Let's Get Scratching! Using 'Scratch-Offs' In The Elementary Classroom!

Hi All!

It's Jenn from Crayons & Cuties In Kindergarten!

Today's post is all about a 'Do-It-Yourself' project that is sure to spark excitement while engaging your students in meaningful academic practice!

Grab your coins because it's time to...

Get Scratchin'!

Last year I stumbled upon a 'how to make scratch-offs' on Pinterest...but it was geared toward small business owners who may want to include for a 'mystery percent off' on future purchases when shipping goods.

It got me thinking about how I could use it in my classroom and I gave it a 'trial run' to see how easy/hard they would be to create.

You can read about it in more detail HERE on my blog but here is a quick 'how-to' and some pictures of how well it worked in my classroom last February!

You will only need 3 ingredients...

Dish Soap (any brand)

Silver Metallic Paint (can be acrylic or latex)

Packing Tape

I was able to find the paint at a local 'hometown' hardware store, but you can also find it at craft stores!

I used a glass plate for mixing because I didn't want the paint to get 'soaked' into a paper plate.

Watch how easy this is....

1. Print your scratch-off cards

2. Cover the 'scratch-off area' with a piece of packing tape

WANT TO BE SMARTER THAN ME?!

Just laminate the entire sheet of cards!  DUH!

This occurred to me AFTER I cut packing tape into small rectangles!

Plus then the cards would be re-usable for next year- I'd just need to whip up some more 'potion!'

Now it's time to mix up your 'potion':

2 parts paint to 1 part soap (but I will be honest and say I DID NOT measure!)

I just 'eyed' it and used a big fat brush to make sure it all mixed together well!

Once well mixed, 'paint' the area(s) to be revealed.

You want to sort of 'gob' it on so that when it dries there is no 'see through'!

Let it dry 1-2 hours.

You can check the cards- if you can see through then do a second coat.

All of my cards were A-OK after one coat, but I had put it on pretty thick!

Now comes the magic...

What will be my mystery word?!

Use a coin just as you would for lottery scratch-offs:

It has thicker 'flakes' than traditional scratch-offs but kids won't know the difference (or shouldn't!)

Here is how it went in my kindergarten classroom last February:

I made it a center for the week leading up to Valentine's Day.

They picked a card from a heart-shaped basket (not sure where that picture went!).

I had a cup of coins for them to use for scratching and then they used it in a sentence.

They LOVED that they got to glue the card to the paper to take it home too!

LOOK at all the sentences they wrote using their 'mystery word!'

THEY LOVED THIS!

They asked for 'mystery words' repeatedly after this activity!

They loved it so much I made scratch-offs as part of their Valentine gift:

It went into a baggie with a Smencil and some Smarties candies:

They took them home to scratch and then had to bring it back to me to redeem their prize!

I PROMISE making these scratch-offs DID NOT take a lot of time!

The most tedious part was covering the spaces with packing tape- but that can be avoided by just throwing the entire sheet of cards through the laminator!

Maybe your students are beyond practicing sight words and you are wondering how to use them in your classroom?

How about:

1. classroom incentives (Do 'X-Y-Z' and earn a scratch-off!  You determine the prizes so you can cater it to what you have!)

2. reading log incentives (Read so many books/for so many minutes and get a scratch-off!)

3. participation or attendance in classroom events (this could even work for parent/teacher conferences or open house- attendance gets you (or your child) a scratch-off!)

4. word work centers (vowel patterns you are working on, vocabulary, spelling words, etc)

The scratch off could also determine what they do with their weekly words that day (rainbow write, write 3 times each, use in a sentence, etc!)

5. letter and/or word to picture match activities (scratch the word and find the matching picture in a pocketchart- great for CVC words or beginning sounds!)

All you'll need to get is some soap, paint and tape or laminate because I am giving you the cards and recording sheet for FREE in this download!

I also included the Valentine bag topper pictured in this post if you would like to use that idea for gifts!

