Fantastic Favorite Freebies Collection

Everybody LOVES freebies! Especially teachers, right? I have a brand new freebie and an invitation that I would like to share with all of my bloggy friends.

I Survived Various Verbs

Task Cards and ZAP!

Task cards are VERY popular in many elementary and middle school classrooms. I think that I use task cards at least three out of the five school days each week. Easily adapted to any content area and grade level, they make for a welcome change from just completing a worksheet for skill practice. This pack of 42 task cards (40 skill cards and two ZAP cards) may be used in a literacy center, as part of a scavenger hunt, or for a game of scoot or ZAP. Each card requires a student to read a sentence and identify its verb. The cards contain sentences taken from Lauren Tarshis’s popular I Survived Series books, my students' favorite books overall. This pack of cards can be used by an individual student, for small group instruction, or with an entire class. They are extremely versatile, easy to implement, and best of all...reusable.

To prepare this set of task cards…

1.Print the Playing Cards found on pages 4-10.

2.Laminate the pages for durability if you choose.

3.Cut apart the cards.

4.Print the cover page and glue it onto a large envelope.

5.Print a copy of the Answer Sheet found on page 11.

6.Place the Playing Cards, ZAP cards, and Answer Sheet in the envelope for safe storage.

To play a game of Scoot…

1. Place the cards (minus the ZAP cards) around the room face down in front of each student. Use as many cards as you like. If you wish to use all the cards, simply double-up cards in front of some students if necessary.

2. Have each student number a sheet of paper from 1-40 (or however many cards you choose to use). You might consider playing two separate rounds, using cards 1-20 for round one and cards 21-40 for the second round.

3. Students begin by answering the card(s) in front of them, writing their answer(s) on their paper next to the matching number.

4. After an appropriate amount of time, call “SCOOT!” and students turn the card(s) face down and move to the next place where they answer the question on that card.

5. Play continues in this manner until all items have been answered or time runs out.

6. Collect the student papers to assess yourself or check them together in class.

To Play a Game of ZAP (My students' FAVORITE game):

•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.

•Place the task cards and the two ZAP cards in a container (coffee can, paper bag, etc.).

•Have a student draw a card from the container without looking inside

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

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

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

•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.

To Use as a Scatter (Scavenger Hunt) Activity:

•Distribute the task cards around the classroom, hiding some in plain sight while others place out of sight.

•Have students number a paper from 1-40 or however many cards you have decided to use.

•Students should meander around the classroom in search of hidden task cards. As they locate a card, they should read it and record its answer.

•You can have the entire class scattering around the room or just a few students at a time. This can be a station activity, small group enrichment, or whole class assessment. Anyway you present Scatter is great for students since they are able to get up and get moving around the room a bit.

You can download your free set of I Survived Various Verbs HERE or by visiting my TpT Store and downloading the featured free product.

Looking for MORE freebies? I've listed several more below.

And now for the INVITATION...

TpT friends, I invite you to include your favorite freebies in the list below. We can create a tremendous warehouse of fantastic products that are easy to locate. In the process, we can share our talents with each other and with blog visitors who might not have been able to find us before.

FANTASTIC FAVORITE FREEBIES COLLECTION

Throwback Thursday: Groundhog Day

Welcome to...

What is Throwback Thursday? How does it work, you might ask? Simply look through your PURR-fect Previous Posts, perhaps a particular favorite of yours, and re-post it! Then add the TBT badge to your post and include your link below! Purr-fectly easy and simple! Your post doesn't have to be from LOOOONNNGGG ago; it can be from last month or even earlier this week. And if you don't have a post to share, perhaps an old photo or two from WAY BACK will do! Even a favorite pin is PURR-fect! Just join in the Throwback fun!

This post first appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 on Jan. 29, 2014 Introducing a brand new teaching tool just in time for the upcoming fun holiday: Groundhog Day.

What's Happenin' Wednesday? Not a whole lot... YET! We were still out of school today due to the frigid temps, but it looks like we MIGHT make it back for Thursday and Friday! MIGHT because a new, unexpected, wind chill advisory has JUST been issued for tonight into tomorrow morning... sigh! The air temp. is ONLY supposed to reach a low of zero and the wind chills are ONLY going to be -15 degrees... nothing compared to the past two days! That's why I say we MIGHT be back in school on Thursday.

