an extra activity to get you and your students in the holiday spirit!!

A Winter Freebies Frenzy!

It is hard to believe that we are amongst the holiday season.  It always seems to creep up!  Tomorrow we are back to school after Thanksgiving break and students tend to be a bit restless.  Don't tell the kids, but their teacher has counted the number of school days until winter break.  Shhhh......we only have 19 school days!!

Below you will find a coordinated collection of winter freebies.  I hope that you find them useful, especially during the last few days before break! 

This Math Centers Mini Collection contains two different games both aligned to Common Core.  Each game comes with a recording sheet, directions for play and playing cards. As an upper grades teacher, I have never been a true center user.  So, this is something I would use for early finishers or as an anchor activity after a short lesson.

Match It is similar to memory but with a twist.  Students are up and moving around with this activity.  Each student is given a card and they move around the room checking their classmate's cards to find their match.  Students love this.  While the activity was made with Match It in mind, it can be used as a traditional memory game also.

One of my favorite games, I have...Who has...!!!  This game is not a new one, but I have updated it and added an additional eight cards.

The next three freebies are items that serve different purposes.  Exit slips for a quick check on student's learning.  A winter themed Think Tac Toe that is perfect for early finishers, and Find a Buddy Who that gets your students up, walking around, and talking with a purpose.

Laura Candler from Corkboard Connections is hosting a Holiday Learning Link-Up.  You will find many freebies and holiday learning ideas.  It's the season of giving! 

Preparing for Post Halloween Jitters

It's the day after Halloween and your students walk in the room sleepy from being out too late, pockets full of candy, and wanting to talk about everything they did the night before.  Sound familiar?  I have determined that being proactive with this scenario works best for me.

So, here is what I do.  I make sure that the day after Halloween I carve five minutes out of my daily routine.  I want to allow time for ALL my students to share about their exciting evening.  Yes, I said five minutes and I also said all.  It's really simple.  I give them the activity below, Find a Buddy Who-The Day After Halloween.  They get to mingle, talk with classmates, and burn off some of that post Halloween excitement.  Five minutes first thing in the morning, and we are ready to go.

The freebie ~ Find a Buddy Who-The Day After Halloween can be found in three different locations.  Simply click the button of your choice below.  You will find everything you need, and there isn't much.  A printable and directions.  Hopefully, you will find this activity as useful as I do!

Grand Opening!

I am very excited about my latest project.  It has taken me quite some time to put together, but I'm pretty excited with the results.  So, I'm happy to officially introduce to you my very own Teacher Store 365!! 

You will find all of my free and paid items here. There is no minimum purchase required!  Stock up on freebies and browse if you would like. 

Teacher Store 365's Grand Opening is today, October 21. Upon checkout, enter coupon code GRAND20 to receive 20% off your entire order.  

Coupon code for 20% off

A Freebie for Friday

Today's freebie highlights the upcoming election.  There are those students whether they are in lower elementary, high school, or in between that want to voice their opinion on who should be President.  This activity, Find A Buddy Who, simply builds awareness around the election.  The best part of this activity, personal opinions are not needed or encouraged at all.

Download the freebie from one of the following:

Friday Freebie

Halloween is nearing, yes I said it Halloween.  I do like Halloween for my daughter as she is so excited about dressing up and getting candy.  But.....the teacher in me dreads Halloween every....single.... year.  If you want to keep your students q-u-i-e-t, I have...who has... might just help.  I haven't come across a class yet that doesn't like this game, especially when a competition is involved!

To download today's freebie and find out how to make it competitive, visit Teacher Store 365 or TpT by clicking the buttons below.

Friday Fall Freebie

It's Friday!  This week has been a busy one, but it seemed to go quickly.  I am linking up my Friday Fall Freebie with Laura Candler at Corkboard Connections.

Not all students, teachers, and schools celebrate Halloween.  Fall is so much more than that, but locating fall activities that have no connections to Halloween can often times be difficult.  Laura's link-up is all about the month of October, and there are many activities from many outstanding bloggers.

If you are looking for an activity strictly related to fall, you might enjoy this week's freebie from me.  My students enjoy Think Tac Toes, as they are given the opportunity to choose their own activities.  You can download my Think Tac Toe-All About Fall HERE, or by clicking the image.

Be sure to check out the many other activities simply by clicking the badge below. You will be excited to see what you find!

 

Fix It - A Cooperative Learning Strategy

Introducing.....Fix It.  A cooperative learning strategy  in which students are given a problem and three multiple choice answers. Two of the answers are correct and one incorrect. Students are to find the incorrect answer and then "Fix It" on their response sheet.

To introduce this strategy, I have created a sampler that is aligned to Common Core Standards 3.NBT.2 and 4.NBT.4.  The sampler contains 15 cards, but the full card packs will have 30 question and answer cards. 

I like how this strategy allows students to find the incorrect answer versus the correct.  A twist to the traditional multiple choice.  You can download the free sampler HERE in my TpT store.   I hope you find these useful!

To the Moon and Back....

with a Freebie!  I recently came across some super duper cute graphics and I am in the mood to create!  Here is a quick freebie that you can pick up HERE at my TpT store.  Also, this is somewhat of a sneak peak into what I have coming.  I'm really excited and can't wait to share!

Dots on the Brain - A Freebie

After yesterday's post, I have dots on black on the brain.  The cooperative learning teacher in me needs  signs to place above by teams to identify them and of course they need to match. So here they are, and they are a freebie to you!

I have a bunch of other ideas brewing so check back often.  This is my new theme, and I'm willing to share!

