Crabby Feelings


We have just created a set of printable resources to help you identify and discuss feelings in your classroom. 

Each poster has an original crab illustration and design. Posters and worksheets are provided for each of the following feelings:
  1. happy
  2. surprised
  3. silly
  4. sick
  5. sad
  6. upset
  7. angry
  8. excited
  9. confused
  10. proud
  11. appreciative
  12. ok
  13. frustrated
  14. amused
  15. calm
  16. uncomfortable
  17. comfortable
  18. love
  19. worried
  20. disappointed
  21. jealous
  22. guilty
  23. generous
  24. embarrassed
  25. curious
  26. scared 

We've also included an all-in-one page that features all the crabby feelings!


Use the worksheet flexibly, ask students to draw or write in each box and record:
  • how they know they are feeling this way (e.g. for frustrated, they may draw a picture of their face being red, body tight, clenched teeth)
  • strategies for how to deal with this feeling (e.g. I can go for a walk, I can count to 10)

Hop over to TpT to find this new pack.

We recently read a book about a moody crab who is well, a little crabby. This book is perfect for exploring different moods with an underwater menagerie of sea creatures! 

The illustrations are captivating and the text provides for discussion on how students may feel at different times of the school day or week.


The playful nature of the text also creates an opportunity for acceptance of feelings and moods within a child's experience and that they can be easily changed!


We've just added a crab coloring page to our Coloring Club if you would like an accompanying activity!


Additional Ideas for Using the Crabby Feelings Posters in the Classroom

Role Play

Have a few of the posters displayed in your main teaching area. During transition times ask a student to volunteer to come to the front of the class and 'act out' one of the emotions from your display. Other students guess. This may springboard into a discussion on the ways we can identify how people are feeling.

Colors

Ask students to suggest some colors that may be associated with different feelings and emotions. Chart these for reference. Students may create an artwork based on a feeling or mood they identify with and use colors to reflect how they feel. Grumpy Frog is a good read to accompany this idea or The Day the Crayons Quit.

Action Game

Play Crab Now. Allow students to crab call in a large free space. On your whistle or bell they stop moving and create a face from one of the posters. Alternatively, you can call one and they create the face to match. 

Working with numbers to 100


Friends, we are so thrilled to release Math Pack 39. There are only a few more packs to go until we round of the packs that focus on first grade and we will start plans for some more advanced packs that target skills perfect for 2nd grade. 

Math Pack 39 helps you teach your students to order and sequence numbers to 100, using their knowledge of place value.

Our Math Packs include 5 activities that are engaging and easy to prep!

This collection will help students learning to:
  • compare numbers to find the greatest
  • position, compare and sequence numbers on a hundred chart
  • become familiar with the pattern of numbers on a hundred chart when they skip count by 2, 5 and 10
  • sequence numbers in a 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, 10 less arrangement
  • skip count backwards by 2, 5 and 10 to explore the position of numbers in a backwards skip count
Each of the 5 small-group activities has:
  • detailed instructions
  • playing cards/boards/templates
  • a worksheet (either a recording worksheet or a fun-follow-up)
  • a cover page to help you organize your resources for future reference
The activities included in this bundle are:

Biggest Number Bus

Students will compare and identify the greatest 2 digit number in a selection of 3 numbers. They will look at the 3 numbers on a bus card and use their knowledge of place value to clip or circle the biggest number. Extend your capable learners by asking them to build this number with concrete materials. Challenge advanced learners to find the difference between this number and 100.


Robot Place

Students will make a 2 digit number and locate its position on a blank 100 chart. They will spin a 2 digit number using a paper clip and pencil and then locate the position on the blank chart. Alternatively you could laminate the board and ask them to write the number with a dry erase marker. 

Skip Pattern

Students will make a pattern of numbers on a hundreds chart by counting by 2, 5 or 10. They will place number tiles over the squares on the chart to show a pattern. 

As they do this, a base for complex understandings of number patterns and sequence of skips will form as they notice the position of a count and the other numbers around it. This is an awareness that needs to develop and form within a child's understanding, so providing lots of activities to experience pattern making, rather than just talking about it or explaining it to them, is perfect for a little learner. 


We have charts for skip counting by 2, 5 and 10.

Sequence Kids

Students will sequence numbers in a 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, 10 less arrangement with these cuties. They will have a kid base board, place a number on and identify the numbers around it.


Count Back Cats

Students will count backwards by 2, 5 or 10 from a variety of starting positions in Count Back Cats. Using a dry erase marker they will write the sequence down the cat strip.

