Learning Made Fun: Education Ideas and Resources

I'm really enjoying venturing into making mystery logic puzzles and am excited to share with you my latest creation this week. For this new puzzle, I've increased the difficulty by making it a 4 X 4 puzzle grid. The clues require careful reading too (and probably re-reading) to solve.
These are handy to use when you have some time to spare but don't want to waste. I think these are a fun way to exercise the brain.

Prep

Print and go!
Save paper by laminating and using washable markers to reuse
Use on a tablet with an electronic 'pen'
Or just display on your Interactive White Board to try and solve as a class

Download your free copy of this puzzle HERE!

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What is a MAth Quest? Flash Freebie Included!

5/7/2018

Click Here to Access Video Library

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Over the past two years, I've been developing a range of Math Quests as another fun option to make math work entertaining and fun for the kids. During this time, I've received many questions about what a Math Quest is and what it involves, so I thought today that it would be best to create a post that will explain this type of activity . . . And include a Math Quest FLASH FREEBIE for you to try at the end.

Find out at the end which one of my Math Quests is going FREE FOR A WEEK!
(May 7th, 2018 - May 13th, 2018)

What is a Math Quest?
It begins with a story, both video hook and written versions of the story included in all quest packets. Check out a video hook intro below for 'Raiders of the Lost Egg.' The Video Hook presents the start of the story, designed to set the stage to engage your students. When the video hook ends, is when students must continue the story on the paper part of the activity beginning at 'Chapter 1.'

Access the Video Library to find and freely view all Math Quest Video Hooks. Look for the Math Quests header and click through titles underneath to view.

The rest of the story is a paper and pencil activity that continues in 'chapters.' Each chapter reveals the next part of the story, posing a math task to complete. Once the math task is complete, students may progress to the next chapter. See a sample page below from 'Redbeard's Rebellion' - Chapter 2 - 'Medium' Level Version.

Each chapter will pose a different type of math challenge, involving one or a mix of skills. I've tried my best to set these pages up to make checking answers quick and easy for the teacher. For example, in the image above, the teacher would need to check if the student chose the correct direction. Also, the added totals for each wheel will give a better indication whether the student just 'guessed' or did the calculations correctly.
PLEASE NOTE:

Some puzzles are 'open-ended' and will just need to be checked by the student, teacher or a partner to see if it 'works.'
Some puzzles require a final code or 'special number' that will give you a quick indication if the calculations are correct.
Other pages may require a 'visual' check, such as did they color the right path on the maze, or climb the correct rocks to reach the top. I've included another sample chapter page in the image below.

(Please note that there are answer pages included with all quest packets.)

Sample Page - CHAPTER 2 EASY LEVEL from
'ESCAPE MONSTER MANSION'

There are lots of different ways these chapters are presented to keep students interested and challenged.

The final chapter of each Math Quest will present some choices for actions to take in the story. Students make their choice and then complete the math in that section, carrying out instructions to receive a 'special number.' If they do the math correctly, the special number will match up to their ending of the story on the final page. Four alternate endings to receive! See sample below:

Final Chapter from 'The Heartless Queen' HARD LEVEL

The 'NUMBER TOTAL' in their box chosen is a special number that they will need to use on the next page to discover their story ending. If they cannot find their special number, then they know they've made an error and must go over their calculations again.

You would need to keep the story ending page hidden until a student has their special number ready.
Suggestion: You could hide the endings page in an envelope and ask students only to go and check once they have a special number ready.

Sample Endings page from'The Terrible Turkey Take Over.'

As you can see in the sample endings page above, there are little images paired with each paragraph. Like in a game this is the 'item' they receive upon completing the quest (image only).

If students want to go back to achieve a different ending, you could allow that as long as they complete the math in the box for it.

There are early finisher worksheets included with each packet. Students can continue the quest fun with these simple extra activities while waiting for others to finish. Please see a sample below from 'School Jungle Jam.'

What DO I USE MATH QUESTS FOR?

Math quests are great to use for:

Enrichment
Set one chapter at a time as a math warm-up activity
Engaging work around holiday seasons - Most of these quests have a 'holiday' theme if you wish to incorporate into a certain day. However, they are designed to be able to use any time of the year in case you miss the chance around a certain period.
Early finishers - Set this up as a booklet for your fast finishers to work on whenever there's time to spare.
Extra math practice with a fun twist.
Homework/assignment
End of the Year work that is fun but still educational

Preparation and Set-Up

Print, photocopy and go. (Save paper by only printing the chapter pages that require writing on).
You could staple all of the chapters together and give to students all at once to work on, OR only give out one chapter at a time to complete. I recommend that students must show a completed chapter before receiving the next.
Set the (optional) video hook to the board ready for viewing when introducing the task.
Hide the 'endings' page in an envelope or somewhere special (optional).
Have your answer key ready for easy checking.