I've kept busy these last four school days off, plus two weekend days, doing a whole host of things from practicing piano to doing dishes and everything in between. I've even had great fun creating some new products to add to my TpT Store. One that I have had great fun making is a SCOOT/SCATTER game for Groundhog Day.

I designed this for my fifth and sixth graders to use whenever we get back to the classroom. It'll be a fun way to get them thinking Language Arts again. There are various skills highlighted on the task cards: synonyms/antonyms, recognizing parts of speech, captilization/punctuation.

As they move about the room my students can simply write their responses on a sheet of loose leaf paper; however, it's much more fun to have a cute recording sheet to work on. 

I can even use these cards in a literacy center. I've included an answer key so that my students can check their own work, making the cards perfect for independent work.

With just the task cards, my students can "play" SCOOT. However, I included special answer cards so we could also opt to "play" SCATTER. 

I can select specific task cards to hand to half of my class and the matching answer cards to the other half. The kiddos must SCATTER about finding the classmate that has the match to their card.

I have a small group of students in both grades that work with intervention tutors and often leave the room, missing out on Scoot and Scatter. For them, I created this gameboard.

I'll send the gameboard and a second set of cards and answer key with them to their tutor. They can review the same material in the small group setting while still having some fun! The tutor will enjoy this also.

If you would like this fun product for use in your own classroom it is available for download HERE or by clicking on any of the graphics above.

Come on out of your burrow; it's time for your own THROWBACK!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mind-Boggling Monday (task cards and game board)

According to Mirriam-Webster Dictionary, the word "mind-boggling" means having a very powerful or overwhelming effect on the mind. Well, I boggled the minds of my fifth graders this past week. Poor honeys, I'm not sure if they were upset with me or actually loved what I (really two sixth grade girls) did to them.

Task cards are a staple in my classroom. Whether it be for a round of Scoot or Scatter or just in a literacy center, I use task cards with all my classes at least once a week. Scatter seems to be the task card activity that my kiddos enjoy the most. They like being able to walk about the room while doing their work.

New Year's Nouns Task Cards in action!

I normally hide, or scatter, the cards around the classroom. However, I was a bit behind with morning tasks last Wednesday morning so I asked two sixth grade girls to place the cards around the room in preparation for fifth grade language arts next period. Of course, the girls were delighted to do the deed! They found some interesting places to perch the task cards. Two cards in particular confounded and boggled the minds of the fifth graders.

This task card is barely peeking out from behind the TV.

This card was camouflaged as part of a New Year's mobile made by my sixth graders.
Only two fifth grade girls initially found this one! LOL!

All ended well with the fifth graders completing the round of Scatter, checking their work, and getting prepared for an evaluation tomorrow.

Guess who is going to hide the task cards next time?

Speaking of mind-boggling? Here's this week's FREE Classroom Boggle board for you to use with your students. Just download the image and project it on a whiteboard, Smartboard, or television. You can follow the traditional rules for Boggle or create your own. Just have fun while practicing word skills.

If you like playing Boggle with your students but would like to select your own letters, please check out this set of editable Boggle Boards with background themes suitable throughout the school year. Included are 15 boards that are "user friendly" in that they contain no specific holiday clip art only colors and textures suitable for various seasons and holidays. There's even a blank board that you can program both background and letters. You can read more about the packet HERE or by clicking on the pic.

SCOOTback Thursday (aka Throwback Thursday) and a giveaway!

Welcome to...

What is Throwback Thursday? How does it work, you might ask? Simply look through your PURR-fect Previous Posts, perhaps a particular favorite of yours, and re-post it! Then add the TBT badge to your post and include your link below! Purr-fectly easy and simple! Your post doesn't have to be from LOOOONNNGGG ago; it can be from last month or even earlier this week. And if you don't have a post to share, perhaps an old photo or two from WAY BACK will do! Even a favorite pin is PURR-fect! Just join in the Throwback fun!

This post first appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 on Oct. 19, 2013. I had just been introduced to SCOOT and made my first games for my kiddos. I can't believe it's only been a year since I began my love affair with this fun, engaging activity. 

