Lucky Slam St. Patrick's Day Dice Game

One of our favorite family games is Yamslam. When we are playing we always say “wow that was lucky”.  This year in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day I was inspired to create a themed version called Lucky Slam.

To make:

• Paint small wood cubes from a craft store with white paint. 
• Put number stickers, LUCKY letter stickers on the dice. (you could write on the dice with sharpie markers)
• Cover with mod podge to seal. 
• Cut out shamrocks from card stock and make 4 shamrocks for each point value.  (To save time you could use poker chips from another game)  Print directions, scoring sheet, play and have fun.

Lucky Slam Game is a strategy game which teaches probability and math addition skills.  See how players decide what risks to take to get the best combination and shamrock value. It is fun for the whole family. 

Click here to download free directions and the scoring guide. 

For year around dice fun, check out Yamslam or Pocket Yamslam for portability and travel. 

For more fun St. Patrick’s Day ideas:

Check out out our St. Patrick’s Day Think Book: 

Other free St. Patrick's Day products from ThinkingIQ: Activities & Games, Conversation Starters, free Think Book sample page,  and Activity Idea Cards.

You might also enjoy our Think Green St. Patrick's Day Celebration Article.

Follow our St. Patrick’s Day Pinterest Board. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest for ideas and resources for family fun and enrichment all year. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Blogging Guide for Kids & Students

Blogs are a great outlet for kids to share their thoughts, feelings and ideas but the notion of starting a blog can be overwhelming: How do I set it up?  What do I write about?  How do I write different types of articles?  How do I engage my audience?

Inspired by our own kids who wanted to start a soccer blog, we created the Think Blog: Blog Writing Guide for Kids. It is a resource for kids ages 8-12 to help plan, organize and create their own blog.  It includes information regarding blogs, organization and profile worksheets, article idea brainstorming prompts, writing worksheets for 18 types of articles, an article planning worksheet and an article reflection worksheet. 

There are endless benefits to have kids/students create their own blogs.  Here are a few of the most important benefits:

Practice and develop writing skills: They can improve their writing to influence others and express themselves.  It provides a different platform for reluctant writers, those with different learning styles or those who might be more motivated by choosing their writing topic and article style.

Express and develop their passions and creativity: Kids/Students can write about their interests or hobbies and use different types of articles to allow more creativity and diversity in their writing style.  Their blog gives them a voice and becomes a written portfolio.

Develop confidence while sharing what’s on their mind: Writing a blog will increase confidence in their writing skills, their ability to express themselves and knowledge of their subjects.

Develop a sense of pride and ownership in “published” writings: maintaining a blog helps develop a sense of pride in published work with an authentic audience to read and comment on their ideas. 

Become an expert by researching and writing about a topic: As they continue to write various types of articles on specific subjects they will become an “expert” on certain topics.  They can debate and discuss topics through the comments. 

Learn Digital Citizenship & Netiquette: Kids will learn what is appropriate and responsible to post online and begin to build a personal brand. 

Explore and Learn Technology and Design Skills: Kids will have the opportunity to learn and explore various programs and aspects of technology and design while designing their blog, writing articles, posting links, images, developing content and being creative.

Classroom Benefits: Parents will enjoy reading their kid’s writing in an everyday format.  Students in the class will also learn about each other’s interests in various topics while learning to comment and discuss respectfully. 

To purchase the Think Blog: Blog WritingGuide for Kids please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Think-Blog-Blog-Writing-Guide-for-Kids 

For more resources and articles on Student & Kid's blogs please follow our Blogging for Students and Kids Pinterest Board and for writing enrichment ideas and resources please follow our Writing Enrichment & Journals Board Pinterest board.  

To see how some of the writing worksheets have been used to by kids to write published blog articles, please visit www.iLivefutbol.com

  

Best wishes for your kids/students for creating their blogs!