The download will included pre-programmed frog word cards, as well as a sheet of blank cards that you can print/write additional words you may want to use!

It also has the monkey gift cards- programmed and blank sheet too!

I used KG Red Hands font for my words.  It is free for personal use and can be downloaded HERE.

And don't forget to check-out last year's Primary Pack 'Valentine's Day' theme post from me...

Dancing Hearts Experiment if you are in need of some 'love'-ly scientific fun!

 

 Hope you and your students have fun scratchin' and wishing you all a 'love'-ly Valentine's Day!

Until next post,

Things We LOVE About February Freebie & February Product Linky

We LOVE February and we LOVE our readers at The Primary Pack!

We want to give something to our readers to have as a gift from us to use for the month of LOVE.
We hope this will help you get through all those crafts and hearts and candy filled moments with your class!

We are very excited to be back again to share this February edition freebie booklet... it's our Things we LOVE about February Pack of Freebies from The Primary Pack!

This exclusive, freebie pack is full of printables for you to use in your classrooms for February. They are no-prep, print-and-go style activities! It features activities to use for Valentine's Day, President's Day, and Chinese New Year.

Simply click the cover below to download.

We would also love it if you shared your own February freebies and products with our readers by linking up below! Please follow the guidelines and join us!

Remember you can link up with any February Themed Freebies or Products...not just Valentine's Day.

An InLinkz Link-up

We hope you enjoy our freebie booklet and that you grab and discover many great February freebies and products from the link-up. Please check out our full products and stores, included within the booklet.

We'd also love to hear from you! Leave us a comment and share with us your favorite February activity.

Valentine's Day Idea for Home and School, and a Freebie... Top 10 Reasons I Love You!

Happy Valentine’s Day
From Kennedy's Korner

My absolute favorite show ended on Thursday night.  The Parenthood season finale brought me to tears once again.  This show is such a great depiction of real life family dynamics.  It is so sad to see them go.  If you have never watched this heartfelt show, I recommend you start at Season 1 and watch it from the very beginning.  You will not be disappointed.  It will make you smile, laugh, and cry while inspiring you to be the best daughter, sibling, and mother that you can be.  The Braverman family will truly be missed. 

During the final episode, the Braverman family lost one of their cherished members.  After crying many tears, I thought about how I can express my feelings of love and gratitude to those who mean the most to me.  All too often I take for granted the time that I spend with my family members.  I forget to take the time to express how I feel about them or tell them how much they mean to me.  So I decided to use this Valentine’s Day as the perfect time to express my feelings of love and gratitude to those who mean the most to me. 

My plan is to fill out the sheet below that is titled

Top 10 Reasons I Love You

and send it in a Valentine card to my parents in Florida.  Then I fill will out one for each of my girls and frame it for them.  I think it would be cute to hang in their rooms.  The one I fill out for my husband will be given to him on Valentine’s Day after the kids go to sleep... along with a bottle of champagne.  Then I will fill one out for my sister, the other half of the Kennedy’s Korner store, to tell her how much I appreciate all the work she has done and how in awe I am of her vision and passion to be the best TPT store we can possibly be.  I would not be on this amazing TPT journey if it were not for her! 

So this Valentine’s Day I hope all of my loved ones will know how much they really mean to me! 

If you like this idea and want to give your loved ones a special Valentine or have your students write a Valentine to their mom, dad, or grandparents then CLICK on the link below!

                                       Top 10 Reasons I Love You!                                   Valentine's Day Freebie

Thanks for taking the time to read our latest blog post!  We hope you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day!  

If any of you have a show that you currently watch or have watched in the past and is on Netflix… please let me know about it in our comment section!  I am really looking for a great show to replace Parenthood!  The only other TV show I currently watch and love is Scandal on ABC.  So please leave me your suggestions.  I live in Buffalo, NY and there are many long winter nights that I have to fill with some screen time!  I absolutely cannot wait until Spring!