My sixers fell in love with SCOOT! Last week I played SCOOT with  my eighth grade English students. This week we played Halloween Clauses and Phrases SCOOT in sixth grade Language Arts... the kids couldn't get enough.

THIRD... My fivers fell in love with SCOOT We played Halloween Types of Sentences SCOOT in fifth grade Language Arts. They, too, could not get enough of it and begged for more!

Since my kiddos love SCOOT so much, and I love making the activity just as much, I've been going batty creating loads of Halloween and Fall SCOOT activities and adding them to my TpT Store. They have been frighteningly successful this past week, so I know that you like SCOOT as much as I do! I bundled six of my Halloween Scoot packs together and am offering them at a scary good cost (by bundling you save $3.00)... a treat for you just in time for the upcoming holiday! 

Speaking of scary... if you have Halloween items (free or paid), be sure to add them to my Halloween Linky Party so we can scare up a whole lot of great holiday ideas in one place.

My kiddos STILL love SCOOT, but they also enjoy other activities using task cards. One that my older students really enjoy is called SCATTER. I simply take the set of task cards that I want my students to practice and scatter the cards all around the room- on a window, on the door, peeking out from under a keyboard, on the back of a chair, etc. My kiddos wander around the room completing the task cards as they find them. It gets them up and out of their seats while still engaging them with content. Scatter is a great activity for the end of long, tiring week!

If you haven't tried SCATTER yet, it's time to give it a try. To get you started I'd like to give you my newest pack of task cards...On Halloween: In Search of Prepositional Phrases.

Just leave a comment below by the evening of Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014, telling me how you might use them in your classroom and I'll send you the pack, just like that!

Now it's your turn for a throwback!

Tried It Tuesday Post It Fun

We're finally getting back into the groove after the invasion of the polar vortex. Lessons are actually progressing. We've completed projects, and we've begun new ones. Er, what's that you say? Snow? Hunh? Not again!

We are once AGAIN under a Winter Storm Warning... this time for SNOW (not cold) and LOTS of it! We can expect upwards of a foot by Wednesday afternoon so you know what that means... ANOTHER snow day is in the future. SIGH!

What's a teacher to do? Join Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for her Tried It Tuesday linky and just blog on!

This week I tried something I had seen on the internet BBD (before blogging days), thought was cool, but never attempted: 

I printed on Post-It Notes. 

I wanted to try SCATTER with my eighth graders. We've been working on nonfiction text structures (description, question/answer, compare/contrast, problem/solution, sequence, cause/effect) and it was time for some group practice. I purchased a set of really nice task cards for this skill on TpT from Teaching with a Mountain View. I planned on scattering the cards around the room, assigning a particular structure to a small group, then sending them off to label all the cards with their structure with a small post-it note. At first I was planning on having the students write the structure on the post-its themselves... too messy, too inconsistent... I can't stand things that aren't uniform! Then I was going to write on all the post-its... too time-consuming, too tedious... I say work smarter, not harder! And I did.

I remembered seeing the webpage about printing on post-its and set off in search... a template, it said... I needed a template. Of course, the website had templates, but not for the size post-it I wanted to use. So, off to TpT I went, of course! A quick search found this product... FREE!

I quickly downloaded the file and read the directions. In no time at all I was in business.

First load the template page with post-its. On your computer type the information in each box.

Run the template page through your printer being sure to feed the adhesive side in first.

Out comes your perfectly printed post -its ready to use!

Searching the room for task cards and determining the nonfiction text structure on each.

A printed post-it in place.

I have to say that my eighth graders were impressed with my post-its. Several asked where I got them. At first they thought they had come with the task cards. When they found out I made them, they asked if I'd teach them how to do it also... Science Fair is coming up and the kiddos want to use the printed post-its for their display boards. Looks like a mini-computer lesson is on the books for later in the week... AFTER the snow day, perhaps!

Don't forget to visit Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper to see what other bloggers have tried this Tuesday. There are always great ideas each week. Also don't forget to join Jessica and Rosie for their GREAT giveaway of favorite things continuing through the end of the week. Just click on the graphic below to enter for a chance to win a whole array of teaching products and MORE.

Be sure also to stop by Magic, Mistakes, and Mayhem to join Serena for her birthday celebration giveaway. She's got a wonderful prize package waiting for you.

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6