4 Ways to Use Boom Cards for FREE in Your Upper Elementary Classroom

So you’ve just purchased your first set of Boom Cards. You go to use them when all of a sudden, BOOM! You realize you have to pay for a subscription! Sound familiar? 

As teachers, we often end up paying for a lot of things out of our own pocket, just to help better our students’ education. But I get it. There are bills to pay, people to feed, and life to live. Purchasing another subscription was probably the last thing you wanted to do. After all, you’ve worked hard for your money!

I love using Boom Cards in my classroom. If you are able to purchase the subscription I definitely recommend it, but if it just isn’t for you, don’t worry. You can still use the Boom cards you’ve purchased in a meaningful way in your classroom without having to spend more of your hard-earned money.

Here are 4 ways to use Boom Cards for free:

1. Use Them as a Whole Group

Boom cards are great for whole group instruction and practice. With the free account, you still have access to any decks you have purchased. Throw the Boom cards up on your SmartBoard or Promethean Board, and solve them as a class. I’ve had my students get out whiteboards, and answer math problems on their whiteboards. Then, they show me their answers and I am able to easily assess where they are. I can easily address any misconceptions, or extend their thinking. Plus, students love being able quickly see if their answer was correct or not.

2. Use Them for Tier 2 Instruction

As long as you have some device that connects to the internet (like a laptop, an iPad or a Kindle) you can pull the Boom cards up while you are working in a small group. You can use the same sort of procedure that you do with the whole class. Have your students answer the questions on a whiteboard or a piece of paper, and then you can address those misconceptions in a small group. Boom cards are great for targeting one specific skill that you need students to work on. This is always great during tier 2 intervention.

3. Use Them in a Center 

If you have access to a SmartBoard or a Promethean board, you can put these up and turn them into a math center. You can easily see what your students are working on, while using the Boom cards on their own. This is a great way to solidify their understanding of different concepts. Have your students write down their answers on a piece of paper, and then turn the answers in to you. This allows you to still check for understanding, even if they don’t have their own account.

4. Utilize the Fast Pin

Boom Learning does have a free option that you can utilize with your students called a fast pin. If you want to assign your students to each work on the same deck, you will create what is called a fast pin. You give the students the Boom website and the fast pin, and they can log in and work on it on their own without any subscription required from you. The only downside to this is that you will not see the reports on how your students are doing. However, this is great if you need something quick and easy for your students to work on. 

This is also a wonderful option for sub plans. Your students can still get the practice in for whatever specific skills you want them to practice while you’re gone, and you don’t have to copy off piles of worksheets. And if you’re like me when writing sub plans, the less time you can spend in the copy room, the better. Want to know exactly how to get the Fast Pin? Check out the video below and I’ll walk you through it!

If you are able to purchase a Boom cards subscription, I would highly recommend it. I love getting reports about how my students are doing on various decks, and I can easily assign different decks to different students. However, if it just isn’t in the cards for you, that’s okay! You can still get a lot of value out of using Boom cards for free.

And if you’ve never tried Boom cards, I’ve got a free deck you can try out on comparing multi-digit numbers. Click here to sign up, and I’ll email it right to you! Let me know how you use Boom Cards in your classroom!

Happy Teaching!

6 Books to Read Aloud to Your 6th Graders {with a FREEBIE!}

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One of my favorite times of the day is when I get to sit down and read a book to my students. There is just something about connecting through books and stories that can help to strengthen relationships among students. My 6th graders are always so excited when it is read aloud time.

I love this reading time is because I can expose my students to new literature that they might not have sought out on their own. I also love reading the first book in a series, because that has a natural lead-in for my students to want to find out “what happens in the next book.” There are also so many life lessons that can be learned through reading, and I love having those discussions with my kids. 

6 of My Favorite Books to Read Aloud

(I provide links to Amazon if you want to purchase them, but these are NOT affiliate links. I really just love these books!)

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I love this one because it is full of adventure. My kids were hooked from the very first chapter! It also tied in nicely with our social studies unit about Ancient Greece and their gods and goddesses. It was also the first book in the series, which meant the next book, The Sea of Monsters, often flew off of my shelf once we finished The Lightning Thief. Click HERE to check it out!

2. Prisoner B-3087

This is a really heavy book full of loss and despair, but it also has a very empowering message of hope and survival. This book is based on the experiences of Jack Gruener going through several different concentration camps during World War II. I would definitely make sure you read this book for yourself first before reading it to your students, to ensure that you know they are mature enough to handle the story. That being said, I’ve been able to have some amazing discussions about prejudice, kindness, hope, grief, identity, and so much more with my students. My students loved this book and were able to relate some of the experiences to things that are happening today. Click HERE to check it out!

