Search results matching tags 'games' and 'activities'

Math Games

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Definitions: write down definitions of vocab words on index cards and toss them in a bag. Have twenty definitions for groups of nine players or fewer and 40 definitions of groups of ten or more. To start, have a player draw a card and read the definition. The person who first names the word gets a point and draws the next definition. When the bag is empty, the person with the most points win. Group Size: any.

Opposites: What's the opposite of black? Well, white. Tall? Of course, short. But what's the opposite of Pythagorean theorem? And this how the game of opposite goes: one person asks for the opposite of something (I normally give them index cards with pre-made concepts.) The game consists of making an argument for why one particular thing is something's opposite. If you convince the other player(s) you win the round. The best wins and gets a point. If you can't agree you move on to the next player. Group Size: any.

Existential Rock Paper Scissors: Is a game in which players take turns naming a category or concept and then pitting them against another. For example, if it was movies. I would choose Jack Bauer and another might chose Walker Texas Ranger. They must then argue which one "beats" the other. Group Size: 3-10.

Brainy Baseball: A little movement game into your quizzes. You have a literal playing field, rather than keeping score you move around the classroom. Divide up your classroom into two groups. The first member of the team who's up takes his place at home based and is asked a question by the pitcher (or read off an index card). If he answers correctly, it counts as a hit. If he answers incorrectly it is an out. Three outs means the teams switch. The first team to get to three runs wins. Group Size: 10-20

5 Angry Bird Lessons

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:00:00 GMT

5 Angry Bird Lessons ranging from quadratic equations, geometry, graphing, addition, measurement, to conic sections. These are fun engaging lessons for students to accomplish in the classroom.

Quadratic Destruction: Given the equations of the curves required to destroy the pigs, can the students plot the graphs? This is an attempt to bring quadratic graphs to the world of the teenager. http://coolcatteacher.visibli.com/share/Ea4NL
Enter the correct quadratic equation and birds fly on the right path and knock out the pigs. There are four levels to this game. Each successive level gets more difficult as the information makes the calculation more challenging. Before attempting this game, you should know and understand the basic properties of the quadratic function, findings zeros, the apex and it might be helpful to be able to solve simultaneous equations. http://www.teachmaths-inthinking.co.uk/activities/angry-birds.htm
Graphing Puzzle: This Graphing Worksheet will produce a four quadrant coordinate grid and a set of ordered pairs that when correctly plotted and connected will produce one of the Angry Bird characters. You may select which one of the characters you wish to make. http://www.math-aids.com/Graphing/Angry_Birds_Graphing_Puzzle.html
Angry Birds in the classroom? What!?!?! Check out how I used this wildly popular game to help teach measurement, geometry, addition, skip counting and money!

5. Conic Sections: The following is about Angry Birds used to describe conic sections, especially parabolas. Featured below is the journal article, I have been trying to implement the use of Angry Birds on the schools iPad. http://new-to-teaching.blogspot.com/2011/12/angry-birds.html

Two Great Sites

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

As I was searching the other day, I came across two great sites chock full of information from teachers near and far. There are many different games, activities, resources, and technology that comes from the classroom in these two blogs.

The first is http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/ which are teaching ideas for the math classroom. It goes over certain concepts and different uses of technology in the classroom. There are new and different study cards for students to practice.

The second is http://mrbartonmaths.com/ gives teachers, students, and parents tips on software, resources, and reviews of math products. This is a great site.

Top 5 Cinco de Mayo Activities and Ideas for the Elementary Classroom

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:23:00 GMT

Cinco de mayo is a chance to introduce many of your students to a celebration that honors brave Mexican soldiers during a fierce battle with the French on May 5, 1862. It also allows you to teach about Mexican heritage in a fun and hands on way. We hope you enjoy our Top 5 ideas for Cinco de Mayo!

