Guess Who?

You know those teacher moments you come up with on the spot?  Aren't they always the best??  We had some unexpected extra time during word work the other day so I quickly came up with a game.

We are studying the different ways that the vowel sounds can be spelled.  Last week we started with short -a vs. long -a.  I have been using the Words Their Way sorts for this.  My game, for some reason, reminds me of Guess Who?

To play the game, I had the students sort their words.

Then I gave them a clue.  For example, I started with "my word has a long -a sound."  So the students flipped over all their words with the short -a sound.

The next clue was "the long -a sound is spelled -ay in my word."

And so on and so forth, until we are down to one word (I thought I took more pictures, but apparently not!).  I plan to have the students play this in partners eventually, but I wanted to start as a whole class so that they understood the flow of the game.

Nifty Nouns {Freebie}

I have been so into making games lately.  I mean, who doesn't love a game?  And what teacher doesn't love an educational game?? (shhh..don't tell the kids!)

I used Kimberly Geswein's super cool new font to make a game!  

Who knew you could turn a font into a gameboard??  Her font is called KG Build A Game Font and it is super fun to use!  The best part is that the fonts are scalable so you can make them really large and they don't lose their quality.

I may have made my husband play with me last night...  He was blue and I was green (yep it comes with playing pieces!). He's pretty good at his nouns, I have to say.

Here's the spinner (makes me think of a face for some reason):

And the board game (I love the bright colors!):

Get yours for free!  Click the picture or here to grab it.

Let me know what you think!  Enjoy!

That's the Ticket!

I am always looking for new ways to spice up my sight word activities with some of my reading groups.  So I created some games (using the wonderful clipart of Miss Ashley Hughes)!  They are so bright and colorful that I just want to start playing them right away!

There are three different versions of the game, a spinner and a board to hold the sight word cards.  The games can be played with a teacher or can be put into centers for students to use independently.  Each game comes with student-friendly directions as well as a cover page.

I've included all the Dolch Sight Words (over 200!), pre-primer through third grade.

Here are some of the games set up.

 And how to make your own spinner!

Interested?? Go grab your copy today at:

{TpT}
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Want to win your own copy??  Leave me a comment with your favorite board game.  I'll randomly choose a winner by midnight tonight!

Sweet Synonyms {Flash Giveaway}!

Happy New Year's Eve!

I'm not going to lie.  New Year's Eve is my least favorite holiday.  I seriously need my sleep people!  I don't know how some of you do it.  I need a full eight hours or watch out!  I wasn't allowed to go to sleepovers as a little girl because I was so miserable for days afterwards.  So tonight, the hubs made me dinner, we are going to curl up on the couch and probably fall asleep before the ball drops.  I'm okay with that!

Since I'm not preparing for a big party tonight, I started creating instead.  I made some Sweet Synonyms!  I love, love the candy theme to this one.

There's a Memory Match game:

Puzzle Pieces:

I Have, Who Has:

And more!

{TpT}

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Since we are talking about candy here, can you guess what my favorite candy is???

Leave a comment with your guess and your email address and the first person to guess correctly will win the Sweet Synonyms pack!

Congrats to Sara for winning!  My favorite candy is, indeed, the Milky Way.  Yum!

I'll give you one chance to win here and one chance to win over at my Facebook page.

I might drop hints...

...so make sure you follow me!

Since it is almost a new year, it is time to link up with Farley's Currently!

Listening...my husband built himself a computer for Christmas and the thing is so dang loud.  And, yes, he is a total computer geek.  And, yes, he knows it!

Loving...Did I mention that I need my sleep?  Staying in for New Year's - whoohoo!  Does this mean I'm getting old??

Thinking...it just got cold in RI.  Like, real cold.  I didn't like the 40 degree weather.  The 15 degree weather is worse!  Trying to convince the hubs to move South.  It is not working so far.

Wanting...um, do I need to explain this one?  Christmas vacation goes by so fast!

Needing...a nice warm bath.  My brother ordered me a bath pillow, bath salts and a tub caddy for Christmas.  They haven't come in yet and I can't wait till they do!

OLW...Focus.  I am trying to expand my blog through social media, but I have to learn to focus on one at a time.  I am so all over the place right now!

And P.S. ~ My stores are still 20% off!

The Money Exchange Game

Even though money isn't really in the Common Core anymore (apparently coins will be obsolete in 20 years - who knew?), we still need to touch on it for the state testing our students will take before we are in full PARCC mode.

Today we threw in a game from the Everyday Math series.  I'm pretty sure it's just called The Money Exchange Game.  Original.

Each pair of students receives a handful of coins.  They divide the coins into like piles (dimes, nickels, etc.).  One student rolls a die and picks up the amount of money to match the die.  For example, if you roll a 4, you pick up 4 cents.

As the students acquire more money, they "exchange" it for larger coins.  The first student to reach $1.00, wins!

I'm sure you have heard of this game before.  The reason behind my sharing this with you is that my students did so well with it!  Not only did they play the game well, but they helped each other out by "teaching" their partners how to exchange their coins.  They were so respectful of each other, it was amazing and wonderful to watch.  I was so so so proud of them!!