Fall Cutting Strips

Happy Tuesday!

Does it feel like Fall where you are? Still feels like Summer in Southern California...

To get in the mood, I created some Fall cutting strips.

Spiderman wasn't sure what months are in Fall. He knows that Fall comes after Summer, but not the months. And the answer of course depends on where you live. But for the U.S., there isn't much confusion. So, some fine motor control, some learning about seasons and months, and lots of fun! These clip arts are great conversation starters, or writing prompts.
Spiderman told me it would be "awesome" to jump on a pile of leaves. He thinks he would like to gather them the first time. But after gathering, jumping etc, he would be "too tired", so I would have to gather the leaves the second time :)

The one for September is free. Get it here.
Please Note: This is for personal use only. Teachers, please see my TpT store.



The pictures inspired him to hunt down Pumpkin Soup , and Delicious , followed by Leaves (a wonderful book meant for a somewhat younger crowd. In my house, Batman reads it, and Spiderman turns the pages), and Big Pumpkin , with more books being gathered. 

Spider-man's list (for right now):
1. From Seed to Pumpkin
2. Curious George Goes to a Costume Party
3. Quite a few Dora and Diego Halloween themed books
4. Spooky Bunny Tales (Max and Ruby)

Batman's list looks more like this:
1. Calender Mystery #10 - October Ogre 
2. Flat Stanley and the Haunted House  
3. Ready Freddy! #11: Pumpkin Elf Mystery 

We are still adding to the list...

I had made Halloween themed A to Z Cards. After cutting the clip-arts, and taking a look at the cards, the two super-heroes were happily (read no fighting, screaming and whining)  engaged in creating fall themed cards of their own...

For the other two months, take a look here. These are great to associate events with months. Halloween is in October, Thanksgiving in November etc. I will add more as the seasons change.

Find my post and other awesome ideas here.

Ten Frames Fun

Please check out my TpT sale on all products. You can net a 28% savings :)


Now on to some free and on sale stuff on the store....

Spiderman has gotten interested in ten frames all of a sudden.

Ten frames are great visual tools for helping students to not only "see" the numbers and count - connecting counting to cardinality, but it's great with quick mental addition and subtraction, gaining understanding of place value, start composing and decomposing numbers into tens and ones etc. All in all, good stuff, and aligned with the Common Core Standards!

So  I decided to capitalize on this, and made some printables with themes I know he will like...
He has already played with the Pirate Themed Ten Frames previously, posted on my TpT store. You can read more about the fun "10 Doubloons" game it contains here. The game is fairly easy for Batman, so for him, it is purely a review. It also has the frames, of course. Spiderman has been working on his "spidey-fingers" by cutting out all pirate-y pictures to fill his frame.  

But then he requested something "different". So I made the space themed ten frames, which are free to download from here!
It has an empty ten frame for 10 and 20, space-y pictures to fill up those frames with, and for some great scissor fun, and it has the numerals from 1 through 20, along with their spelled counterparts.

I also  made some "I have-Who has" card games - three to be exact - for cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers, with the same space theme. Please find them here.

Batman has been making various jokes - about how he is 'having a blast with them', and 'these are outta this world mom'.

Well, at least all the jokes are complimentary. Spiderman does not get it yet....

The two games are definitely a bit of a challenge for Spiderman, and Batman is getting a decent amount of workout with these. Spiderman can't read yet, so he can't play the ordinal game. So please keep that in mind if you are downloading the games.

It targets the following Common Core Standards.

Counting and Cardinality

• Know number names and the count sequence
• Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

Number and Operations in Base Ten

• Work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value 
• Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones
• Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases: 10 can be thought of as a bundle of ten ones — called a “ten.” The numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones. The numbers 10, 20, and 30 are composed of one, two and three tens and zero ones.
  

Game 1: I have – Who has?

This game helps your little astronauts review their numbers from 1-30. The numbers are made up of yellow “ones” units and “tens” units. 

Game 2: I have – Who has?

This game helps your little astronauts review their numbers from 10 - 100, skip counting by 10. The numbers are made up of blue "tens” units. 

Game 3: I have – What comes next?

The astronauts start with the first ordinal number, and have to find the card that comes next. Astronauts may also practice placing the cardinal number cards in order from first to thirtieth.

You can find the games here.

I am hoping Spiderman and Batman gain (and build upon) a strong sense of numbers with all these fun tools! It is an added bonus that they are working towards the Common Core Standards as well!
If your little pirates, or astronauts find these useful and fun, please do leave me some comments and feedback :)

Monstrous Fun with Hard and Soft C Card Game

I love all the Pixar/Disney Animation movies, perhaps a tad bit more than my kids :)
 
Have you seen Monsters University yet? I am still trying to convince Spiderman that it is NOT going to be scary and super-fun. And of course, there will be popcorn. It is slow going so far.

