Spider Legs Addition Game

Making the transition from concrete to abstract when solving addition can be made fun and engaging with math activities that incorporate an element of visual support. Our printable addition activity - Spider Legs - provides that for you!

As well as forming a numeral by joining two puzzle pieces together, students will confirm that the legs make the corresponding total. Here, they may

• count from 1
• 'count on' from the larger number
• apply an addition strategy of their choosing

Spider Legs makes a great small group game or can be used by an individual student - find it over in our store. 

Find more of our spider ideas on our theme page.

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Choose Kind Classroom Display

Create a positive, encouraging atmosphere in your classroom or school with the help of our We'll owl-ways choose kind bulletin board to focus on kindness this autumn / fall season.

Included is

• decorative classroom letters that spell 'We'll owl-ways choose kind' (message)
• small owls for students to write their name on (6 colors)
• large owls for students to write an act of kindness or intention (6 colors)
• one page message board (alternative to cutting individual letters)

Variations:

• all pages are available in color and blackline options
• faced and no face owls (students could draw their own owl face)
• text editable owls and one-page-message board (MS Powerpoint with text boxes for typing)

Ask students to jot down something they can do to be kind and display around the message. What a great visual impact for a hallway or board for the whole grade or school.

This new classroom display pack is over in our TPT store:

You may also like:

• more resources and ideas for kindness in the classroom
• to help your students with kindness brain breaks
• books about feelings and emotions

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Classroom Decor, owls

5 Little Pumpkins Game

5 Little Pumpkins is a sweet little text from our home library that makes an engaging opening to a kindergarten math lesson on numbers and counting to 5. 

As you are reading the text to your students:

• draw some pumpkins on chart paper, crossing one off each time it exits the story (modeling the take away strategy for subtraction)
• count and re-count the total group of pumpkins on each page - providing extra counting practice
• ask 5 students to come to the front on the group and role play the pumpkins
• ask your students to hold up 5 fingers (pumpkins), call out numbers between 1 and 5 for them to show

We've made a fast-prep printable math game that perfectly accompanies the text too! Numbers 1-5 are an explicit focus of this game.

Students will:

• roll the die and identify numerals 1-5
• move their counter and count as they move, demonstrating 1:1 correspondence

Your learners will weave their way around the pumpkin vine, counting as they go! Who will win?

Find this new printable math game over in our store - happy counting! 

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Math Center, Pumpkins

Franken-hair Scissor Skills

Have fun in the classroom this Halloween with our Frankenstein themed scissor skill activities! These are perfect for preschool and kindergarten to practice different line cutting. Let's give Frank a haircut!

This packet is over in our store and includes 40 exercise pages. Each has a different line design and increases with complexity.

Tips for using these scissor skill pages

• start with a simple page and assess how your student is handling the cutting
• copy onto thick paper or thin card for easier handling
• print 2-to-a-page for smaller pages to handle
• use washi tape to secure the page to a desk as a remediation ste

How to complete a scissor skills page:

• cut from the top edge down to the circle
• use the solid thick line for visual support
• move from standard, evenly spaced straight lines through wavy lines, zig zag lines to wavy lines of varying length

Get creative!

When students have finished the cutting activity they can also color, cut and glue the page into a bright backing paper for a fun classroom display of Franken-haircuts!

• use brightly colored paper scraps to add fun extra details
• use paint or crayon to color
• curl or zig-zag fold the hair for an interesting 3D effect
• if you're brave get the glitter and sequins out!

We are certain that these pages will motivate and engage your little learners!

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fine motor, Halloween

Comprehension Posters

We have set of 8 printable classroom posters will make your classroom bright and happy and help remind students of strategies used when thinking about their reading.

The set includes a color and blackline poster for the following comprehension strategies:

• Making Connections
• Monitoring
• Predicting
• Visualizing (and visualising)
• Summarizing (and summarising)
• Questioning
• Determining Importance
• Schema

Find these printable Reading Comprehension Posters over in our store, provided in color and blackline.

You may also like to team them up with our Comprehension Worksheets Pack - the activities in this pack help students reflect back over the strategies they have used, enhance them and respond to their text on paper. They can be used with just about any book!

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comprehension, Posters, Reading

Learning about one half

Learning about one half can be made fun and engaging with many hands-on, exploratory activities provided for students in math centers and activity tubs. We want to share 9 creative ideas with you today! Each activity will contribute to students understanding of one half. You can also present these activities as whole-class explicit lessons where you teach specific conceptual information and present to students ideas that they will explore later in their independent or small group learning time.

