IT'S ABOUT TIME for GROUNDHOG DAY

 

Celebrate this fun holiday with 2 resources:

Groundhog Day Hink Pinks, Hinky Pinkies, & Hinkity Pinkities is a super fun freebie!

These word riddles teach students to problem solve while honing vocabulary skills.  This product is available as task cards and digitally on TPT Easel.

SCRATTLE is a differentiated, math and literacy, learning center activity that combines word work with computation; individual effort with competition.

Students make words, as in ScrabbleTM, computing their worth.  Then they engage another learner in a friendly battle to see which child has the most high scores.  SCRABBLE + BATTLE = SCRATTLE.  The word warriors will quickly eschew the easy, low scoring words in order to create more complex and higher scoring words.  Thus, offer your pupils the chance to play several times.  They will love it and you will enjoy seeing the uptick in their efforts.

BTW, I offer 7 SCRATTLE products in my store and all of them have just been updated and refreshed.  So, if you already have some SCRATTLE in your resource library, download the new versions!

I've been refreshing and renewing lots of products lately.  As with SCRATTLE, you can download the new versions for FREE if you already own the previous version. 

HOW TO PLAY SUDOKU is a slideshow that explains and illustrates the terminology, procedures, and strategies for completing sudoku puzzles.  The revisions include all new graphics and compacting the slideshow.

Related to sudoku are my Latin Squares products.  They are great for easing into sudoku and are all freshly redone.

These QUESTION WORDS POSTERS have not only been refreshed with all new graphics, but the product has been expanded.  Even if you don't already own it, you can download it for FREE.

ATTITUDE POSTER is a FREEBIE that has been refreshed with new graphics.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT and ONE DOLLAR WORDS

 

Have you ever shared Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea, with your class?  If you haven't, I beg you to try it. Intermediate students will enjoy the novel because of its authentic characters and realistic action.  Year after year, my learners sprint to the library to secure the sequels; Mr. Terupt Falls Again, Saving Mr. Terupt, and Goodbye Mr. Terupt.  It warms my teacher's heart to see these tweens have such enthusiasm for reading.

(I'm not an affliate receiving compensation for Mr. Buyea's book sales.  I just love them!)

Mr. Terupt introduces his students (and mine) to ONE DOLLAR WORDS. So fascinating is this concept that I embraced the challenge to find words worth exactly $1 and promptly found more than 600! (Full disclosure: my tech mogul son wrote a program for me, but he was fast.) The challenge is to find words worth exactly $1 when the letters are added together using these values:

Lots of teachers throw this challenge out to their learners.  So, give it a try.  Can you find a ONE DOLLAR WORD?  I'll wait...

Frustrating, isn't it?  Just think up a word, calculate its value, and determine that it does NOT equal $1. After several attempts, you lose interest and turn to some other endeavor. 

BUT, I have a solution for that!  And, as a result, year after year after year, my students cannot get enough of ONE DOLLAR WORDS.

My solution was to write clues (>450) that will lead to the words.

In doing this (frantically, to stay ahead of my enrichment students), I discovered that ONE DOLLAR WORDS can incorporate myriad skills and learning in several disciplines.

MATH

Obviously addition computation is a necessary skill. But the math work does not end there.

• Allowing your charges to use calculators will hone their proficiency with those tools.
• Children will quickly determine whether their word is greater than or less than $1 in value.
• Astute learners will recognize that common prefixes and suffixes have a specific value. They can quickly compute the change in a word's value by adding or subtracting that value. Some of my students even created an anchor chart for quick reference.

• Some learners will employ multiplication when they recognize that a possible word uses a letter multiple times.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Vocabulary is clearly key in this pursuit. Your pupils will search for synonyms and may be introduced to new and novel words. There is so much more involved, however, once your scholars begin paying close attention to the clues.

• Answers should match the clues in tense, singular/plural, and parts of speech.
• Base words, prefixes, and suffixes will quickly seize the focus of the word sleuths.
• Some clues offer a hint; the answer is a compound word.

RESEARCH

A variety of research tools will help your pupils.

• dictionary
• thesaurus
• internet resources

Not only will these tools offer tremendous help in finding the target words, but they will also assist with correct spelling.

CRITICAL THINKING

The problem solving, reasoning, and strategic planning involved in decrypting the clues rank high on Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge.

Because I conduct a pull-out program for 3rd  - 5th grade enrichment students, I employ a friendly competition.  Pitting each grade level class against the others brings out a flurry of activity that makes the rest of the school stand back in awe. My students beg their classroom teachers to allow them to come to me for another clue as soon as they solve one. This is spurred on, of course, by my public display of each team's score on a daily basis.

