St. Patrick's Day Linky Party

The next holiday that will be here before we know it is St. Patrick's Day! It is the perfect time to study and learn about Ireland and tie it in with some fun St. Patrick's Day games, centers, and activities.

My newest creation is for St. Patrick's Day focusing on addition facts to 10. There is a fun game board included where the student goes back to start if they land on the leprechaun. You can also just use the cards as flash cards, to play Scoot, Quiz, Quiz Trade or any other cooperative learning game.

I have also added beginning sound puzzles to my fun St. Patrick's Day Kindergarten Puzzles. This puzzle set also include alphabet matching, cvc words, counting to 20, and number words.

Check out the linky party to see more of my St. Patrick's Day products including some freebies. Many of mine I created as far back as 2012! I also have some friends who have linked up some of their fun St. Patrick's Day creations!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cooperative Learning In The Fall

Last school year for my DPP (Deliberate Practice Plan) I set out to engage students in groups and partners.  I found the more time spent in groups and partners doing activities the more engaged my Kindergarten students truly were.  Cooperative group activities work well with any grade!

One simply activity is called "Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up."  In this activity students stand up and put their hand up until their find their match.  Students then discuss why they are a match.  I made some fun place value cards to 120 for you to try out this fun activity in my Fall Place Value to 120 Cooperative Learning Activities.  Pick any 2 of the 4 kinds of place value to try this one out.  Click the picture to check it out.

Another simple activity is 4 Corners.  You put a vocabulary word up on each corner of the wall.  Give each student a card and they walk to the wall that fits their card.  The cards in my Fall Place Value to 120 Cooperative Group Activities will work with this as well using all 4 cards.  Students figure out if they have the Expanded Notation, Word Form, Standard Form, or Pictorial (Base Ten Blocks).  You can check it out by clicking on any of the picture below or any from above.

I would love to hear how you use cooperative learning activities in the classroom.  Let me and my readers know in the comments below and tell us your grade level.  I love learning new cooperative learning techniques.

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I'm Back With Cooperative Learning Activities

Wow, it has been a full month since I last blogged.  I was really hoping to at least keep going with my Positive Fridays, but I have been so very busy.  The hour trip to work and back takes extra time from me especially when I have an inservice.  I am not complaining though as it is so worth it to work in an incredible school with amazing students, administrators, fellow teachers, office staff, custodians, etc.  Next Thursday night I will be staying for a parent after school thing, where I am in charge of helping out at child care until 7pm.

Anyway here are some cooperative learning ideas that I learned at inservices lately that will help keep your children engaged.  You can use them as formative assessments.  I will try to do another blog post with some more of these ideas in the future!

Inside Outside Circle - Divide up your class evenly.  Have half of your class get into a circle and then turn around.  The other children find a partner and face them in a circle so they are on the outside.  Call out a question from any subject or a get to know you question and have either the inside or outside give the answer.  The other side can either praise/coach their partner or add on to the answer.  Then give the other side a question.  Next call out a number and have everyone on the outside move that many partners over. For example move 3 partners.  So they would move over to the 3rd new partner!  Then do it again.  I gave mine each a lowercase letter and they had to give the name of the letter and the sound.  Share in the comments how this could be used in your classroom.

4 Corners - Put a different concept or answer on 4 different posters and put them on each corner of the wall.  Give a question that can be answered going to one of the 4 places on the wall and students move there.  I have done this by putting 4 letters on the wall and giving a word and they have to move to the correct place.  You could do it with Seasons of the Year, 4 numbers and give a math problem, cardinal directions, etc. Share in the comments your grade and how you could use this your classroom or have used it?

Commit and Toss - In this activity students write the answer to an open ended question on a piece of paper or draw it and crumble it without their name on it.  Then they toss it around at each other for a few minutes. When you tell them time is up they each pick up a paper.  Everybody stands up.  Call on one student. Anyone with that answer or close to it sits down.  Keep going until you have gone through everyone.  This is great to get background knowledge or find out if part of a lesson your students didn't quite get.  I'm trying to figure out a way to use it in Kindergarten as I have heard this is a one popular activity.  If you have an idea send it to me in the comments!

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on hoppin!