Holidays

Well, Happy St. Patrick Day! Hope everyone survived there little ones yesterday. I had district inservice in the morning so I didn't get to be with my little ones the whole day. I know St. Patty's Day is not over yet but I've been thinking and working on Easter stuff. It's like we measure our lives from holiday to holiday. So here's what I have to share today.
1. I'm adding this cute little money egg activity to my math stations. It's very simple. All you do is put some fake plastic coins in 12 plastic eggs, write a number on each egg, print the recording sheet and poof- you have a fun money counting center.

Here is the recording sheet. Just click on the picture if you'd like a PDF. The graphics are by From the Pond and fonts are Kevin and Amanda.

2. My students all-time favorite math game is none other than BUMP! I thought they would get a little sick of it because I've made a board for every holiday but no way. They still love to play it. I created an Easter board but I made 4 different versions to share. There is addition to 12, subtraction, 3 addend addition, and addition to 18. That way you can take your pick. If you have some kiddos struggling you can use an easier variation. You can download by clicking on the picture. The graphics are from KPM Doodles, frames by From the Pond, and fonts by Kevin and Amanda.

3. One of my favorite spelling activities for this holiday is my Easter Egg Unscramble. Here is a picture of my kiddos doing it last year.

I pick 15 words and place tiles to spell each word in a plastic egg. You could print the letters on paper if you don't have the tiles. You can check tiles out here at Amazon.com just by clicking on the picture.

My kiddos go around the room and break open each egg, unscramble the tiles, write the word, put the tiles back and snap the egg together. They love it so much that I do it for 3 weeks. Yes, 3 times before Easter. One other cool thing is I don't let them talk when they are doing it. Yeah, that's my favorite part!

4. This one I can't really help you make or do. I wish I could. I'm just showing it off! It's also a favorite in my class. It's my JELLYBEAN MACHINE!

One of my sons won it at a family reunion several years ago. When he got to be a teenager he sold it to me for my class. Yeah, I raised an entrepreneur! He got $10 for it.  Anyhoo, when my kiddos are being really good, they get the 'j' sign. (Sign language for j ) That means they can go get a jellybean. The jellybean makes a really cool sound as it drops down the machine into their hand.and when the kids hear it they immediately start being good. It helps so much with that spring fever bug kids get about this time of year. It's as bad as the Christmas bug, don't you think?
I hope you found something you can use in your classroom. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great rest of the weekend.