Tried it Tuesday- Triple Play!

It has been such a busy week!  Tuesday came and went, so today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday!

Last summer, I visited a teacher store in Nebraska and found this neat card game.  It's called Triple Play, and my kids love it!  I have a few sets:  Homophones, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Math Vocabulary (not pictured).

The games offer three ways to play: Go Fish, Memory, and Match Maker.  I divided each set into 2 piles, because each set has 25 pairs.  Try playing memory with that!  The cards spread across the whole table!  So I divided them up to make matching more manageable.  Now kids can just grab a bundle and get to work.  My guided reading groups especially like using them as a warm-up activity.

I love that the cards have clear pictures and sentences.  Perfect for my ELL kiddos!

A match from the Synonyms set.

A match from the Homophones set.

Like I said before, I found these at a little teacher store in Nebraska.  I did look online and the ONLY place I could find them was on Amazon.  I actually found many other Triple Play games that I had not seen before!  Click the links below to check out the games.  :)

Antonyms           Homophones          Synonyms

Letter Recognition          Ending Sounds          Letter Sounds

Things We See          Primary Math- Subtraction          Primary Math- Vocabulary

What did you try this week?  I'd love to hear about it!

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Gearing up for the BIG Sale!

Wow!  TpT is a strong network of 3 million teachers!  To celebrate, they are throwing a sale, and I decided to participate!  I'm super pumped to be throwing my first sale in my TpT store!

The sale runs Thursday, February 27 - Friday, February 28.  Save 20% on everything in my store!  :)  Be sure to enter promo code TPT3 at checkout!

Here are a few of my favorite items that I've created.  Click the images to bring you to my store.
Be sure you put them on your wishlist before the sale starts on Thursday!

Happy TpT-ing!  :)

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Flash Freebie!

Teachers in Minnesota are rejoicing today!  Governor Dayton announced that all schools in Minnesota will be closed on Monday due to extremely cold temperatures.

Yep, you read that right…. wind chill of -50!

We were supposed to go back to school on Monday, but, okay…. I'll take another day of Winter Break.  

In honor of the extremely cold Minnesota weather, I'm offering a FLASH FREEBIE in my TpT store!  Polygon Bang! is a great game for Math Centers to help your kiddos practice polygons and polygon characteristics.  The product includes two games to practice polygons.

Click the image to snag up the freebie!  But be quick- it will only be FREE for 24 hours!  It will go on sale tomorrow night at 10:00 pm.  All I ask is that you give me some feedback on TpT!

Happy downloading (and Pinning!)

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Game Organization

My game shelf needed a makeover.  Last year, I used a flimsy shelf and flimsy bins to hold my games.  Everything was always unorganized, and it drove me crazy!

I decided everything needed a place, and students needed clear labels to know where to put things back.

I used my old book bins (yes, I realize they don't match... I didn't want to spend any more money on new bins.)  I divided my games into "like" piles.  I put all of the puzzles together, all of the board games, all of the card games, etc.

I ditched the puzzle boxes, and put each puzzle in a bag.  I cut the front off the puzzle box, so kids at least know what the puzzle is supposed to look like!  :)   I put a label on the bag, too.

Now kids can pick a puzzle, and when they are done, they put it back in the puzzle bin.  I did the same process for my other games.  Matching labels on the games and the bins means (fingers crossed), that everything will stay organized and in the correct bin!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Last Day of School!

Well, I survived my first year as a teacher.

Wednesday was our last day of school, and we had a very busy day.  After some cleaning, we played "Minute to Win It" games.  The kiddos loved it!  In one minute, students had to....

...move cotton balls into a bucket using chopsticks... (they were very good at this one, because a lot of them use chopsticks regularly at home.)

... use only one hand to sort a bag of M&M's into piles of each color...

... remove all of the tissues from a tissue box...

...move red cups one by one from the top of the stack to the bottom, to reveal a blue cup on the top...

...use an uncooked spaghetti noodle in their mouths to pick up four penne noodles...

...and stack 36 cups into a tower.

It really was a great last day of school.  

The best part of the day was as we were taking the kids out to the buses.  A crowd of teachers had formed, cheering for and hugging the students as they walked to their buses.  It was such a positive way to end a spectacular school year.

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Summer Math

I am excited to show you a big project we've been working on in math!  

We didn't want our students to lose all of the valuable learning they acquired this year.  The problem is that they have very limited access to materials and assistance at home.  We wanted them to create something that reviewed important concepts, that they would be able to use at home this summer.

Introducing.... the Summer Math Book!

For a whole week, we had multiple stations set up around the room.  The kids had to visit all of the stations, but could travel at their own leisure.  If they finished the stations and filled their book, they got to keep doing the activities for fun.

So, what was everyone doing for the entire math block?  Well.....

Some kids were finishing making their multiplication flash cards...

Some kids were finding and cutting out shapes from magazines...

Some were using magnets to write and solve word problems...

Some were writing and guessing number sentences on each other's backs...

Some were making clocks to solve elapsed time problems...

And some were making rubbings of coins and then counting the total amount.

At each station, the kids had to complete the activity (and show evidence of it in their booklets).  They also had to glue in a "How can I do this at home?" sheet, to remind them of ways they can complete the activity over the summer.

There was a lot going on in the room, but after a day or so of doing the stations, the kids knew what to do and where to go, so the classroom was a focused and calm environment.

When they leave school for the summer, they will have a neat little math book that will remind them of easy ways to do math at home.

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Fraction Dice Game

Hello again!

Today we were reviewing for our NWEA Math test, which we take tomorrow.  One game we played was a "Comparing Fractions Dice Game".  Grab it at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

The kids really enjoyed it!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward