Vocabulary/Sight Word Swat Game

I'm sure this game is nothing new, however, I wanted to blog about it! Last year, I used this game with sight words (first grade). This year to make it more grade-appropriate, I use vocabulary words. All you need are two fly swatters and a dry erase board. Write a whole bunch of sight words or vocabulary words on the board. Break the class into two teams and have each team line up behind a leader.  Have two people go up to the board, call out a sight word or definition, and the first person to swat the word wins a point! I have a shy student keep track of the score using tally marks (we all have those special friends, right?) Anyway, if someone tries to help the people at the board by telling them where it is or what word it is, all points for that team are erased (too mean? never....hehe). If a team is extra good, they can earn bonus points for their team. The kids BEG me to play this game!!!! So simple and a great review! Check out some pictures I snapped!

Mardi Gras Place Value and Subtraction/Addition Game

Happy Mardi Gras!!!!!!!! Let's take it easy and take a "field trip" to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras!  When I was teaching 5th Grade, I greeted the kids with a "Happy Mardi Gras" and the kids thought I was speaking Chinese (at least they got the foreign language part correct...). This greatly saddened me because throughout my schooling in elementary, Mardi Gras was a huge holiday and celebration! (Granted I did attend a Catholic Elementary School). Also, my fiancee's family is FROM New Orleans so the celebrations continue year after year!

I feel the problem with a lot of our students today is that they are not exposed to culture, so I decided to celebrate Mardi Gras! Plus, if you have a bag of these stuffed in your closet or garage

you might as well use them, right! So for Mardi Gras, I wear a mask all day along with my green skirt, yellow belt, and purple shirt! I stand at the door greeting my students by throwing beads at them (the look of shock on their faces makes it totally worthwhile acting a fool, hehe) and blast Zydeco music as they walk in! 

I explain the colors of Mardi Gras, the purpose of the King Cake (I actually buy one so they can taste it, yum yum!), and we learn how to do the Charleston to the Maple Leaf Rag! 

Well, my absolutely wonderful fiancee caught a WHOLE BUNCH of beads this year at the parades (my absolute FAVORITE part of Mardi Gras) so I decided to make some math games.

I cut up strings of 10 beads to make groups of ten. Then I cut single ones for single units. From here, I will use them to support my kiddos who are having trouble with place value (tens and ones). Also, I will use them for the game Subraction Game "Race to Zero" and Addition Game "Race to a Flat."

Rules for "Race to a Flat"

Materials: One Dice, Base Ten Blocks, Tens Ones Mat, Pencil, Paper

Directions: 

1. Choose a Partner.

2. Put all "tens" blocks in one pile and "ones" in another to make it easy to grab quickly.

3. One person rolls a dice and grabs that many single ones and records on scratch paper.

4. Then the partner does the same.

5. Taking turns, roll the dice adding the number rolled to the previous number rolled. Trade out 10 Single Ones for a Group of Ten. 

6. Keep going until one person gets to a flat, or ten groups of ten!

7. Make sure to record all addition problems created.

"Race to Zero" is similar to "Race to a Flat" but starting with 10 groups of ten and subtracting all the way down to Zero. First person to get to Zero Wins!

Differentiation: Have higher students use 2 or 3 dice and race to 1,000 or race 999 to 0!

Games

A fun idea and game that I played in my class is a student to student interactive game. Give students a question, or problem, etc. Count them off by 1's and 2's. Ask the ones to form a tight circle in the middle and the twos to form a circle on the outside. Have the students walk around in the circle (going opposite ways) while you play music. When you stop the music, the students will stop and ask their question or problem to the person standing in front of them. Well, the person that was supposed to be in front of them. Oh ya! I'm teaching FIRST grade and not FIFTH grade. They didn't understand how to scoot down and fix themselves so each person who had a partner. OH! So, every time I stopped the music I told them to freeze, fixed everyone, and then we shared! They loved it!

My favorite part was listening to them sing at the top of their lungs, "Baby you're a firework!" and watching their AWESOME dance moves! (We dance ALL the time and do lots of kinesthetic movements to help us learn!) And miraculously enough, they ACTUALLY asked each other the questions and weren't silly when I stopped the music. They FROZE! I guess I'm used to the fifth graders who always start gossiping.