These activities can be used in a structured game rotation program, as math centers or in guided math. Once taught, they also make fantastic 'fast-finisher' activities for revision of key concepts.

Backward Skip Counting Math Craft

We have made a craft that perfectly accompanies the Count Back Cat activity in Math Pack 39. Better yet, it is free today!

Your little ones can cut and glue their cat together and then write their numbers on!



Hop over to our TpT store to find it! We'd love to see your cat displays on social media, tag us so we can love on them! 

Thinking Mathematically

Help your students learn to become a strong thinker in mathematics with games that encourage problem solving, investigation, making choices, planning, strategy and creativity. 

We sent out one in our newsletter yesterday that is incredibly easy to prep! Just team this one page crab-themed printable with 4 counters. 2 of your little learners will play on each page.

If you missed the newsletter, we would love to share it with you here on the blog too: Crab Slide


Students have 2 counters of the same color and take turns to add one to each circle on the game board as their starting positions. 



Next they take turns to slide one of their counters into the empty circle along a dark orange line. They keep taking turns at this until one player can no longer move. The other player then claims the game as won and a tally is recorded. Play 'first to 5' or '10' depending on your time constraints. 


This game will eventually become one of strategy as students become more familiar with how to win and can be used to develop early coding skills. 

Don't miss any future email exclusive freebies by signing up to the newsletter today! 

Crab Screen Wallpaper

I'd love to share a new screen wallpaper with you today, to brighten up your home and classroom electronic boards, iPads, computers and phones. This one is bright and happy crab design!


I do hope you love the design as much as we do and that it brings some fun to your week. Simply download the images from google drive from the links below. Store them on your camera roll and choose them for your screen saver and/or wallpaper!

Find the Computer Screensaver HERE
and the Phone Screensaver HERE

{These are for your personal use only and cannot be redistributed or shared}

We've also added a crab coloring page to the club so your little ones can get in on all the fun.


Find more posts and goodies for your 'teacher space' HERE

Find more screen wallpapers HERE

Thank you so much for visiting us here on the blog. Have a great week!

Place Value Dominos


Make learning partitioned tens and ones to 99 in place value, fun and engaging with this easy-to-prep math game activity!

Students will identify pictures of tens and ones to match with 2 digit numbers up to 99.

We have a 3 day weekend here and had a family game of dominos - Sam is always asking to play games that involve numbers!


Here are a few tips I found whilst playing the game. 
  1. After about 10 turns each, we modified the game to 'free for all'. Meaning, anyone could put any card down whenever they found a match.
  2. It took the kids a good 10 minutes to reach deep engagement. They wanted to switch the TV on. We persisted. They got hooked, eventually!
  3. Half way through the game, I noticed Sam start to become more flexible in his thinking. If he needed a 22, he would notice that a 32 was one ten too many and say things like 'oh, that had an extra ten'. Here I could see that he was developing some great place value awareness and beginning the foundations for skip counting by place value.
  4. Make sure you have a large playing space.
  5. Having a space for each player to spread his/her cards out makes it easier to locate cards. 


If you have students who find this too easy, differentiate and have them use the cards differently.  Ask them to take a whiteboard or scrap of paper and record some subtraction facts from each card. For example, they may pick up a card with 63 and 12 on it. They then find the difference and record 63-12=51, and so on. 

If you would like to purchase this printable game, it is over in our TpT store






Responding to Stories


Significant to the development of comprehension is being able to make personal meaning from what we read. When our little learners finish a story, we often help them to pause and think about what they have read. 

Help your readers to reflect, retell, summarize and respond to the various elements within the text they have read. Model this for them, guide and scaffold them and encourage them to do it independently. You may talk about the events, settings, characters and most importantly their thoughts and feelings about the story. How does it connect to their life? How does it connect to something else they have read? What have they learnt by reading it?



Sam and I recently read The Unhappy Goldfish and I helped him to respond to the story after we read it.

There are so many ways to respond to text and this seemingly simple process will contribute significantly to the development of comprehension skills. Our learners will capture their thoughts and feelings, recording something of their interpretation of the story. 

Perhaps they could:
  • draw a story map
  • label an illustration of a setting
  • draw a portrait of a character
  • write a diary of the main character
  • draw a comic strip retell of the story
  • answer some interview questions as they imagine themselves as one of the characters
The Unhappy Goldfish  by Paul Dallimore was on our bookshelf and Sam was captivated by the front cover illustration.

