Easy to prepare Number Game and a FUN Freebie Hop!

Need an easy-to-prepare number game? This is an oldie, much played game in my classroom, but a goodie!

Print and copy some hundreds charts. Laminate them if possible. Cut them into strips - either vertical or horizontal. Ask your students to place them back into order, after being shuffled. 

Have a few copies - each on a different shade of paper. This activity will help familiarise your students with a hundreds chart and number order.

Make the activity harder by 'whiting out' some of the numbers (especially at the beginning and end of rows) before you copy and laminate them. You can also cut them into non-standard strips, so students have a more difficult task of ordering the pieces. 

I just made these fun desk plates for my resource collection. 

When I make anything for my classroom, I always try to pack it with value, and by that I mean, if I am going to go to the time and $$ expense to make something, I want to get the biggest educational punch possible from it! When I make desk plates, I want more from them than to just label the desks. If its till looks cute - great.

Here is how you might be able to get some added value from MY 'Stick Kid Cuties' desk plates, and others you may find out there!

1. Colour - give each student a different colour (I have included 6 colours). Now you have instant student groupings. You can say "all the green students, you can walk out first" etc. Give each student a new colour each term. Make sure you add a variety of colours to your groups of student desks. Then you have two layers of groupings, you have colour groups AND you have table groups. 

2. Blank Name Space - laminate your plates, but leave the name space blank. Make it part of your students morning routine to write their own name on their name plate, with a dry erase marker. Presto - now your students have something to do when they walk in the room, but you have also got them to practice their name writing. In the early days of Kindergarten, provide two cards - one with the name written and one without. Part of the packing-up routine at the end of the day can be to wipe their card clean. And no, not on the carpet thank you, as one little fellow of mine did a couple of years ago. Wondered what all the black smudges were for a while.... kinder... boys.... !!!

3. USE the letters and numbers! Lots of desk plates have a display of letters, sounds etc on them. I am always amazed at how many students will sit in their seat and ponder how a number 5 is written, when it is right there in front of them. They need to be reminded. The BEST way to train your students to use their desk plate as a source of useful information, is to play games and activities that require them to find information on it. That way, when they are working independently, they are more likely to use it. Simply provide a whiteboard marker to each of your students. Ask them to circle 5 sounds or numbers on their desk plate. Now, call some randomly. As each is called, students wipe out their circles. The fist student to get them wiped out can call out 'Bingo'.  This is such an easy way to implement a quick activity and best yet, it uses something you have already set up for your students. That my friends, equals more educational punch from your efforts! 

And a big Happy Father's Day to all my friends in the USA! We celebrate in September. My dad is quite honestly my hero. I could write five blog posts about him. It took me many many years to accept that he is literally (almost) always right! I have never seen him fail at anything. Super clever, an ideas man and fiercely loyal to his family.

Here is one of the few photos I have of him playing with me, so it is a favourite.  More than anything, he is and always has been an incredibly hard worker. I have very few memories of my dad sitting down or resting.

Love you Dad!