A Sale For the New Year

Check out this hashtag sale, #NY2025, on TPT to snag some fabulous dollar deals! What better way to get excited about teaching and learning in 2025?

The last time I checked, there were over 1,800 resources listed. But hurry because these deals are only available on December 31, 2024, and January 1, 2025.

With so many resources to choose from, you’ll want to use the categories at the top of your TPT screen to narrow down your search by grade level and subject area.

You’ll find two of my resources listed in this sale. My Addition Facts to 20 Addition Strategy Math Posters is a year-round seller. Roll and Read Consonant Blends and Digraphs is a newer resource that will give your kindergarten, first, and second-grade students the repeated practice they need to read 119 short vowel high-frequency words.

Check out these blog posts for more resources, ideas, and freebies related to addition facts, repeated reading, and consonant blends and digraphs. 

1. Addition Facts (site search for posts)
2. 6 Cool Penguin Resources to Energize Your Math 
3. Do You Want to Know All About Rapid Word Recognition Charts?
4. How to Address the Challenge of Consonant Digraphs

An Updated New Year’s Freebie for You

The year on this freebie has been changed to 2025.

I’ve never succeeded at making or keeping New Year’s resolutions. Have you? Here’s a free print-and-go resource that’s a little different.

The focus is on anticipating the possibilities a new year offers. I’m all for instilling a little hope for a better future right now.

Try this activity with children of various ages, at home or at school. The clipart and prompts are geared toward children, but the activity is suitable for all ages. The youngest can dictate their responses. You can also have children choose to respond to just 3 to 5 prompts or to complete them over more than one session.

Simply download, print, and provide writing tools.

Then, do a little brainstorming and you’re all set.

Use the first word as a prompt to complete the phrase in a way that’s meaningful for you. For example, my eight-year-old grandson might finish “See” with “The Grand Canyon”.

Here are a few of my possibilities for 2025.

• Make a quilt.
• Eat healthy.
• Be patient.
• Try to walk even farther.
• Learn more about teaching writing skills and decoding multisyllabic words.

Ah… the possibilities are wide-ranging!

Click the highlighted words to download your free copy of A New Year of Possibilities.

My hopes are for a healthy and forward-looking new year for everyone!

I’d love to hear from you! Pick a prompt and share how you would complete it in the comments below.

Photo in title image by Tigerpix LLC.

The post Who’s Ready to Ring in a New Year? appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

It helps young learners to construct the understanding that a set of counters contains the same quantity, whether it is counted by ones or grouped and counted by tens and ones. It also assists them in developing the concept of one ten being the same as ten ones.

At its most basic level, a treasure report involves counting a set by ones, grouping and counting the same set by tens and leftover ones, and drawing a picture to represent the tens and ones.

As your students become more proficient, you can gradually integrate the additional skills of base ten, expanded form, rounding to the nearest ten, and counting by tens off a decade number.

I have used this flexible activity in first and second grades, with a whole class working as partners in a general education setting and with a small resource group working as individuals in a special education setting. It would also be perfect as a math station.

You will need:
One bag of small treasures (11-99) for each individual or pair of students
(erasers, pom poms, candy, gems, table scatter, etc.)
Ten (optional organizers) for each individual or pair of students
(ten frames, ten strips, small paper plates, cupcake liners, paper doilies, plastic heart containers, etc.)
One recording sheet for each individual or pair of students

Treasure Reports: Valentine’s Day Theme is a free resource which includes five different recording sheets plus templates to print ten strips and ten frames.

Grab this freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. While you’re there, check out my Valentine’s Day and place value resources. I know, I know… it’s Monday but head on over to The Bender Bunch anyways to see the lovely collection of SPED-tacular Sunday Freebies!

The post One Lovely Way to Teach Place Value for Understanding appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

I had intended to write this post last weekend to join with others on Teachers Pay Teachers in promoting a #kindness nation with a collection of free teaching resources. Instead of feeling as if I’m late, I’ve decided to focus on the timeless quality of kindness. A little bit of internet searching revealed:

• February 17th is National Random Acts of Kindness Day
• February 12th – 18th is Random Acts of Kindness Week
• November 13th is World Kindness Day
• November 24th is Random Acts of Kindness Friday

Photo by Dollar Stock Photos

As teachers, we know that teaching the quality of being kind and creating a culture of inclusiveness happens every single day. One way to inspire kindness, acceptance, and inclusion in children is by reading books that embrace these qualities. I discovered the recently published book, “You Can Sit With Me” (Lisa Combs, 2016), which embodies these in an appealing, child-friendly way through the simplicity of the inclusive statement, “You can sit with me”, repeated throughout.

