TPT freebie

So I'm a TPT slacker... yep my name is Karen and I am a slacker. All year I make things to use with my kids and then I don't make time to gussy them up and put them on TPT. Since we have been on an epic 3 week road trip I have had LOTS of time to gussy. I have a could of game editions that I have been working on.

The first is BAM. Different people call it different things (pop, bang, slap, etc). I call it BAM ('cause I'm an Emeril fan and I LOVE teaching my kids to say BAM when they see the BAM cards. I have seen this game with lost of extra card types, like loose a turn. My BAM game is super simple... BAM cards and content cards.

How do we play BAM?

The first player pulls a card from the container (I use icing containers -thank you Deedee Wills!). They show the card to the other players. This step is VITAL because there is always a student who doesn't know what the card says and tried to fake out the other players. Teaching my littles this step really stops all the "he cheated" kind of things from happening. If the child can name the content (letter, sound, word, number,...) then they keep the card. If they can not name the content on the card then the card goes back into the container and the next player takes their turn. If a child gets the BAM card, they have to put all their cards back into the container and the next player takes a turn. The game continues until all cards have been played.

So far I have 1 set up at TPT and it's free (for now). This is a back to school alphabet set. The first "edition" to the BAM series will be alphabet recognition.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/BAM-Alphabet-Editions-Back-to-School-1939781

The second set of games that I am working on are "Just add dice" games. I LOVE using dice in my room!! The kids love using dice. These are all games that we play all year, and again they can be used for just about ANY content. These aren't quite yet gussy enough to hit TPT but I am working on them.

Both of these sets of games are things that I use all stinkin' year, the content changes but the rules stay the same. Talk about getting the bang for your buck! Teach it once, and they play all year.

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Dental Heath Month

Yes yes I know that it is WAY early to be thinking about dental health month, but Colgate is GIVING teachers kits!! Last year I missed out (read that as totally didn't think about signing up!) and that is not going to happen as second time. And since I love you all I want to make sure all our littles get to be part of this program. So what is the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program?

Colgate sends a kit full of teaching materials to help the littles know how to take care of their teeth. Then the icing on the cake, so to speak, is that each child gets a new toothbrush! I LOVE this program and missed it so much last February. Now that you want to be part of the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program head over to the website by clicking HERE.

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Circle Label Freebie

Happy Monday! I wanted to share with you the labels that I made for my classroom. These use Melonheadz Kiddlets, which make me smile, and my favorite rainbow chevron background. Today  I am working on a back to school pack that uses all my favorite back to school activities! Kind of exciting! Just some of the things in this new pack: class books, anchor posters (including the glue song that I use!), and activities that I use on the first day!

Now for the freebie. These little circles I printed and hand wrote what I wanted them to say. I hope that you find some way to use them in your room too! I am trying out google docs as a way to share. Please let me know if you can not get to this freebie!!

Click here!

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Teaching social skills in a CCSS world

Some days I get so frustrated because my district has removed every traditional way of teaching social skills from the kinder classroom. House keeping... nope. Dramatic play... nope. Puppet theaters... nope.  It makes me crazy! But I haven't totally removed all of those things... I still do retelling with "dress up" or "puppets"', only you would be hard pressed to see it if you just walked into to my room.

So what is a teacher to do when all of those wonderfully developmentally appropriate activities are removed from the classroom... well she gets creative! One of the very first group projects I do is what does the perfect friend look like or what does a bucket filler look like. We divide up into groups and each child has a job to do. One child will trace the body outline of another child. Then one child decides what the face will look like. One decides on the clothes, another on the shoes... see where we are going?

I love this activity because it "feels" like play to the children but gives me so much information on how the students interact. After we finish this activity I point out things that I noticed while walking around like "Jamal, I noticed that you didn't have the colors that you wanted to create the shoes. I wonder how your friends felt when you asked to have the crayon bucket passed to you." Usually someone from that group will raise their hand and share how they felt. I also point out different problem solving skills that the kids might already know. I made this set of cards to help the kids remember what their job is.

This is what the full set looks like. I added arms and legs because I do use these cards for other activities where the group is the "body part" and the color is the job. 

These are up on TPT as a free file. I ask that you share a happy thought or two about the product. Click on the picture above to snag this for your self!

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Short a and u sort freebie

Since google docs and I are not playing nicely, I added the short a and u sort to TPT.

You can get your copy by clicking here

Hope you like it!

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Can you help me?

Hey teachers I need your help. I am working on something that I might list at TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers). I've used some of these items in my room but I didn't know if other teacher might like them. The deal is that I created them kind of open ended and defiantly differentiated. My kids are still struggling with the tricky teens so right before the break I made this worksheet. The point of the sheet id for the child to write the number several times ( I tell my kiddo's how many times to write it- usually 5). Then they cut and paste the small pictures on to the large page. For this page, I had them gluing paint brushes on the paint bottle. I've also had them glue them beside the paint bottle- another quick look at those positional words. Since some of my kids have no problem discarding extra pieces, I made this sheet with 20 paint brushes at the bottom. The second sheet only has 11. This is the one that I use with the kids who still struggle to stop when they reach their number.  This is that group of kids that can count orally and can count a set number (if you are looking for how many) but they struggle to stop counting when they reach the desired number.

So here is where I need your help... can you download the pages below and critique them? I know there are not any directions on the actual pages, and that might be something that a teacher would want to have. If this becomes something that I sell on TPT there would be a "how to use these pages" at the beginning of the download.

Tricky Teens page

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