I'm Back! Plus Place Value FREEBIES!

Happy Back-to-School!!

Wow, have I missed this little ol' blog of mine! It's crazy that it's been so long since my last post. If anyone is still reading this, here's what's been going on in my world!

I HAD A BABY!

I know, I still can't believe it. My little guy, Connor, is 6 weeks old and has just turned our world upside down- for the better! He was born on July 12 and our hearts have been so full ever since. I mean, isn't he just the cutest little thing you have ever seen?????!!!

I'M ON MATERNITY LEAVE!

This is even more crazy to me than having a baby, LOL! I'm sitting here, in my pajamas (and yes, it's 1:30 in the afternoon- don't judge) writing this post while my long term sub is holding down the fort at school. I'm not going to lie, I'm missing school. But, holding my sweet Connor and looking into his blue little eyes is the best thing in the world. Of course I had to go to Meet the Teacher Night and meet my new kiddos and help my sub get things set up, but other than that, I've really tried to keep my mind off of the day-to-day happenings at school. The control freak in me is chained up tightly, but she's a fighter and has to be constantly talked down. LOL. Each day gets easier and I'm learning to let go... slowly.

So, I thought now that I have some time on my hands- you know, those short little naps Connor takes during the day- I could get back into blogging! Maybe. We shall see.

I'M ONLY TEACHING MATH, SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES THIS YEAR!

Again, CRAZY! I never would have thought that I would not teach reading, but I had a tough year last year and needed a change. I LOVE teaching math and I love that it is much more concrete and visual than reading. Because I am focusing more on math, I'm really digging in and trying to learn more about how to develop number sense and teach more conceptually. I'm very excited!


Right now I'm reading the book Number Sense Routines by Jessica F. Shumway. It's full of awesome routines that are quick and powerful and I'm excited to try these when I return to the classroom in October.

I also found this awesome cursive math alphabet from Life in Room 406 that I love! It has great words for the letters and great visuals. I didn't have a chance to get it up in my room before the year started, but it will be up soon!

I obviously have been away from the blog scene for quite some time, so I don't have much new to offer. However, because place value is a concept commonly taught at the beginning of the year, I thought I would share some resources with you! Hopefully you can find something to benefit your students!

Place Value Quiz-Quiz-Trade- These cards cover naming the value of digits, naming places digits are in, and converting from expanded to standard form. They can be used as self-checking task cards as well! Pick up yours HERE! This will be on sale until I remember to change it! LOL!

Place Value Relationship Pack- This small resource has a recording sheet for students to use to record a number they are given and fill in the relationship statement, a lame little chant I made up :), and a set of 6 task cards. Get your FREE copy HERE!

Place Value Roll-Its These games use dice and playing cards. Students roll the die and follow the directions to practice a variety of skills. Two different versions of the game cover writing numbers in words, expanded form, and expanded notation, rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, comparing numbers, and decomposing numbers in different way. Get your FREE copy by clicking HERE!


Hopefully I will be able to post again soon!

Happy Beginning of a New Year!!

Halloween and Fall Resources- Freebies!!

Happy Halloween Week!

I know it's a little last minute, but here are some Halloween-themed resources I have to share with you! Just click on the link below each picture. I hope you can find something you can use!!

Math:
Roll It: Use a dice and a deck of cards.  Roll the die and then follow the directions. This is a random assortment of place value skills. This was from two years ago before the TEKS were changed, so it doesn't include any of the new TEKS. It's supposed to rain ALL weekend, so this *might* be something I update or add to this weekend. ;)

Roll It Place Value 

(You'll need digit cards and dice)

Multiplication Word Problems: Just a few word problems with a Halloween theme. We haven't covered multiplication yet this year, but I used these two years ago when I taught math and the kids enjoyed them.

Spooky Multiplication Word Problems

Addition and Subtraction Brew- addition and subtraction with regrouping (computation only).
This activity does NOT include any word problems, it is strictly computation.

Addition and Subtraction Brew

Language Arts: 

Pumpkin Prefixes Match-Up: Super simple and quick match-up game to review the prefixes re-, un-, pre-, dis-, and non-. 

Pumpkin Prefixes

Do They Agree? Subject/Verb Agreement: 12 short sentences to quickly review subject verb agreement.

Do They Agree: Halloween

Again, I hope you were able to find something you could use! 

Enjoy celebrating this week with your kiddos! 

Playing Catch Up: What We've Been Up To PLUS Place Value, States of Matter, and Language Arts Products I LOVE!

Hi! I bet you're surprised to me pop up on your blog roll! 

I swear I am still alive and still teaching!  Life has just been crazy! After three years of only teaching language arts, diving back into math and science has been so much fun, but a lot of work! I’m enjoying every minute of it, but this little ol’ blog of mine has had to take a backseat.

I miss blogging and having the opportunity to look back over what we’ve done and share the things I’ve really enjoyed. So, because I have so much lost time to make up for, I’m going to attempt to hit the highlights over the last month. To make it a bit easier to navigate, I’ll divide up the sections into math, science, and language arts so you can jump right to a section that interests you and you can skip all the rest!

Math

I am absolutely in LOVE with teaching math! It’s a nice break from the world of language arts and my kiddos love it.

Several weeks ago we began our place value unit. We are now on to addition and subtraction, but I want to share a few things that I loved.