In the meantime, to pacify Batman (who is starting to get the hang of Uno, and wants to play card games), I thought it might be fun to make a monster themed card game with some learning!

Hence our Soft and Hard 'C' Card Game. The monsters need some help with their C sounds at school. Think you can help them out? Well then, get ready for some "Monstrous Fun at  School"!!

 This is a a freebie. So just head on over to my TpT store and grab it. Just print on card-stock, laminate, cut, and you are all set.  

 

There are 18 cards with hard 'c' sound...

  
18 cards with the soft 'c' sound...

6 cards with both soft and hard 'c' sounds...

12 gotcha cards that make you lose a turn or draw again...

 and 12 empty cards.

And if your little monsters are not quite ready to read yet, no worries. The cards all have the pictures in them. So pre-readers and emergent readers are good to go. Everyone can join in the fun.

Long and Short Of It - Vowel Sorting Cards

Spiderman has mastered the short vowel sounds. He consistently identifies the beginning sound, is nearly perfect at the ending sounds, and is getting quite good at the middle sounds...

I thought it might be fun to introduce him to the long vowel sounds, although it is a lot to remember for a 3.5 year old!  I explained to him the concept of long and short vowel sounds. Then we decided to sort the cards by their sounds. Control cards made the column headers. If the vowel says its name, it goes in the column for the long sound. I was quite amazed that he took to the concept so quickly.

 My most rewarding moment was Batman trying to teach Spiderman the concept of Bossy E. How the Bossy E makes the vowels say their name. It was hilarious, and quite rewarding...

                
For Batman (5.5), sorting the cards according to their vowel sound, long or short, was not much of a challenge. He wanted to make his own cards. So this set has empty cards for those who are up to the challenge. Batman was  quite happily occupied drawing, coloring, and then figuring out the spelling of the words.

With 110 cards and 20 blank cards, it is sure to keep the kiddos engaged!  There are 22 cards for each vowel, with 11 each for the short and the long vowel sounds, along with one card for each vowel sound. The cards have the vowels on them in the bottom left hand corner for easy sorting.

But the fun does not end there. There are over 20 cards with CVC words, great for beginning readers. There are some blend words, and plenty of bossy e/magic e words as well. It was a great exercise for Batman, trying to read the labels. 

The set is great for pre-readers, because although the labels are there, you don't need to read them. Just say the word out loud, decide what vowel sound you hear, and sort!!

Check out the cards here.




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Things That Go Together Printables

Spiderman loves our collection of miniatures. See this post for his comments and observations about pre-reading fun with matching objects.

I decided to mix it up a bit, and created some "mostly" new cards for more matching fun...

This is a great problem solving and matching game. It encourages your pint sized learners to develop critical sorting, categorization, thinking skills, all the while extending their vocabulary. 
And all this when they are having fun!

I made  26 pairs of cards on a boatload of topics. So it is guaranteed to keep them engaged. 
This set is Batman's and Spiderman's fave.

 This next set gave them both a moment of pause! I could hear the gears turning :)

 The set is free, and available for download at my TpT store here.A big shout out to the wonderful graphics at My Cute Graphics! I adore them. They are cute and free!

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Pink and Pirates at TpT Store

No, it's not about pink pirates this time!

But I did put some fun stuff on the TpT store, and I hope you will find it useful and have some fun with it!

I started with the Montessori Pink Series for Language Arts (start at the beginning, right?).

One is free preview of the series with a little bit of everything....

....and the other one is  focused specifically on the Pink Series Rhyming Fun, with 30 cards, 4 worksheets, and rhyming chutes and ladders game with just words from the pink series...
My two super-heroes love this twist on the fun classics game.

If anyone is just starting with the Pink Series, and would like to see something specific, I am open to suggestions! Another file with just the Pink Series Cards will be up shortly, followed my more worksheets.
The ambitious idea is add more on the Pink, followed by Blue and Green, but I get ahead of myself, lol :)

I also added some ten frames, pirate style, from 1, all the way up to 20...

It has a fun ten frames game - along with the ten frame you get, you need to pick the corresponding treasure chest with the right number on it, so you can get to 10. In this case, a pirate picked up a 9, and needs the chest with 1 on it!

 

The file also has addition cards to reinforce the learning with the ten frames, and tons of cliparts for the pirates to fill up their frames with. It also provides some excellent fine motor skill if they cut the pix themselves!! 

That's all for now, although I am working on adding more fun stuff.

So if you have are interested, head on over to the TpT store, and give me some feedback please! 

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