A Cute Funny & Giveaway Time!
So this week I had students write some “I Wonder” poetry. I did this for an enrichment class (totally unrelated to math here). I showed students two examples of I wonder poetry. Then I presented them with a paper to write their I wonder statements. To my surprise I had one very “clever” second grader write an amusing line to his poem. See the story below for your own giggle moment.
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)
Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, Chocolate 4 Teachers, Mrs Wenning’s Classroom, Teacher Gone Digital, Kamp Kindergarten, TheBeezyTeacher, Simone, A Plus Kids, The Literacy Garden, Jackie Crews, Resource Room Relevance, It’s a Teacher Thing, The Fun Factory, Star Kids by Naomi, The Chocolate Teacher, Samsons Shoppe, Ms. K,The Froggy Factory, and The Cozy Crafty Classroom.
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 3/13/19 and is open worldwide.
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Share Your Life with Your Kids
This is a very random post, but I must share this because I am rather excited about it. The other evening my dog who is an AH-dorable fuzzy 12 pounds would not come inside when I called her. This is not normally a problem, however this night it was! I finally went outside to see what she was distracted with and took my flashlight. I heard something squeak as she was pouncing in the leaves. I looked closer and saw something gray. I was like…WHAT IN THE WORLD!? I thought she had found a mole or something. Then I got closer and picked up the small gray animal. As I looked I realized she had found a tiny, baby rabbit. The eyes were still closed and the umbilical cord was visible. I picked it up so she wouldn’t damage its warm body. My dog fussed at me for taking her potential chew toy. My dog continued sniffing the leaves. It was then I realized that there were two more babies. I picked the others up, snapped some pictures and panicked about what to do with them. I called my veterinary technician friend. She said the mother was probably nearby watching us and may not want anything to do with her babies since we had touched them. I put the bunnies back down and went back inside. The next morning they were gone without a sign of harm.
I ended up sharing this story and the picture with my students who were equally excited about them…especially the younger students. I even was able to use a little deductive reasoning about what type of animal I found since I didn’t initially tell the students that they were bunnies. I say all this to say when something fun and exciting like this happens in your life, take the time to share it with your students. Chances are they will remember it more than other things you teach them…and sometimes these are the most important moments! (Hello?! life science!)
Cute Winter Bulletin Board
I wish I could say I created this bulletin board, but I did not! I saw this bulletin board a colleague of mine made. She said she actually saw the idea on Pinterest. They are little snow globes that the students made with themselves inside of them. They decorated the scene inside the snow globe. The “globe” part of the snow globe is actually a clear plastic plate with a rounded edge. The teacher was able to have the children make these to go with a writing piece the children had done. Aren’t they cute?!
Happy Valentine’s Day and a Giveaway to Show the Love!
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Prize: Things We LOVE prize pack including: Mr. Sketch Markers, Flair Markers, Personal Laminator, Dry Erase Pockets, Dry Erase Markers, Astrobrights Paper, Ticonderoga Pencils, and a $50 Teachers pay Teachers gift card.
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)
Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, A Plus Kids, The Cozy Crafty Classroom, Sliding into 1st, The Fun Factory, Kelly McCown, The Craft of Teaching, Carla Hoff, Star Kids, TheBeezyTeacher, Learning Inspired, The Chocolate Teacher, Ms. K, Samson’s Shoppe, Busy Little Bees, The Froggy Factory, Leah Popinski, Jackie Crews, Peas In ,A Pod, MM Bilingual, 180 Days of Reading, Sarah Griffin, and Mr L’s Classroom.
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 2/21/19 and is open worldwide.
Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media? Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
What Do You Do in Your Math Intervention Group?
So, I have a math intervention group. I have done intervention lots of ways…and the thing is, there are always core things that kids struggle with. Those things without a double are always addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts. Next, they struggle with the standard regrouping algorithm. And, why do they struggle? BECAUSE, of course, no one sits with them at home to help them learn these things if the concepts don’t sink in during school time.
Enter me. I have been working with some students the past few weeks on subtraction regrouping…with success! Here is what I have done, and what I have discovered. First of all, several of the intervention students were able to regroup UNTIL they had to regroup across zeros. They weren’t sure what to do when they had to borrow two places over. How did I figure this out you ask? Well, with my group of four students, I gave them a worksheet. (gasp! a worksheet??!!) Yes, I gave them a worksheet and had them work a few and checked to see which ones they were getting correct and which ones they were missing. I would have them work one problem and hand me the sheet to check. This way they were getting immediate feedback. During this time, I realized that they weren’t getting the answers right unless they borrowed across zeros or had to borrow two places over. I used and am so thankful for Super Teacher Worksheets subtraction worksheet generator! This conveniently allowed me to print a new worksheet (complete with answer key) when I felt they needed practice.
