The Classroom Game Nook

The CGN Newsletter Is Here!

I'm really excited about this. The Classroom Game Nook officially now has a NEWSLETTER! Wahoo! I've been pluggin' away at it for the past couple of weeks trying to figure out the ins and outs of newsletter writing, and thanks to YouTube tutorials, I think I've got it! :)

WHY A NEWSLETTER?
Because all the cool kids are doing it :) And, I wanted to find a fun way to provide you with seasonal and exclusive freebies and tips for you to use in your classroom, all available in one spot. It's like receiving a little package of goodies each month in your inbox!

HOW OFTEN WILL I RECEIVE THE NEWSLETTER?
Right now, I'm going to be sending out a newsletter at the first of the month (first newsletter to arrive at the beginning of November). That way, you'll have some great games and ideas to start each month off right!

WHY SHOULD I SIGN UP?
Because it's fun! And, you get a free game just for signing up. This game is not available anywhere else. Not on TpT, not in my game archives, ONLY for newsletter subscriber. It's a good one, too. Wanna see it?

Ok - I realize I'm a little late to the QR code party, but I am lovin' them! I love the self-check that it provides for students. It's the answer key of the 21st century, so I've included them in this newsletter sign-up freebie!

Students solve the different addition and subtraction cards, find the answer on the Tic-STACK-Toe board and then uses their "X" and "O" cards to cover up the space.

Students can check their partner's answers by scanning the QR code!

This ain't yo' mama's Tic-Tac-Toe game! There are several cards that have the same answer. Students can STACK their "X" or "O" card over their partners card to help them create 3 in a row, and block their partner.

I've included 3 different versions of this game:
Game A: Students add and subtract up to 3 digits with regrouping.
Game B: Students add and subtract up to 4 digits with regrouping.
Game C: Students add and subtract up to 6 digits with regrouping.

That's it. Yours - free, just for signing up. And there's more where that came from! What are you waiting for?

Ten on Ten {October}

Hey all! It's that time of the month again where I am sharing 10 pictures on the 10th of the month. These pics reflect my life as of current. I'd love for you to link up as well and share 10 on 10 over on your blogs as well!

Here are mine:

Your turn!

Here are the rules to participate:

1) Choose ten pictures that show your readers what's been going on in your life lately (classroom happenings, fall activities, family fun...). The pictures can be both teacher and non-teacher related.
2) Place the pictures in post on the tenth of each month. You can include a small caption with each picture if you'd like. You must include my blog button (found on my side bar) somewhere in your post)
3) Come to the Classroom Game Nook and link up your post to the linky party. Check out other bloggers who have linked up and leave a comment or two on their blogs to share the love!

Go ahead - link up :)

Spider Web Toss Game

Right?

I'm sure you've already heard a gazillion times from your students what they are going to be for Halloween, or what party they will be going to on Halloween night (because thank GOODNESS Halloween is on a Saturday this year!)

I've got one fun game you can play with your students that can be used for ANY content area or skill AND only takes minutes to set up:

An easy Spider Web Toss game! All you need is some black electrical tape and a list of questions based on your topic. You will tape up your "web" on the floor like this:

You will want to make the web large enough that students can stand around. Then, divide students into (up to) six teams and have them stand around the web like shown above.

Teams take turns tossing a bean bag (or similar object) onto the web. They aim for their bean bag to land in the 10, 20, or 30 section of the web.

Then, the teacher gives the the team a question based on the section the bean bag landed in.

That's pretty much it! You could use this game format as part of your fall/Halloween classroom parties, OR set it up now in your classroom and use it all month long for different topics.

Let me know if you give it a try!

Create An "I SPY" Interactive Bulletin Board Game {Video Tutorial}

I should probably give you a little background here, in case you don't know. I am the coordinator for the Sunday School kiddos at my church. I work specifically with grades 2-6. We are known as the S.P.Y. Agents (Spirit Powered Youth). We picked this name because out of the 10 kids in my Sunday School class, 8 of them are boys. {yikes!} We definitely needed to come up with a cooler name than "Sunday School." So, instead, on Sunday mornings, we have S.P.Y. Academy. Fun, right? Here's a peak at our SPY HEADQUARTERS, complete with "Scan-In" technology :) We're very high-tech!

A couple weeks ago we had our big kick off to the school year and our theme was "Mission Possible" where students learned that our mission as SPY Agents is serving others, so they became members of the "Secret SERVICE" for the day. It was a lot of fun, complete with fake mustaches and SPY glasses for our disguise. After our first "Mission Briefing," our SPY Agents had several tasks, one of them was using their SPY skills to use picture clues to help them "spy" the Bible story. I created this bulletin board:

I chose 8 kid-familiar Bible stories (Noah's Ark, the birth of Jesus, David and Goliath...etc). These were our SPY top secret "cases." Each case had a magnifying glass and a top secret folder (I cut real file folders down to size so that 8 of them would fit on my bulletin board.) Inside the magnifying glass was a close-up snippet of the full picture.

For example, this magnifying glass is a close-up of the Adam and Eve Bible story:

Here's the full picture:

I asked students to use the clues shown in the magnifying glass to guess the story.

Inside the file folder for each story, I will eventually put the full picture so that students can see if their guesses were correct. For now I just have the question mark slip shown above. I'm giving students a couple weeks to submit their "Mission Slips."

Once they've made their final guesses, they will place their "Mission Slips" in the "Confidential" file that I stapled to the bulletin board.

To say that the students enjoyed this activity would be an understatement. They took their mission VERY seriously.

I think I might keep this type of bulletin board game going all year, just switching up the Bible stories. And the more I thought about this game, the more I thought about how fun it would be to use this idea in a regular classroom! Think "Can You SPY the Character" (doing close-ups of characters from books you may be reading in your class) or "Can you SPY the Story Plot" (doing close-ups of major events in a book you are reading) or "Can you SPY the Animal" (for your science animal unit.)...and so on!

I decided to do a quick little tutorial video to help you make your own SPY magnifying glasses! Check it out!

I got the magnifying clip art here.

And, if you want to use the "Top Secret" and "Confidential" pieces that I put on the folders and the "Mission Slips" that students filled out, you can download it for free here.

What could you use this bulletin board game idea for in your classroom? I'd love to hear your ideas!