First up, to wrap up what we learned about place value, the kids went car shopping! I gave them newspaper ads for cars and they chose the car they wanted. Then they filled out this sheet to hit all those place value skills. The kids learned just how expensive cars are and some kids even expressed how surprised they were. This activity was a hit and one that we could repeat again. Click  HERE to get the recording sheet!

I also created a little place value review that we worked on before our unit test. I printed out the slides, hung them around the room, and the kids went on a scavenger hunt around the room to complete all the problems. If you are interested in this, send me an e-mail and I will send it to you! My internet is not letting me upload this and it's driving me nuts! 

I have some kiddos who were in need of a challenge. This Place Value Detectives Activity 

from Teaching With a Mountain View kept my kids challenged for several days. It was one of my favorite activities!

We have also been getting LOTS of use out of my Place Value Quiz Quiz Trade Cards  to review word form, standard form, and expanded form.

Science

Oh how I love teaching science!! I have been jealously observing the other teachers on my team for the last three years and anxiously awaited the day I would be able to teach it again! It has been so much fun!

We started out with a review of the states of matter. We used Hope King's As a Matter of Fact bundle and the kids ate it up!

We also did viscosity races one day to explore the property of viscosity. This wasn’t in Hope’s unit, but was great to add to our exploration!

 

And the highlight to wrap up the unit was the gas fireworks from Hope’s unit. I was shocked to see just how high that soda shot up in the air!!

Language Arts

I have been blessed with a class full of thinkers this year who just devour books. I have yet to have a class who loves reading the way that they do. It’s so refreshing, but challenging to find activities that will keep them engaged and thinking critically. Thankfully, I have my trusty Amanda Nickerson from One Extra Degree to help with this!

We have been using her Just Glue It!  journal prompts to respond to our reading and the kids have been doing a fabulous job. I love how the prompts are multi-question and use all of those higher-level thinking skills most products and activities lack. If you’re looking for a way to get some juicy responses from your kids, this is what you need!

I wish I would have taken pictures of some of the kids’ entries. They just made me smile! They especially enjoyed writing a letter to Prudy from Prudy’s Problem and How She Solved It (it’s in our Reading Street series) and giving her some “friendly advice.” She collected everything and eventually her room exploded from all the clutter! She solved her problem by creating a museum to showcase her collections, but to hear what the kids had to say to her about her choices to collect dog hair and gum wrappers just cracked me right up! I loved that the prompt also made them give Prudy credit for her good decisions, too. J

We have been knee-deep in our fiction unit and we've been using pieces from Nicole Shelby’s Interactive Reading Notebook and Interactive Language Notebook. The added element of cutting, gluing and coloring has done wonders for engagement! The kids actually look forward to taking notes when there's a little somethin' to glue in first!! 

 I didn’t even touch writing or social studies, but those things will have to wait for another day! My internet is really testing my patience! I have so much more things to share with you!!! 

I’m going to try to be better about blogging more often. I really do miss it, but my kiddos and my classroom have to come first! Hopefully I can find a way to better organize my time so that I actually have some time to blog! Suggestions anyone??! Any advice would be much appreciated!

I hope you all have had an amazing first of the year! I’ll be back soon (fingers crossed)!! 

Place Value Quiz-Quiz-Trade... and a Bit of Blog Sickness

Hiiiii!!!!

I'm sure you are super surprised to see my blog name pop up on your blog reel- it's been weeks- WEEKS- since I have blogged and I miss it terribly!! My living situation at the moment is less than ideal, and the internet connection is spotty, which means most nights I can't read my blogs and I especially can't blog myself. I'm learning to cope with my blog sickness, but of course I had an all-out meltdown first! 

This weekend I'm hangin' with some awesome friends who totally understand my addiction and I'm bumming their internet for a few minutes to quickly post about something I whipped up for my kiddos to practice place value for the next three weeks. 

If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I LOVE quiz-quiz-trade. It's just about the BEST thing ever and I use it daily.  It’s one of the very first things I teach my kids the first week of school and we use it at least twice a day, every day after. It’s perfect for getting kids up and out of their seat, reviewing whatever skills you want them to, AND as an added bonus, it’s a great way for them to practice social skills. If you have never heard of quiz-quiz-trade, check out my post about it here. 

Because I am self-contained this year (YAAAYYY!!!!) after only teaching language arts for the last three years, my supply of math-related QQT cards is limited. Enter: Place Value Quiz-Quiz-Trade Cards!

Normally, I don’t like to advertise products with the risk of my posts sounding commercial-like, but seeing as I’ve already missed out on blogging about my classroom set-up, meet-the-teacher night, and all of our first week goodness (and how long it would take me to cover all of that in a post), I’m skipping right to this!

I made five different sets of cards so we can start with the first set, which is just two-digit numbers, and work our way through the sets and up to the last set, which uses six-digit numbers. Then I'll mix up all the cards from the different sets so students get practice with small and large numbers. The cards could also be used as task cards and students could self-check or the cards could be used in a scoot-like activity with the answers cut off or folded out of sight. I love the versatility! 

The cards provide practice with determining the value of an underlined digit in a number,

naming the place of an underlined digit, 

and also converting a number from expanded form into standard form. 

I’m sure I’ll make more cards that cover other skills later in the year.

If your students could benefit from this product, leave me a comment below! The first two who comment will get this for free!! Make sure you include your e-mail address.  

If you miss out on getting it free, it will be on sale in my store for the next few days! 

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Labor Day weekend. Hopefully I'll be back soon!