Math Games

My class has been restless for two weeks and it's time to break out some games. Tomorrow we will play a game for math! These cards printed nicely as black and white.  I enlisted the help of students to help cut out 6 sets for me, so that I could put them into groups of 4. Then my helpers learned how to play the game and they'll help others tomorrow.

My students used dry erase boards and calculators to play. The calculators were used to  check their work for each other. The calculators keep each person busy while waiting for their turn. The cards are placed face down and the students take turns rolling the die twice (if using one). The first number tells how many cards to draw.  The second number tells how much to add or subtract from each card. While students are solving and writing their answers down, the other players can use the calculators to check their work.  They get to keep cards for each correct answer.  If an answer is incorrect, that card is returned to a discard pile.  Once the pile is gone, the game is over and the player with the most cards is the winner.

Cyber Monday Sale

Are you ready for the sale?   It's the perfect time to grab some bundles for a huge savings!  Everything in my store will be 28% off if you use the code Smile at checkout!  That's an amazing savings on bundles.

Vocabulary

This year my students really need to expand their vocabulary.  They have a lot of difficulty with some basic words and content area words.  I'm not quite sure what changed with this group although I know there are more students below reading level than previous years.

I created some noun sorts hoping to expose them to more words in a fun way.  They love to sort and move things around.

While my students won't need sorting singular and plural nouns all year, I'm hoping they will be able to focus on the words instead of the skills since we've already learned this! Several of my students work best with repetitive activities. 

  

 

 

This week, we'll work on this Thanksgiving Sort! 

Ready or Not... Halloween is Here!

I never know what to expect during the week of Halloween. Last week was CRAZY due to a 4-day week.  Last year, the 4-day weeks were easy.  I have so many fun Halloween activities to use this week.  I'm excited and I hope my students are, too! 

 

This will be them up and moving around!  They love my scavenger hunt activities!  

My class loves to draw and color, so they'll enjoy this fun measurement activity.  Students will select cards and draw the picture using the measurements on the card. 

 

And we'll squeeze in some writing!  They love decorating their pumpkin and trying to guess which description matches which pumpkin. So many activities, so little time. We do not have a Halloween party so we try to include a lot of seasonal activities into our day.  

Halloween Graphing

I couldn't wait to try out our new printer.  Our old printer wasn't printing accurately and I was tired of seeing evergreen instead of lime green.

So this morning while I was searching through my wishlist and working on lesson plans, I decided I needed to use some more of my Halloween clip art. My Graph It! activity is one of my best sellers, so I thought it'd be fun to use one during Halloween and try out my new printer also!

Quick Project for a Friend

I'm excited to finally have a project for the watercolor flowers I purchased!  My co-worker needed some rules posted in her room, so she asked for my help.

Elapsed Time

We are working on elapsed time this week.  I love using a t-chart for it, but Everyday Math uses the open number line, so that's what we are practicing with.  I made this little reference chart to send out to my parents.  What do you use with your students?

We are slowly working towards using math stations.  This is a great review game for telling time. I can't wait to break out this game with my class! 

Back to School Sale

Are you ready to shop?  My wishlist is ready to go!  I've added several new products this summer and expanded my multiplication products to include x11 and x12. I've also made some of my fact family products in various themes so that you can choose when to use them.  I originally made them for my students so the theme matched the month/season, but that really limited the use.

We have some seasonal monsters. 

 

There are some cute kids having fun.

 

 

We have some adorable animals from around the world. 

 

There is a Line Plot Bundle now available.  The Scavenger Hunts are some of my most popular activities.  

 

One of my new products is the Build Them Pocket Chart Math Facts. My teammates are ready for this one!  I'm hoping to have a Division item available before school begins.

 

Last year was the first year that we implemented Common Core.  I know that my students need a lot of my exposure to different types of sentences before I can expect them to write good quality sentences.  This product contains a sorting activity and sentence unscrambles. 

 

 

Here's an oldie.  My students loved this activity at the end of the year last year.  It has 3 scrambled sentences for each of the 5 mammals as well as a few other writing activities.

 

Here's another new bundle with a Scavenger Hunt added.

 

Descriptive writing bundle- These are quick writing activities that are perfect for around the holidays.  They make a great display and my students always enjoy the guessing game.

  

A few more bundles...

 

 

And, a Graphing Mega Bundle! This is a great deal! The already discounted bundle are discounted even more.  You can also save up to 28% during the Back to School Sale by using the BTS15. What a super savings!

  

Graphing Mega Bundle

I'm excited to finally have this project up in my store.  It includes some of my most popular products at a discounted price on already discounted bundles.  There are great hands-on activities along with activities that will get your students up and moving around!

These activities are geared towards third and fourth grade, however, above grade level students in second may enjoy them, too.  The hand-on  activities are great for review and the scavenger hunts will challenge your students!  You can click on the picture to find the activity in my store.

Ordered Pairs Scavenger Hunt

My math scavenger hunts are some of my best sellers.  In June I added Ordered Pairs as a Scavenger Hunt and also created a bundle.

Technology Fail

I love to take pictures!  Lots of pictures!  Digital photography is great until it isn't so great... corrupt files etc.  I periodically back up my phone files just in case I lose my phone.  I find myself using my phone for most pictures and video since it's small and I always have it with me.  March 2014 was the last time I backed up my phone from what I can tell on my computer.

So paranoia set in the night before we left for vacation and I tried to back up my phone.  It wasn't working.  My husband tried and tried and tried, but it still wasn't letting the backup to take place.  SD card is bad.  UGH!

I'm finally over misplacing or accidentally deleting my son's first Christmas and I will forever cherish the 4 photos I have and 30 seconds of video. :(  I'm forever grateful that when my son was born I loaded photos onto my new laptop instead of my desktop which crashed a week after he was born. This time I lost a year's worth of video and photos. I'm thankful that some of the important pictures were uploaded to Facebook or sent to friends or even emailed to myself.  I lost A LOT this time.

So anyway, I'm going to share a few photos because it doesn't hurt to have them in a few places. I know I took less photos than normal. I decided to just enjoy the moments because if technology fails then the moments are what I have.

Maui Day Trip- We were here for a heatwave and we found a really cool spot to stand and enjoy the breeze.  We didn't hike down to the beach.

 

Waiting for the fireworks.

Elevator View

 

We celebrated our 16th anniversary.

My son turned 8.

 

 

The Game Room

My son made some new friends and he left this message for a friend.

Sunset leaving Maui.

Sunrise heading home on the second leg of flight LA to Minneapolis.

Neat store!  

Our vacations will always overlap in some way with the Vegas TPT fun!  Maybe one day I'll be able to go.