Tricks and Treats {from Aloha to Second}

I have a few tricks that I use in my classroom.  One of my tricks is to give each student a name tag necklace.  I write something on it, such as a skill they need to work on.  My students have been working on letters and sounds, so I have been writing letters on their necklace for them.  Then, throughout the day teachers or students will ask them to state the letter and sound.  This is so easy, and my kids benefit greatly from it!  I have so many students that are picking up their letters and sounds quicker because of this.  They also love wearing the necklaces. 

Another trick I have is to write on post it notes skills my kids need to practice. Each week I assess my students on various skills.  If they have not mastered the skill, then I write it down on a post-it note.  I put the post-it notes on my clipboard that holds my lesson plans.  Throughout the day/week, I'll flip up my lesson plans and quickly assess my students on the skills on the post-it notes. 

              

Here is a treat for you!  It is a fun number match with pumpkins!  My kids loved it.  Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoy the tricks and treats. :]

Tricks & Treats from Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten

Fall is in full swing here in Wisconsin and Halloween is just around the corner, which means costumes, pumpkins and trick or treat. But trick or treat isn't just for the kids, here at The Elementary Entourage our bloggers will be sharing some awesome teaching tricks along with fabulous teaching treats just for our readers! So be sure to stop by each day for trick or treat teaching style ;)

Do you struggle to keep your students engaged throughout the day? I think we all do at some point! The days can be long especially for our littlest learners, and I don't know about you but I can't sit at a desk for long periods of time either. So I bring you a little teaching trick to boost student engagement!

Getting those kiddos moving is a sure fire way to increase student engagement. And did you know the part of the brain that processes movement also processes learning, so incorporating movement with learning as much as possible is really a brain based teaching strategy. (Remember to pull that little bit of info out that next time your admin comes in and the kids look like they are running wild...)

One of my FAVORITE games to get students up and moving this time of year is letter/number hunts.  These games are super easy to set up and help students practice fluency with identifying letters/numbers. There are lots of ways to differentiate these games as well.

I started playing these games with Madelynn at home so here is how we play at her level:

1. Set up the game by writing letters or numbers on large shape cut outs, or use printed letter/number cards. Hide the cards all over the room.

2. Clip a page with all of the letters/numbers that she needs to find on a clipboard.

3. Madelynn searches the room to find each letter/number on her page. She has to match it, name it, and color it before moving on to another card.

In the classroom you could do so many variations with this game. You could have students match the letters or numbers like we did, or you could match upper/lower case letters, count sets and find the number, practice letter/number writing on the response sheet, and so much more! When playing with a whole class or even just small groups you'd just need to remind students to leave the cards where they found them instead of collecting them along the way like Madelynn and I did.

If you want to try this activity out, I have a little treat for you!

You can grab my Apple and Leaf Hunt activities for FREE here:

Looking for more activities like these? I'm finishing up a full set of fall themed letter and number hunts that will be posted soon. Be sure to follow my store here so you will be notified as soon as they are ready!

Thanks and happy trick or treating :)

Tricks and Treats Blog Hop

It's October, which means Halloween and Trick or Treating are just around the corner.  Before you're recovering from any school festivities you have planned, here at the Elementary Entourage we wanted to share an awesome weekend of Teaching Tricks and Treats with you!  Here is how it will work. We will each be sharing some of our favorite teaching tricks along with some treats just for you! We hope that you will hop from one blog to another to get some new ideas and sweet treats.

So get your goodie bags ready for lots of freebies, sales, and giveaways, you definitely wont want to miss everything we've got in store for you!

*If you are a blogger, we'd love to have you join us in sharing your favorite teaching trick and a treat for our teaching friends. To join in on the fun please check out the details for linking up here.

An InLinkz Link-up