Tic Tac Toe

My kiddos LOVE the game of tic-tac-toe. So I decided to make it educational. I previously made a Tic-Tac-Toe math packet which has been a BIG hit with my kids.

Here are some pictures from the Number, Addition and Subtraction packet.

So I decided to make one for reading.

There are 21 pages of Tic-Tac-Toe game sheets practicing sight words, long and short word families, days of the week, months, ordinal numbers, blends, digraphs, contractions and more. I also included a blank game board so you can write in whatever words your little ones need to work on (like their spelling words for the week) Here are a few pictures for the reading packet.

Here is a sample for anyone who would like to download. This is the color word game board from the reading packet and the number word game board from the math packet. Just click on the pictures to download it FREE.

You can check out both packets at my shops by clicking on the words below.

TpT or Teacher Notebook

I don't know how many of you are still reading this long post but here's the fun part.

If you would like one for the packets for FREE, just be one of the first 3 to comment here on my blog and I will send you the entire packet of your choice for FREE. Just be sure to leave me your email address and which packet you'd like.

Now who doesn't like FREE?

Have a GREAT day!

Postcards and Letter Writing

I am teaching postcards and letter writing in the next few weeks. I like to start off by reading lots of books. Here are some of my favorites:

LOVE this book. A little girl writes letters to the Tooth Fairy and she write back. Very high interest for first graders.

Great book with fun pictures. Polar Bear writes to his friends which are bears living in other parts of the world. Goes great with a geography unit too.

A fun book with lots for familiar characters.

After lots of exposure to letters, we do some interactive writing together and write letters to other classes in our school. I also introduce postcards and we do a few postcards together. Then I set up a basket full of stuff animals. (I have tons of beanie babies) During writing time the kiddos can write a postcard to a stuffed animal. They LOVE it. I'm excited to participate in the postcard exchange this year. I heard about it this summer over on Mrs. Saoud's blog called Primary Graffiti. We will write a postcard to 49 states and get a postcard from all 49 states. I know my kiddos will LOVE it. After awhile, we start to write letters to each other as well as family and friends outside of the classroom. I have to give a little reminder speech each year about NO mushy-gushy writing and to only write NICE things. Those boys just DON'T like getting those love letters :)

Here are some of the forms I use for the letters and postcards. I hope someone can use them. Click on the picture to download. Graphics are from Melonheadz, Scrappin Doodles, and KPM Doodles.

I LOVE your comments!
Have a great rest of the week.

Math Station Labels and Charts

I've had a lot of requests for my Math Station Labels and Charts. When I first made them I was still very new to the blogging world and wasn't sure how it all worked. I've later learned a lot about copyright laws and such. One of graphics I used on my first set of labels I've learned I can't share. So I've created them again with graphics I CAN share! Here is what they look like now.

Click on the picture above for a FREE download.

I made the little picture cards so you can laminate them and write your kiddo's names with an erasable marker. Then you can reuse them next year. The 'Looks Like, Sounds Like' anchor chart can be printed on your printer's poster setting to make it really big. I hope this helps some of you get your math stations up and running. I sure LOVE math stations and so do my kiddos. If you are new to math stations you'll want to check out this book by Debbie Diller.

Kids need TIME and PRACTICE to process the things they are learning especially in math. Math Stations are a great way to let them get the time and practice they need.

I survived the zoo on Friday. It was soooo much fun. I ended up taking one of my groups around and it was a joy to see how excited they got to see the polar bears swim right up to their faces behind the glass. They wore me out though. I had 5 VERY ACTIVE boys that can really move through the zoo quickly.

This week is Apple Day on Wednesday. I love to make 1st grade Applesauce with the secret ingredient of cinnamon candy hearts! You can check out last years post HERE.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Look Out Zoo Here We Come

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY my first graders live for!!! It's our fantastic field trip to the ZOO! The name tags are printed, the lunches are ordered, the buses are ready, the chaperons are set and the weather is going to be perfect. I can't think of anything else I need to do except get a good nights sleep so I can have the energy to get through the day. Hopefully, no one will get lost or be afraid of the automatic flush toilets. Seriously, one year a little girl of mine cried and cried because she was afraid of the toilets and needed to go really badly.
While I'm running around getting the final head count and loading lunches, my darlings will be doing these little zoo activity sheets. If you'd like to grab a copy just click on the picture to download a FREEBIE!

