Stick Bang or Kaboom

 Stick Bang or Kaboom whatever you call this game it is something you need to have in your teaching bag of tricks.  It is so popular with all of the students I work with.  They love this game in fact they beg to play this game.  I first found this game in a sight word packet I purchased from Reagan Tunstall.  It was the best $5.75 I spent on TPT. 

I have made so many games based of her idea and at a variety of grade levels.  

This year I made several different versions for different students. 

For the little four year olds I work with I made:

• Capital Letters
• Lowercase Letters
• Number Awareness to 20
• Shapes and Colors

For the five year olds I made:

• Number Awareness to 30 (for the beginning of the years)
• Number Awareness to 100
• CVC words

For the first graders I made:

• sight words at different levels
• CVC words
• CVCE words
• Blends/Digraphs
• vowel team words

For the advanced math students I work with I made:

• Fast Facts for Math Fluency

I keep all the different games in plastic quart size baggies and then have my large pails for games.

I have to admit with the four year olds we had to take the BANG stick out of the bucket.  There were way to many tears and the little ones were so happy to collect sticks.  

Another bonus to this activity is that I can easily put this together the night before.  You can use simple markers, stickers or pre-made materials to make the sticks more colorful.  Here is a link to Pinterest for more ideas.    

Christmas Gifts from Oriental Trading

Once again I was given a wonderful opportunity from Oriental Trading.  I was able to pick out anything from the Christmas or Teaching Catalog within a budget.   How Exciting!  It was definitely a Christmas gift to my students.   I was able to pick out several things for the children I work with.  

You will notice that a lot of the things I picked out were for the littlest learners I work with because that is the area I am lacking the most in materials.  Most of my things were not for the Holiday season they were things I could use year round.    

When I saw the Block Play Set I jumped for joy because I knew three things I wanted to make with it:  A beginning sound match, a rhyming match (both from thisreadingmama) and an alphabet tower building set(I just used stickers) that I saw on Pinterest.  

My students absolutely loved the activities.  They loved using blocks and building as they were working on the alphabet. I picked two sets of Block Play Sets and I still have some left over for the recess basket or maybe a sight word activity for first graders.    

Block Play Set
This Reading Mama

I could not believe the next wonderful item I found.  It was this Melissa and Doug color and shape puzzle.  It is just the item I need for several students who do not know all their colors and are still learning their shapes.  I had no idea the Oriental Trading had some Melissa and Doug items.  

I added velcro to the puzzle (a trick I learned at my grand daughter's therapy) to help keep the puzzle pieces together.  This is so helpful as the children walk with the puzzle from the bookcase to the table.   

Melissa and Doug Large Shapes Jumbo Knob Puzzle

I used these little gingerbread people and foam dice to create a game for identifying numbers 2-11.  This was a big hit with my little guys and even the first graders.  (I changed it into an addition game for the first grade.)

Gingerbread People
Foam Dice
Coming soon to my TPT store by the end of the week.  

The Sensory Letter Cards were another good pick.  I picked up some decorating sand at the dollar store and put it in bins. The little guys I worked with loved tracing the letters and drawing them in the sand.  This hands on experience is helping them remember some of the letters.   

Sensory Letters

I also picked out these Winter Stickers and mounted them on white card stock.  I am using them for working on patterns with the kindergarteners.  The children loved the winter pictures on them.  I think the ice skates were the favorite picture.  

Glitter Winter Stickers

Thank you again to Oriental Trading for the wonderful materials.  My students are enjoying all the wonderful learning activities.  

Five Amazing Free Rhyming Activities

This week I am looking for activities to help a little guy learn to rhyme.  Since I don't have a budget at school I am looking for hands on activities that are FREE!  I found some amazing activities that I can use right away.  

1.  Twinkle, Twinkle, A Rhyming Freebie by Elizabeth R.  this is a cute and adorable rhyming activity. I know that the little boy with love the stars.  There are just a couple of stars so it will be just one a several activities I will do during the session.   

2.  These Rhyming Clip Cards from This Reading Mama are a great second step in rhyming.  Children have to find the word that does not rhyme.  This will be a great last step after we have worked on rhyming for several weeks.   

3. This Reading Mama has another awesome reading activity for FREE and my little one will love this.  He will love doing the DUPLO Rhyming Match with blocks.  He loves using his hands to move things and do things.  

4.  Yes can you believe it....it is another wonderful FREE rhyming activity by This Reading Mama.  These are matching cards that you can easily use in a pocket chart or I thought I might cut the circles out and put them on popsicle sticks.  Then my little guy could just pull out a stick and give a rhyme.      

5. Reading Dominoes from No Time From Flashcards This idea I will have to do a little bit more work with.  I am going to have to find pictures and put it together.  However I think it will be a fun game to play.  

Introducing Apples

Today I began my apple unit.  I started with reading the book,  Ten Apples on Top.  I had a couple of my students try to balance one apple on their heads.  Sorry no pictures.....I don't have permission yet to have student photos on my site.  It was very funny!

After I read this wonderful book, I introduced my little ones to some new words.  As I introduced each word we talked about how it relates to an apple.   Then we sorted all the words by syllables.  (They were familiar with syllables because they just did an activity in Music class.)  

My little ones really enjoyed this activity.  If you would like a copy of the cards I made Click Here :)  Enjoy!

Sheep on a Ship

My little ones are struggling with the sh sound.  

So for a last ditch effort to get the sh sound to sink in before vacation I found this old book in my files.  The added bonus, it goes with my Pirate Theme, Aarrgh!

I created a quick worksheet for them to do as a follow up.  It is pretty basic.  I cut want them to cut out the sh pictures and glue them around the ship.  Nothing fancy!  This is a pirate worksheet after all.  

Click Here for a free copy, Matey!!