A Spooky Product Swap

Jessica over at Mrs. Stanford's Class is hosting another Product Swap and it was so much fun last time that I'm psyched to be swapping again!  This time, I'm paired up with my new friend, Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle. The first thing I did was to browse through her store and choose a product to try out in my classroom. Jeannie has so many great things that it was no easy task, and she was very sweet in dealing with my indecisiveness and actually sent me a few things to peek at (thanks Jeannie)!

I'm really stepping up my Math Stations now that we have the basic routine down, so Jeannie's Hullabo-Boo pack was the perfect choice to take for a spin with my kids. I warmed up my laminator, got my printer humming and went to town.  The graphics Jeannie used are just adorable, and my kids were instantly excited to try the games, which I stored in jack-o-lantern pails for a little added "Boo" factor.

The first activity we tried was the Counting Clip Cards.  My kids LOVED this game so much that they even asked to play it during our free play time! Kids choose a card, then choose a spot on the card and count how many stars/circles are in that spot. They then find a clothespin with the corresponding number and clip the clothespin on that spot on the card. This game was not only fun, but also very nicely meets the Kindergarten Counting & Cardinality Common Core State Standard (CCSS) that requires our kiddos to "Count to tell the number of objects." Jeannie also explains in the packet how to bump it up a notch using addition.

The next game we tried ended up being the class favorite. The CCSS that involves decomposing numbers is a tricky one for many kinder-kids, and this game introduces the standard of "decomposing numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way" in a fun yet meaningful way. Using the number sentence cards provided, the kids have to decide which number mats to put them on.  Because it was are first attempt at this tricky skill, I added some dominoes as well, and the station became self-differentiating. The kids who needed the visual of the dots leaned towards the dominoes, and the kids ready to stretch themselves gave the number sentences a try. One of my admins came in during math time and saw this game and was impressed with what the kids were working on so early in the year (I owe you one for this, Jeannie!)

Another activity that the kids LOVED was the Patterning Cards. While patterning is not included in the Kindergarten CCSS (was anyone else surprised at this?), Jeannie points out that identifying and extending

patterns are critical skills for children to solidify for further math and science learning. 

 

The first team that tried this station challenged themselves to complete all of their pattern cards before time was up and they did it!  This set the stage for all of the teams to try to do the same, so it was a bonus lesson in teamwork and working cooperatively,

 

Now that we've tried all of these great games, they'll be available for the kids to use in our Math Stations for the rest of the month. I love when I find a great product on TPT that fits my needs without me having to reinvent the wheel! I also love when the kids love a product so much that they choose it during free play - anything that trumps the blocks station must be pretty awesome!  When I told the kids that a teacher friend gave us the games, Sophia, my little class mother hen, suggested we write a Thank You note, so we did!

Be sure to check out Jeannie's store to find this and other great products. Jeannie's got this gem on sale, so hurry and grab a copy and your class will thank you, too!

Jeannie chose my "Bee Responsible Emergent Reader and Craftivity Pack" for the swap and you can read her post here.  We're teaming up for a quick giveaway and 3 lucky winners can each win a copy of our swap products. You can enter down below - good luck!

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