Welcome Guest Blogger Kelley from Teacher Idea Factory

Happy Monday all! It's Kelley Dolling from Teacher Idea Factory.  I cannot tell you how excited I was when Stephanie invited me to pop on over here and guest post for her today.  My grin was definitely ear to ear :).

I have had quite a few days to think about this and I was stewing about what to focus my post on.  What can I say?  Steph deserves a really great idea with a rockin' freebie attached.  So, after "sleeping on it" for multiple nights, here's what I have for you today . . . 


NOUN STORM - DICE GAME
I came up with this silly little game during my first year teaching first grade (roughly four years ago). My kiddos seem to get a kick out of it every year and they never seem to notice that they are involved in some higher-level skills review practice . . . bwwwwwwaaaaahahahahahaha!


This can be played during reading/literacy rotations or as a whole class activity (parters/small table groups).  It just depends how many ABC die you can get your hands on :)  Or . . . here's another thought . . . if you don't have these special die, you can have your kids pull letter cards out of a bag.

Interested?  Here's how this little ditty goes.  For simplicity sake, I am going to talk about this in "whole-class partner game" terms :)

1. Group your children into sets of two or three.  Provide each child with a game sheet and each group with one ABC die.
2. Students take turns rolling the ABC die.  When a letter comes up, it is written in the letter box on the game sheet.
3. The group works together to come up with three nouns that begin with that letter.  (I always let them re-roll if they get an "x" because that is an absolute mood killer.)  Each member of the group records these nouns on his/her game sheet.
4. Finally, each student writes his/her own super sentence including one or more of the nouns they brainstormed (it's your call on how many they have to use).

That's it folks.  It's quick.  It's little-prep.  It's learning disguised as play!  If you are interested in trying this out in your classroom, the game sheet is available for download below.

CLICK HERE to swipe a copy of this game sheet!
**NOTE - I like to run these back to back as four rounds seems to be just enough**

A HUGE thank you to Stephanie for letting me crash here today.  It was such fun!  Pop on over to Teacher Idea Factory and visit me sometime :)