The graphic are from KPM Doodles and Scrappin Doodles.

I'd LOVE to hear where YOU go on your field trips. Please leave me a comment!
Wish me luck :)

What is a Sentence freebie

This is going to be short and sweet because this teacher is BEAT!

I teach with some wonderful teachers that inspire me to always try and be a better teacher. One of my teammates made an adorable unit on teaching 'What is a Sentence'. My kiddos have loved it!!! But some of my little darlings have not mastered it yet so I'm adding a few more teaching sheets. They love rolling the dice and making sentences with a WHO and a WHAT. So I added some silly ones with a recording sheet and this sheet below so I can assess how they are doing.

If you'd like a copy just click HERE to download.

THANKS BobbiJo! Love your ideas and you're so great to work with!

Swiper

My kiddos LOVE Swiper. He is a really big hit this year. Bigger than last year. I don't know why but he is. Don't you have years like that? Some times things just aren't a big hit and other times they are BIG. A few years ago I found this cute idea using Swiper (a character from Dora, the Explorer show on NickJr). I'd love to give credit to whomever came up with the idea because it's great!

I place his cute picture by my 100's chart and when they have gone home for the day, he 'swipes' some of the numbers from our chart. When they come back the next day, we try to guess which numbers he took and replace them. At first I just take a number here and there and not to high. As we get better, Swiper takes several in a row and all the way up to 100. I have a little envelope on the back of the picture where I keep the numbers. I don't do it every day so it doesn't get old. It's just a fun little review.
I also have a version of it in my math stations. You can read about it HERE.
My picture is from Google Images. You can grab a copy by clicking the picture below.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something you can use in your classroom!
I LOVE comments!

Beginning of the Year Math Stations- FREEBIES

We are beginning our math work stations. The kids are really excited! They love it! We are mostly doing activities with counting and numbers. Here are a few pictures and FREEBIES!

 This is called Grab and Count. I wrote about it in a previous post. You can check it out HERE and HERE along with other activities I do for math stations. I made the bag from a gift bag and added a label and I got the foam cubes from Dollar Tree. They are nice and quiet! 

 This activity I tweaked from a Math Investigations lesson. I have 6-7 boxes with items in them to count. The students count and then record on the sheet. I have things like buttons, beads, chips, clips, and tiny toys to count. Click on the sheet below for a PDF of the recording sheet.

This activity is an idea from Shari Sloane. She has tons of math center ideas. If you've never checked out her sight you need to go there. Click HERE for the link. I think she calls it 'Make a Train'. I added a few more ropes and a recording sheet and called it 'Make a Cube Train'. The kiddos straighten out the 4 different sized ropes and then make a cube train as long as each of them. Then they count the cubes and record the number. My kids LOVE to make cube trains. This is a very easy activity to make and lots of fun. Click on the sheet below for a PDF.

Another activity from Shari Sloane is 'Race to Trace'. She has one for numbers 0-6 and adding numbers. I made one so my firsties can practice writing their numbers 0-9. You'll need a 10-sided die 0-9 to play. Click on the picture above for a PDF.

This activity I got a long time ago but I again tweaked it a bit. I really like my kids to see the ten frames and tallies. You will also need a 10-sided die for this one too. Again, click on the sheet above for a PDF.

I don't know about you but I couldn't teach without 10-sided dice. I use them for tons of things. If you don't have any you can check them out here at Amazon.com

These are a few of the activities for my math stations this month. I try to change them every month and add new things that we've been working on.

I hope you find something that you can use in your classroom. Even if you don't do math stations, a lot of these activities can be used with your whole class or in small groups.

If you download PLEASE consider leaving some FEEDBACK. I'd love to hear from you!

Currently

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Labor Day. We went to the beautiful UTAH mountains and enjoyed a family camp out. It felt so much like fall and the leaves were even starting to change. I can't believe it is September all ready.
I'm linking up with Farley's September Currently.

Check back later in the week. I'm starting math centers this week and I have some new freebies for y'all. I'm going to take some pictures as well.
Hope everyone has a great week!