Paper Saving Ideas for your Classroom

If you are like me, you are always looking for paper saving ideas for your classroom.  I would prefer to NOT have stacks and stacks of former trees in my life.  The Lorax would be so proud!

Play a word study card game

In my classroom we have always played card games.  Card games are a great paper saving activity.  Sure, you need to copy the cards onto card stock, but then you can use them for YEARS!

Students LOVE these Star Wars themed CVCe word cards.

This little cute is playing with a vowel team set.

You can find these files below:

Alphabet Card Games,   Short Vowel Card Games,  Vowel Team and CVCe Card Games

We also love to play SNAP! in my classroom.   We are playing the Beginning Digraph and Blends version here.  To play, we turn over a phonics card [example below:  wh].  All the students quickly scan their cards to see if they have one that starts the same way.  The first one to say “SNAP!” gets to turn their card over.  The goal is to turn over all of their phonics cards.  Since they are all scanning at that the same time, every student is engaged.  No passive learning here!  You can see this bundle of activities HERE.  It is currently 50% while the bundle is still growing… so hurry!

Work on reading fluency

Sight word fluency and Fry word phrase fluency has been a staple in my classroom.  Students practice reading as fast as they can…

while their partner times them.  I have made a recording sheet, but honestly I don’t think it is necessary.

You can find this timer HERE.

In the Time Me: Reading Fluency station, students start the year off reading alphabet cards.  Then they move onto Dolch sight words.  Finally, students work on phrases.  I added an editable page, so you can have your students focus on whatever sight word list your school uses.  You can see all of the various themes HERE.

Use a Page Protector

I made these Sight Word Spelling Games a long time ago.  I have since updated them and I have plans to add a few more.  There is a response page for them, but I wanted to offer a paper saving option.

How do you play?   Partner 1 reads the card to Partner 2 without showing the card.  Partner 2 writes the word on a piece of paper that has been placed in a page protector.  I have had these page protectors for a long, LONG time.  However, I have found something similar HERE.

After the check that they have spelled the word correctly, they simply erase the word.  If they wrote the word incorrectly, they just make the correction.  Then they roll the die to move their game piece.

Like I said, I have a few versions of this game.  Yes!  They are editable, so you can add your own sight words or spelling lists. I had been asked if I would make more… so I did!  I bundled them together and you can currently get the bundle for 50% off while I work on completing it.  You can find that bundle HERE.

Math Games without Response Sheets

There are plenty of hands on math activities that are paper saving.  All of these math activities are part of my Math Work Station units.  You can see them HERE.

Reusable Exit Ticket

There you have it!   I would love to hear of other paper saving ideas you use in your classroom!