Board Games: Frog Publications

So there are a million and one cute little board games that you can find on TPT and print off.  They can be specific to a skill, adaptable, or use cards that you create.  While I love these, I really love my boards from Frog Publications.  I know several teachers that have used their Drops in the Bucket daily review.  I always have to stop by their booth at teaching conventions and conferences specifically for their game boards though.  If you don't normally stop you really should.  They have always given me a game board, set of example cards, die, and a couple pawns.  At my last convention, I even talked one of my friends into stopping at the booth and grabbing a gameboard (because I'm a little obsessed) and giving it to me since she wasn't interested.  She came back and told me in no uncertain terms I wasn't getting it because she was keeping it.  That was that.  She fell in love with the boards too. They are adorable! On top of that, they are also about the size of two pieces of paper.  That means more room for pawns and more space than most of the TPT ones.  Plus they are already laminated and extremely durable. If they can withstand the torture my kids dole out on my manipulatives and centers they can withstand anything.

Frog Publications has classroom sets that you can buy with pre-made cards covering all kinds of skills and the directions for the game are all the same.  You want to talk about easy for centers?  They've got it done for you.  Plus, I like to make my own cards and games to supplement.  Do you want students practicing math facts? Add in a set of flashcards with the board and they can practice their math facts.  Working on sight words?  My students loved having to flip over a card and say their sight word in order to move on the board.  Give a spelling list to your students and one student gives a word that the other has to spell correctly to move.  That is a center they can be engaged in.  They can even learn sportsmanship while in the center. There is no end to the number of ways you can use them.  Don't forget your fast finishers.  Keep some of your games in an extra box and they can grab a partner and start playing.

If you are interested in having resources for your parents, Frog Publications also has a Parental Involvement pack.  I haven't used this, but the games follow the same guidelines and it includes the self-checking cards.

Like I said, you can find plenty of game boards, but Frog Publications does the work for you and creates cards that focus on the skills that you teach in math, reading, and grammar.  Add in the durability and these are definitely products that you want to check out.

Interactive Bulletin Boards

So I have become pretty much obsessed with the idea of interactive bulletin boards.  While I was decorating my classroom, I had big gaping holes on each of my bulletin boards.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, and I don't have a lot of anchor charts yet since its my first year.  I figure, what better way to make a bulletin board count than to have my kids help me decorate.  I put up sheets of paper on each bulletin board that will have a question for students to answer. 

Right now, my reading board has "Books We Love."  It's pretty self-explanatory, the kids just write the name of some of the great books they are reading.  I want to start simple so they feel comfortable putting their ideas and thoughts up for everyone to see. 

 

My math board has "Write an addition problem that equals 20.  _ + _ = 20."  My goal is that there are multiple answers and they keep looking for new answers, including using multiple addends (i.e. 3 + 3 + 14). Once they get comfortable, I definitely want to increase the level of the question and keep it on track with what we are talking about in the classroom.

The writing board question is, "What do writers write about?"  The goal is to get students thinking early about the different topics and connect that to all the topics that they can write about too.  I'm going to introduce it by having students discuss what the author is writing about in everything we read (including textbooks) so they have a huge variation.

I've also got a "Fun Facts" paper where they will be able to write down facts from the non-fiction book they read.  My requirement will also be that they write down the book name and the page number.

Finally there will be a class question board.  Right now it is asking what they enjoy about coming back to school.

Of course, each of these will be introduced whole group and we will add to them as a class. Then, the students should be able to interact with them as partners or individually.  My favorite part of this is that it can be a great tool for my fast finishers.  Instead of saying, "Ms. Birrer, I'm done," all I have to do is point to an interactive board and say, "Get to it!"  I know.  It's a dream. When do kids ever stop announcing they're done and they need something to do? ;)