You can download the team signs HERE or by clicking the image.

Conferencing Gloves

The ONLY thing I like about packing up my room at the end of the year is it gives me a chance to organize, purge, and occasionally find something that I forgot I had.  This year I scored big!  Obviously in order to appreciate this treasure you need to be a teacher and a frugal one at that.  

Tucked away in an empty wipe box I found three pairs of work gloves.  These were not the typical work gloves; they were the ones that I wrote on about five years ago.  

We all have those students that we sit down with to conference about a book and they are stumped with what to talk about.  We want them to lead the conversation, but sometimes they need a little bit of a nudge.  By putting on a glove they have an instant choice of the conversation that they want to lead.  Not only will they have a conversation starter, they will need to identify the genre to choose the right glove and they will become familiar will the text elements that their genre encompasses.  

I made a small document that shows exactly what is on each glove.  The pictures are a little hard to see.  You can download it HERE and also by clicking the image below. 

I am excited about my new/old find.  Not only do I have an instant resource, my brain is working on other ways I can use these $1.00 a pair work gloves with other subjects.  These gloves are not going to find their way into the back of my cabinet next year; they will be out in plain sight ready for use!

End of the School Year Freebie

It's official, the end of the school year for me is right around the corner!  I say it every year and I'll say it again, it is hard to believe that another one is gone.  In 6-1/2 days my summer begins.  I'm ready to spend some summer time with my girl!!

As an end of the school year culminating activity I have a Think-Tac-Toe I created.  It's fun, low key, and students can leave the school year with a keepsake or two.  You can download this freebie HERE from my TPT store.

Geo Board Match

There is an unexplained attraction to geo boards.  The moment my students see these surface, there is a round of "yay, I love these!".  For a bit of review we pulled these out and had at it.

My students partnered up for this activity.  Each set of partners had a set of geo board match cards, rubber bands, and two geo boards.  Partners would draw a card to take the challenge.  They would independently create the figure using the available clues.  After they each finished creating the figure, they would compare their boards.  Of course their figures may have varied and may not have necessarily looked like the answer on the back, but if they could prove the clues then they were good to go.  That is the beauty of geometry, as long as the figure was created by following the clues, by definition, they are correct.

As an extension, I had students create their own shapes and then they identified the attributes of their individual figures.  These activities differentiated their learning and allowed them to think outside the box.

To grab a free copy of the Geo Board Match cards that we used, click HERE!

National Volunteer Week Freebie

It wasn't until last week that I realized National Volunteer Week is April 15-21.  I am so glad that I came across this, because I have some of the most amazing classroom volunteers!  I have been overly impressed with the parent volunteers in my school district over the years.  I have been in this district for four years, and I have NEVER had to organize a classroom party.  You read that right!  I have never had to organize a party!  We all know how much we love those parties.  My parents have taken on this responsibility and it has been fantastic!

This year has been no different.  Our classroom is never in need, and if there is anything that we need help with the response is unbelievable!  I'm am so lucky and thankful to have such amazing classroom volunteers.

Among many other things, we are planning on creating a thank you gift for our classroom volunteers.  I came across this great site today, Room Mom Spot, and they have a lot of great ideas.  One of the ideas that grabbed my attention was creating a note with cute sayings.  I am going to use them for our gifts so I typed them out and made them eye appealing. 

You can download this freebie HERE.

What do you do for your volunteers?

The Great Kapok Tree~Celebrating Earth Day

Earth Day is quickly approaching.  Even though we want our students to be conscientious of recycling, reducing, and reusing on a daily basis this gives us a time to celebrate and educate the younger generation.  

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry has been one of my favorites for years.  The vibrant illustrations and the story that is told is a memorable one.  In order to celebrate Earth Day, I wanted to incorporate one of my favorites with the importance of the 3 Rs.  

Here it is and it's a Freebie for you!  Students will:

•Conduct an open sort with animals of the Rainforest

•Compare and contrast the Canopy with the Understory

•Compare and contrast the Rainforest with a regular forest

•Choose projects to complete based on their preference and learning style with a Choice Menu

•Create their own plant

•Identify where specific animals live within the layers of the rainforest

•Collaborate with classmates on ways to recycle, reuse, and reduce

•Choose projects to complete on ways to recycle, reuse, and reduce based on their preference and learning style with a Think-Tac-Toe

You can download it for free HERE at my TpT store.

You're a Star

I'm not sure when the last time was that I brought up the words, MAP test. Believe me, I have been adding in review on a daily basis, but in a non-stressful way. They know we are reviewing, but by incorporating games and a lot of cooperative learning activities it has been fun . I thought about, and even began organizing, testing type centers. I ultimately decided against it and decided to simply hit things as needed. I think that it might be a little more work, we are not following the same test prep routine on a daily basis, but I don't notice the burnout from my students which is extremely important.

Nine more school days until testing for us. My students are ready! When we do talk about the "test", I tell them that it is their time to shine. It is the time to show what they know. I have a certificate that I give them before the big day.  Just a little motivator to make them feel important.  Besides, what kid doesn't like to have a certificate to show off?

You can download this certificate HERE.

What do you do to motivate your students?  I would love to read about them!

Spring Freebie

Tonight I have a super quick post.  First, I want to thank all of those who take the time to stop by Cooperative Learning 365.  I have had a few days of relaxing and reflecting and I have to say that the blogging and relationships that I have made along the way have far surpassed my wildest dreams!  Second, Spring is around the corner and I'm L-O-V-I-N-G it!  With that said, I created a small freebie with Spring in mind.  Enjoy!!

You can download it HERE at my TpT store.