Cauldron of Words! A fun engaging activity and FREEBIE!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share a quick activity that I am doing this week! You know how we have "THOSE IDEAS" that just hit us either in the shower, on the toilet, in traffic, or me.. early in the morning when I've woken up and can't go back to sleep?? So, yeah, that SO happened this morning! 

This week our phonics pattern is short /o/ and I was thinking of a fun and engaging way for my students to learn this pattern and it hit me! I'll get a big pot and have them scoop up words! I don't know about you, but I am always thinking of ways to incorporate everyday items or props to make learning fun! But then I took it even further, and this year, I am lucky to have a class that celebrates a certain October holiday so I decided to create a cauldron of words! 

It is super simple and I used what I already had. 

This cauldron or a large pot, if you cannot use this prop can be used, was one I had wayyyyy back in my play room. You can't see it but it's slightly warped. Ok, a lot warped. 

Then I bought some ping-pong balls. I found mine at Target. 36 ping pong balls for $10. 

Write whatever word pattern you are working on. I wrote short /o/ words and the HFW words we are working on and added ones that are repeat offenders for being read and spelled incorrectly. I colour coded them. I wrote the phonics words in black and HFW in green. 

For extra fun, I threw in some plastic spider rings and bugs, eye ball candy (all Dollar Tree items) and purchased some cheap spoon ladles from the Dollar Tree and my insomnia filled idea has come to life! 

Both my boys (my 3rd grader and 1st grader) were SO EXCITED to play with my center! They love Halloween as much as I do and couldn't wait to "try out"my center to make sure my class would like it! I *think* they did! 

The center is what you make of it! I made response sheets for you. There are 2 versions. Click on any image to download both! 

Hope this creates a fun and engaging activity for you! 

Getting Hands On-- with Fun Math Manipulatives!

Happy Monday, friends! This year I have really been trying to strengthen my math centers with more use of manipulatives. I'll be honest and say that I cringe when the manipulatives are brought out:

"Johnny, please stop playing with the blocks. They are not guns!"

"Sally, please stop making a flower with the pattern blocks."

The redirections go on and on and on. 

I am sure you can relate! 

I took them out and my kids used them. My lesson might've taken longer but they got the concept. 

So, this year, our district has pushed (strongly encouraged) math centers this year. I came up with my version of a rotational schedule: 

There are many versions of this. I cannot claim credit for this as I saw this presented to me in a workshop. I adjusted and made it to suit my classroom needs. 

The favorite center in my classroom is the Hands on Learning Center. Here is where my kids get down and dirty with the standards and some fun games and manipulatives. Today I wanted to share with you some fun finds I used!

You all know I LOVE Target! I do not go to Wally World unless something major happened and I have no other choice! So I was shopping at Target Dollar Spot and saw some cute candy corn erasers, spider and bat rings, acorns.. and BOOM! My hands-on math centers were created! Look how much fun they had learning!

** I bought these after I did my centers. They were much cuter than the ones I had bought.**

These centers were sooo easy to set up! And yes! I have the same math pages I used to go along with them. We are working on addition and subtraction word problems. These sheets are also great to teach with my Math Strategy posters. We have been working on counting on, acting it out, and drawing a picture. They used the posters and key rings to help them with these. 

Click to download your FREEBIE! 

I know that using these fun little items in Math has greatly amped their enthusiasm! Hope you all can find these tools as useful as I have!

Have a great week!