14 picture books and 1 early chapter books about baseball.

Adoption is fun.

On any given game night, it’s estimated that over 100 baseballs are used during a 9-inning celebration of America’s favorite pastime. Here's how to snag one!

English Collocations List, Phrases with Catch, Collocations with CATCH in English catch a ball catch a bus catch a cold catch a chill catch someone by surprise catch someone off guard catch some rays play catch good catch catch (on) fire catch you later catch your breath catch the news catch someone in the art catch someone at a bad time catch sight of sth catch someone’s eye catch a thief catch a train catch someone red-banded catch a whiff catch the flue catch a glimpse catch someone’s attention

Vocabulary instruction is so critical in today’s classroom! A vast vocabulary will help students to become better readers and writers. Vocabulary is also essential to their performance on standardized tests. Helping kids to develop their vocabulary is time that is well spent in a busy classroom. I have developed a routine to teach new vocabulary

лишь бы не снилось счастье в ночи #GenshinImapct #scaramouche #Kazuha #скарамучча #казуха

Students will have fun while learning how to cooperate and communicate.

It's good to have happy things to do if there is an emergency like a power outage or evacuation and kids have a waiting time. Keeping morale high is important for kids and adults alike. I created this list for our school's emergency kits several years ago, and printed copies for my own emergency kits. It's a helpful list for summer boredom busters too. Here is a one-page printable list. I'm printing it on card stock and rolling it up with a ribbon to go along with Christmas gifts for my preparedness-minded family and friends. I wish I would have thought of this yesterday, so we could have included them with our neighborhood gifts of dollar store emergency candles! UPDATE: Click here for 97 games and activies that need little or no props! And how to make a FUN kit to include in your emergency kit. 1. Charades. 2. I Spy with My little Eye (Something red and small. Who can guess what it is?) The winner gets to be the spy next. You have to choose objects that you can see right now. 3. Make an obstacle course of crawling under and over items. 4. Button, Button, who’s got the button? Use a pebble or any random item. Kids sit in a circle facing inward, each holding their palms tightly together. The kids pass their hands through the person’s hand to their left, motioning like they’re secretly dropping a button into the other child’s hands. Everyone’s hands keep doing this motion while only one button is really being passed. The trick is to catch someone passing the real button. If you guess wrong, you’re out of the game. If you guess right, both people involved in the passing are out of the game, until the next game starts. 5. Electricity. Kids sit in a circle facing inward, holding hands. One person starts the flow of “electricity” in one direction by squeezing their neighbor’s hand, who then squeezes his neighbor’s hand. The squeezes go down the line, until someone catches a person passing the electricity. The two passers are out of the game, until the next game starts. You could let the kids choose to reverse the pulse too. 6. Simon Says 7. Mother, May I? Kids stand side by side in a line. You stand several yards away. In turn, you give each child a command like, “Tara, take four baby steps. Mike, take two giant steps. Grant, take five crawling steps.” The child must remember to say “Mother may I?” before obeying your command. If a child forgets to say, “Mother, May I?” s/he returns to the starting line. The first child to reach you wins. 8. Duck, Duck Goose. Kids sit in a circle. One child (IT) walks around the outside of the circle, touching each child’s head in turn, saying “duck, duck, duck,” until he finally says “goose” to one child. The goose runs to chase IT around the circle, trying to touch IT before IT sits in the goose’s place on the ground. If IT gets caught, s/he gets to be IT again. If IT sits down first, the goose gets to be IT. 9. I Have a little Doggie and he won’t bite you. Kids sit in a circle. IT walks around the circle touching each person’s head saying “he won’t bite you, and he won’t bit you...” Until IT says to one child, “But he will bite you!” The “bitten” child chases IT around the circle, trying to touch IT before IT sits down in the “bitten” child’s place on the ground. If IT gets caught, s/he gets to be IT again. If IT sits down first, the bitten child gets to be IT. 10. Musical chairs (played with one shoe in each spot instead of a chair) The teacher sings instead of using a tape recorder. 11. Shoe race. Kids race to a big pile of all their shoes, to find their own, put them on, and run back. You could have two separate races, one for slip-on shoes, and one for tie-on shoes. 12. Thumb wars. Two kids join hands with both their thumbs on top. Each thumb tries to push down the other guy’s thumb to win. 13. Rock, Paper, Scissors 14. 