Monday, October 29, 2012

Halloween Freebie

Are you looking for a quick game to use in a Math Center or during a party? Try this "Halloween Tic-Tac-Toe". There are several ways to play....as they win, the kids can collect "candy" and count how many times they won. OR use the "graphing score card" and the first player to the top is the winner. Or for those who can use Tally Marks, score can be recorded with tally marks and students count the score, then add up how many games were won in all. If your students are equally matched at Tic-Tac-Toe, a fun way to play is PLAY TO LOSE! This requires a different way of thinking...the first player to GET 3 in a row is the loser and the other player gets the point. That would be interesting to watch! ;-)
I hope you can use this and your kiddos have fun!



 
Click on the image to download this freebie!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Creating Posters & Mini Pocket Charts

I love creating posters for my classroom. I use them to decorate the classroom, share poems and chants with the students in a LARGE version, and now I use posters in some of my Centers to help scaffold learning for some of my Kiddos! Once upon a time I created them all in PrintMaster, but as the versions changed, it seemed to drop the option to make POSTERS. I recently discovered I can make both POSTERS and MINI POCKET CHART images for classroom centers. This week I used the poster to help with a label the pumpkin sheet from my LABEL THE PARTS packet. I am also using mini versions of the theme related words in my BIG pocket chart at my word work center. Watch this video to learn how you can turn any PDF image into a poster or mini pocket chart images....
Please let me know if you found this video helpful, or if you have any questions about how I made the posters/mini pocket chart images.
You can visit my Teachers Notebook shop and get my LABEL THE PARTS packet for FREE!
I hope you have lots of fun making posters and mini pocket charts for your students to enjoy!


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Amazing Laminator...

A few weeks ago I received an email inviting me to choose a free gift. My first thought was "Yeah Right!! Someone's giving ME something for FREE?", but I took a chance.  BOY...Am I glad I did!! The email was from a company called MyBinding.Com. and they were reaching out to teachers who may need supplies in their classroom (that's ME!!). In a few days the laminator arrived. Now, I must admit, I've heard (read) teachers rave about a desktop laminator on their blogs before and always thought it might be nice. But actually HAVING ONE is a totally different matter. I LOVE THIS THING!!!!!!! We have the big laminator at school, but you have to get the key, heat it up and the end product is flimsy unless you use cardstock. The desktop laminator is a DREAM! It laminates regular copy paper with the THICK finish that truly makes the games and activities DURABLE! If you haven't tried one, may I say you won't believe how nice the finish products will turn out? I have used it so many times in such a short period of time that it makes me wonder how I managed to teach so long without one. Who knew???
Take a look at my first laminating project.



A table top pocket-chart sorting activity!
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Did I mention it does COLD laminating too?
I hope you'll take a peek at their website and add the laminator to your wish list!
Thanks so much to Tarragon for reaching out to me...you brought a lot of joy into my teaching world! ;-)

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

FREEBIE:Fall Label the Parts

Thanks so much for checking out my Label The Parts packet.  This set has a FALL THEME and contains two versions of labeling for your students. The first is a cut and glue the label. The second makes use of “letter boxes” for students to write in the letters to label the parts. Each page has the words needed printed right on the page. 
The two versions allows the teacher to pair the student skill levels with the pages.
Students label the parts and then color the sheet.
These sheets can be a great addition to WORD WORK type centers..

I hope your students have fun as they learn and label the parts! Click on the image to go to my Teachers Notebook shop and get a copy! While you're there, why not select to follow my shop, that way you'll get notification when new items are added.
Either way...........ENJOY!