1. The History Behind Cinco de Mayo
Many people do not know why cinco de mayo is a holiday for the Mexican people. This should be first explained when doing any sort of activity or celebration related with the day. Click on the link that will help you explain the meaning of the celebration for cinco de mayo. After discussing the history, you may want to also share a map of Mexico and talk about its features as well. Many students are clueless as to the various mountain ranges and differences in landscape of the country of Mexico.

2. The Spanish-Mexican Connection
Many students do not know that the Spanish language was non-existent until conquistadors such as Francisco Pizarro and Hernando Cortes came to the Americas in the late 1400s and early 1500s. We spend some time on discussing how Mexico has a blending of many ethnic-speaking tribes, along with a majority of people who now speak Spanish as a result of the conquest by the Spanish rulers during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

3. Activities!
I studied Spanish in college and was able to graduate with a minor in the language so I created many activities that I use with my students on cinco de mayo to help teach them some basics of the Spanish language. I usually ask the students what words they know and then progress into reviewing basic concepts such as numbers and colors. See the many activities below!

Cinco de Mayo Game Board
Since we discussed the history behind cinco de mayo already, this game board is a fun way for the students to review it. Just click on the picture below to access the game board.

Spanish Numbers Game Board
Another fun activity that I have the students do after teaching them the numbers up to 10 is to play a Spanish Numbers: Los Numeros game board. It follows the same directions as the above game board and the students have fun playing and reviewing the numbers.

Spanish Colors game board
Before we play this game, we have colored construction paper that we hold up in front of the class and say the spanish word for each color. Then we go faster and faster. Finally, we have them play this fun game board to review the colors! Click on the picture below to access the game board.

Spanish Family, Weather, Numbers, Clothing, Colors Matching Activity
If your students are enjoying learning about the Spanish language you can expand their vocabulary into greetings, weather, family, and clothing words as well. We have developed a matching game activity that students can play in partners. Click on the picture below to access the game!

4. Food and Music
This is probably the favorite part of the celebration for the students. We are fortunate to have many authentic Mexican restaurants in our area. Over the past 10 years I have contacted various restaurants to ask for donations of traditional food for our classroom on cinco de mayo. I have never been turned down! Another option is to see if any of your students(coming from a Hispanic background) would be willing to bring in some food as well. Those students take pride in their heritage and often even make a powerpoint or bring in other artifacts about their heritage.

The music is also great to listen to. I have many samples of mariachi music on hand, as well as traditional Mexican favorites as well. If you look on Wikipedia, you will find more examples as well. Youtube is a great resource to use if you want to play the music for the class too. I would make sure you stick to mariachi music because if you do not know the Spanish language it could be embarrassing playing a song that had inappropriate lyrics! However, La Bamba would be a safe song as well, and the kids would probably be familiar with it too!

5. Pinata
I like to conclude our celebration with the breaking of the pinata. Once again, we are fortunate enough in our city to have many supermarcados where we can go and buy a pinata. Then we also buy some candy and gum from the store to fill the contents. I take the class outside and usually tie the pinata to a tree branch, or a soccer goal post (I know not too traditional, but you have to use the resources around you if there aren't any trees!). Before allowing students to try and break it, we discuss a brief history of the pinata. Then, one at a time, we blindfold the students and allow them to swing away. Once it is broken, we make sure that the students each get at least one piece of candy. Then we also pick up all the scraps and throw them away.

This one day that the Mexican heritage gets to be celebrated in our classroom. But we feel it is important to acknowledge cultural events throughout the school year for the many different backgrounds of our students. Our classroom is a community of learners and is like a family. So it is important to celebrate our differences!

Please let us know what you do for cinco de mayo!

Let's Go Down On The Farm

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:37:00 GMT

We hit 10,000 views on my blog. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Thank you so much fans! Contest will be coming soon to celebrate. My first celebration though is to give away a free product!

