TONS of freebies for Target and Dollar Tree buys!....Holla for a Dolla! Halloween Edition

So I don't know about you, but I constantly pass the cute little games in the Dollar bins at Target and at Dollar Tree that I look at and say, " I could totally use those for my classroom." Then I buy them and don't know where to start!

Well look no further, I have taken tons of items from the Target Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree and turned them into math/literacy (mostly math) games with response sheets!

I'm cleverly calling this.....Holla for a Dolla!

If this is popular/useful, I will continue to make these games for seasons/holidays as they come!

The first item is those cute little erasers from the Target Dollar Spot! Get the following games here!

These guys have endless possibilities...but these are the few ideas that I came up with!

Candy Count: Choose a number card (0-20 provided), and then match that amount of candy corn erasers. A response sheet is included if wanted! 

Franken-Tower: Using your little erasers, have students make a tower as tall as they can without it falling over. Each time the tower falls, count how many erasers were used and record it.

Pumpkin Pick-Up: Play this game like you play jacks. Bounce a ball and pick up pumpkins in the same hand before you catch it. Record how many pumpkins you picked up and then write the two numbers that come next.

The Skeleton or the Pumpkin?: Grab your skeleton and pumpkin erasers. Record how many of each you have and then circle the bigger number. 

Next on my list is the table scatter from Target Dollar Spot! I saw orange pumpkins, red leaves, and brown leaves available, but I only got pumpkins and red leaves.

There are tons of ways to use these cute little counters, and you can get my ideas here!

Grab a Pumpkin and Grab a Leaf: In both of these games, students simply grab a handful of pumpkins/leaves and count how many they grabbed.

Hit the Magic Spot: In this two player game (pumpkins vs. leaves), each player takes their turn rolling 1 dice and covering that many spots on their side. The first person to reach the magic spot with that exact number wins!

Line Em' Up: Choose a leaf card (0-5) or (0-10) depending on your kids needs and fill the ten frame up with that many leaves. Then, fill the rest with pumpkins and create an equation for a combination of 5 or a combination of 10.

 

This table scatter is so fun! You can use it for so much more!

 

 

The next item is the spider rings from Target Dollar Spot! (And spider ice cube trays from the Target Dollar Spot!)

 

 

These guys can be used for EVERYTHING! Spider rings are fantastic :) But you can see my ideas here!

 

Spider Six: Students roll their dice. Then, they grab that many green spiders to match that number for the ice cube tray. They fill the rest up with the purple spiders and make an equation for a combination of 6. They color in the green/purple squares to match the numbers in their equation.

Dead Ringer: Students gently throw a handful of spiders in the air. They count how many landed on their feet (alive) and how many landed on their backs (dead) and make an equation. 

 

Webby Match: Students count the correct amount of spider rings to match the number on the webby card. Numbers 0-20 are included for easy differentiation.

 

These cute spider rings are perfect little counters for pretty much any counting activity you have!

 

Now on to the Dollar Tree purchases! Starting with...Dollar Tree Foam stickers!

 

 
These foam stickers are obviously super fun for art projects and decorating, but they can be used for more academic stuff too! You can get my ideas here!

Sticky Graph: Give students a baggie of stickers for them to sort. Then, create a graph with the stickers. Two graphs are included depending on the size of the stickers.

Scary Match: Give students a baggy of stickers for them to sort. Then, students count how many of each sticker they have and match to the number. For example, 2 witches on 2, 4 spiders on 4, etc.

Make a Pattern: Give students a bag of stickers. Have them choose a pattern card, and then make a pattern using that rule with their stickers.

 

Sticker Story: Give students a sticker. Then, have them write a story about it! (I left it neutral in case you want to use it for any other types of stickers!)

 

 I love how easy it is to use these stickers for other things!

The next item is the Night Creatures from the Dollar Tree! These little flies are a little gross, but my boys especially will like to use them!

You can get my ideas for these creepy crawlies here!

Hide-A-Bug: The students grab a handful of bugs. They count them and then cover a certain amount with a cup. Their goal is to try to figure out what number is on the cup using the other two numbers in their equation.

Shoo Fly: Students CAREFULLY throw a handful of bugs in the air. Then count how many are on their feet (alive) and on their backs (dead). Use these numbers to write an equation.

These were super creepy so I didn't think of too many games for these haha!

The next Dollar Tree item is the Halloween erasers! These puppies are so cute!!

These erasers were perfect for all kinds of activities. Here are my ideas :)

Make A Pattern: Students choose a pattern card and complete the pattern. They could also extend it further.

Grab and Graph: Students grab a handful of erasers. Then, they count and graph it using the graph paper below.

Secret Story: Students grab a "secret eraser." Then, they write a story about the character they see.

I think this is my favorite buy! They are just so cute!

The last item are the Dollar Tree ice cube trays!

These cute little trays are perfect for making equations and counting! These are my ideas!

Crazy Eyes: Students choose a blue eye card. Then, they fill the cube tray with that many blue eyes. Finish filling the tray with the gold eyes. Then, write an equation to create a combination of 5 or 10.

 
Pumpkin Pumpkin: Put the 1-10 pumpkin numbers in the bottom of the ice cube tray. Then students fill the tray with the little pumpkins (from Target Dollar spot) to match the number.

Skelo-teen: Put the 11-20 skeleton numbers in the bottom of the ice cube tray. Then students fill the tray with the little skeletons (from Target Dollar spot) to match the number.

