Place Value Slider

Create a place value slider: DIY teaching tool from Tattling to the Teacher! All you need are paint chips (gradient strips). Cut a square out of the center of each color and label the place value. Cut out a piece of cardstock or construction paper for the back. Staple the left and right edge of your paint chip to the heavy paper backing. After you staple the edges, staple the side of each color to create pockets for your number strips (see image below). Next, create rectangular strips of numbers 0-9 for each place value. Then, insert your strips, slide them, and create a number!

Note: For older students, you can attach multiple paint chips to create larger numbers or to incorporate decimals. 

Hue Finder

Live Strong has a fun outdoor color match game for kids. Stop at your local hardware store and snatch a bunch of paint chip strips to use on a color scavenger hunt. Kids go around on a color hunt, matching paint chips to items all around them. Find colors inside and outside. Use you color tool spring, summer, fall, and winter. Put color cards on a book ring for easy handling. Kids can take turns using it in the classroom and outside on the playground. Optional - Have kids use a hole puncher and punch holes in the colors they find.

nature photos via alamy

Synonym City

Create a city of synonyms! Pass out paint chips (or use paper) and have each child in charge of a word. There challenge is to construct a skyscraper of synonyms! When everyone is finished, build a city. Make a street, add cars, signage, whatever you'd like! You can keep Synonym City hanging on a wall in your classroom to help kids spice up their writing. When kids are feeling uninspired, they can drive to the city and shop for words!

Paint Chip Fact Families

Brighten up fact families with gradients of pop color! I love Manning Math Mania's paint chip fact family challenge, so I simplified it for younger kids. You can do multiplication / division, adding more paint chips like Manning Math Mania did.

Habitat Board Game: Jumanji

After reading the book Jumanji, have kids invent their own magical board game, constructed out of paint chips or construction paper. Divide children into groups or work on a game board as a class. Encourage them to design a game that revolves around a different habitat other than the jungle / rainforest (such as a desert or ocean theme). Once they decide on their theme, they'll decorate their board to go along with it. Also, have them come up with a creative name for their game that goes along with their theme. 

Along with their game, have each group collaborate on instructions. Together, they'll write specific rules that players must follow, just like Jumanji's instructions in the book. Now, roll the dice and play! Let your imaginations run wild!

Paint Chip Story

Have kids choose five color samples with intriguing names to create a story! Check out Education.com for all the details! Check out the color thesaurus here!