Students will:

• understand one half as one of 2 equal parts
• understand one half of an area
• explore and find one half of a collection
• find one half of a number

Cutting a sandwich or slice of bread.

Encourage students to explain how they can share a slice of bread or sandwich between 2 people. Give them a square of paper and ask them to cut or fold it to show you. Model by making fairy bread!

Cutting fruit or play dough shapes in half.

Ask students to make a ball of play dough and pretend it is an apple or orange - how would they show half? Model with real fruit if appropriate. 

Half an area / shape

A printable game in our Math Pack 42 includes an activity that will encourage students to identify shapes that show one half.

Half a collection

Make a group of buttons and talk about the number of each color - half are pink, 3 out of 6 are yellow.

2 printable activities are included in our Math Pack 42 to help students learn to identify half of a collection - Half the Dinner and Half the Cookies.

Free play with equipment

Provide students with math manipulatives and encourage them to find ways to show one half. Let them take photos with the class ipad or draw them to record their findings. At the end of the session, provide time for them to talk about or even show their findings with the class group.

Although you will not be introducing the written fraction for one half in the early years, it will not hurt to let your learners free-play with commercially produced manipulatives if they are available in your school.

Paper folding

Make a craft that shows halves or provide simple paper shapes and encourage students to fold each shape in half. Discuss how many ways they found to fold a shape in half and encourage them to cut the shapes and put the halves back together again like a puzzle.

Coloring or painting - color half of a picture.

We have a free pumpkin coloring page over in our Coloring Club. Students identify pumpkin shapes that show 2 equal parts and color them.

Ten frames

Ask students to show counters in half of the frame - encourage them to say '5 out of 10' have counters or similar - identifying the total and the part. Students could cut shapes from grid paper and draw dots on half the shape.

Number tracks

To introduce determining half of a number, give students a number track and ask them to fill the track with counters to show half. 

There are 3 styles of number track cards in our Math Pack 42. If students find this challenging, scaffold their learning with counters underneath the number track. 

Math Packs

Our Math Packs provide you with printable activities you could use in guided math, small group  rotations, free independent exploration tubs or as fast-finishers. We have 2 so far that explore fractions:

Math Pack 23 - Introducing Halves

Math Pack 42 - Working with One Half

We hope our post provides you with some new ideas or ignites a new idea for your lesson. 

If you find your students struggling with any aspect of early-fraction work, backtrack and revise: 

• play with numbers - making numbers with equipment, create groups of counters, tokens etc
• the idea of a fair share, or equal groups
• the ability to match 1:1
• language - more, same, equal, different, less, part, part of, none left

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fractions, Math Center

Turnaround Strategy for Addition

 

Turnaround Tiger in a creative and engaging way for students to make a hands-on record of their learning of the addition strategy - turnaround facts! They can see and feel how addends can switch around to make the same total!

Students can record any addition of their choice with dot patterns. They may even like to roll dice to generate some numbers.

Show them how to 'turn' the tiger around to reveal 2 different addition sentences. It does not matter which order our addends appear - we will always get the same total!

A recording page is included too, where students can record the 2 addition facts that match their tiger. Encourage students to 'turn' their tiger to see how the facts flip!

Hop over to our TPT store to find this craft free today!

This craft fits perfectly with an activity in our Math Pack 22 - More Addition Strategies.

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Addition, mathtivity

Shape Fox Directed Drawing

Let's draw a 2D shape Fox

I would love to share with you the steps to draw a cute little shape fox scene. After drawing you can color or paint to make a bright, happy classroom display.

• start with a rectangle

• under the rectangle, let's draw a square

• draw 5 triangles now - 2 for ears, one for the face and 2 feet

• add a triangle tail and a circle nose

• draw a curved line for the tummy, a bumpy line for the tail and some inner triangle ears

• let's draw a toadstool - a rectangle base, half-circle top and circle spots

• let's draw an autumn tree from some straight lines and circles
• draw some oval leaves floating around our fox

• here you can add some of your own details and paint your project

Over in our TPT store are the printable pages if you would like to incorporate some writing with your drawing.

Our video helps you see our shape fox come to life - we hope you love it too!

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Art Ideas for Kids, Autumn/Fall

Apple Happy Screen Wallpaper

Teacher friends, I wanted to brighten your week with a little gift! I've made a brand new screen wallpaper for you. These look great on phones, tablets, computers, laptops and electronic boards. Hopefully like so many others tell me, you smile when you see them!

 

Apple Happy is the new design:

Find it over on our website!

It's for your personal use only and cannot be redistributed or shared

Enjoy the rest of your week and keep smiling!

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Apples, wallpaper