This resource includes a structured written response to the book, using five different whimsical characters. Students start by coloring the character creatively. They finish the sentence stem “You may” by describing attributes of the character. They should write a second positive sentence, expressing acceptance of the character or a sentence comparing the character to themselves. The last sentence is a refrain from the book. There is space at the top to draw themselves. I have included a page without a character, if you’d rather your students draw from their imaginations. There is also a page to substitute sit in the last sentence with a different verb.

What is your favorite book for teaching kindness, inclusion, or diversity?

Stop by The Bender Bunch to check out the variety of SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!

The post Read to Inspire Kindness and Inclusion appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

As you return to your classroom in this new calendar year for a new semester of teaching and learning, your students will exhibit an equally wide variety of achievement levels and readiness to take on new tasks. Some of your littles will undoubtedly still need a daily review of letters and sounds.

For the sensory writing tray, I tried white rice with glitter. Seriously, glitter is incredibly messy used like this and I wouldn’t recommend using it in a writing tray unless you want to see sparkles everywhere for weeks to come. On the other hand, white rice with sequins and snow sprinkles made a nice mix. I love the idea from Kindergarten is Crazy for using plastic school supply boxes; easy to contain, stack, and store, and so practical for use with small groups.

As with the gingerbread men, these winter hats can be used in a plethora of ways, limited only by your imagination, including an It’s in the Bag activity. For students who have learned a limited set of letters or numbers, you can make multiple copies of those. Students take turns to pick a card (without peeking, of course) and respond. If the response is correct (or if you are providing corrective feedback), they keep the card. You can add the hedgehog cards for a little excitement (The Hat written and illustrated by Jan Brett). Pick a hedgehog card- lose a turn, put one or all of your cards back in the bag- you decide. Since I couldn’t find a winter-themed decorative gift bag (out with Christmas and in with Valentine’s Day), I included a page with hats and snowflakes to decorate a kraft bag.

How will you use these winter hat letter and number cards? Let me know if additional seasonal sets would be beneficial.

This free roam the room small group activity, available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store,  gets your kids up and moving while reviewing initial sounds.

For learners ready for numbers beyond 20, check out my newest open-ended resource, Mittens on the Line Ordering Numbers 0-120, which is perfect for kindergarten, first, and, second grade. Click to find more winter resources in my store.

Free Wintery Resources and Ideas for Letters, Sounds, and Numbers

You can also find a sprinkling of additional winter hat and mitten resources on my Winter Wonders Pinterest board.

The post Wonderful Wintery Ways to Review Letters and Sounds appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

As busy as teachers are, you are still tasked with keeping a class full of excited youngsters engaged in beneficial learning activities, holidays quickly approaching or not.

Christmas Photo by freepik

I created a free Christmas themed rounding activity for practice or review to share as you prepare for this final week or so before your holiday break. This is a print and go activity, perfect for second and third graders, to help simplify your life. There are two sets of pages for rounding two-digit numbers to the nearest ten and one set each for rounding three-digit numbers to the nearest ten and rounding three-digit numbers to the nearest hundred. Two pages are needed for each set; strings of Christmas light bulbs and light bulb numbers. Students color (optional), cut, sort, and glue each light bulb number on the correct string. The light bulbs can be cut out or cut into rectangles.

Many of the place value resources available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store include rounding numbers as an integrated skill.

You can discover more seasonal and non-seasonal number and place value resources and activities on this Pinterest board.

The post One Way to Keep ’em Busy This Holiday Season appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

Once two letters and their corresponding sounds have been introduced, you can begin building a daily review deck using your letter/ sound picture cards. This deck can be specific to a child, a small group, or your whole class. Each time a new letter and its sound is introduced, it is added to the deck. Initially, the entire deck should be reviewed daily. It is important to provide practice that applies to both reading and spelling. (Blending and segmenting sounds to read and spell two and three letter short vowel words can be started after 5 to 7 or so letters and sounds have been learned.)