Spring is right around the corner. This is the perfect time to learn about Farm Animals! I made a great activity to go with the book "Country Morning" by Christine Lynn. This is a Rhyming Center or Small Group game where students can match rhyming words by playing Go Farm (version of Go Fish or you can just call it Go Fish, up to you!) or Concentration Match. There is an activity and answer key included. I used words from the actual story, but the game will work without the book. This is free so click the picture to get it.

Also in case you missed it check out the book review on "Country Morning." Country Morning Book Review

As always thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings!

Brian :-)

Exciting News!

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:00:00 GMT

I just can't wait until Friday to share that I was in the Teachers Pay Teachers newsletter in the spotlight section!!! Go read about famous me by clicking on the link: My teacher store in TPT Newsletter! My free downloads have skyrocketed and I even sold a couple of products. Wow!!! I have posted a lot of new things since being featured and wanted to share them with the best fans in the world! I also want to remind you of some other products you may have missed! Of course, there are a couple of new freebies!

Click the pictures to get the items.

Freebies:

St. Patrick's Day -at Family Rhyming Words:

St. Patrick's Day I Have Who Has Multiplication:

St. Patrick's Day Spanish Version of I Have Who Has Multiplication:

St. Patrick's Day Holiday Words:

Priced items:

St. Patrick's Day I Have Who Has Kindergarten Games:

St. Patrick's Day I Have Who Has Basic Addition and Subtraction Games:

Kangaroo Rhyming Task Cards:

As always whether you buy an item or you grab one for free I truly appreciate a nice rating and positive feedback. It means the world to me! Any item is free for students that I teach and their parents. Parents, please go to the contact tab and e-mail me!

Game of the Year 2011: Rory's Story Cubes

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:00:00 GMT

I ran across this game while perusing Amazon.com looking for sales at Christmas. I thought it would be a great game to get for my son, who loves dice of any kind. Generally, he likes to drop them into bowls and make lots of noise, or stack them, or even add them. The cooler or more colorful they are, the more he likes them. While deciding to purchase, I began reading about the game and saw how educational it was. I ordered it right then and there!

My 7 year old and 10 year old loved it! After seeing them interact together telling stories to each other, I began thinking about how I could use the cubes in my classroom. So....this freebie was born! I have created 10 graphic organizers/writing frames that can be used with the story cubes in a writing center or workstation. The file includes teacher and student directions.

In thinking through the possibilities for the game, there is a strategy that can be used that I did not think to put in the activity. The activity is 'Pass', a cooperative learning strategy, where students take turns adding a sentence to a story. I will definitely be doing this in my classroom....and who knows--maybe with my 7 and 10 year old, too!

Here are the story cubes! Click on them to order!

I think this would also be great to pull out during an inside recess day! Enjoy the download. Oh, and by the way, the writing frames can be used without the cubes, too!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Graphic-Organizers-for-Rorys-Story-Cubes

#ELTBITES Challenge: We like to move it, move it

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 12:50:00 GMT

Once in a while I read something and I find myself thinking, "Now, why didn't I think of that?". Well, Richard Gresswell had such an idea. He started a blog, called it ELTBITES, and challenged us: "Describe an activity that requires no more than the teacher, students, and possibly making use of the board, pens, and paper. Describe the activity aims and procedure concisely in no more than 200

K-6 Web Actvities

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:13:00 GMT

K-6 Web Actvities:

#elemchat #spedchat #kinderchat #1stchat #2ndchat #4thchat #5thchat

Fantastic collection from Bellevue School.

Idioms Part 23 (Food - Pie/Potato) Interactive Game

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2011 22:21:00 GMT

I can't believe that almost a month has passed since my last idiom activity! We're still on food; this time we'll take a look at pies & potatoes. as easy as pie It means just that - extremely easy. Sometimes, you'll hear 'easy as apple pie': That test we did today was really easy as pie, wasn't it? eat humble pie When you eat humble pie, you admit your error and apologize (normally): I was forced