The story opens with a clear, simple setting
Once, in a small town not far away...
The unhappy goldfish is sad and trapped in a tiny goldfish bowl. He missed his big pond. A dog moves in and suggests they play.

Here you can have a chat with your students about growth mindset as the fish sadly laments that he can't go anywhere without legs. Dog quickly offers to be his legs and off they set! At the end of the day our fish friend has experienced a great deal of adventure and has a much different expression on his face.

We found this story detailed enough to be interesting for Sam but simple enough to give him the opportunity to respond very clearly and thoughtfully about the events, character development and themes.

Sam could describe how the changing settings helped change the fish's mood as I scaffolded some talk about character development through the text. He was able to compare the dog and fish and their mindsets. He was able to make personal connection to the story by talking about a time when he felt like fish, when he was stuck and needed help. 

I made a poster and worksheet that would go perfectly with this story, or another story that has animal characters. Students will imagine they are one of the animals and give answers to respond to their understanding of what they have read.

Find it in Google Drive: Responding to a story


Fish Array Fun


Learning to visualize numbers in rows of equal numbers takes a lot of repetition. Once students can do this they become confident solving multiplication and division problems.

Providing plenty of opportunities to create and interpret these arrays will make sure students are confident with arrays. 

Give them opportunities to 
  • recognize arrays
  • talk about and discuss arrays
  • copy, complete and create arrays
  • play with arrays
  • use arrays to solve problems
One fun way to incorporate a beginning awareness of arrays is to integrate the creation of an array with a creative craft activity. We have a template for a fish array or you could ask your students to make their own creation!



Students will be able to create their own array or use one of the grid templates provided. 

Please note that the grids are all squares, so the arrays are equal proportions - 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 etc. On the blank template, students can make any array they desire.  

Hop over to TpT to find this new mathtivity in our collection.


PLay Array Games

A simple game to play with students is to have them roll 2 dice and use counters to create an array with the numbers. For example, if a 6 and 3 are rolled, they can make an array of six rows of 3 counters, or vice versa. 

Easy prep worksheet array game

We've just made a pack of fun game style interactive games that you can prep in a flash! The 10 'Play on the Page' worksheet games, will fully engage your students and help them learn to recognize and interpret arrays for multiplication.

Again, use 2 dice to create an array (e.g. if 4 and 5 are rolled, visualize an array with 4 rows of 5 dots). Students locate and shade the array with a pencil on the game mat.

The games have a fish and fish bowl theme. Arrays featured include all possible with 2 standard six sided dice - 1x1 to 6x6


Each student uses a different color pencil.




Students can record their arrays on a recording sheet. 


Find this new pack over at TpT too!



Early Division Games

Division Games For First Grade Printable

We are so excited to show you in closer detail, our 38th Math Pack! You can use our Math Packs as stand-alone units and do not need to use all of them or in any particular order. The order is sequenced and progresses steadily. This pack of 5 activities focus on early division skills - perfect for first grade.

Early division starts with understanding equal group and partitioning numbers.

Our Math Packs can help you get math organized for the week and help you sequence learning experiences!

These 5 activities will help:
  • share objects between two
  • split arrays
  • make equal groups
  • form equal groups
  • use skip counting by 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 to show linear division
  • identify a remainder after dividing into 4 equal groups
Each of the 5 small-group activities has:
  • detailed instructions
  • playing cards/boards/templates
  • a worksheet (either a recording worksheet or a fun-follow-up)
  • a cover page to help you organize your resources for future reference
The activities included in this bundle are:

Equal Bus


In this activity, students will make equal groups to divide by taking 'kids' off the bus in equal stops on its journey.

Robot Split


Students will visualize an array being split into two in this fun matching game. 

Apple Barrels



In Apple Barrels, students will divide numbers into equal groups by sliding counters from their tree into the barrel cards.

Happy Steps



Happy Steps will use a number line and equal units to skip count and divide. Students will use the fun step cards to line up next to a number line (included in printable pages) to count the partitions to the total.

House of 4


House of 4 will see students divide by 4 and show a remainder. They take a scoop of counters, say the little poem (if they choose) and act out dividing the kids in the house. The leftovers go in the door and students start to develop an idea that divisions are not always equal.
These activities can be used in a structured game rotation program, as math centers or in guided math. Once taught, they also make fantastic 'fast-finisher' activities for revision of key concepts



We have other Math Packs that teach more basic concepts that will support and understanding of division: