1-2-3 Come Do Some Gingerbread Activities With Me

Our Gingerbread theme was one of my Y5's favorites for December. (Mine too!)  It's pretty neutral, so if your district is picky about what you can and can't do at your school, perhaps gingerbread will be "appropriate".

A few years ago I designed the schoolhouse fact family packet, followed up by the haunted house fact families, so why not make a winter-themed fact family right; what could be more fitting for a winter fact family than a gingerbread house? 

I've made some revisions and added a few more things to this newest collection of fact family houses.  I hope you enjoy today's FREEBIE. Click on the link to grab it. Gingerbread Fact Family Houses.

I really like it when my activities match, so I've used D. H. Inkers' adorable gingerbread house for a variety of lessons that I hope you'll enjoy.

I had a special request from Erin, in Montana, for gingerbread house number cards, so I got busy and whipped those together. 

I've included math symbols and counter tiles, so you can do even more things with them + games and several bookmarks.

I also dreamed up an odd and even sorting mat, and thought it would be cute to sort via odd or even gingerbread house "address" numbers. 

To practice the format for writing an address, as well as help children memorize their zip code, I've included a "give your gingerbread an address" activity.

When I made up my sample, I wondered if there really was a city named Christmas Cove and to my delight there was!  It's in Maine, the state my son Steven, was born in.  There's also a Christmas, Michigan (my home state) as well as a Christmas, Florida. (Oh to be there right now!)  Simply Google cities with holiday names, for a list of all sorts of sites, with this fun trivia.

If your kiddo’s want to locate their gingerbread house close to Santa, 99705 is the zip code listed when I googled Alaska and clicked on North Pole.  There’s nothing there for over 400 miles though; and just an FYI The North Pole is NOT a land mass. 

This is a fact that you should really share with your kiddo’s, because of the Polar Express ( a personal favorite) and other stories and cartoons, many children think that it is.

The North Pole is a definition of the latitude, which is 90 degrees north. That exact location will find you in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, so I don’t think there’s a floating post office out there.  There are ice flows though.

The most northerly piece of land on earth is Kaffeklubben Island, which according to Wikipedia is 83°40′N, 29°50′W, and is 707 kilometers (440 mi) from the geographic North Pole. I've included more information in the packet, and found some nice photography on YouTube from the weather cams at the North Pole. Click on the link to take the trip.

For the gingerbread address activity and number card fun, click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread Number Fun Packet.

This led to making gingerbread house groups/sets cards.  Cut them up and make into puzzles and Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" games. I've included counters for even more options. Click on the link to grab those to go along with the above packet.

I also made a Gingerbread House Slider.  Click on the link for this great whole-group assessing tool.  I've included upper & lowercase letter strips, numbers, shapes, + skip counting sliders for 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's. 

Add pizzazz to your kiddo's houses with glitter glue, white puffy paint, or colored confetti.  I really like the candy-like look of the confetti. 

You can buy a bag at most party stores for less than $2. Stock up for next year after New Year's when bags are as much as 75% off.

To reinforce patterning, have students pick a pattern and then use a red and green marker to trace the numbers & letters.

TIPS: It's easier for them to trace BEFORE they cut their strips apart.  Putting a piece of Scotch tape on the back of seams also makes for smooth sliding. Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread House Slider.

Finally, I had so much fun with the confetti, I thought of a gingerbread shape game.  Children pick a partner and take turns spinning, whatever shape they land on, they color that matching "window" on their gingerbread house. 

When they are done playing the game, decorate the roof tops with confetti.  For that added bit of pizzazz, have your students cut their door, so that it opens, and then glue a photo inside. 

I've also included a gingerbread man button matching game in this packet too.  Children play this shape game, by rolling a dice. When they are done, they draw a face on their gingerbread.  Click on the link for the Gingerbread Shapes Up Game.

Thanks for visiting.  It's time to go catch some snowflakes on my tongue, while I frolic as a child with my little grandson Kaiden.  Wishing you a fun-filled magical day. 

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is to sing loud for all to hear; and of course whipping up a batch of gingerbread to share." -Unknown

A Spook-tacular Math Game:Haunted Fact Family Houses!

Since the Fact Family Schoolhouses were such a huge hit for back to school, I decided to make a Fact Family set for October too.

This  "craftivity" and game help reinforce addition and subtraction math standards in a fun way.

The 17-page packet includes:

• Fact Family "craftivity" templates.
• Fact Family spinner game templates.
• Directions and link for a home-school math connection for fact family online homework skill building practice
• Directions and sample of how to make mini dry erase envelope boards.
• Fact Family T-bar "mad-minute" skill sheets +
• A certificate of praise.

If your students did the Schoolhouse Packet, they are already "empowered"! This one will be a real self-esteem builder for them.

Click on the link to view/download Fact Family Haunted House Packet.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others might find useful.

"Let us endeavor so to live, that when we die, even the undertaker will be sorry." - Mark Twain

It’s time to Blast Off With Me and Learn a Fact Family

Since the Fact Family Schoolhouses were such a huge hit, I wanted to dream up some more things that would get students excited to WANT to learn and practice their fact families.

Let’s face it, things can get pretty tedious when you’re a kid, and teachers only have so much time to think outside the box.

That’s my forte’ and I had an absolute blast designing a Space Travel Fact Family Learning Log!

I really think this idea will get your students “hooked” and they’ll actually be asking to work on their math facts, because they’ll want to collect the “stickers”!  Collecting something is quite addicting to a child.  That’s why it’s such a hot market in the toy world.