Now when I realized they needed help with regrouping across zeros, I realized there was a regrouping misunderstanding. So, I used the Singapore math number discs method to show them what was happening when they were regrouping. After showing them and having them do one with me, the next day they performed a lot better on their subtraction regrouping problems. I have a SMART board lesson and worksheets if you would like some for students to practice with. The grid is already made for the students…these however do not have seven digits like the worksheet above.
A few other things I did to help the students think about the regrouping process were.
- Say this little rhyme…”More on the floor, go next door, and get 10 more”. This way they would always know they were bringing ten over…not 9, not 8.
- Sometimes when students want to skip over a place value column, I would describe it as driving in traffic. Your car doesn’t just fly over the other column, it has to change lanes one at a time…it can’t be a helicopter.
- Another idea I mention is place value columns in relation to the drawers in a cash register. If you cash in your $100 bill for others, you trade it in for 10 $10, then you trade in the $10 for 10 $1 bills.
Try these things and soon you will be on your way to having expert subtraction regroupers!
This Tool Will Accelerate Your Students’ Understanding of Fractions
Just because students recognize a fraction model doesn’t mean they can reason about the size of the fractions in comparison to other fractions. This number line helps alleviate some of that difficulty for students. You can proudly display this in your classroom on the wall as a year-long reference tool. The number line stretches to about 10 feet long and is spaced by increments of twenty-fourths.
If you don’t want to introduce your students to twenty fourths yet, you can use the included blank fraction cards to cover up these increments.
Fractions to show equivalence are also included. Students can see how the blue portion of the square is the same size as the equivalent fraction above it. You could play a whole class matching game in which you have students place their equivalent fraction underneath the fraction on the number line.
In case students have a hard time visualizing the space being the same size a variety of fraction cards are provided in which the rectangles are in different directions. For example, see below.
Because this number line prints on 8.5 x 11 card stock there is some assembly required. I assembled this one in less than 30 minutes. Cutting out the additional cards can be done as needed and is not necessary at first.
Make Snowflakes and Learn Math!
What a great way to sneak math into a fun winter activity! Have students figure out how many degrees will have to be in each angle if a hexagon shape is cut into a snowflake. Well. 60 degrees of course because 60×6 angles would make 360 degrees. You can also discuss symmetry after they are cut out to see if the snowflakes truly did turn out symmetrically.
I had students cut these out for a fun enrichment activity. First of all, I read a portion of this book to them since it is about the science behind snowflakes. Did you know snow is NOT MADE by freezing raindrops? Me neither. It is made by frozen water droplets smaller than the tip of your hair. It takes over 100.000 water droplets to make one snowflake. This information and more are included in this unique book which gives the science behind snowflakes.
After I read students a portion of this book, we made snowflakes. I will show you below. The more you do it the better you get!
Step 1: Get a pair of scissors and a sheet of 8.5 x 11 computer printer paper.
Step 2. Fold the paper in half “hamburger style” or the fat way.
Step 3. Fold the paper in half again. Make sure the open corners are facing you. If they are not facing you then your snowflake will be cut in half unintentionally, and you will be left wondering why this happened.
Step 4: Fold the top corner down until it is slightly over the bottom of the rectangle above. I have not changed the orientation of the paper to accomplish this. The open corner are still in the same location as above
Step 5: Finally fold the bottom triangle over the other triangle in a waffle cone type of configuration–(that’s what the kids called it)
Step 6. Slide the end of the “waffle cone” off of the rest of the figure. and you will be left with the bottom of the “waffle cone” which is a triangle.
Step 7. Cut any type of figures you like into the triangle and experiment with different patterns.
Step 8. Open up your snowflake and see what you have created! 
Hang them up in your classroom for a festive winter theme!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Lessons on snowflakes coming soon! 🙂
Fun Christmas Lesson While Learning a Little History!
This year just for fun I let my students experience the “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” song during a 30 minute enrichment lesson. First, I let the students watch this video in which Gayla Peevey sings the song.
Then I give the students a copy of the words, and I rewind it to the beginning so the students can sing it with the words. At about 2:34 I stop the song and ask the students to tell me what they think happened to Gayla later in her life. I’ve heard students say several things ranging from Gayla became famous all the way to Gayla died. Then I ask them how old they think Gayla is today. I give students a few minutes to figure out how old she is (Gayla’s age and the date of the video show on the video). Then I play the remainder of the video for students to see Gayla all grown up at 73 years old.
Next, I read students a little history of Gayla’s life from this website. Then I follow up with having the students write an acrostic poem with the word hippopotamus. Students were so proud of their acrostic poems! If time, sing the song again! I always like singing the song because it makes me happy and makes the kids happy, too. Here are a few of the student’s acrostic poems. Enjoy!
