$1 Words FREEBIE

Do you ever shop at the Dollar Store?  I have to say that I rarely do so, but my sister shops there a lot and gets some of the most amazing bargains.  Recently she picked up some lovely gift bags, greeting cards, and even some baby socks for my soon-to-arrive grandson.  Hmmm, I may have to schedule a trip soon.  

In the meantime, her shopping foray made me think about $1 Words.  If you teach intermediate students and/or G/T students, you HAVE to do these with your students!  What??? You don't know what $1 Words are!!!!!

Settle in while I educate you, because it's about time you teach it.  

A $1 Word is any word that has a value of exactly $1 when its letters are added together using the following chart of values:

There is a book by Marilyn Burns about $1 words available on Amazon for $11.92.  It has gone out of print from time to time, so if you are interested, there are currently 8 available.

As the title indicates, it is a riddle book that leads children to $1 words through pictures and riddles.  I love that because too often teachers assign their students to find $1 words without any hints.  Please don't do that to your students.  It completely overwhelms them and makes them frustrated.  How exactly would YOU approach an assignment like that?

Ahh, but I have a solution to offer.  I have composed over 400 clues that can be copied and distributed to your students.  

Try to solve these:

Undoubtedly, you reached for a calculator.  Did you use a thesaurus or dictionary?  Perhaps not; it is the 21st century, after all.  But, those are options you will want to offer your students.  It's a great way to get them to learn about a thesaurus!

In the spirit of the 21st century, however, you can introduce them to thesauri on the computer.  My personal favorite resource is a Reverse Dictionary.  It allows the students to type their clue and then receive a list of words that satisfy that clue.   [Please be aware that the Reverse Dictionary is a dynamic site.  You will get different lists each time you try it with the same clue.  My warning is that, as a dynamic site, it will, rarely, give an inappropriate word.  I have not yet found a way to prevent this.  So, you may wish to preview the list before you set your student free to peruse it.]  

Try the Reverse Dictionary yourself here.  Now, arm your students with a calculator (excellent practice) and their list of possible words.  Then sit back and watch.  It is soooo very rewarding when the 1st $1 word is found!  The successful detective is bound to spring up shouting, "I found one!  I found one!"  Now all the other students will be doubly determined to find one for themselves.

These clues would make a great math center.  They could also be given out as a sponge activity.  In my school, however, I use them as a grade level challenge.  (I'm the enrichment teacher who runs a pull-out program.)  My 3rd graders can hardly wait for the annual challenge to begin!  I think it may be the highlight of their year.  :o)

Pitting each class of 3rd grade enrichment students against the others brings out a flurry of activity that makes the entire rest of the school stand back in awe.  Enrichment students  beg their classroom teacher to allow them to come to me to get 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 are probably curious about the Bonus Buck above.  Quite simply, that clue has 2 possible answers.  I reward the students with 2 points if s/he can find both answers.  Check back tomorrow for the answers to the clues.

In the meantime, if you are intrigued by $1 words, you may wish to check out my $1 Word products.  Begin with the freebie:

You can find it at my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  It will give you a much more complete understanding of the competition I run and 45 FREE clues!

Before I close, I found the following linky parties that you may be interested in checking out:

Donna at Math Coach's Corner is having a math linky party.  She has it divided into grade levels for your convenience.










Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a K - 2 linky party.  Check it out, too!

Irish Blessings and Teacher Awards

A million thanks to Erika at The Honey Bunch 

for giving me the 

One Lovely Blog Award

The rules for this award are to:

1. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.
2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.
3. Follow the person who sent it to you

I am passing the One Lovely Blog Award to:

Katie & Steve at Two Can Do It                              Jana at Thinking Out Loud

Margaret at Taking Grades for Teachers               Mrs. Lee at Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten

Jennifer at Herding Kats in Kindergarten                 Scipi at Go Figure!

Mrs. Mac at First Class With Mrs. Mac                    Marcia at Learning Ideas - Grades K-8

Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle                           Brian at Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings

Amanda at Mrs. McDonald's 4th Grade                  Mrs. Cook at First Grade Smart Cookies 

Sara S at Smiling in Second Grade                         Kaitlin at Beyond Teaching 

Kristi at One Lucky Teacher

Sure an' it's your lucky day!

History Mystery Research Challenge FREEBIE

It's about time, teachers. . .for standardized testing to be over.  That means it's about time to have some fun with your students (finally).   I have a fun, fun, fun project to help propel you through the last quarter of the school year.  It's called History Mystery Research Challenge.

I developed this as an enrichment project that I thought would be good for 3rd - 5th grades; maybe for 2nd grade with some help from the teacher.  But, much to my surprise and delight, the kindergarten and 1st grade classes begged to join in, too.   Even more incredibly, the school secretary, the computer lab assistant, the art teacher, and the Title I teacher joined in on the fun.  