20 Questions. You think of an object. Kids ask up to 20 Yes/No questions to try to guess what it is. For example, “Is it a person? Is it a place? Is it a thing? Is it big? Is it brown? Is it an animal?” You can only answer yes or no. 15. Homonyms Game. Teacher gives clues of 2 homonyms and students guess. Example: “I’m thinking of a word that’s a drink and a letter.” (Tea/T). Other ideas: Ant/Aunt, Mail/Male, Heel/Heal, Meet/Meat, Bored/Board, Hole/Whole, Reel/Real, Rose/Rows, Sea/See, Two/Too, Use/Ewes, Way/Weigh. 16. Name that tune. You hum a tune they know and the person to guess gets to hum the next tune. 17. Red Rover. Divide into two teams. Each team locks arms in a long line. One team chants, “Red rover, red rover, send Katie right over!” Katie runs over to their chain of people, trying to run through it and break the chain. If she fails, Katie stays on the opposite team. If she succeeds, Katie gets to bring back two of the other team’s players to her team. 18. Lie down and let each person tell what a cloud looks like to them. 19. Gossip Game: Everyone lines up, the first person whispers a sentence in the second person’s ear, and so on down the line. By the last person it is fun to see how similar or different the sentence is after passing through that many ears. This is a good object lesson on not gossiping. 20. Chain story: Someone makes up a beginning to a story. Then each person takes a turn making up a part to the story to add on. 21. Lip Reading Game: In teams of two, ask the kids to “lip” to each other their favorite food, color, favorite anything else you tell them to. 22. Sit in a circle. In unison, all hit knees, clap, and snap to a beat. On each child’s turn on the snap part of the beat, they name one item that begins with the letter of the alphabet that lands on them. The first child uses A, like “apple,” second uses B, like “boat,” so on. 23. Hold a backwards spelling bee. You say a word, they say the word, then say it backwards, and then spell it backwards. 24. Mirror, Mirror. Two kids stand facing each other. One follows the movements of the other just like a mirror. 25. Have the kids lay on the ground next to each other to form letters to spell a word. You could start by giving them a word, then let them take turns thinking of a word, and letting you guess what the word is after they’ve worked out how to arrange themselves on the ground. 26. Hokey Pokey 27. Braille. One child slowly writes a word on the other child’s back with her finger, and the front child tries to guess what was written. Activities to do with paper and pencils, chalk on the sidewalk, drawing in the dirt, or a dry erase board. 28. Hang Man 29. Tic Tac Toe 30. Connect the dots. Make lots of dots in rows and columns on the page. Two kids take turns drawing one line at a time to connect two dots. When a player draws the last line to make a square, s/he writes his/her initial in that square. At the end of the game, the player with the most initials wins. 31. Trace three different textures rubbing the side of your pencil lead on different items without leaving your seat. 32. Draw combinations of two or three different animals. For example, draw an animal that was part lion and part lamb. 33. Hold your pencil between your toes and draw a picture. 34. Make a “Cootie Catcher” (square piece of paper folded to make a game that you open and close, with info. hidden inside the flaps. ) 35. Draw a picture drawing only with dots, no lines. 36. Draw a picture with your non-dominant hand. 37. Pictionary If you have access to a ball, you just increased your list of game choices a bunch! Then you can play dodge ball, kick ball, soccer, catch, keep away, monkey in the middle, hot potato, and so on. Here is a list of ball games. If you want more ideas for ball games, just do a Google search and you'll find plenty of ideas. If you have access to one deck of Uno cards, you could also play a bunch of different games. So it's a good idea to store a ball and a deck of Uno in your emergency kit. (I didn't include this list in the one-page printable above.) Uno Spaz Uno Memory Younger kids can sort the cards by colors, by numbers, put them in order from 0 to 10, or say what a 2 and a 3 next to each other make, a 23. Simple patterns like red 1, yellow 2, red 2, ___. Medium age kids can add, subtract, multiply, divide. Krypto is where each player is given five number cards and one number card is in the middle. Each player must add, subtract, multiply, and/or divide all five of their cards to get it to equal the number in the middle. Snap Go Fish War See who can throw their card the furthest Build card houses Flip Ten is like Memory with math skills Flip Ten: Kids line up cards in four rows of five. Then, they flip two cards over. If the sum of the two cards equals 10, they keep the cards and replace the cards with two more from the deck. The game ends when there are no more matches left. A match includes 6 and 4, 7 and 3, 8 and 2, 5 and 5. Whoever has the most cards wins the game! Note: You can change the game and have kids flip ______. Give them a different sum each time they play. For example Flip 5, kids look for 0 and 5, 1 and 4, 2 and 3.