Differentiation Options

You may have noticed that I marked the sample pages with 'EASY' 'MEDIUM' and 'HARD.' That is because each Math Quest is available in three modes of difficulty. The story is the same, but the math and puzzle difficulty changes.
You can differentiate this activity in your class by giving out different levels of the same quest.
The chapters are interchangeable, which means you can adjust the difficulty for certain chapters.
See example below from 'Reindeer Roundup - Chapter 1.'

EASY

MEDIUM

HARD

There is nowhere marked on a student page easy, medium, or hard. So, unless you tell them, your students won't know what level they have. The pages are 'symbol' coded so that only teachers know what the level of difficulty is.

If you own the differentiated bundle of a math quest, you will have all the levels available for that quest ready to pick and swap as you wish. Otherwise, individual levels are available for separate purchase.

Math Quest - OVER THE RAINBOW FLASH FREEBIE!!!

As promised at the start of this post, I'd make a full differentiated Math Quest FREE for ONE WEEK! Don't miss out on a chance to download 'OVER THE RAINBOW' and try a Math Quest out to see if you and your students like this type of activity. All three levels are included within the differentiated packet so that you can also try 'swapping' chapters.

Because of the leprechaun and pot of gold theme, 'Over the Rainbow' can be incorporated with a St. Patrick's Day theme. However, this is still fine to use any time of the year, especially at the end of the year. So print, copy, and there's a fun activity you can do with your class tomorrow.

Your feedback on this resource would be appreciated.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS RESOURCE.
Please note: After one week, the price of this product will return to $7.95

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Video Hook Included

FIND THIS RESOURCE HERE - FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Did you like this Math Quest?

If you like this product, you may wish to bundle and save with the COMPLETE MATH QUEST BUNDLE below. All levels are included at a super discounted price.

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FIND THE COMPLETE MATH QUEST BUNDLE HERE AND GET THEM ALL!

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May the Savings Be With You

5/7/2018

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Check out this collection of May resources and Enter the Rafflecopter at the end of this post for a chance to win them all, PLUS A $50 TPT Gift Card to go on a resource shopping spree!!!

End the year with a bang! Make the classroom fun, yet still educational with the collection of resources featured in this blog post. With the site-wide sale on Teachers Pay Teachers this week, you can grab these at discounted prices! Remember to use the code THANKYOU18 at the checkout for extra savings on top of discounts offered by the sellers.

Treasure Each Month May Activities

Store: Heart 2 Heart Teaching
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/h2hteaching/

Hip, Hip, Hooray for May! May is such a fun month with special holidays such as Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day. Our May BUNDLE has all you need to celebrate them all and more! It's made up of 6 mini-units to celebrate this fun-filled month! A Father's Day Flip Book and End of the Year Activities are included in this bundle for the month of June! This bundle includes topics related to social studies, science, and special holidays that are all related to the month of May and June.

Growth Mindset Class Awards

Store: Heart 2 Heart Teaching
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/h2hteaching/

These Growth Mindset Class Awards are perfect for the end of the year! Thus pack includes 36 different colorful designs with and without clipart. Plus they are EDITABLE so you can personalize them too!

End of The Year Math Mystery:
Case of The Graduation Gremlins

Store: Mrs. J’s Resource Creations
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mrsjsresourcecreations/

Oh dear! The gremlins have stolen all of the Graduation items putting a damper on things at the end of the year. Students must use their math skills to unlock special clues that will help figure out where those pesky gremlins are hiding. No prep required, just print and go! An optional video hook is also provided to set the stage to engage!

Available in versions for 1st - 6th grade. Individual resource links provided within the TPT Video description section.

Math Quest: Redbeard's Rebellion

Store: Mrs. J’s Resource Creations
Send your students on an epic Math Quest with this exciting pirate story “Redbeard’s Rebellion”. It covers a mix of math skills, making it an excellent activity for practice and review at the end of the year. With six exciting chapters to work through, students can end up with one of four possible endings. Great activity for enrichment, early finishers, sub tub or to just add a bit of extra fun to math review time.
Available in three difficulty levels - easy, medium, and hard. Purchase levels separately or bundle and get all three for the price of two levels.

Optional Video Hook provided to introduce students to the activity. A written story is also provided in the download. Use one or the other (or both if you wish).

Spring Skip Counting Puzzles

Store: Angie S
Count by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. This is a set of 10 picture puzzles for skip counting practice. They are self correcting. The spring theme will engage students and offer guided practice as the final picture will control for errors.

Spring Activity for Speech Therapy

Store: Angie S

Spring Beginning Letter Clip Cards is a great activity for literacy stations or for early finishers. It allows children to engage their pre-reading skills (phonemic awareness) by identifying beginning letter sounds of various images.

What Was the Battle of Gettysburg?

Store: Mrs. Hansen’s Helpfuls
Facebook:https ://www.facebook.com/mrshansenshelpfuls /

End the year with this great literature activity. Perfect for helping students learn about the Civil War and impact on others. This unit also comes with a fantastic project that goes with the book.

The War of 1812 CKLA Grade 2

End the year with a BANG of a lesson plan! This War of 1812 unit will help you complete the Grade 2 CKLA units with a great end of the year writing activity too!

Math Facts Review Game - Addition - Water Fight

Store: Kelly Malloy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelly.malloy.12
Math Facts Practice Made Fun!

I am always looking for ways for my students to get more practice with their math facts. Games are the easiest way to do that - the students don't even realize they are working!

This is a version of the Kaboom game with a water balloon fight twist. Students choose a card, and get to keep it if they answer the math fact correctly. BUT... if they draw the dreaded splash card they have to put ALL of their cards back. the winner is the player with the most cards at the end of the game. Place the cards in a bucket or pail for an even more summer feel!

This game features facts up to 10 + 10 and can be played with all of the cards or just selected cards for differentiation.

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Addition Facts Fluency Program - Kicking It Math Math Facts Fluency

Store: Kelly Malloy

Math facts made fun! Motivate your students to learn their math facts!

Want to get your students excited about learning their addition facts? Try this fun karate/martial arts incentive program with your class! I've been using this program with my students and have found it to be a very successful and motivating way for my students to learn/memorize their math facts. It only takes about 5-10 minutes a day to incorporate in your math block and your students will be begging to take timed tests each day to pass to the next level and earn their black belt in addition!
The program works with brain research and introduces only a few new facts each day. It engages both written and oral practice at school and at home. As students pass levels, they earn new colored “belts” on their way towards earning a black belt.

Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win!!!!!!!!

Enter the Rafflecopter Widget below for a chance to win all of these featured resources PLUS a $50 TPT Gift Card to go on a resource shopping spree! Carry out the steps to earn extra entry points to increase your chances of winning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK! Thank you for participating in this giveaway. :)

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March Madness Giveaway

3/11/2018

It is not just college basketball players who get to have all the fun! Teachers are CRAZY busy in March with test prep, St. Patrick’s Day, upcoming Easter holiday, and more! We have put together some fun activities to help make lesson planning a little easier. Plus, follow the Rafflecopter link at the bottom of the page to win a $50 TPT gift card and ALL the products listed!

Easter STEM Bundle Challenge

Created by Jewel's School Gems

Are you constantly on the lookout for resources that promote learning and engagement even during the holidays and near school breaks? Why not try STEM projects for a change! This Easter STEM Challenge Bundle provides hours of engineering fun while making sure your students do their research, follow the engineering design process, and reflect as to what worked and did not work. Your kiddos can design and build an Easter egg basket, an egg launcher, and an egg conveyor belt using simple and affordable materials. You and your students will surely enjoy these Easter STEM activities. Check it out today!!

See these activities in action . . .

Easter Activities Bundle

Created by Angie S

This is a set of activities, worksheets and flashcards with real life photos are all you need for Easter basket! They are great for Kindergarten and preschool students as well as for early age and children with autism. Your student will learn the vocabulary, improve alphabet skills, answer questions and build sentences using words on the topic.

See this resource in action!

Fool's Gold - Reading Mystery

Created by Mrs J's Resource Creations

This print and go St Patrick's Day Reading Mystery incorporates a range of ELA skills in one. The main focus is for students to read the text carefully, and reread to complete the activities.
Students must complete the tasks after reading each passage to discover clues. Each clue requires students to critically think to decide which suspects they can eliminate from their suspect list. The last suspect remaining is who needs to be arrested for the 'Fool's gold.'

There is a Video Hook included for optional use. It has been designed to ask questions about what is going on? That’s when they must read to find out. View the hook video here ----->>>>>

The Case of The Misplaced Pot of Gold
- Math Mystery

Created by Mrs J's Resource Creations

Grade 1

GRADE 3

GRADE 5

Grade 2

Grade 4

Grade 6

This St Patrick’s Day, send your children on a mystery mission to find out where Leroy accidentally left his pot of gold. Completing math questions is required to unlock clues, which will help narrow down a list of locations of where Leroy’s pot of gold is.
There is a video hook for optional use to introduce this math activity. A written story is also included in the PDF case file.
This fun NO PREP activity is available in versions for grades 1-6!
CLICK HERE to find the individual grade links within the video hook product description.

Multi-Step Word Problems

Created by Mrs. Hansen's Helpfuls

For many classrooms we are starting to prepare for upcoming state testing. I always break this product out this time of year to help students with multi-step word problems. This product allows the teacher to break students into differentiated groups where students can also present how they solved the problem. This product also works with whole class instruction too.

Sir Gus CKLA Unit 5

Created by Mrs. Hansen's Helpfuls

Many teachers teaching second grade CKLA this year, are already reading or about to start Sir Gus Unit 5. This product will help improve and assess student comprehension and grammar skills for this book. In addition, this unit now includes a spelling component.

Countries of the World Research Project

Created by Kelly Malloy

Need to incorporate research writing into your curriculum? This is a perfect product for introducing report writing centered on your student's choice of country. Students will complete their own mini-book about the country of their choice along with an oral presentation.

Included in this Countries of the World Research project are:

•Teacher Directions
•I Can Statement Cards
•Research Graphic Organizers
•Final Draft forms
•Parent Letter
and
•Grading Rubric

I have also included several editable pages so that you can customize the project to fit your needs.

Click here to learn more about this resource!

Calculator Word Fun

Created by Kelly Malloy

These calculator word fun task cards are a fun and engaging way for your students to practice math computation tasks (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).
Do you remember typing numbers into a calculator and then flipping it over to see a word? Maybe you typed in .07734 to see the word hello? Now your students will have the same great memories as they practice math skills, and then check their answers using a calculator.
These task cards can be used as a math center, with small groups, for fast finishers, or even as a whole class scavenger hunt.
You can use the cards alone, or use the task card answer sheets included.
I have included 48 task cards including 24 whole number cards and 24 decimal cards to allow for differentiation.

Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win a $50 TPT Gift Card + all of the resources featured above

Entry for this giveaway competition is easy via the Rafflecopter below. Once entries close, the Rafflecopter will select one lucky winner to receive a $50 TPT gift card plus all of the resources featured in this blog post. Thank you for participating. :)

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Fab Feb GIVEAWAY!

1/30/2018

+ To help you in your search for some educational and engaging resources for February, we have come together to show you a collection of activities to make classroom planning for this month a little easier. We are also excited to announce that we will be running a giveaway for a chance to win all of the resources featured in this post PLUS a TPT Gift Card!

Scroll to the end of this post to find the Rafflecopter to enter this giveaway competition.

Chinese New YeaR

From the TPT Store: Mrs Hansens Helpfuls
Chinese New Year is almost here! This is the year of the dog and the celebration begins on February 16th. This unit includes a booklet with student activities and coloring. New additions include, create your own fortune cookie and share it with a friend. Students will also learn about the different animals of the zodiac and which animal they represent. Gong Hay Fat Choy!

Biography Report BookleT

From the TPT Store: Mrs Hansens Helpfuls

This is the time of year we start diving into biographies. This biography report was originally created with the Who Was series in mind. However, this biography report works with ANY biography. Students take notes on the person of interest. Then teachers can choose whether to have the biography in report form OR have students create a biography booklet. My students had a blast with this and I think yours will too!

Valentine`s Day Building Sentences

From the TPT Store: Angie S

Forming sentences is very important for young learners or those with autism. This activity uses real-life pictures for easy recognition of common objects and sight words as sentence starters. It is perfect for early readers. This is also an activity to practice identifying the attributes of what, the number, and the color of a group of items.

Valentine`s day Yes No Question

From the TPT Store: Angie S

This is a great activity to target basic yes/no questions, good for students with autism and special needs. After the students have learned the vocabulary on Saint Valentine`s Day topic let them answer the questions and circle the right answer. Laminate the pages and use dry erase markers to write on the cards, thus you can reuse them as many time as you want.

Third Grade Math Centers & Activities –
Snow Much Math

From the TPT Store: Kelly Malloy

5 Third Grade Math Centers and Activities covering the following skills: Telling time, elapsed time, addition and subtraction with regrouping, multiplication facts, and multiplication and division.

Presidents Research Writing ProjecT

From the TPT Store: Kelly Malloy

This is a perfect product for introducing report writing centered on your student's choice of US Presidents. Students will complete their own mini-book about the President of their choice along with an oral presentation.

The unit can be used for a non-fiction unit or in honor of Presidents' Day.

Math Quest: The Heartless Queen

From the TPT Store: Mrs J's Resource Creations

Send your students on an epic Math Quest with this fun story “The Heartless Queen”. This is a fun activity to get some extra math practice, enrichment or for your early finishers. With SIX exciting chapters to work through, students can end up with one of four possible endings as they try to help Athtar the Knight find and return the Ice Queen's heart back. Available in three modes of math difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard).

Reading Mystery: Once Upon a Crime, Poisoned Valentine

From the TPT Store: Mrs J's Resource Creations

This print and go activity is a fun way to incorporate a range of ELA skills in one. Students will be required to read the story and complete activities to discover clues. Each clue requires students to critically think to decide which suspects they can eliminate from their suspect list to help them solve this Valentine crime!
Everything that you need for this activity is in the download, including the reading passages.