3. Fablehaven

Fablehaven is such a fun book if your students love fantasy. It is about a brother and sister who go to stay with their grandpa, and find out he lives on a magical preserve, full of fairies, satyrs, ogres and other magical creatures. They face danger and learn that their actions have real consequences. This is a great book to talk about cause and effect with your students. I have some comprehension and student activities to go along with this book too. Click HERE to check out a freebie, or HERE to see the entire novel study. You can find this book HERE on Amazon.

    

4. The Witches

My 4th grade teacher read this book aloud to my class, and I’ve always remembered it. She made this story come alive, and I love being able to do the same with my students. This book is about a boy who finds himself in a room full of witches that are trying to destroy children!  I’ve read this to each of my classes since becoming a teacher. I love introducing them to the Grand High Witch with a crazy loud voice (that sometimes makes me lose my voice…). This has been one of my students’ favorite books that we’ve read aloud. It might seem a little “young” for 6th graders, but mine absolutely loved it! Click HERE to see this book on Amazon.

5. Number the Stars

This was a good preface to reading Prisoner B-3087. It is shorter, but still very powerful. We learn about how the Danish people helped to smuggle Jews out of Denmark into neutral Sweden during World War II through the story of Annemarie and her best friend Ellen, who is Jewish. Annemarie has to risk her life to help her friend and a number of other Jewish people escape. This is a great book to talk about friendship, loyalty, and protecting others who may not be able to protect themselves. Click HERE to find this book!

6. The 39 Clues

This is another adventure book whose main characters are a brother and sister. Dan and Amy find themselves faced with a decision after their grandmother dies: take $2 million, or a single clue that could lead them to become the most powerful family in the world. Dan and Amy choose the clue, and it leads them on an adventure around the world. They have to learn how to overcome weaknesses and deal with failure while learning to trust each other. My students love the action in this book. Plus, this is the first book in a long series, which is a great way to hook your students into reading the rest of the books! Click HERE to see the series on Amazon!

Books that are read aloud can have such a powerful impact on students. Even my reluctant readers look forward to this time, because they know they get to enjoy a story with their classmates. Once we finish a book, they will often reread the book on their own again, or pick up the next book in the series.

I also love to let my students recommend books they want to read aloud as a class. I have them fill out a small form that they then submit to me, and I consider their request for the next read aloud. This is a great way to get students even more invested in this precious time during our school day. Click HERE to get my book request form sent to your email! By reading books aloud, you can help foster your students’ love of reading.

Keeping Students Engaged with Valentine's Math Bingo

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Last year for our Valentine’s Party, I wanted a fun game for students to play while keeping them engaged in learning. To help my students feel excited about learning while celebrating, I created a multiplication fact bingo game with a Valentine’s theme. My 4th graders loved it! It was a good review for them, and they got to celebrate the holiday together. This year, however, we are completely online. (Thank you Covid.) Because of this, I didn’t have a way to play my Valentine's math bingo game with my students.

Transitioning to Online Games

As a teacher, I love being able to incorporate learning into our holiday activities. Unfortunately, all of the fun games that I have done in the past required the physical presence of my students in my classroom. I have had to revamp many of my plans and make everything digital.

I have felt overwhelmed with all of the expectations that are placed upon me when it comes to distance learning. I felt sad because it would be harder to celebrate holidays with my students the way I was used to. My students also realized that celebrating holidays as a class would be more difficult since we weren’t together.

Using Valentine's Math Bingo in My Classroom

In order to help us have some semblance of our holiday activities, I created a digital Valentine’s math bingo game. Each student gets a digital bingo card that already has counters on it. All they have to do is drag and drop each counter onto the correct space. I share the calling cards with them through the screen share feature on Zoom. 

This ended up being such a fun experience for my students. It broke up the day a little bit (we don’t play bingo games every day, so it was something new).  They were also engaged in practicing their multiplication facts, which we still need in fourth grade.

Even though school looks totally different these days, I love that I have a digital version of a fun game that I was used to playing with my classes in years past. Digital games are great too because I don’t have to worry about printing, laminating, and then trying to keep track of bingo cards and counters! Even when we’re back in the classroom, I think I’m going to keep using the digital Valentine's math bingo game to celebrate together.  

Want to see what my Valentine's math bingo game looks like? Check out the video below, or click HERE to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers.