Kaboom!

Each day this summer I am trying to do something to prepare for next year.  I actually enjoy doing things for work.  I love the slow pace of summer where I can think and just enjoy the process with nothing like grading or learning management systems or returning lots of parent emails to work on. It is really fun to create and plan and get organized, but to be able to stop whenever I want!

Most of my time this summer has been spent with TpT and getting things loaded onto my store.  It is truly rewarding but very labor intensive!  I have to stop and do something more hands on every day or so and just leave the computer alone.  One of the recent hands on activities I am working on is redoing my KABOOM game pieces.

If you do not know what KABOOM is, you should!  It is a great review or practice game that the kids love.  Mine right now consists of Pringle's cans covered in contact paper and filled with slips of colored card stock with numbers on them for the problem numbers.  The idea is that kids have a set of problems to work.  They pull out a number and everyone at the table completes the problem.  If whoever's turn it is gets it right, they keep the slip.  If they don't, the slip goes back in the can and becomes a freebie for anyone else who pulls it during the game.  The KABOOM comes in when they draw a slip that says KABOOM on it.  That means, for the person who drew the KABOOM, that ALL their slips go back into the can and they all become freebies for anyone who draws them throughout the remainder of the game. Yikes!  The winner has the most slips at the end.

Kids LOVE it, and it gets very heated during play.  I use it for every major quiz, and then I use a different review game called TPT  (Teaching, Practice and Tournaments) for tests.  I am working on a product for TpT called "TPT" (wow - that is confusing) and will post about it once it is done.  For me, having a tool box of review ideas is truly comforting.  I can pull these out and use them any time with any review we are doing.  I love it!

So, what was wrong with my cans and slips?  Well, the slips get all bent up and crushed in the can, and the kids actually can "tell" which ones are KABOOMS by how they are bent or not bent.  (Those stinkers!)  I thought about it and decided to use tongue depressors instead of slips and place them in washed out soup cans instead of Pringle's cans.  I am painting the tips of each set so that they are easy to organize if they get mixed up.  I love it!  Here is a picture of the first set I have done....

Here is another of just some of the sticks.  I put a K on the KABOOM sticks.  My sets have 35 sticks each.  Thirty are numbered and 5 are KABOOMS.

Now, here is the idea I implemented this year, and it was hugely successful!  I put a little sticker on ONE Kaboom slip in each set. My sticker was a little apple. At the start of class, we decided what that KABOOM would mean.  Here are some of our "KABOOM STICKER" rules:

1.  Instead of putting all slips back - TAKE a slip from each other player at the table!

2.  Trade slips with any other player!

3.  Choose one other player to put their slips back in the can!

4.  Get a piece of candy!

5.  Give each of the other players at the table one of your slips.

You can imagine that this was a lot of fun!  The KABOOM with the sticker became one that every one wanted instead of one they feared.  It was really great, and I will definitely do it again this year - but with my new KABOOM sticks instead of slips.  Love it!

Have a great day - one set down and five more to paint!