Turkey Fractions – An Equivalent Fractions Matching Game

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Veronica

I asked my son,”What kind of game would you like for our Thanksgiving Math Center?” He said, “I want a fractions game!” My son is in 3rd grade and fractions are coming up as part of the core curriculum (3.NF.A.3, 3.NF.A.3a, 3.NF.A.3b), so I decided this was a good opportunity to start the learning!

This colorful matching game has 20 matching turkey and feather pieces. The student reads the fraction that is on the turkey and looks at the fraction model picture. Then he finds the feather pieces that have equivalent fractions and matches them to the turkey. The set comes with teacher notes, self-correcting answers for all of the feather pieces, and an answer key.

My son loves playing this game so much that he has interested his sister (first grade) in learning more about fractions. She plays the game with assistance from either her brother or myself! I love it when games make learning more exciting and they don’t even realize they are learning! Here’s the link to the product on Teachers Pay Teachers http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fractions-Turkey-Equivalent-Fractions-Matching-Game-976963.

Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension- CCSS.RL.1.1, 1.7,1.10

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Veronica

My first grader is coming along very well with her reading. She is working on her phonics skills daily and I also like to reinforce reading for understanding daily. I work with her on reading comprehension after she reads to me, but I want to have a game in our literacy center that practices reading comprehension too! I love to create themed activities that liven up our classroom with bright colors and engaging images so I created this set for our Thanksgiving literacy center that accomplishes both goals.

This set is two games and an interactive student mini-book that covers CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.7, and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.10. The game cards and book are non-fiction and discuss the first pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving tying beautifully into Social Studies for the month of November.

The individual student book comes with a page of images that are to be cut and pasted into the book on the appropriate pages. The student can also add their own images to illustrate the words on each page of the book to really make it their own story of Thanksgiving! If you want to make the book reusable just laminate the cut and paste pictures and the pages of the book. The student can place the pictures on the corresponding pages and illustrate with dry erase markers or crayons and then wipe the entire book clean when finished! I hope you enjoy using this set with your little learners as much as I do!

Halloween Themed Language Arts, Math, and Science Learning Games for K, 1, or 2!

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Veronica

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. My children love to decorate the house and the front porch and walkway. I like to gear our home learning in a festive direction for the month of October too! This bundle pack of 4 learning activities will fill our Halloween day with loads of fun. I plan on putting out the matching games (3 Little Monsters, Green Spider and the -ing, and Candy Corn Math) the week of Halloween and then celebrating on the BIG day with all of the games and the simple circuit science lab, Making Connections! The best part of the science lab is I print my own matching worksheet to create the games and I am printing my Halloween themed worksheet from THIS website.

The 3 Little Monsters Matching game and word book includes 24 colorful printable game pieces and a printable 9 page activity booklet to help your students practice reading comprehension in a fun way. The materials can be used individually, in a small group, or learning center! It also teaches your reader to look back into the text for details (a great skill for standardized testing!) Best of all this game and word book cover the common core standard RL.1.1.

$Candy Corn Math$

Candy Corn Math offers 16 Addition Sentences (and matching answers) that demonstrate and allow students to practice the Commutative Property of Addition. It is a printable Halloween themed activity that can be used in a learning center as a matching game or as 2 file folder games for individual or small group use. It covers common core standard 1.OA.B.3.

Green Spider and the -ing helps your students read, write and practice the –ing suffix. This colorful matching game and word book practices common verbs and adding the –ing suffix to these words. The word book allows your students to practice writing common verbs with the –ing suffix in a fun word book format. It is a 12 page document that includes teaching notes that detail the grammar rules associated with the verbs in the game and book, directions for assembly as a matching game or a file folder game, and coordinating common core standards RF.1.3f, RF.2.3d, L.3.2e!

This packet is a lesson plan for students to create an electronic game using easily sourced materials like aluminum foil, masking tape and brass brads (among others.) The step by step instructions will teach students how to make a simple series circuit. National Content Standards are included with the lesson plan.

I hope your children enjoy these lessons and you have a VERY HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

A Spring Break Activity for Your Kids: Science that POPS!

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Veronica

Spring Break is a great time of the year. The kiddos are ready for a break from school and the weather often permits them to get outside and have some fun. But do your kids want to just watch the tv or play video games? This drives me crazy. My son LOVES his Wii but we have to regulate his time or he would play it forever. Sometimes (even with the hundreds of toys that we have) he says, “I’m bored.” So I have to stimulate his creative thinking with a high interest activity. The activity below worked for all of my children. They got so excited they wanted to do many tests to see which one worked the best and produced the biggest ‘pop’.

Volcanos and Chemistry:

Chemical reactions are fun. It’s like a bit of science magic. This experiment uses household items from your kitchen to create a safe non-toxic reaction.

Our Test Bags: Baking Soda Tablets and Vinegar=”POP!”

Here’s what you will need:

Baking Soda Tablets (alaseltzer or generic): Sodium Bicarbonate – 4 Tablets
White Vinegar
Water
Ziplock Bag

Directions:

Open the Sodium Bicarbonate Tablets and stack them.
Open the ziplock bag and pour in about 1″ of vinegar.
Carefully pinch the tablets inside the bag near the top, but do not allow them to fall into the vinegar.
Zip the bag closed ( you will need a partner to help you ) but do not drop the tablets into the vinegar
Drop the tablets and shake the bag 4-5 times fast. Then put the bag down and move back at least 5 feet.
The bag will fill up with gas and pop when it can no longer hold the gas that the sodium bicarbonate and the vinegar create.

What Happened?

Vinegar has acetic acid and its chemical formula is CH3COOH. Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda’s chemical formula is NaHCO3. The reaction between the two compounds looks like this CH3COOH + NaHCO3 -> H2O + NaOCOCH3 + CO2. Everything past the arrow is what is left after the reaction. If you wait until your bag is completely liquid and no more bubbles are produced you can sniff your results. (Pour the remaining solution into a cup and smell it.) It should smell like salty water. H2O is water. NaOCOCH3 is a salt known as sodium acetate. CO2 is carbon dioxide that is the gas you saw fill the bag and the bubbles you saw forming.

How does this relate to volcanoes?

Volcanoes are mountains or hills that are typically cone shaped that have a vent in the earth’s crust through which lava, steam, and ashes are expelled. The pressure builds up below the earth’s surface. When the pressure gets very high the hot melted rock called magma travels up through the conduit (or pipe) and breaks the surface of the volcano often filled with rock and/or water. The great explosion releases the magma which flows down the side of the volcano mountain. As the magma cools down it turns back into solid rock.

Your bag filled up with pressure from the chemical reaction of the baking soda tablet and vinegar and eventually ‘popped’ like the volcano explodes from the pressure of the hot magma. Pretty cool, huh?

Want a few books to read to go along with your Volcano activity?

Come back soon to see my next spring break activity!

Hands On Learning and Story Time

Category Archives: Seasonal