Here's how it works:

• Copy the clues and cut them apart.
• Distribute 1 clue each day to each participant.  [The clues are numbered and there is 1 clue for each day of the week.]
• Award points for correct answers as follows:
• day 1 = 5 points
• day 2 = 4 points
• day 3 = 3 points
• day 4 = 2 points
• day 5 = 1 point
• Keep track of the scores each day, but do NOT let anyone know whether they have solved the mystery or not.  
• Post the scores AFTER the 5th clue is scored.  [Because I love competition, I made an enormous graph on one hallway wall where I recorded each classroom's score each week.  Great for graph reading skills!]
• Announce the correct answer the next day (usually Monday) before giving the 1st clue for the next week's contest.

Following is one week's set of clues:

As the school's enrichment specialist, I had access to all the classes in my building.  I made the rule that I would accept only 1 answer from each classroom.  [Thus, I reduced by workload exponentially and fostered cooperative learning.]  It is essential that you not reveal the correct answer until after the 5th clue has been shared and appropriate time is given to submit answers for the 5th clue.  This keeps everyone engaged and prevents that unfortunate inevitability in which someone tells another competitor the right answer.  

If you are not an enrichment specialist or other professional with access to every classroom, you can just as easily conduct this within your classroom, challenging each student to undertake  the research on their own.  Or, in the interest of reducing your work and promoting cooperative learning, create teams among your students.  Another suggestion is to challenge other classes at your grade level to participate.    

Classroom teachers eagerly reported that students who had never shown any interest in library skills, literally ran to the library as soon as they received the day's clue.  How rewarding is that????

This product has enough clues to last 12 weeks.  If you like it, you can find it in my TpT Store or in my TeachersNotebook Shop.  

Now go forth and have fun!

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Luck o' the Irish FREEBIE

It's about time, teachers . . . for  a St. Patrick's Day FREEBIE.  Luck o' the Irish is a creative activity I designed for my G/T students.  It challenges 2 of the 4 traits of gifted children: fluency and flexibility.  [The 4 traits are: fluency, flexibility, elaboration & originality.] Despite developing this activity for GATE, I have used it very successfully with 1st graders in a heterogeneous classroom, and with 2nd - 5th grades in enrichment pull-out classes.  The results of this activity always amaze me.

Following is the assignment sheet that I send home, giving my students 1 week to complete it.  

I encourage my students to enlist the help of their families.  It creates a wonderful home-school connection, giving overly zealous parents a constructive focus for interacting with their gifted children.  (If you've ever taught G/T, you know what I'm talking about!) Projects like this are terrific for helping shy children speak before an audience. Similarly, it prompts children who have oral communication deficits to practice their communication skills.

When the children present their projects the following week, reward them with a participation certificate.

Sure, and you'll love this project.  You can find it in my TpT Store or my Teachers Notebook Shop.  Did I mention that it's FREE?

This product is part of a larger product, Destination Imagination.  

You can find Destination Imagination here or here.

Mad about March unit FREEBIE

It's about time, teachers....for spring!  At least we can hope.  Yesterday there was snow on the ground; today it's 66.  Gotta love March weather in the heartland!

Speaking of March, I have launched my thematic unit, Mad about March, for primary grades. You can find it on TpT and, now, on Teachers' Notebook.  The unit includes ELA, Math, HOTS, and music curricula.  The ELA activities are:

And here's a FREEBIE from the ELA portion of the unit:

The math portion of the unit includes:

If you like what you see, blow on over to my TpT store or  my Teachers' Notebook store.  

March Poetry Freebie

It's about time, teachers . . . to add some March poetry to your students' portfolios.  My series of Poetry Possibilities on TpT now includes March themed poetry.  

Here is a free preview:

These poems each come with a teaching point and an eclectic collection of mini-lessons and activities.  The readability of the poems makes them appropriate to both primary and intermediate classrooms.  The skill lessons allow for remediation of older students or differentiation for younger ones.  Concepts and skills included in this 33 page unit are described here:

Stop by my TpT store to check out Poetry Possibilities for March.  I think you will like them.

Tooth Fairy Fun Freebie

It's about time, teachers, ...to say good-bye to February and Dental Health Month.  But before it's gone, I have another FREEBIE to share.  It's from my Destination Imagination unit on TpT.  It's called Tooth Fairy Mystery and is my alternative to Show & Tell.

Above is the assignment sheet that I distribute 1 week before the project is due.  Then on the due date, the children share their pictures and stories with the class.  Thus, they have the opportunity to exercise their oral communication skills, but with a purpose.  Participation is always voluntary, and encouraged, I have found, by giving out participation certificates.  (See below.)

If you teach the primary grades, then you have certainly experienced children losing teeth in school.  For years, I sent the teeth home in zip lock bags.  Then, once I reached the empty nest era of my life, I found the time to create little felt bags to keep the tooth extra safe on it's journey to the Tooth Fairy.  These tooth bags are super easy to make from a small piece of felt and some cording.  They can be done completely by hand, or speed it up by breaking out your sewing machine.

As my 2 beautiful granddaughters approach the time to start losing teeth, I have created Tooth Fairy boxes for them.  I think they are going to love them!

The boxes were $1 at Michael's.  I found the heavy duty stickers that trim them there, too.  Finally, I dressed up the exterior with ribbon scraps.  My first grandson will arrive in May; can hardly wait!!!  So, I'm thinking about a pirate theme for his Tooth Fairy box.  I guess I have plenty of time to mull that over.