• For reading, the letter/ picture sound card is presented visually. Students respond individually or chorally by naming the letter and picture, then producing its sound. At least some of the time, the letter should be formed while naming it.
• For spelling, the sound is presented auditorially (without any visual cues). Students respond by naming the letter and picture, then producing its sound. Again, at least some of the time, the letter needs to formed while naming it.

Ways to Incorporate Letter Formation in Your Daily Review

1. Skywrite using the techniques in this post.
2. Write on the chalkboard with or without handwriting lines.
3. Write on individual whiteboards with or without handwriting lines.
4. Use Magic boards. I found mine at Lakeshore.
5. Write using appropriately lined paper or landscaped plain paper with a folded baseline. I love the Smart Start paper and Super Slate whiteboards.
6. Make and use gel bags. Thia at Capitals First wrote a wonderful post about durable gel bags.
7. Provide sensory trays and use fingertips for writing.

Employing a variety of materials will help keep your students motivated! Some of these ways work best with individuals or small groups but others may be used with a whole class.

I have also used magnetic letter boards and pocket chart letter/ sound mats for spelling responses. These lead right into spelling words. Students respond by moving the letter to a designated spot while naming the letter, its corresponding picture, and sound.

I love the idea of using sensory writing trays with individuals or small groups of students. I was inspired by the imagination tree‘s Gingerbread Sensory Writing Tray to create a set of printable gingerbread man letter (upper and lowercase) and number cards (0-20), in color and black/ white. When using them for practicing number or letter formation, be sure to have students name the number or letter/ picture/ sound while forming. I found the salt with spices to be a bit dusty, so I opted for the rice idea from Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, instead. I replaced the white rice with brown, omitted the food coloring, added a small amount of water, spread a thin layer on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, and baked at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. I used equal amounts of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Afterwards, I discovered you can actually buy gingerbread spice! The gingerbread man baking pan (found on sale at a grocery store) is cute as can be and perfect for one child. These holiday paper plates, practical for a small group, are both deep enough and sturdy enough to hold the rice. They could be carefully stacked for reuse. It was also easy to pour the rice into a baggie for storage.

Using a variety of seasonal number cards for counting, identification, and sequencing activities helped provide motivation for my students to complete repetitive tasks. So why not use seasonal letter cards too! The gingerbread man letter and number cards can be used as seasonal review cards (or in any way you can imagine). I added a page of fox cards to add a little excitement to your games!

One easy-to-prepare review game is to simply put your set of cards in a decorative seasonal bag. Just drawing from the bag increases engagement! Students take turns to draw a card and respond. If the response is correct, the student keeps the card. You can add a few fox cards and decide what happens when one is picked- lose a turn, put 1 or more or even all your cards back in the bag.

I’d love to hear how you use the gingerbread men review cards!

Additional Christmas-themed resources are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Be sure to stop by The Bender Bunch to check out the SPED-tacular Sunday Freebies.

 

There is a variety of gingerbread-themed activities scattered throughout my ‘Tis the Season Pinterest board.

The post How to Effectively Review Letters and Sounds the Multi-sensory Way appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

Sort and Count

Counting Cups

Treasure Reports

The post Fun and Fabulous Counting Activities for Fall appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

I quickly got up to see if this really was an owl and discovered it was a hawk. Thankfully, my camera was nearby and I was able to get some incredible photos of this stunning event as it unfolded!

As my husband and I watched, the hawk slowly appeared to become aware of us peering through the glass at it from a mere three feet away. We watched with astonishment until the hawk was fully facing us.

As you can clearly see, it then began to scold us, repeatedly, for seemingly endless minutes.

I was concerned it would fly into the glass and harm itself so I closed the drapes. A few minutes later, I heard a thump as it landed in front of the door. The hawk flew back to the railing before I could snap a picture. Eventually, it left the balcony for the backyard. A short while later, I noticed it in the front yard.  It then settled on a bench on our front porch for a short bit, before leaving our yard.

