DIY "Guess Who" Game

Happy Monday!  The first week back after Christmas break is over and you're back in the swing of things!  Time to start pluggin' in some new ideas into your daily routine!

Yesterday in our Sunday School class, we played a really fun (yet ridiculously simple to make) game to help review the lesson we were learning for the day.

We were learning about the 12 sons of Jacob (characters from the Bible), and I was looking for a fun way to review them, so I decided to do a little "Guess Who" game.  It's so simple friends, that I can barely even call it DIY because *I* didn't really do much accept for spend about 5 minutes on the computer creating the following two pages.

This top picture has boxes with the pictures of Jacob and his 12 sons on it (images found here). and the bottom picture has the same sized boxes, but no pictures.

I had the students cut out their picture boxes (see - so easy, I didn't even have to do the cutting!).  They then set the up 2 file folders like shown below (I paper clipped them together so that they would stay together. 

 You'll also notice I stuck an object (a bell, in my case) in between the folders to keep the top half from falling over.

The students then placed their blank box sheet on their side of the folder and placed the picture cards in any order on top of the blank boxes.  Again - notice who is doing all the work :)  Not me!

I then had a separate set of the picture cards, one set per partner group (this was in ADDITION to the cards that they cut up).  Once students set up their board placing all pictures on the box, I had each partner group pick a person from the additional picture card set and paper clip this picture in the corner on the top of the file folder.  (Ex.  The picture below shows "Levi" clipped in the corner).  This became the person that their partner would try to guess. 

Students played the game using the regular "Guess Who" rules asking their partner yes/no questions about their secret person. (ex.  Does your person have a striped belt?).  Students would remove people off their board as they eliminated who their partner's person might be.

Once a partner had won, the students could rearrange their board as they wanted to and choose a new picture card and play again.

So, how can you use this idea in your classroom?  EASY! 

Choose characters from a book, historical figures, or any other group of people your students need to review.  It would even make a great game to tuck away for now and use at the beginning of the school year by using pictures of your students and have students guess which classmate their partner has.  What a great way  for your students to get to know their classmates at the beginning of the year!!

Throw Back Thursday {Golden Math}

Hi!

How's the week wrapping up?  I know many of you are on break - so maybe you've got a little time on your hands for a little craft project.  I've got a relatively easy one for you that I've pulled from the shelf of past posts for today's Throw Back Thursday:

It's a fun math center that you can play as we near St. Patrick's Day.

I called it "Golden Math" and I played with my students when we were talking about multiplication and division fact families.

You will need:  Large poster paper or butcher paper, Velcro strips, black and yellow construction paper for creating the pot and coins.

Decide how many "pots" you want your students to work with.  On each pot you will be putting a number that belongs to a fact family, such as 5 (the other numbers of the fact family will be on the gold coin, such as 40 and 8)

A completed mat would look like this before students match the coins to the correct pot.

Place all the coins in an envelop or a plastic baggie and place the mat and the coins at a math center.

Once students have placed all the coins over the correct pot, the mat is complete:

This game can also be made for addition and subtraction fact families.

Seems easy enough, right?

Have a great rest of the day!

Don't forget to head over to the "Holiday Games" for more St. Patrick's Day Fun!

Throw Back Thursday {Binder Clips Moving Pieces}

Time for another edition of Throw Back Thursday!

I came across this idea a couple years ago and have used it several times since in different blog posts!  I wish I would have know about this idea when I was teaching.  It's such a fun way to customize the board games your students play.

All you need are some mini binder clips and some picture cards like these:

Feel free to download mine for free here , or make your own using pictures that match the type of game you want your kiddos to play.

OK, now - do you have about 2 minutes?  Because that's all you'll need to get these set up:

Ta-da!  Easy-Peasy.

I also made these Christmas themed ones last year.  You won't be able to use them now, obviously - but you can tuck them away for December.

Hope these cutie moving pieces find their way into your classroom sometime soon!

Throw Back Thursday {Hershey Kiss Match}

This post is the answer to all your chocolate loving dreams.

It's about this time of year (Valentine's time) that EVERYTHING becomes chocolate covered.  The problem is, you feel guilty buying a huge bag of chocolate for yourself.

Answer:  Have your husband buy it and "use" it in your classroom and devour the rest :)  Problem solve.

Here's a fun post I found back on the ol' blog to share with you for TBT.

A quick little matching game you can make for any concept:

On the sticker dots write what you want your students to match up, such as equivalent fraction (you would write one fraction on one sticker and its match on the other sticker)

Make as many matches as you think your students could handle.

Students take turns choosing two kisses to see if they are a match.  If they are, they keep them.  If not, the kisses get turned back upside down for the next turn.

{Above are some suggestions of other skills this game would work for.}

Here's a quick recording sheet you can use to help keep track of your kiddos:

{click here to download}

Bonus:  When your students are done playing the game - you get to stash the chocolate in your candy drawer.  Boom!  It's a win-win :)

Have a great day everyone!

Throw Back Thursday! {Make and Take Game for Types of Sentences}

Hold tight, my friends.  We are so close to the weekend!

Hopefully you've had a great week (short weeks are the best aren't they?)

So - we have a sliiiiiight problem on our hands.  My old blog address will be expiring soon.  This means that all of the old posts that I've written over the past 2+ years will disappear into the great internet abyss.  

So, here's the plan.  I've looked back at old posts and will be re-sharing some of my popular posts on "Throw Back Thursday"

Check out this easy center game you can make to have your students practice types of sentences.

All you need are: 

library pockets, a Kleenex box, and index cards

Label each pocket with a type of sentence:

Tape the packets on each side of a square Kleenex box.

Write several different kinds of sentences on index cards (or if you want to be fancy, make cute cards on the computer and print out). 

Place all of the sentence cards in the center of the Kleenex box.

Students pull out one card at time, read the sentence, and place the card in the correct pocket on the side of the box.  

Boom!  Add a recording sheet for students to record their answers and you've got yourself a center in minutes!

Of course, there are a million other ways you can use this game idea.  Anything that requires sorting can use this idea.

If you need game to practice sentences:  Head over to the literacy games tab and scroll down to the "Sentence Practice" category!

Hope you have a great rest of the day!