Sunday (Monday) Pass Along! Fluency, Math, and More!

I keep thinking it's Sunday. But nope, it's MONDAY thanks to a glorious three-day weekend. It comes just in time after two solid weeks of the back-to-school frenzy. I love how each year brings unique kiddos and challenges and is so different from the last. There is never a boring day!

Now that I am semi-caught up, I have some time to lounge in my jammies and read my blogs!

One of the beauties of having this little ol' blog of mine means that I can pass along awesome blog posts straight to you and you get all the goods! I'm hoping to keep this little tradition of the Sunday Pass Along going (even though today is technically Monday).

Here are some awesome posts I found while browsing my feed that are usable for me tomorrow!!

Parent Brochure from The Thinker Builder

This post from Michael at The Thinker Builder is fantastic. Well-written and comes complete with a free downloadable brochure for parents! I love his language and how relatable he is. You will definitely want to check this out! I will be handing these out to parents as I meet with them individually.

The Reading Strategies Book 

This is seriously the most amazing find ever. EVER! I was eventually going to do a post on this book, but luckily Megan at I Teach, What's Your Superpower already did! This post gives you a peek inside the book and outlines why it is just so amazing. This year I have students on levels C-M. This book is perfect for me because I have concrete strategies to use with each and every one of them. Megan does a great job of explaining everything this great book has to offer. Get your Amazon account open!

Intervention Folder Idea

I love, love, love Cara's (First Grade Parade) idea for keeping track of the concepts students need to work on. It's visual, easy to manage, and you can see everything at a glance. When you click on the post, it's tip #2. As soon as I've had my second cup of coffee, I'll be heading to my room to make one for myself! Click on this post to read more of her sanity-saving tips!

Partner Plays for Fluency

My group this year is going to need LOTS of fluency practice. I mean, LOTS! I've been looking for fun and interesting way to practice fluency and these partner plays from Christina at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge are going to be perfect! I love my Partner Scripts from Lakeshore, but they are actually a little too challenging for my students this year. These partner scripts are perfect because they have a nice balance of text and engaging topics. Plus, she has them on sale right now!

Amazing Race Number Decomposition 

Greg at Mr. Elementary Math offers some amazing and fun number sense routines as well as a free download for decomposing numbers. There is space for a number at the top and then circles underneath for students to record each way they can decompose the number. He offers two versions- one with more circles and one with a smaller number of circles so you can differentiate as needed. This is exactly what I need this week as we work with decomposing numbers! He also offers a bonus freebie in the post, so be sure to read the whole thing to get that goodie!


I hope you were able to find something useful and maybe even a new blogger to follow. I'm going to enjoy the rest of this lazy three-day weekend and prepare myself for another awesome week!

I'll be back tomorrow to share some place value resources with you so be sure to check back then!

Happy Sunday! Monday!

Sunday Pass Along

Hi, guys!

As I was doing my usual Sunday morning blog reading, I came across a few things that I wanted to pass along. I figure you may or may not follow the same blogs I follow, so in the case that you don't, you might find something new and useful!

First up, Kelley at The Teacher Idea Factory is hosting a Pen Pal Pair Up! I have always wanted to have pen pals for my class, but was never really sure how to initiate it. All you have to do is sign up using the Google form on her site, specify what kind of pen pals you want (same grade, younger, older), and if you would be ok with having pen pals outside of the U.S.! And the best part- you don't have to have a blog to participate!
If you are interested in having pen pals from around the country (or world, apparently), head over and sign up! Who knows, maybe I'll end up as your pal!! ;)

Next up, Donna over at Math Coach's Corner shared a great game for developing math fact fluency- and it's FREE! Head on over to her blog to read all about it and pick up your own copy! If you haven't ever been to her blog before, you'll probably want to stick around for a bit and explore. She has lots of great stuff!

The girls over at Collaboration Cuties are hosting their weekly Mentor Text Link-Up, and this week's topic is science! Lots of good books to check out and Amazon cart-filling to do! If you've never read a Mentor Text Linky blog post, you are in for a treat!!

 Michelle at Teach 123 shared a great resource on magnets that integrates language arts and science. Score!

Shannon at  If My Calculations are Correct shared what could just be the BEST math warm up idea EVER. My wheels are turning and I'm almost giddy with excitement thinking about how I can implement this in my classroom. She calls it the Rev Up Your Grey Matter Binder. If you teach math, you MUST read about it. Be ready for the "why didn't I think of that's" to kick in! You may also want to have your credit card with you- just sayin'. :)

I wish I had some of my own creative genius ideas to share, but hey- what can I say? I'm a beg, steal, and borrow kind of girl!!

Happy Sunday!