Craft Stick Activity; Collage Tray

Inspired by my latest find on Pinterest (and also Leslie's craft stick puzzles):

Can be adapted to many themes and many levels of ability. We have four sets of three sticks.  In this game, they build picture components as well as contextualized words.

I've noticed that if I introduce a new little something each day, the kids get into a rhythm of pulling activity trays off of the shelf to do independently (or with other children).  I also stole this idea from the blogosphere:

a miniature collage strip activity 

The way I see it, if I bring just one new thing a day, and a few of the new things hook in a few children at any given time, then introducing new works into the classroom really is an easy and highly beneficial classroom management strategy.