Behavior Races

 FREE Plumber race @ our TPT STORE

Behavior races are a great way to motivate students to stay on task and work quietly. We use them all the time when we are working with small groups or during writer's workshop. 

Here's how they work:
1. Assign each table/group in your classroom a color or character.
2. Display the behavior race on your smart/active board or through your projector.
3. As each group demonstrates positive behavior, move their character forward on the board by clicking on the teams icon. The character will move forward on a track determined by you. You can add sounds to the movement as well so students know when their character has been moved.
4. Award the team that reaches the end with a small reward, such as, candy or extra recess.

Hop on over to our TPT store to get the Plumber Race!

Using cute clipart, mixed with a little trigger knowledge, you can create fun and exciting races to motivate all students.  If you aren't familiar with using triggers in your power points, click on over HERE.  Microsoft has a great tutorial on how you can use triggers to create interactive powerpoints such as these.

CHOMPER RACE @ TPT STORE

If you don't have time to make your own, hop on over to our TPT STORE and check out our Retro Chomper Race complete with classic sounds that your students probably won't know :)

Letter Sort

Here's what's new at our TPT store! Help your K's visually discriminate between alphabet letters with this fun game. Perfect for your word work/study center! Comes with a great assessment piece.

Book of Scribbles

Students love drawing scribbles but have a hard time motivating themselves to write about their drawings. With the scribble book, students must give detailed information about each scribble they draw to help them organize their thoughts and complete a story. They need to be able to verbalize, who or what is in their picture, the setting of their picture, and what the character or objects in their picture are doing. This makes writing about their picture a much easier task. Hop on over HERE to check out 50 scribbles, students can use during writing center or on free write Fridays!

Top Ten Lists

   We love using Top Five lists as part of our Writing Center. Creating these lists encourages students to stretch out words and add labels to their pictures.  If you teach an older grade, such as 1st or 2nd, you can expand this activity for students to come up with their Top Ten favorite items.  To help you get started, we came up with a list of over 60 ideas you can have students write about. Head on over to our TPT store for this FREEBIE and get students excited about writing!

Super Hero Theme

With all of the super hero movies coming out this summer, I'm thinking about having a super hero theme classroom this fall. I've been busy creating materials to motivate students. Check out my latest creation of Super Hero Student Awards.

Check them out at TPT

Glue Stick Holders

Kiss your days of dried up glue sticks and missing lids goodbye! Create you own classroom glue stick holder.  The lids are glued in and can not go missing!  Click HERE to download instructions on how you can create your very own! Don't have time to make your own? Click on over to my ETSY SHOP to purchase some for your classroom!

The Amazing Binder Clip

       I use a lot of games during math and literacy stations and students are always losing pieces, especially the little plastic stands that hold the characters up.  By the end of the year, there aren't any stands left and students end up having to use unifix cubes as their game pieces. 

Squeeze fasteners together to remove from steel binder. Be
sure to save fasteners in case you ever want to change
game pieces out.

   As I was looking online to see if i could buy a bulk supply of plastic game stands,  I came across, "54 Uses For Binder Clips That Will Change Your Life."   Some of my favorites are, impromptu hair tie, toothpaste tube squeezer, and laundry machine lonely sock solution.  (I'll never lose another teacher sock again thanks to that one!)
    
     Reading about all of these creative ways to use a binder clip got me thinking of other ways to use these springy steel clamps.  An hour later, I came up with number 55, using a binder clip as a game piece stand.  I'm sure Kindergarten teachers have been using this since the invention of Candy Land in 1949, and am sorry it took me this long to figure it out for myself. 

FREE GAME

     So thank you, Louis E. Baltzley, the inventor of the binder clip. Now my poor students will no longer fight over which color unifix cube they want to be and will once again fight over which super hero they are.  In honor of Louis E. Baltzley, and the the amazing Binder Clip, we are giving away a free math game in our TPT store. So hop on over HERE and download it. And don't forget your binder clips!!

Crayon Clothespins

     Have you seen those adorable clothespins covered with crayon wrappers? They are just so cute! Unfortunately, I threw all of my germ-ridden, used crayons away at the end of the year. SO... I had to come up with another way to make these cute clips.  I decided to create my own crayon-like template and decoupage it to the top of wood clothespins. They turned out better than I thought! I can not wait to use these to display student work in the classroom and in the hallway. Since they are backed with adhesive strips, they won't damage the school walls. You can easily change out student work! They will also make perfect gifts for my child's teacher during Teacher Appreciation Week! Click on over to my ETSY shop to purchase! Buy Crayon Clips

https://www.etsy.com/listing/102420833/crayon-clips