Winners and Fall Centers

Wow!  So, this blog post is going to be FULL of fun (well, things that I think are fun).  I have had the pictures and ideas ready for a few days, but haven't had the time to get the post done.

First off, I want to tell you the winners of my giveaway.  Now you know why I prefer freebies to giveaways.  I am the world's worst blogger when it comes to being timely with announcements.  Well, the world's worst when it's August, September, October... you get the idea.

Below are the three winners.  Yes, I know, I said two winners, but I figured since I didn't move very quickly, then I'd add another.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be emailing the three of you a little later :)

Now, for the fun stuff.  Last week, I decided to do fall centers and some fall writing.

FALL CENTERS:
Technology - My students used the computers and my iPad for IXL, Education City, and other math games.

Graphing - This was the center I did with my students.  I had baskets of foam fall beads that I got from Oriental Trading.  I created three graphing sheets to go with the beads.  My students sorted their bag of beads and then filled out their graphing sheet.  All of my students started with the leaves.  Depending on how they did I moved them to either the harder graphing sheet where they graphed four items and more items or to the easier graphing sheet which was very similar to the first sheet.

Friends, the foam beads were incredible and my kids LOVED this activity!  It went so well that I'm planning on visiting Oriental Trading today to see if they have more types of these foam beads.  I've never used them before, but they were great.  It was also easy to find clip art that matched up to them which is huge for me.

Anyway, to get these beads, you can click on one of the two graphing pictures.  I'm also including my graphing sheets for free, so if you do get them, then you have an automatic center.  Just click on one of the sheets to go get them.

Addition and Subtraction Cups - I found this center last year on Pinterest.  I did look for the original link, but couldn't seem to get anywhere.  What you do is get some sort of Halloween cups.  I got pumpkin cups, but it could really be any sort of cup.  Write a number around the lip of the cup.  You should have one cup for each number.  I did cups for 2 - 12.

Once you finish making your cups, take Popsicle sticks and write problems on them.  We did subtraction ones this time, but you can also make addition ones.  Students will then take the Popsicle sticks and match them to the correct cup.  For example, 6 - 2 =  would go into the cup labeled with a 4.

This is a quick, simple center that your kids will love.  You can also make true and false cups and have students sort sticks based off of if they are true or false.  I've also had my higher students make their own sorting sticks.

Fall Fact Family Fun - I really am not sure where I got this idea.  I opened up my craft container at school a few weeks ago and saw a box of pipe cleaners.  I started thinking that it would be neat if I could use them with the foam beads that I had gotten from Oriental Trading.  I decided to give it a shot and it worked great.  I cut some of the pipe cleaners to make them smaller.  Once I did that, I slid beads onto them.  What I liked most about this is it was easy to show students how they could flip the numbers.

I created a recording sheet for this and ran it off front and back.  If my students did the front correctly, they got to create their own fact families using their pumpkin erasers.  If they struggled, they kept working with the pipe cleaner fact families.

Oh, and just in case you need it, here's the fact family recording sheet.  Just click on the image below to grab it.   I'm telling you these foam beads can be used for everything!

Now, that's all of my fall math centers from last week, but I also have two writing activities.  Both of these also came from Oriental Trading.  I always like doing scarecrow writing, but I hate spending lots of time on cutting and gluing them.  I know that's funny since I do lots of projects, but scarecrows have so many pieces, so I knew I wanted something that we could finish in fifteen minutes.  My kiddos did great with this!  We wrote the rough drafts, revised, wrote final drafts, and then put together the scarecrows.  I was a little nervous that I would have to do it since they came with little red pieces to hold the scarecrow together, but my kiddos did fine.  The other nice part was one of my kiddos lost one of his red pieces and Oriental Trading always includes a few extras.  Here's what the final product looked like.  I've included the handwriting paper I used for free.  Just click on it to go get it.  To get the scarecrows, click on the picture.

I also grabbed these pumpkin sticker sheets.  My students worked on these at the end of the week, so I took a picture before they started their sheets.  We finished their pumpkins at the end of the week and they turned out great.  One thing I did is told my kiddos that they couldn't do their sticker sheets until their final drafts were done.  I did let them have one to look at, but they didn't attach them to the paper.  If that doesn't work for you, another thing I've done is I've given them a note card to put their pumpkin together and then I've glued the note card to their final draft.  Either way works.  You can click on the picture below to go to buy the pumpkin sheets.  You can click on the handwriting paper to download it for free.

I know this time I did pumpkin sheets and scarecrows, but I have to say I love all of the different sticker sheet options.  I've been using these sheets for the last several years for writing and they also turn out to be some of my favorite pieces for the year.  I know you guys know I LOVE my craftivities, but I like to use these to break up some of those.  I believe writing should be fun and if you are crunched for time, these sheets are a quick way to make it fun without spending a ton of money or time.

Alright, I hope you guys have an incredible Sunday.  I am off to finish my Fall Printables Packet and another little freebie for you.

Oh, and don't forget.  There is a HUGE surprise sale (I know it was a surprise for me) going on TPT right now.  TPT hit 100,000 Facebook followers yesterday, so they are offering 10% off.  Obviously, a sale is fun, so a bunch of my friends and I jumped in to offer sales, too.  My store is 20% off today (That some how equals 28% total) and tomorrow, so if you've been waiting to get something now is the time to get it.

Disclosure: Oriental Trading provided products for this review.  All opinions are my own.