Halloween!

Well this school year has made an interesting twist. I have been put on bed rest, at least for this week. I am 31 weeks along and I have been having contractions for a week. I was planning on getting started on all of my sub plans for while I am out, however now a match has been lit under me to do lessons from now until the end of my planned maternity leave. (My leave is scheduled to start mid Dec. and end in Feb.) Halloween is in a couple of weeks however my kids are learning about pumpkins this week. I made a group activity of matching shapes on pumpkins. I just made up some simple cards. I play this during group time and I give each child a card and tell them to find their partner with the matching card. Once everyone has found their partner/match I have each group tell me what shape they have. This helps to not put one child in the spotlight but they can work together.
Maybe in the next few days I will be putting up different activities. They maybe all sorts of different themes with the time frame I am writing for.

You can download the jpg here or go to my tpt store to get it for free :)

New Job and new printable!

Today is an exciting day! I was hired on at a great childcare center last night and I am so excited to start next week!

However today I am spending time preparing for a kiddo that I spend time with on Saturday morning. She is a sweet little girl and I am excited to use some new things I have created with her. Something I created today in preparation for tomorrow is a letter and number match. It is a dollar on tpt. Have fun with the matching. I know I will be having fun with them tomorrow!!!

~Amanda


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valintines-letters-and-numbers

http://www.scrappindoodles.com/index.php?main_page=conditions

Games

I love games. They are a great way to slip in learning in a fun way. However I sometimes have a habit of changing the way a game is played. Here are some games I like and how I play them. They are all available on Amazon however I love getting games at little shops and on clearance isle. Goodwill and places like it are also really good for games and books.

Big Fish Lil' fish- I use this game for comparing numbers.  It has two digit numbers so it can be played for a long time. I use it like a war style game game were all players put their card down at one time. The person with the largest card gets all of the cards. The goal is to get the most cards. Ater we play for a while I start to have the children verbally tell be why a number on a card is bigger then the others ie "54 is larger then 34 because there is a five and a three in the tens place and 5 is bigger then three." This adds another level of complexity and helps with verbal skills.
note: If the player guesses then I get all of the cards or they go into a center pot that no one gets. 

Zingo- This is one of my favorite games because the children are able to play a game of bingo by themselves. The regular game is good for kiddos that are working on matching skills. If you want to add another level make cards up that are rhyming words to the Zingo cards. I have made a set for myself and will email them to you if you would like. Here is an example of what the cards look like:

Cute little gingerbread men :)

There are so many things that can be done with these cute little guys :) This is an activity that incorporates numbers, ordering, positioning, writing, and drawing. This is a great Christmas time activity or anytime you want some cute little gingerbread to join your world. It is $1 on tpt. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Gingergread-Men-Orders

clip art from: http://www.scrappindoodles.com

touch points

I LOVE touch point math because it give a concrete meaning to something that is so abstract to most kids. I love it because it is a stepping stone the children use as long as they need to but are not dependent on it. It is also nice because for many children it is an adaptation that helps them to stay in the regular ed classroom without something that makes them look or act all that different. To help teach and reinforce touch points with a kiddo I made a die-cut set of numbers with construction paper. (I had to do a little work on the 4 so it looked like a kid 4) I then put the touch points on with sticky dots. (To create the dots you count twice I used a hole punch to cut out the center.) To help them last longer I laminated them. He thought they were really cool. I made a few different sets in different colors. (That is why the 8 below is blue, I am not sure where the orange 8 went...). I like these because there are so many different things that can be done with them. I am thinking about making another set that is a little bit smaller so they are able to be used in less space. Maybe a project for my cricut!

patterns

Here is a pattern activity I made for this winter. It is free on TpT

Winter Patterns