You can read more about THE GREAT $1 WORD CHALLENGE in the products available in my TPT Store. TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT! with the free version.

If you love ONE DOLLAR WORDS, you can find 10 products in my store.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for a NEW YEAR and NEW HINK PINKS, et al.

 

There are new HINK PINKS, et al. available!  I just completed this product and uploaded it to TPT.  Fans of these fun riddles will find these challenging, both in subject matter and vocabulary.  Creatures from myths, folktales, and fairy tales are the focus.  Some may be unfamiliar to students. To help your learners out, I've included a 3 page Mythical Creatures Guide.

You can decide if you want to provide this aide, or compel your students to do some research.

Here's a sample:

There are so many things to love about HINK PINKS, et al.  These task cards provide work on definitions, synonyms, parts of speech, rimes, vocabulary, & grammar.  They also promote critical thinking; specifically making inferences, interpreting data, & drawing conclusions. The very best part is that students absolutely love them.  Year after year, my charges literally beg to do these word riddles.

If you love HINK PINKS, et al., and I'm sure you will, you will find about 3 dozen products in my store.  Several are FREE!  Try them before you buy them.  MYTHICAL CREATURES HINK PINKS, et al. are also available digitally on TPT Easel.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for WINTER RESOURCES!

 

It's officially winter!  Hopefully, you are on winter break.  Kick back, relax, and enjoy your holidays. 

Then, look ahead to your winter lessons. Planning now will make your return to school ever so much easier. Check out these winter resources to help you:

The WINTER EDITION of POETRY POSSIBILITIES provides each poem with a teaching point about poetry, skill lessons, writing models & prompts, and activities. 

Learn about Mortimer Moose’s life in the Great North Woods through these 20 word problem task cards.  Skills under study include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as averages, fractions, elapsed time, critical thinking, and H.O.T.S.

WINTER SQUARE PUZZLERS are fun, yet challenging brain teasers. They exercise critical thinking & problem solving, build perseverance & stamina, and stimulate the brain while disguising it all as fun.

These puzzles exercise concepts about geometry (transformation, rotation, congruence, symmetry, etc.). WINTER TANGRAMS are printable & include a tangram template.

Because tangrams are so much fun, here's a 2nd set just for winter.

Use these winter themed, coloring printables to give your primary learners fun practice with Dolch sight words. 

NEW DIGITAL RESOURCES

 

  

I'm proud to announce the launch of 3 new digital products for teachers of grades 3-6.  THINKING CORNER will provided daily brain challenges to your students. They require higher order thinking skills and perserverance to solve.

THINKING CORNER slides are wonderful for:

• daily bell ringer activity
• distance learning
• computer laboratory lessons
• technology center activities
• fast finishers
• enrichment/differentiation challenges

Each slide requires learners to solve 5 puzzles:

• Hink Pinks or Hinky Pinkies
• 

  
• Mystery Math or Monster Math
• 

  
• Triads
• 
• Word Ladders
• 
• Word Winkers
• 

Try it before you buy it.  There is a free version that provides 1 week of challenges as a preview.

THINKING CORNER Vol. 1 provides a full semester of daily challenges.  

Vol. 2 of THINKING CORNER supplies another semester of them.

These resources are available digitally on TPT's Easel platform.  No print product is available.  THINKING CORNER is CCSS aligned.

These resources are no prep.  That's a win for teachers!!  Students find them to be fun and engaging.  A win for students!!

SANTA CLAUS CONTRACTIONS

 

One of my favorite, December activities with  first graders is making Santa Claus Contractions books. They write the text and add the illustrations.  All you need to do is supply the booklets.

To create the booklets, simply put several sheets of writing paper inside a construction paper cover.  You can provide the cover copy and illustration, or not!  They can certainly make their own.

Next I demonstrate writing a sentence containing a contraction, then make a quick illustration.

Finally, I send them off to do their writing and drawing.  The books they produce provide insight into which children may need more contractions instruction.  Their compilations always make me smile.

If you try this project, consider these suggestions:

1. You can easily differentiate the assignment by limiting or increasing the number of pages in the booklet.
2. Challenge your more capable writers to include more than one contraction in the sentence. (See the last page above.)
3. Discourage the use of markers. Those sheets of writing paper with illustration space at the top are thin! The marker will bleed through. Encourage the children to use crayons or colored pencils.