Calming the Chaos

Welcome to the Calming the Chaos Blog Hop hosted by 2peasandadog.

All of us bloggers have come together to share our top tips for making the last month of
school run smoothly.

Visit each of our blogs to learn something new and catch a freebie or two!

Happy Hopping

To keep my kids engaged in learning I try to make it fun!

 (Some of the activities I share are a part of a product that I sell in my stores. If you are interested in them, please click on the picture to go to the store link)

Here are some ideas that work wonderfully:)

1. Games:

Flyswatter-

for math facts, alphabet facts, sight words, foreign language facts, etc.

Players lay a fact card down, say the correct answer and swat it!  The first to swat it wins the fact (works with any flash card or manipulative...letters, shapes, etc.)!   Winner with the most facts in the end wins!


Manipulative Eggs: 

1-3 player game. First player takes an egg, reads the fact on the egg, and uses the manipulatives in the egg to find the answer. Second player checks the answer. (In the picture below the game is used for multiplication facts and a calculator is used to check the answers)



Each player gets their own set of eggs with manipulatives inside all held together in their own (soap) dish! (All from the dollar store!!!)



Manipulative Game in a bag of gelle:

Choose any manipulative facts your kids need to learn and add it to a bag of gelle (cheap hair gelle from the dollar store!) Each player takes a turn finding their fact and records it on a recording sheet (paper, dry erase board, etc.). In the picture below there is dice in the bag along with addition math fact families. The player rolls the dice answer(5) and finds the math fact numbers that can make the answer(4+1=5). This is a great tactile activity to reinforce any fact your kiddos need to learn!



Go fish or Matching game using spoons or cards:

Use facts of your choice and have the players take turns asking for the match that they need. Use either as a go fish or matching game.

In the picture below each player takes turns matching the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter. Use any color spoons along with clear spoons.



Another example is using facts to match to the correct answer on a mat or chart. Below the students take turns with two different letters to blend a word. They can then record their answers on a recording sheet.



The example below is a matching game with cards. The students take turns matching the correct Spanish Word to the Correct English word. The cards are also color coded.


or matching the number card to the number on the mat. (This can be done in any language to practice vocabulary or number order)

2. Art projects & hands on activities:
Use play-doe to make words, numbers, letters, shapes, etc.



Singing to learn a lesson



Reenacting stories or facts from a lesson using masks (learning about rain forest toucans)



puppets (retelling a story)



Making edible models of different concepts:


Below the kids used cheese balls and tooth picks to show the parts and sizes of each part of an atom.



and then made a model of each...when they were done they could eat it if they wanted!



Chemical reactions and Color Wheel lessons: Use colored vinegar with an eyedropper to drop different colors into baking soda.



Art: 

 Use art when teaching concepts and you need your students to sit quietly and listen. When children use the right side of their brain (creativity) it has a calming and quieting effect. I allow my students to work on art while we are discussing or learning something new. It keeps them quietly busy and engaged.


The art below is a mixed media using oil pastels and water colors. They were specifically drawn using oil pastels crayons and then filled in using old markers dipped in water(watercolor.



This is a drawing with a 3D effect, using straight lines and curved lines. To do this have your students trace their hand or draw any object on a piece of paper. Then draw straigh lines across the paper using a curved line over their drawing (the fingers and hand).




Finding Secret codes:

Use hidden codes to teach subjects your students need to learn. I taught my students about the Egyptian alphabet using the activity below.


The students were given a name code in Egyptian hieroglyphics along with the code. They had to decipher the code to find whose name card they had. If you would like to do this with your students you can find everything you need here.



Here is a freebie that teaches the ancient Hebrew letters through their pictorial meaning. The students have to find the hidden ancient Hebrew letter in the picture! This is included in my Ancient Hebrew Civilizations, Root Words, Acrostic Poems Unit- common core unit.  I hope that you found something in my examples to inspire you to make learning fun for your students. If you did please leave a comment I would love to hear what your ideas and thoughts are!

Here is a little freebie (ribbon calendar numbers) and another little freebie (more ribbon calendar numbers) and another little freebie ( a sneak peak into abc 123 100 party on TPT) for you that I hope you will find useful! There is also a giveaway you can enter below!


Don't forget to visit the other blogs to get more ideas and FREEBIES!


Remember keep it fun!


Thank you for stopping by!

Calming the Chaos Participants

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