I really wanted to name this blog post: This, That and Another Thing but thought I should be a little more specific....so here goes.
I am linking up with my friend Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her linky party....
On Tuesday I posted about trying multiplication name tags (read about it here). They are a huge hit!! We wore them all week and my students learned mine every day and retained the facts that I wore (I wore 8x8, 6x7 and 7x7). I know my students were motivated because #1 everyday when they walked in the walked straight over to the hooks and picked one up and #2 a few parents came in to my class to see our nametags since they had heard so much about them and we showed them how we were using them. Also as I walked the halls my former students would stop me to work out my nametag - yes I wore it everywhere!!
So if you are thinking of trying this to motivate your students I just wanted to share two more ideas that we used this week. One day instead of just introducing themselves they had a clipboard with a grid with everyone's name and as they walked around they recorded the fact for each person. We used the list for them to call on each other throughout the day.
The other idea we did on Friday - because hey, it was Friday - was we stood in a circle and threw a nerf like ball to each other by calling out each other's fact and answer. We tried to go fast but sometimes there was a dramatic pause and some quick finger counting. We played a couple times throughout the day - because hey, like I said it was Friday :)
While I have you here I want to share two more things that have been huge motivators in my class over the last few weeks. They are Joanne's Synonym Rings and Cite the Evidence posters. I have both of these products on binder rings for my students. They love pulling them out to improve their work. They love that they can use them independently and they super duper love when I point out someone's work who used them. Our current favorite is to use the sentence stem "According to the text..." we have to say that one in our very serious voices. Here is a picture of one of my cuties who asked if she could read her rings when she finished her work - really she just wanted to flip through them and read them. One of my Educational Assistants asked for a copy to use at home with her kids after she saw how the students in my class used them and loved them!

And lastly I wanted to let you know that myself and a bunch of other bloggers are having sales on TPT this weekend - just in case you are motivated to try any new products!!! Be sure and check out these stores.

Thanks to Kayla at Primary Junction for making this cute button!!