Voice Level Chart & Fonts- Manic Monday & Monday Made It

I'm linking up with Charity from Classroom Freebies for their Manic Monday freebie and with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics. It always seems that I create something last minute for this.  This week I've re-done my voice level chart. This is what it looked like this year. Sorry this isn't a great picture.

I wanted it to match my polka dot decor. So I created a new one with a polka dot background {click the picture to grab yours from Google docs}

Then I decided to make one with a striped background, for those of you who prefer stripes. {Click the picture to grab your copy from Google Docs}

And one more for the chevron lovers. {Click the picture to grab your copy from Google Docs}

On my old chart I liked the descriptions of what each level meant, how their voice should sound, and in the first few days of school we practiced this. On my new chart, I like the visual aspect of a graphic so my littles can look at the number & picture & know how their voice should sound depending on the situation they are in. 

I've also included a mini version of 0, 1, 2, & 3; I plan to put those at my centers, so my littles have a reminder directly in front of them of how their voice should sound.

And looking at my pictures above, when I actually print & laminate these, & go to put them up I'll most likely put 0 at the bottom & 4 at the top, to indicate that 0 is low and quiet & 4 is at the top and loud. Sorry I wasn't even thinking about that when I made the above pics.

And here's one more freebie I made for you. 5 new fonts that I just created this weekend. I downloaded iFont for my iPad...it's one of my new obsessions. Click here to check out my post from Saturday & grab my free fonts.

Manic Monday Freebie: Student/Class Rewards

Hey folks. I'm joining up with Classroom Freebies again this week for Manic Monday.

This week I'm sharing my polka-dot clip chart and some free-to-me student and classroom rewards.

If you are familiar with the clip chart method you will notice right away that my colors are flipped. For me, I prefer to have yellow, orange, and red be at the bottom as clip down colors, because these are the colors we associate with warnings/danger, etc. in the real world. 

Click the picture of the clip chart to grab your free polka dot clip chart. 

With my clip chart I also use warm fuzzies (click to read her post about it), this great idea of Mel's from Seusstastic Classroom Inspiration. 

At the end of the day my students earn 1 warm fuzzy for being green (which usually only happens if they've just clipped up from one of the clip down colors, other than that most are usually on Good Day). 2 warm fuzzies are earned if they are on blue, 3 if they are on purple, and 4 if they are on pink. They can also earn warm fuzzies throughout the day as my way to reinforce positive behavior and good choices. Students store their warm fuzzies in a paint cup (the no-spill kind, with just a little hole at the top, like these ones from Lakeshore). Once they fill their cup they get to choose a prize (the free to me kind or at least very inexpensive).

Click the picture above to grab your freebie of my polka-dot free to me/inexpensive student prize cards.

My class also has a paint cup as a whole and when they earn a compliment from another faculty member they can earn a warm-fuzzy, usually a larger warm-fuzzy and if they are making good choices as a whole class I will put a warm-fuzzy in their paint cup. Once the class fills their cup they can earn a class prize. 

Click the picture above to grab your freebie of my polka-dot free to me/inexpensive class prize cards.

For the class prize, I'll either let them vote which one they want or put all of the cards in a box and we'll randomly pick one. 

If you're a lover of polka-dots like me I hope you find these sets useful in your classroom, but even if you're not as big of a lover of polka dots, I hope you enjoy them.

Remember to head over to Classroom Freebies and link up for Manic Monday.

Addition & Subtraction Wars: Manic Monday @ Classroom Freebies

Today I'm linking up with Classroom Freebies for their Manic Monday Linky. 

Do remember playing the card game war? I use to play all the time with my Poppop. I thought an addition and subtraction version would be great practice for my 2nd graders to help them meet that Common Core Standard of adding and subtracting within 20 mentally. If you teach Kindergarten or 1st you could easily adapt this game to meet your corresponding standard of adding and subtracting within 5 (for Kindergarten) and within 10 (for first grade) by removing the appropriate number cards from the game. 

Here are a couple of pics of my kiddos playing Addition Wars.

The idea is pretty simple. Students flip over 2 cards & place them on the Card 1 & Card 2 spots. The partner with the highest sum gets to keep everyone's cards, just like in "War."

 With Subtraction I included a little reminder next to the card spot that the larger number card needs to go on the blue spot & the smaller number goes on the yellow spot. The partner with the lowest difference gets to keep everyone's cards.

If all players have the same sum or difference then I usually have my kiddos just keep their own cards. 

To help avoid confusion, I created a spot for the playing cards & make sure to remind my kiddos that they are to lay number side down, if not than they are fishing around in their pile for the highest cards. Then I created a spot for the cards that they win, either by having the highest sum or the lowest difference. When their playing card pile is empty, then they move their winning cards over to the playing cards pile. Remind them to give them a little shuffle before putting them into play.

When I made this game I didn't have any playing cards on hand, so I created my own cards, but that also allowed me to include numbers up to 20. For addition I only have my kids use numbers 0-10, then for subtractions I have them use all 0-20 cards. But use the cards as you see fit for your class. I make 4 copies of the cards, just like a deck of cards would have.

I also have my kiddos write down the number sentence that their 2 cards, plus the sum or difference would make, as well as their partners number sentence. Then they have to circle the highest sum/lowest difference. This is how I keep them accountable for their fact practice.

Here is an old copy of my record sheet. Yours is horizontal, but there are two sheets so it can be double sided, if they need more spaces.

Of course this little of mine forgot to circle the largest sum.

I really hope you find this game useful in your classroom & that your kiddos enjoy it as much as mine do.

Grab your Addition & Subtraction Wars Freebie here!!! or by clicking on the game board or record sheet pics.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!