Math Time: Roll & Cover and Monster Math

Math time!  Linking up with I {Heart} Recess and Fourth Grade Flipper to let you in on a secret.  I am addicted to buying teaching materials.  I just can't help it.  If someone has already made something that works and will save me the headache of trying to create it myself - then of course I'm going to buy it… AND when that something is on sale, is a year long product, and is going to help another teacher financially out.. well, I have even more incentive to go shopping!  

Last Monday, when I was home on Veteran's Day I had fun on TPT.  A LOT of FUN!  Yes, capitals, it was a lot of fun.  My hubby doesn't yet know how much fun.  2 products that I picked up were new math materials that I decided I needed to have pronto.

I bought a bunch of Roll and Cover Multiplication Games.  My class absolutely goes nuts when I have pulled out the couple of games that I already owned, so I picked up this entire year's worth.  I haven't copied them all, but I did print out the Thanksgiving and Fire Safety ones for this week.  I use them during my math fact rotation once a week.  The boards are rich in color, so after printing one set of them, I decided to do the remainder sets in black and white using school ink.  They still look great, and I slipped them inside sheet protectors to be ready to go.  When I'm not using them I started a big binder to keep them organized. 

The other thing that I picked up was 4th grade Monster Math Spiral Review.  I know… you are probably looking at the computer screen wondering why I bought more spiral review when I already own 2 other sets.  The answer is easy, the kids still need practice.  My "At your seat" rotation is all about spiral review, and I wanted something that would be a constant every Wednesday morning.  It's engaging, has tons of practice, and keeps the kids' thinking - which gives me time to focus on my own little group.  With this set, I only made 8 copies of each page and slipped them into sheet protectors. (Yes, I go through a lot of sheet protectors in class.)  This past week the kids didn't write on the pages, but wrote their answers on a piece of scratch paper.  After the rotations were done, we came back together full class and reviewed the material (like we do every day), and then they turned it in.  I had them tackle all 5 problems during their 15 minute rotation.  Now I can save those same sheets for next year, and they are in my file cabinet all labeled with the week number.

     What do you use for your math fact or at your seat station?

Hope you had a great day and MAKE SURE to check back tomorrow morning!!!  There is a big surprise waiting in the wings.  :)

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Peek at my Week

5 days until Thanksgiving vacation!  I am so blessed that my district gives us an entire week for vacation.  When we were year round we had a long weekend, but nothing beats an entire week!!  I love teaching - I had to explain it to my own son the other day - but there is something about having a chance to focus on my own family that makes me smile.  :)  

So, here it is another Sunday to share what's planned in my classroom.  Linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings and her Peek at my Week linky party!

This week we are reading a very short story titled "The Milkmaid and her Pail".  We will be focusing on cause and effect, as well as idioms.  It's the end of the unit, so we will also be spending some time getting ready for our unit test - reviewing vocabulary, practicing comprehension strategies, and spelling patterns.  Fun times!  

We really should be moving onto long division but instead with the vacation approaching we will continue to review multi digit multiplication.  We will be tackling this project from Teaching with a Mountain View instead.  I love how the students will be able to see how multi-digit multiplication is used in real life.   

This week is a big one for us.  We will be finishing up Lemonade War,

and reading How Many Days to America? for our mentor sentence.

Bringing Thanksgiving into the classroom:

Thanksgiving Grammar Packet

I chose 5 of the pages in this packet, copied them half page, and they are stapled into a little packet to tackle this week.

Thanksgiving Unit

This unit I will be using the math games in my centers, and on Friday we will watch the movie, "Molly's Pilgrim" and complete those activities.

Fabulous Fall Centers

In the afternoons I have ELA center time, so I will be using these fall activities to review key concepts.  

Before I sign off for today, wanted to remind you of the Pin It giveaway over on yesterday's post.  Have a great day!  

  

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Winter Products (Pin It Giveaway)

Can you believe December is almost here?  I still can't!  It was last December (over Christmas break) that I started up my little store on TPT.  Over last winter I created a bunch of stuff for my own classroom.  I finally accepted the fact that I could actually make stuff for my own students.    

Since some of these things have been buried in my little store for the past 3 seasons I wanted to share them with you.  Maybe something could help you out.  Links go to TPT if you are interested.

**Want to help me spread the word about them?  Pin one of the products from this page (either from here or TPT) and leave the pin in a comment below.  Tomorrow night (Sunday evening) I'll give away 3 items.  Make sure to leave your email!
  

*Mid Year Math Review (Penguin): These task cards include math facts, double digit multiplication, long division, facts, place value, and rounding.  It helped the kids to remember coming back from Winter break and also the week before vacation.  

*Mid-Year Math Review (Snowman) - These are the same task cards but with snowman clip art. 

*Mid Year ELA Review (Snowman)  - Here is my ELA version: Types of Sentences, Subjects & Predicates, Types of Nouns, Pronouns, and Verbs.  My class used these during workshop to help review.  

*Mid Year ELA Review (Penguin) - Here are the same task cards with a penguin theme.  I mainly used the Snowman in January and the penguins in February.

Regrouping Time!   

*Subtraction with Regrouping - These are the same idea as my super hero set, but in a winter theme.

*Addition with Regrouping - I love the penguins!  They can work all winter long.  

Long Division Practice - I made up 2 clip art versions of the same equations:

*Long Division Winter Version - has snowmen and snowflakes

*Long Division Christmas Edition - has Santa, reindeer, snowmen, and snowflakes

These task cards have helped my students to practice the necessary long division skills.  

