Happy New Year FREEBIE to motivate!

Even though my classes won't be in session for the New Year (we don't return to school until Jan. 6th) I decided to whip up a Mystery Picture in celebration of the holiday. My kiddos LOVE Mystery Pics and never seem to mind that they are practicing ho-hum language arts skills in the process.... which I LOVE! Mystery Pictures are a great way to motivate kids; therefore, I'm linking up with Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Student Motivation linky.

This FREEBIE Mystery Picture provides students practice identifying nouns (singular and plural) and verbs (past, present, and future tense). You can download a copy of it HERE or by clicking on the graphic. If you do decide to download it, please provide feedback (positive, I hope). TIA!

Something else that motivates my kiddos with Language Arts skills is ZAP! They beg me to play this fun, engaging game ALL THE TIME! I would think they would get tired of it, but NO! I can barely keep up with them. I just got an email from one who asked if we were going to play New Year ZAP! when we get back to school. Seriously! I did!

I know I've blogged about this game before, but I had to AGAIN... kids REALLY LOVE it!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with ZAP! here is a brief explanation...

•Divide your class into several teams depending on the number of students.

•Determine how long you will play or how many rounds you will complete.

•Have a student draw a strip from the ZAP! container (a Pringle's can) without looking inside. I usually hold the container above the player’s head.

•The team should read the words on the strip, then confer to determine the answer.

•If the team answers correctly, it keeps the strip. If it answers incorrectly the strip is returned to the container.

•Teams take turns drawing/collecting the strips. However, there is a twist. If a team draws a ZAP! card, it must return ALL of its strips to the container.

•The winner is the team that collects the most strips. You may want to award them with a simple prize such as a piece of candy, bonus points on an upcoming quiz/test, 5 minutes of free time, etc.

So for the student who messaged me... Here is your New Year ZAP! game. We'll play it the first day back from our break.

And if you'd like to play this ZAP! game with your students when you return to school after break, you can download it from my TpT Store HERE.

Happy New Year,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6