Ten challenges using household items, 60 seconds, and KING-SIZED candy bars on the line- sounds like the perfect combo for your family reunion or youth activity! Minute to Win It Games are great fo…

As the year draws to a close and the holidays are behind us, it might be difficult to find musical inspiration for the new year. Well, for me, sticking with what has stood the test of time is always a good start. I remember years ago watching the movie White Christmas. Aside from the title song, the one song I always look forward to is "Snow." It was probably deemed a "throw-away" song back in its day, but the overlaid harmonies and jazzy swing rhythms have stuck with me, kind of like a good snowfall! Though I don't get much snowfall where I live, I do like to bring the notion of snow to my students and offer these two bits of Snow Business for you to enjoy! Snow Business #1 Here is a variation on the song Let Us Chase the Squirrel. I have changed the title and lyrics to Let Us Pass the Snowball: This can be a fun warmup activity at the beginning of a lesson: as students sing the song, they pass a "snowball" (pom pom, bean bag, etc.). The student holding the snowball at the end of the song then throws the snowball in the air while classmates sing a vocal glissando following the up and down movement of the snowball. The range and duration of the glissando is, of course, determined by how high the student throws the snowball. I also add in that if the student drops the snowball (whether by accident or on purpose) then their pitch should follow the snowball all the way down. Repeat as many times as you wish. Snow Business #2 I offer here an interpretation of a piece from Music for Children, Volume II, p. 45 #4 Andante by Orff/Keetman (Margaret Murray edition). I came across this piece many years ago as I was looking for a piece to teach at my Orff Level III practicum. I ultimately used a different piece, but always had this little gem in the back of my mind. I ended up writing lyrics for it and slightly changing one of the ostinatos and used it with my 4th and 5th grade chorus for our winter concert a few weeks back. I hope you enjoy it!

Have you seen those floating ball toys where you blow into one end and the ball "magically" floats above in place? Here's a way to create your own!

Remember those clapping games we used to play as kids? Between the silly (or nonsense) lyrics and the fast-paced sequence of claps, taps, snaps, and crosses, clapping games provided hours of entertainment. It might seem like just fun and games, but there's actually more to it than that. Clapping gam

I came across this game from one of my peers and think it’s really awesome. In fact I have been using this regularly this year as a fun and creative way to review before a test. So far I have used it prior to my grade 10 chemistry and biology test using the practice questions […]

Time flies when you’re having fun and isn’t it great when your ESL students are surprised to see it’s time to go home? Some may not even want to go home! One great way to p

This easy game using just a bouncy ball and cups is a simple and quick solution for screen-free play for kids, teens, and families. Pay it alone, with a few family members, or as a party game in a large group! Find four fun ways to play.

Daría lo que fuera por volver a tenerlos en mis manos.

Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism

I really don't love practicing sight words with my students. I mean, it just gets tedious. And when we go over a word 100 times and the 101st time they say the wrong word, I cry a little inside. I decided to really take my sight word practice to a whole new level. A few of my reading groups really needed to learn a certain 5 words ASAP because I was sick of them missing it on their running record. So, I whipped these games up today and we played them like champions. In our PE closet we have these bowling pins! I pulled them out and taped the sight words to them. I had one student come up at a time and I called out a sight word. Then, they had to roll the ball and try to hit the pin with the sight word on it. They LOVED it. This is an oldie, but certainly a goodie. Not only do we swat all the flies in our classroom (for real, we had like 5 in our room today), but when I call out a sight word, the two students with the swatters try to swat the word first. Do you have any pool noodles around your house or perhaps you picked some up at the Dollar Tree in the summer? I cut one in half and gave one to 2 of my students. I called out the sight word and they "jabbed" it with their noodle. No students were hurt in the playing of this sight word game. I have this stylus that I use for my iPad and it has a laser pointer on the end of it. You'd think that my students are more like cats because they love to chase the laser pointer all around the room. ;) But really, I call out the sight word and they point the laser to the right word. It's a favorite for sure.

A Tav/Wyll wedding commission for @wildmelon !