*These little penguins had to come back for a multiplication match up/ flashcards.  I used these as part of my math fact stations.  Alone they are flashcards, but with the answers they create match ups.  I keep the different math facts separate (x7's, x3's, etc.) so it was an easy set up.

Have a wonderful weekend!  

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Throwback Thursday - Remembering Last Thanksgiving

Last night I was going through last year's blog posts trying to remember what I did in the classroom for Thanksgiving.  I have plenty planned for next week, I just couldn't remember what I did last year.  That's one good thing about having a blog, it's an instant photo album - the good, the great, and the ugly.
Here's to remembering... (The links will take you to last year's posts.)Thanksgiving Spoon Puppets  
My class made little puppets to work on dialogue.

Figurative Language Turkeys
The feathers for the turkey was actually the back of some figurative language bookmarks.

Student Thankful Journals 
I have my students set up their thankful journals in specific categories to help them think.  
I know I did a ton more than that, but it was nice remembering... and getting a chance to add these back into the lesson plans.  
Have a great day!

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Chocolate Touch and Fever

I can't believe it's almost December. Soon it will be time to cover the house with lights, snowmen, candles... In the classroom that means it's time to read 2 of my favorite chocolate books. Yes 2. I can't just choose one like Jessica said. The beauty of the books is that they are short. Like you can be done with them in the 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break.  

Chocolate Touch and Chocolate Fever are very similar books, but different enough to hold the kids' attention. I like reading them in December because it leads to a great discussion about moderation with all the treats that are out and about (especially with what goes on in the stories).

In class I have a ton of whole class read aloud books.  I know I've mentioned it before, I had a field day a couple of years ago spending bonus points and loading up on $1 books.  We read together every afternoon for about 20 minutes.  Last year I also bought a bunch of Audio books for my read alouds.  Over at Audible they have versions with the authors reading them, it's amazing all the different inflections they use.. much better than I could do!  I have the recordings on my nano (which I plug into my speakers).  

After reading we always do a Venn diagram between the 2. Comparing the characters, the plots, etc.

This summer I also made up these activity cards that go along with Chocolate Touch. I made similar ones for Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and it kept the kids busy thinking more in depth about the story. I would pick a couple a day to go over after our daily readings. 

In addition to the activity cards I have my kiddos use the my mini pack's chapter summaries to write main ideas down, and at the end of the books they write down their favorite parts. Then all the pages are stapled together and they do a compare and constrast between the two. 

Well, that's it! I got nothing else at the moment... Other than reminding you about the blog naming contest going on. 

If your idea is chosen there are multiple prizes to win... Like over 20! 

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Tried it Tuesday and Helpful Hints

Linking up with Holly and Blog Hoppin to share 5 helpful hints for school that I have tried.

 Some of these pictures you might remember from the beginning of the year… or even last year - that's because they work and I want to shout it from the rooftops!

#1 Bulletin Boards

  

It's easy to keep track of who turned in what when you have a backing for each child on a student work bulletin board.  I have my class in alpha order (which happens to be the same as number order).  This bulletin board changes on a weekly basis, and usually the kids put up their own work (if they can reach).  By having it as numbers I can instantly tell who still is working on it.  

#2 Team Points

Kids love competition.  This year I'm inviting the monthly winning team into the classroom for a special lunch.  Motivation is high.  Why did I switch from tally marks on the board to a plastic cup using glass gems?  The sound it makes on the metal whiteboard tray, plus there isn't a team that gives up since they can't see the exact score until we do the official count up.

#3 Class Magnets

Those little apples on my board are magnets with student numbers written on them.  It makes it so easy for students to move their number over when they are finished with the activity.

#4 Taking the time to organize - Supply Organization

Remember this picture?  Years and years of not being a neat freak made me go nuts - I'd always dreamed of this type of classroom - with everything in its place and labeled, and now I get to go there every day (and I don't have to be embarrassed if a sub opens up the doors).  

#5 Center Organization

These are mainly all math (above) and below are task cards/activities broken up by standards (tall drawers), and ELA centers (small)

Yes, it means that my back wall is filled with drawer after drawer of storage - but I don't care!  I love the extra "counter" it provides too.  

Have you seen this graphic floating around? There is a new collaborative blog starting up and we are looking for a name... Can you help? There are prizes involved if your idea is chosen. Just leave a comment below by Saturday night and I'll turn it in at the business meeting. 

I hope something helped you!  Have a great day.  :)

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Math Time: Array-Bot

Hey everyone!  Happy Veterans Day!  Yes, a day off of school, but more importantly a day to remember and thank those that served past and present.  My own family is full of heroes.


This was my grandpa and grandma on their wedding day.  He was part of the air force, whose plane was shot down over Korea in World War II.  He landed in a tree, broke his leg, and served time as a POW in Camp Luft IV.  I'm so thankful for him and others that have given their all.
  
 
I also wanted to share a little something that my class tackled last week in math.  We started double digit multiplication and our first textbook lesson was working with arrays.  Of course the kids were all like - huh???  They somehow had completely forgotten what an array was from last year...  So I pulled this project from Elementary Lesson Plans out of my arsenal and we did it together the next day.

Such a fun project!  They totally got the point of what number goes first vs. second in an array - how a simple math problem is set up.  I was able to tie it into area as well (that's what I used it for last year).

Here are some pictures from my class:

Completely recommend it if you need a little something to connect the dots.  We did the project, glued together it fits on a standard 9 x 12 piece of construction paper, and then I had them write the arrays around the robot.  They had fun decorating it too.

Linking up with I {Heart} Recess!  Go check out other math fun!

P.S. - My store is still 20% off today.
My own cart is filled and ready to check out… so many good deals.

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