Dice Games for Math and Freebies

I have been wanting to link up with my Bloggy BFF Laura at Kinder Kraziness for her Math Monday party for a couple of weeks. But as I'm learning life with a baby doesn't always let me do these things. But she's still sleeping, so I'm taking advantage.

I think I'm a pretty good reading teacher but I feel like my math instruction can always use some work. I love the workshop format that Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills have set up in their Guided math units. But I don't always follow that format. One of my goals for this coming up school year is to make my math a little more workshop like. Our math series for the past 4 years or so has been Envisions and it wasn't the greatest. But we're getting a new series this Fall so I'm interested to see what it is like. I've always supplemented my instruction with activities that I've created or found on TPT. One of my favorite things to do is incorporate games into my lesson. The kids have a blast and they don't even realize they are learning. Plus once we play the games a few times in class, I move the games into their math center. I would love to say I use Math Workstations but I have never been able to get that to work for me. So as part of my center time, I have two math centers the kids work on. There are lots of different games that we play but today I'm going to focus on dice games.
I almost always start the year off with a roll and cover game. They are pretty easy for kindergartners to learn how to play and they can be differentiated pretty easily.
The beginnign of kindergarten I like to focus on Pete the Cat and Jennifer Knopf from Herding Kats in Kindergarten has a roll and cover that I use. You can check it out here. I also like roll and color which is the same concept just you color the picture instead of cover it. I have one of these in my newest math pack Sweet Treats.

 I tried it with my niece today and she had a lot of fun. 

I found a freebie I posted some time a while back of a roll and cover with a pet theme. You can get it here.  It is simple but it gets the job done.

Another dice game that I love is Bump. The kids love this one too. They can practice their numbers and they have the opportunity to bump their friends off of places. I made a freebie for you that I'll be using the beginning of the year with a blue cat theme. Sophie and I tried it out today and she had a blast playing it.

Click here to get the freebie on Google Docs. 

I try to include some kind of dice game in any unit I create for math. Another one that has dice games is Growing A Garden of Math Activities. There is a bump game in this unit for spring or a plant theme. 

Last year in first grade, I bought Just Add Dice Math Games Bundle from Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies. I loved this bundle. I could find a game for any first grade skill I was looking for and there was a theme for anything.  This became one of my favorite resources to use through out the year. 

My friend Kristen and Kristen's Kindergarten had a post all about dice games as well. So be sure to check her post out. 

Hopefully I'll be back again next Monday to talk about some more Math games that I use. But meanwhile check out the party at Kinder Kraziness and see what others are doing in math. 

Randomness and a Freebie

I have been racking my brain since Sunday to try to come up with a real topic for blogging on and I've come up with nothing. Nada. So here I am with a random hodge podge of stuff.
I have about a month before school starts back and really sooner than that I need to head to my classroom. I don't even know if I can get in my room yet. Usually I head back into the classroom in the month of July. I'm a weirdo. I like working in my room before school starts because there is no pressure. I can work on projects and if I feel like leaving I can. It is time for me to start thinking about what I want to do in my classroom and the next school year.
I'm planning on using bright colors in my classroom. I created a decor set all in rainbow colors to use this year. You can check it out on TPT. It is my first editable item. It was a lot of fun to make and I can't wait to get all ready for my room.

Here's the link on TPT

I realized while laying in bed the other night that I still needed name tags and tags for cubbies. I usually use a placemat for the name tags that has letters, numbers, colors, and such on it. But I won't use those until the second six weeks. (You can find a freebie of that on my facebook page under fan freebies tab.) So I made a freebie to share with you. 

Click here to go to the freebie. 

Mondays I keep my almost 3 year old niece. We have a blast together and I get to "teach" her. Yesterday we played Hi Ho Cherrio.

I don't think I had played this game since I was a kid. I was so impressed that my niece was able to play the game. I had to interpret the spinner some for her but she was able to count the fruit off her tree or out of her basket. Of course she also had fun just taking all the fruit and putting in her shell from the beach. But it got me thinking. This game would be perfect for beginning of the year math workstations. It practices counting, one to one correspondence and just playing a game. I'm definitely going to be finding this game for my classroom. 

We also had a lot of fun with pipe cleaners and beads. We made bracelets but again there was a lot of learning to be had. There was counting, sorting and then fine motor skills. It reminded me of this pin that I found on pinterest. 

I'm definitely going to be setting this one up for the first rotations. Looks pretty simple to get going and good for the kids to practice counting and some fine motor skills.

So those are my random thoughts for today. I spent part of my day with a family from school whose son has brain cancer. I asked for prayers back in January but I thought I'd share again. Please pray for this 12 year old boy and his family. I am so amazed by the strength his parents have had through this all.