Stickers are an easy and fun way to motivate them and build their self-esteem at the same time; besides, playing the games and doing the activities are also entertaining!

I’m not sure why a small scrap of paper is such a big deal to a little kid, but I’m all over it, because of its success as a motivational and incentive teaching tool.

I’ve designed several types for students to choose from; you print them off and they cut and glue them to their booklets, or you can use my clipart designs and drag them into a label and truly make them “sticky”.

The more opportunities you can think of to immerse kids in fact families, the easier it is for them to remember them, ‘til the light bulb finally comes on. 

“Practice makes perfect!” really rings true, when it comes to fact families, however, this can get rather boring.

“Worksheets” can quickly become “skill-drill and kill” sheets and is precisely why I don’t call tabletop lessons “worksheets”, but “skill sheets”.

Who wants to do work?  For example: Which statement gets you rarin’ to go? “Please do the worksheet on your desk.” Or…“Today we’re having fun practicing a skill by playing a game.” See what I mean?

Here’s How To Make A Learning Log:

Run off my masters.  Students will be taking a journey “…on a planetary path, learning fact family math.” 

Each time they learn a fact family, they get a planet sticker. Once they’ve learned ALL of the fact families in the galaxy, they receive the bonus Earth sticker for the “mission” accomplished” achievement.

They choose a rocket, name, cut and glue it to their booklet and are able to earn rocket stickers for a variety of in-class fact family work.

They also choose an alien friend, name, cut and glue them to that learning log page and are able to earn alien and spaceship stickers for still more fact family activities.

There’s also a page for miscellaneous reward and award stickers.  Here I suggest having a daily or weekly sticker posted, which keeps students motivated and gets them excited to work on some aspect of fact families, because they will want to earn that featured sticker

Finally, the last page is a congratulations page, where they have accomplished their math missions and their learning log is now complete!

I’ve included a fact family rocket spinner game, rocket booklet, traceable fact family number and equation cards, recording sheets, and other fun-filled fact family stuff for your students to do, to make collecting stickers and learning along their journey, most pleasurable.

Click on the link to view/download the Rocket Fact Family Packet   I hope you and your space travelers enjoy this packet as much as I did creating it!

Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN anything from my site that you think others might find helpful.

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." -Malcolm Forbes

It's A Wonderful Day In The Fact Family Neighborhood!

So what's the big deal about fact families?

Once a student knows the relationships of the fact family members, it's easy for them to see what number is missing at a quick glance.

Solving addition and subtraction problems is then much easier and starts to become automatic.

Fact family houses are a great way to teach visual learners about the relationships among the three numbers in that family.

Knowing fact families, especially those, which create number sentences that add up to 10, are a key part of math.

Making fact family houses and putting them in a neighborhood can help students learn the "tens facts" by heart. I thought it would be fun for students to create a neighborhood of schoolhouses!

Here's How: To create a neighborhood, run off the schoolhouses on 10 different colors of construction paper.  I like to teach a rainbow pattern later on in the year, so now is a great time to start with those 1^st six bright colors.

Next, have students fill in the rest of the Tens Facts, one in each house, to create the entire neighborhood. Once the neighborhood is finished, children use a square of Scotch tape to hinge them together.

Run off the covers for each fact family on white copy paper.  Students cut those out, solve the problems and then glue them to the back of the first house in the fact family.

When they are completed, students will have a variety of different colored fact family house booklets that they can stand up and make into neighborhoods of schoolhouses.

Another thing you can do with this packet that will help reinforce fact families, is to show students how to write the families using a T bar.

I tell children that they are becoming T-eriffic at making fact families so they get to make T-Bars.

Students simply trace the T in red and write the missing number on the other side of the bar. This number when added to the other will make the number on top of the T bar. You can turn this sheet into a “mad-minute” and time students.

The Fact Family Spinner Game is also another way to get the facts reinforced. Children spin the spinner, whatever number they land on, they find that number tile and place it in the top attic window of their schoolhouse.

They decide what other numbers they are going to choose to make a fact family for that number and fill in the remaining tiles and then X-off that fact family on their recording sheet.

The first student, who completes all of the fact families, wins the game. Click on the link to view/download Fact Family Schoolhouse packet

Finally, the last way I review fact families with students is with mini-dry erase boards that I make out of glossy ink jet paper.

You can buy an entire box of paper at Sam’s Club, Costco or any of the office supply stores for around $10, with anywhere from 100-200 sheets.

Cut strips the length of the paper a tad shy of 4 inches wide.  Buy a box of long colored envelopes. Seal the envelopes and snip off the ends so that they are 4 inches long.

When you write on the glossy side of the paper with a dry erase marker it easily wipes off just as if you were using a dry erase board!  I bought a pack of white washcloths and cut them into small squares.

Because these are so inexpensive to make, you could make them for your students every year, so they could keep them. Have them store them in their desk, cubby, or folder for easy access.  Use them for math, name writing, letters, shape identification etc.

If you like to have home-school connections for your students, a great way to practice their math facts is by logging them into Xtra Math.

It’s a free online program, run by a non-profit organization, that is dedicated to math achievement for all.

This is less than 10 minutes a day of math that your students can work on at home to increase their recognition of math facts. The program is free, simple and includes progress reports. I found it while surfing the net. It’s recommended by Edmodo, and worth checking out to see if it fits your needs.

I hope these ideas have added to your math bag of tricks, to help make teaching in your neighborhood, a bit more wonderful!

“Too often we give children answers to remember, rather than problems to solve.” –Roger Lewin