Everybody stands in a circle. Person in the middle throws up the ball and yells a name of someone standing in the circle (we will call him Bob). Bob runs in and tries to catch the ball before it touches the ground. If Bob doesn’t catch the ball everybody else will run away until Bob gets the ball and yells “freeze!” Then Bob will (frozen himself) try to throw the ball and tag someone. If Bob hits someone, then that person is out. If not then the Bob is out. The game continues with either Bob standing in the middle of the circle – or the person he tried to tag with the ball, but missed.

If you haven't heard yet, it's Tangled Tuesday! "What's that?," you may be wondering. Well, it's the brain-child of Amy over at Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl. The idea is simple: Two SLPs swap TPT materials, try them out in their therapy sessions, and provide a review to help you make more informed choices! (You can view other Tangled Tuesday posts HERE on Major Speech Pathology Fun). So, without further ado...Amy sent me her "Yes/No Popcorn Game" and "Movie Battle Game." Yes/No Popcorn Game The Yes/No Popcorn Game is a 13 page document with "Yes" and "No" popcorn containers (one each) and 60 popcorn cards printed with Yes/No questions: Yes/No Popcorn Containers Popcorn Question Cards Amy suggests either laminating the popcorn containers, or attaching them to a brown paper sack. The directions are simple: Each student picks up a piece of popcorn and answers the question. The student then puts the popcorn card on the corresponding YES or NO popcorn container. I happen to have some popcorn containers from the Dollar Store that I thought would be perfect for this activity: With my first group, I split the popcorn cards between the students, placed them in the containers, and gave one to each child. I placed the YES and NO container pictures in the center of the table. The students took turns taking a popcorn card from their container and placing it on the YES and NO containers. It was a hit! The kids loved "The Popcorn Game!" Even though they loved playing this way, I decided to switch it up for my next group. For this group, I taped the YES/NO pictures onto the plastic popcorn containers (see below) and spread the popcorn cards out on the table. I put them face-up since the kids in the group could not read. Each student took a turn picking a popcorn card. They answered the question by placing the card in the appropriate container. I think they actually liked this version better!! I happened to have ONE preschool articulation group on the first day I used this activity. Because they are also non-readers, I used the game as a simple reinforcer. I gave each student a plastic popcorn container. For each articulation target they produced, they got to put a piece of popcorn into their container. Another hit! Movie Battle Game Amy was kind enough to send along this item as well, which pairs nicely with the Popcorn Game! The Movie Battle Game is an open ended game that can be used with any target. It is a 6 page document, but you do need to print multiples of some of the pages (e.g., 4 copies of the Popcorn Card.). How to Play: Each player takes a turn performing a task. When they finish, they draw a card. At the end of the round, the player with the highest ranking card wins the round and takes all of the cards. At the end of the game, the player with the most cards is the winner. The Cards: Ranking #1: Director's Cut Ranking # 2: Camera Ranking #3: Ticket Ranking #4: Popcorn I tried to use this game in conjunction with the Yes/No Popcorn Game (in the same session). The majority of my caseload consists of preschool students. The younger ones (3-years-old) didn't really need this extra activity. They weren't grasping the concept of "ranking." There is a visual included for the younger kiddos (who will probably need it!): My older preschoolers had an easier time following the concept of this game. They definitely got into the competitive spirit! I have to say, the Popcorn Game was sufficient on its own for all of my groups. In the future, I think I would use the Movie Battle Game to spice up a more boring activity (the Popcorn game was exciting enough on its own for my kiddos!). I would highly recommend both activities, particularly if you are looking to prepare a Movie Themed Unit! Amy also has a 2nd version of the Yes/No Popcorn game that you can check out on TPT! A big THANK YOU to Amy for letting me review these awesome activities! Be sure to visit Amy's Blog (Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl), TPT Store, and Facebook page! Also, you might want to know that these activities ("Yes/No Popcorn Game" and "Movie Battle Game") are on sale today only! Head on over to Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl to check out her review of my activity, Snappy Snapshots (also on sale today only!) Amy and I (each!) are also offering a freebie to celebrate Tangled Tuesday, download Amy's activity, Under the Sea, HERE. And you can check out my FREEBIE, Birthday Riddles, HERE. Have you tried the Yes/No Popcorn Game or Movie Battle Game? What do you think?

K'nex Basketball Game: Cool easy make game that can be finished in under a half an hour. Perfect for on your desk or in an office.