My Favorite FREEBIE Linky

I'm linking up with Cynthia from 2nd Grade Pad to share my favorite freebie.

I haven't made that many freebies yet (just gettin' started here!), but I think my very favorite one so far is my "Chicka Trees" center activity.
This game helps with letter and number (0-9) recognition, as well as color words and introduces sentences (punctuation). It's a great beginning-of-year informal assessment for first grade, and would be good to have at the end of the year in Kindergarten.
My students love this book-inspired center when they get a chance to use it.

It is my favorite because:
It is the first center activity I ever made myself, rather than purchased or downloaded:)
And I love to integrate activities to literature...I LOVE children's literature!

How to use it:
I print my trees and sentence mat so that letters are on one side and numbers on the other, but you could print on separate papers to separate the designated task. If you print letters and numbers front and back as I do, you will need to separate letter and number cards by rubber banding them together in two separate piles.
Students must decide whether they are going to use the letter side of the mats, or the number sides.
They will need to have both mats (chick trees and sentence mat) sitting face up, though one of my centers has a paper holder that I include for students to stand up the Chicka Trees.
If students are using the letter sides, they will need to get the deck of letter cards, and if they are using the number side they will the number cards (obviously).
 Starting from the top of the pile, students put a letter on the sentence mat, check the Chicka trees mat for that letter, then complete the bottom sentence by finding a matching color word for that letter.
The color words can be used with matching color dots or without, depending on the student's readiness level.
Here is my brilliant 5-year-old playing my Chicka Trees pack at home (he and his brother are always my guinea pigs!):

what a ham:)

Kid-tested, Aiden-approved!

I keep all my pieces in the same envelope, but you could separate your letters and numbers if you like!
Click on the pic above to go to Google Docs and get your copy!!

What's your favorite freebie you've made? Link up with Cynthia and share!

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Happy Monday, y'all!