I LOVE playing games. When I was little my favorite board game was Clue, I remember playing board games on rainy days all the time as a kid. Nowadays I feel like kids are missing this experience with so many digital devices. So, I try to incorporate games into my classroom whenever possible, mostly because I enjoy them, but also because my kids do too. I find they are much more engaged when I turn a lesson into a game. On every Open House or teacher wish list I have sent home I always ask for used board games and have been pretty lucky. Let's dive into my (messy) game shelf.
I am a firm believer that no one is too old to play Candy Land, which is why I happily own THREE game sets (one stays in my car for when I am working with my speech kiddos). This has proven to be true since my 2nd and 3rd graders love to play it!
This Candy Land Math pack is a great companion if you already have a Candy Land game board. It has numbers, shapes, expanded form, addition, subtraction and keyword cards. This was usually a permanent math center game in my classroom (I just rotate the cards).
Another favorite, which my kids LOVE is Headbandz! I wouldn't say I LOVE this game because it does get a little bit loud but, they ask for it EVERY time we have Fun Friday.
Since they love it so much I wanted to figure out a way I could make it more academic. So, I came up with the What's My Shape? game! You can grab this FREEBIE by clicking on the picture below.
And there's always Uno! This card game catches on pretty quickly with my 2nd graders, the only part they have trouble with is holding so many cards! I have seen some teachers use egg cartons as card holders, I should probably try that out.
Because they love Uno so much I've tried to make some academic Uno-like card games that follow the CCSS (most are aligned to 2nd grade). Many are available in my math or ELA packs but these two are available separately and Recycl-O is a FREE download!
So, when SmileMakers sent me an e-mail asking if I'd be interested in reviewing an item from their site I knew exactly what I would pick, a game! SmileMakers had so many educational games to pick from and I LOVED looking through all their fantastic teacher resources!
I ended up choosing Double Duel and it came in the mail a few weeks ago. I have been DYING for my kids to come back so we can play it! It focuses on homophones, which will be great for both my 2nd and 3rd graders!
The game looked fantastic but I have to admit, when I saw that these fun buzzers came with the game I was sold. My mind was spinning for what else I could use them for!
Since I am widening my age range a bit this year and will have 3rd (maybe 4th) graders I wanted to put together some new fun math games to play throughout the year. This huge pack has 100 pages of cards, game boards, activities, and GAMES! I made many of the games similar to the ones that my 2nd graders loved but bumped them up to 3rd grade standards. I even included a 3rd grade Math Madness Quiz Game which I plan on playing with my fun, new buzzers! You can click on either picture to check it out!
And if you've stayed with me all the way to the end of the super long post....in honor of my first day of school I'd love to give away a FREE copy of Let's Play a Game! Leave a comment below and I'll pick a random winner by tomorrow night!
One more thing before I go...I just wanted to remind you that The Primary Chalkboard is introducing two members each day with exclusive freebies! Don't miss out on some amazing, free resources!
UPDATE: The winner of Let's Play a Game is Julie! Congratulations, an e-mail is on it's way!