 

These by no means are the only ideas to use these Dollar Tree/Target Dollar Spot finds....but I feel like they are useful! Hopefully you can use them with your kiddos!

 

Have a great Halloween week with your students! Hopefully they aren't too crazy :)

Happy Holidays Giveaway Day 2!

Today is Day 2 of my Happy Holidays Giveaway!! If you missed yesterday's giveaway, please visit Day 1's post :)

Today, I am giving away a pack of winter writing prompts! There are 21 prompts included that you can use all winter long! They include writing about the cold, snow, snowmen, winter sports, holidays, winter animals and more! You can get them on TPT here! You can get them on Googledocs here!

 

Yesterday's winner is Suzy Q (3). Congrats! I will be e-mailing you to see what product you would like!

And for the second day, I will be giving away one item from my TPT store of your choice! You can comment and earn an entry for:

1. Following my blog

2. Following my TPT store

3. Posting about my giveaway on your blog!

So you can comment up to 3 times up until 2:00 AM central time! Please leave your email on your comments and I will email you to see what product you would like!!

YAY! 3 more days until break!!

Happy Tuesday!

Sarah

Next Week....Happy Holidays Giveaway! Tons of FREEBIES :)

Next week, I am SOOOOO excited to be getting a break soon (my kiddos and I both need it!) So I thought it honor of break being so close and me counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds.....I would have a HUGE giveaway!

Each day I will be giving out TONS of freebies to celebrate the holidays!

Monday: Math Day! I will be posting a HUGE (119 pages!) place value packet for FREE on TPT that is 2nd Grade CCSS aligned!

Tuesday: Writing Day! I will be sharing a packet of January writing prompts (snow, cold, holidays, etc.) for FREE on TPT!

Wednesday: Reading Day! I will be sharing a non-fiction printable boook about SNOW :) for FREE on TPT :)

Thursday: Math Day #2! I will be sharing a month's worth of math journal prompts for January (25 prompts!) for FREE on TPT!!

Friday: Snowman Day! In my class on this day, we will be doing all kinds of fun fun fun snowman activities, and I will be sharing with you 2 snowman craftivities, and a math(number order)/word work(ABC order) snowman work station game for FREE on TPT!

In addition, I will be giving away one product from my TPT store of your choice each day. You get an entry (by commenting) for following my blog, following my TPT store, and posting about my giveaway on your blog!!

WOOOOO!!! Christmas Break is only:
10 Days Away or
218 Hours Away or
13119 Minutes Away

Not that I'm counting.....!! So remember...

See you back here on Monday for your FREEBIES galore!!!!

Happy Tuesday!
Sarah

Crazy about Punctuation!! (FREEBIES GALORE!!)

My litte pigeon and I have been working tirelessly with my little second graders to improve their writing and it is slowly but surely working! I noticed that my kiddos have SUCH good ideas as to what to write about, but our sentence conventions are holding us back!

We are big into goal setting in our classroom, so we set a goal for ourselves to improve the use of our punctuation. This means that not only are we going to make sure our sentences all end with punctuation, but we are also going to vary our punctuation to use more question marks and exclamation points.

So I started out by showing my kiddos Rachelle Smith's Punctuation Perfection pack that is FREE on TPT. It is an awesome resource to introduce the "ending marks" as I call them, and show the kids when you should use them. It also gives you posters for apostrophes, quotation marks, and commas if you need them as well!


Then, I gave my students this packet I made called My Little Book of Punctuation. This is an interactive book in which students learn about the definitions of each type of ending mark punctuation, practice writing them, practice identifying which sentences use which type of punctuation, and writing their own sentences using different ending marks.

Then, we read a few books that have lots of examples of the various punctuation so we can notice when good authors use them.

The first book I read is More Bears! by Kenn Nesbitt. This book is HYSTERICAL! If you like shared reading, this book is wonderful! It has all kinds of examples of the use of question marks and exclamation points.

In addition to reading this story, we also made a cute little craft to go with it! In this story, the author is the narrator and the story is written like he is talking and interacting with you, and on every page is the statement "MORE BEARS!!" for one reason or another. The story is all about adding more bears to the story, but in the end the author decides the story needs more chickens.

So I had my kiddos make a little bear that looks similar to the bear on the cover with construction paper. The kids make their bear, and then choose something that the author should have "more" of. They are then responsible for explaining why. In addition to explaining why, they are responsible for using each type of ending mark in their explanation at least once. They may need 2-3 of the lined writing speech bubble. You can get the craftivity here!

Here is an example of one of my kiddos projects :)

 

Another awesome series to read is the pigeon series by Mo Willems. We read The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! and Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus! His books are full of the different uses of ending mark punctuation and the kiddos just love how silly this little pigeon is!

These are really great books for students to listen to expression. Sometimes they can tell me what type of ending mark punctuation is used in the sentence, but they don't really understand why the author would want to use it. For this activity, I read the first story (either book would work first) on one day. Then the next day, I give students this paper, and tell them to listen closely to my expression as I read the second book.

They have to listen for a question, a statement, and an exclamatory statement and write them down when they hear it. It is a really good assessment to see if your students can hear the difference when you are talking!

Hopefully this will help you in your punctuation journey! I know that it is slowly but surely helping mine :)

Enjoy the calm today, and good luck tomorrow. I know my class is going to be "batty!" (Haha)

Happy Tuesday!
Sarah