After engaging in a bit of research and sharing these photos with several friends, the consensus is that this was probably an immature red-tailed hawk. We live on a partially wooded three-acre lot and certainly spot this common hawk with regularity in our neighborhood, but I never expected to see one on my balcony scolding me so vociferously!

I know this incident certainly piqued my curiosity about hawks. Perhaps your students would enjoy learning about hawks or writing about my scolding hawk. We can only guess why it was scolding. Was it hungry, looking for its mother, upset I was taking its picture, with seeing us or its reflection? I’d love to hear what your students think.

I have not included an actual writing prompt so you can choose how to use this resource. Ideas include writing facts about hawks, listing reasons why it is scolding, or telling about one reason. There is an 8.5 X 11-inch photo, in color and in black and white, along with two student writing pages with different writing lines. You can display the large photos as the prompt and use any writing paper or choose and copy a student page. Enjoy this free Hawk Writing Prompt!

Read About Red-Tailed Hawks

The post Why Is That Scolding Hawk on My Balcony? appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

My last year of full-time teaching, I started off with a flamingo theme that included behavior charts, basket labels, posters, books, and stuffed flamingos. One of the books I discovered was Miss Mingo and the First Day of School, written and illustrated by Jamie Harper.

Miss Mingo is, of course, a flamingo who asks her class full of critters to take turns sharing how they are special. I love this book’s whimsical approach to highlighting the ways we are all unique. It’s a wonderful read-aloud for any group of diverse learners that helps set the tone for the year.

I have created a set of writing response sheets to share with you that is the perfect accompaniment for this book. There are four different response sheets so you can choose the one most appropriate for your kindergarten, first, or second-grade students. Be sure to brainstorm ideas orally first. You might also want to display a list of words or phrases for support.

The first one is for simply drawing a response. The second one provides some support for writing a sentence. The other two offer different writing lines. Although I have not included a response sheet, you can extend this activity for second and third graders by asking them to tell something special about three of the animals in the book and three ways in which they, themselves are special.

Just because I love the flamingo theme, I have also created a back-to-school pencil tag. Print on card stock for durability. Cut around the outside black line, then through the middle of the heavier black lines to leave a border around the tags. The first set can be taped to pencils. You can use an X-acto utility knife to cut slits as indicated on the second set and insert a pencil through the slits.

Click here to download the writing response sheets and pencil tags.

The post Back to School with Miss Mingo appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

1. Three in a Row- Count Up 3 is a partner game for applying the Count Up/ On addition fact strategy. Materials needed to play are one game board per player, number cards 3-9 (2-4 sets), and markers to cover your numbers. I just happened to find these team football cards amongst my husband’s sports memorabilia but all you need is a regular deck of cards! Further explanations and directions for each game and activity are included in the free sample.

2. Spin a Strategy is another partner game that requires discriminating between three strategies; Add 0, Count Up, and Doubles. One game sheet, two crayons of different colors, a paper clip, and a pencil are needed to play.

3. Can I Use This Strategy? Make 10 is an activity which can be completed by individuals, partners, or small groups. Each student will need their own recording sheet. Four sets of numbers 1-10 (ace as 1) are needed. Students can be expected to complete this activity in different ways, depending on their reasoning ability and skill level with decomposing numbers.

4. Find, Color, Tally & Graph (Doubles, Make 10, Doubles + 1) is an individual activity for discriminating between strategies. Print the two pages, add crayons, and a pencil and you’re all set! The miniature wooden bat is a baseball team souvenir which I found hidden in a cabinet filled with baseball memorabilia. Based on the team name, I can only surmise that it was a gift given to my husband at least  25 years ago!

5. Color the Sum is a partner game or small group game that focuses on the Add 10 strategy. Each player needs their own paper. Use cards 1-9 (an ace for 1) from a deck of cards, 1 set per player.

These Free Addition Fact Strategy Games and Activities are just a sample of what’s available in the complete Addition Fact Strategy Games & Activities resource available in my TpT store. The full resource includes baseball themed number cards along with:

Games and Activities For Applying Single Strategies

Games and Activities For Discriminating Between Strategies

The post 5 Free & Nifty Ways to Improve Addition Fact Fluency appeared first on Just Ask Judy.