Valentine Art Ideas

Hi Everyone! Happy Groundhog Day!

It's Emily from Emmy Mac's Class! I'm excited to be back for another Primary Pack post. We had a snow day today and Wiarton Willie didn't see his shadow! So it will be an early spring for Ontario. I hear that our neighbours to the south weren't so lucky! Sorry about that! :)

 I thought I would bring you two art ideas that you could do with just about any class for Valentine's Day! Not to mention that they are super easy and they look gorgeous.

Watercolour Resist Hearts

What you will need:

• watercolour paints
• brushes
• watercolour paper or cartridge/drawing paper
• bristol board
• pencil & scissors

Step 1: Make a heart
Have the students make a heart out of bristol board or you can make your own templates.

Here is a simple trick for making a heart. Before you fold the paper in half. But a dot on the edge of each side.

When, they draw the half heart they know not to draw it on the side with the dots. This has saved countless papers and my sanity!

Step 2: Place
Place the heart where you want it on the watercolour paper. You can use tape to hold it in place.

Step 3: Paint

Be careful not to paint under the edge of the heart. When you are done remove the heart.

Let dry and you are done!

Bright Hearts

This art project was inspired by Jenny Murphy Design's Happy Hearts. I thought her hearts were so much fun!

What you will need:

• cartridge paper or other drawing paper (I cut my paper in 10" squares. You could also double one length to make cards)
• pencil
• oil pastels, crayons, or markers

Step 1:  Draw a heart lightly in pencil.

Step 2: Draw a variety of vertical lines ( I suggested between 6 and 8 for my class)

Step 3: Now, draw horizontal lines. (Sorry I didn't get a good picture of this one. But it's pretty self explanatory. 

Step 4: Trace over the pencil lines with a permanent marker.

Step 5: Colouring in the hearts can be tricky. I had my students bring me there page and I put dots in the square so they would know where to colour each colour.

Once they have a "map" to follow, the colouring part is easy! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine's Day Treat Tags {Freebie!}

Hi everyone! Alisha here from Missing Tooth Grins! I'm here today to give you a little Valentine's Day treat! I figured with Valentine's Day just around the corner, maybe you could use a little freebie to help you get your Valentine's Day treats for your class together! I made these tags last year and they were a hit with my class! I will say, however, that I always always always have the class that is obsessed with bubblegum! So, of course this was a hit.

Click the picture below to pick it up!

{Credits to KG Fonts and Krista Wallden- The Creative Chalkboard}

I attach these tags to little bags of bubblegum and the kids just eat it up! Literally!

I should add this disclaimer... My original plan for this post was on differentiating for primary writers. Well, something big happened this weekend and goodness, time really just got away from me. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my big news...

We are engaged! Woo! 

Yep, real-life-like-we-are-going-to-get-married-and-it's-going-to-be-awesome-engaged. 

Anyway, so in between the getting proposed to business and the "Holy cow, it's the end of the month and I still need to finish math journals" feeling, I just didn't have time for that post. It will come another time, friends! Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day!!

Add Some 'Bubbly' To Your Valentine's Day!

Hi All!  It's Jenn Drake from Crayons & Cuties In Kindergarten!
I am so excited to bring your some 'kid tested and approved' science fun on my post this month!

Looking to add some 'bubbly' to your Valentine's Day this year?!

Aren't we all!!!

But here is an idea your students are sure to L-O-V-E you for!

It's time to make candy hearts DANCE!!!

Click this picture to head over to my blog to read all about it, get the 'recipes,' watch videos of them 'dancing' and find out what we learned from doing 2 different experiments!

You can even find how I used these recording sheets!

The recording sheets are differentiated- allowing you to choose what works best for your students and their ability levels!

I hope your Valentine's Day celebrations are LOVE-ly and your day is full of 'bubbly' fun and a LOVE of learning!

Happy Valentine's Day,