Eye See October Freebie

October is just a day away!  October brings Halloween fun and lots of gross stuff in stores.  We all know kids love gross things!  What better way to trick kids into learning by using gross things.

One of my favorite finds was eyeball ping pong balls.  I found them at the Dollar Tree.  When you see them buy several packs!  Use one set to write sight words on (get it sight word eyeballs!)  Then also write numbers on another set.  You can use these great things all month in a multitude of centers.

Here is a great freebie to start you off with!  This freebie includes a fun Sight Words Eye Can Read and Eye Can Make 10!  Perfect for your word work and math centers this month.  Click here to download it.

If you like this freebie, make sure you check out more freebies at Classroom Freebies Manic Monday!

"Eye" have ghost poop and a freebie!

I have a sweet, puffy, fun reward for my students this month!  I like to use quick little rewards through out the day,  and these are perfect!  I know there are all kinds of mixed reviews on using food as a reward for kids.  I give them the choice between a sweet treat or sticker.  My favorite thing with the ghost poop is that it is quick, cheap and easy.  I quickly hand it out, they eat it and there is no more distraction.  There is nothing worse than handing out a tangible reward, then the students play with it and it becomes a distraction.  I also love this little container, it keeps them fresh and allows me to sprinkle one in a child's hand without touching it with my germ infested hands.  Every once in a while, two mini "ghost poops" come out, Woo Hoo!

"Eye" must admit I have become quite obsessed with the cute eyeball ping pong balls I found the other day.  I wrote sight words on them and used them in the word work center and the kids loved them!!!  

You can pick up the sight word activity that started it all and a new "eye" can make 10 activity here.  I have included word and number cards, so you don't have to have the eyeballs (although it is way more fun!

My mind got to spinning and I came up with so many amazing ideas to use them in centers.  I kept going and going and before I knew it I had 13 activities!  I put them all together for you to pick up here at my TpT store for only $2.  Let me know what you think.

 I can not wait to see my students working in their Super 6 Centers tomorrow challenging themselves to become better readers, writers, thinkers and problem solvers!

Have you seen the Scentos Halloween markers??

My kiddos love using the Scentos markers for spelling practice in Word Work during the Super 6 Differentiated Learning Centers.  I have them practice writing their words in pen, pencil Scentos marker and crayon.  They would completely balk at writing all of their words 4 times each but love doing this! Click here to download the word template for this activity and just enter you spelling words.

This is a favorite activity for my kids so imagine how excited I was to find these at Michaels.  It made this old time favorite instantly new and fun again!

My kids loved the new markers so much, they may have spent more time smelling them then writing with them.  Yesterday when I was checking on the kids in centers, I asked them if they were working hard or just playing around with the new markers.  As they looked up to me and said we are working very hard, I noticed both boys had marker under their noses.  I couldn't help but smile and giggle!

Well today I put the Sight Words "Eye" Can Read in the writing center.  The kids loved digging into the bucket of eyeball ping pong balls.  The Super 6 was going great, everyone was working and it was nice and quiet until the bucket tipped!  The ping pong eyeballs went everywhere!  (I know this is aging me and many won't remember this, but I thought of Captain Kangaroo! Who else remembers this?)

Motivation and Eye Can Read Sight Words FREEBIE!

Last night my daughter taught me how important motivation is to getting things done.  I also learned that what I think may be a great motivator really isn't!

My youngest daughter Tori is super messy and her room was a disaster!  I tried for 4 days to motivate her to clean her room.  I offered her things (bribery), asked nicely, raised my voice, took away TV, dessert, and electronic devices.  Nothing worked.  (It did work with my older daughter.) Last night she asked "Can I wait until the morning to take my bath?"  I initially said no and she pouted.  So my response was "If you have your room clean in 30 minutes, you can wait until the morning to take your bath."  Wouldn't you know it, she had it cleaned!

So the lesson I learned to take into the classroom... You have to find the right motivation to reach each child!

Last post I told you about the really fun eyeball ping-pong balls I found at The Dollar Tree.  Well here is the first way I plan to use them in my room.  I wrote "sight" words on the eyeballs and put them in a bucket.  In the Word Work center during the Super 6 Differentiated Learning Centers, students take turns picking out an eye.  If they can read the word, they keep it in the eye and record it on their sheet. (Included in this FREEBIE at my TpT store.) Once they record their 15 "sight" words, they use them to write spooky sentences.  I have also included "sight" word cards to use if you don't have eye "balls" available.

I have a really funny story to share tomorrow and another Word Work Freebie!  If you haven't already, please follow my store and blog so you will know about all of the freebies coming up!

Great Monday and Word Work Fun

Today was a Magnificent Monday! I have had a Senior intern this semester. It has been an experience, but I really missed teaching. This week I began to start taking back over. The kids and I both enjoyed it.

I am die hard "Daily Fiver" with and added twist. I combine the Daily 5 with STEM to make it the Super 6! (I will expound on this in a later post.) Today my kids loved "Word Work". Mondays are always spelling practice. In the past we have had the kiddos write the words in pencil, pen, marker and crayon. To mix it up a little, we mixed up the letters for all of the words. We gave them a word bank and then had them unscramble the words. After unscrambling the words, they did the writing practice.

Click on the image above or here to download the Word template for this. Just insert your spelling lists.