Three-fer Thursday- {MATH!}

It's 3-fer Thursday again!

This week I'm celebrating MATH games!  My district is moving to a workshop model for math instruction and I am so honored to be one of the teachers giving the training this summer!

So, I thought I'd celebrate with MATH today on 3-fer Thursday!

You can get these three items at 20% off for today only!

Fractions center set...

Time center set...

And one of my favorites that I SO miss using from 1st grade...

Totally tally marks!  My kiddos used to LOVE this... especially the game with the rainbow spinner!

Happy 3-fer Thursday!

Snow Day Woes

Woes?  On a Snow Day, you ask...

I never thought this day would come.

The day when I was bummed when my phone rang at 5am to announce a snow day.

But it happened.

And, if you heard a loud groan coming from SW Michigan this morning, that was every teacher in my district simultaneously bumming out because this snow day puts us over our limit... so we'll be having to make this day up.  Our last day of school is May 31.  Or was.  I guess now we'll be heading back in for a last day on a Monday. Providing there are no more snow days between now and then!  CRAZY!

I did have a productive day though...

I finally watched the finale of "Top Chef" (*SO* wish Sheldon could have made it to the finale!!!), worked out, picked up the house, and added three new hallway hunts to my collection!  These are for math though... this gal's branching out!

Here's what I made today.  Want to win them?  Just leave me a "hello" and I'll have hubby pick a random number tomorrow to win, win, win all THREE!

 

Base 10 Blocks to Numerals

  

Time to the hour and half hour          Time to five minutes          

A Case of the Mondays...

That's what I have today- a case of the Mondays.

I did manage to get my 1st grade Common Core "Pet Shop Math Fluency" pack completed though.  It is very similar to the 2nd grade pack, except aligned to the 1st grade CCSS.

If you want to check it out, click the picture!  It's 15% off to "sale"-a-brate 1500 followers too!  :)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway to celebrate 1500 followers... you can get a freebie from my 2nd grade CCSS "Pet Shop" set on the giveaway post too!

I was out of school today for a scheduled absence... I'm looking forward to heading back in tomorrow.  My class starts their NWEA (MAP) testing tomorrow... for the first time.  Ever.  Yikes!

Math Fluency Common Core Pack!

I am so excited to unveil my latest creation for my kiddos... a pet shop themed math workstation pack that is aligned to the 2nd grade Common Core!  Of course, my firsties will be using this too as some of them are ready to do the centers in the set.

The pack is 62 pages and has 7 different centers!

Tonight I'm going to see "In the Heights" and I am SOOOO excited!  I've been memorizing the soundtrack for a month and can't wait!  Next month we have "Jersey Boys" AND "Memphis" (which we saw in NYC last summer and it was AMAZING!!!).  Anyway, I want to share my joy of the theater with you in a weird little way that doesn't really convey anything about the theater, but is still me sharing something none-the-less.  I'll have this pack- and all the rest of my math stuff- on sale for 20% off in my shop for the weekend... AND... I'll choose 2 random winners tomorrow to receive the pack for free!

Just leave a comment and say something for a chance to win!  Preferential treatment will be given to a comment relating to musical theater!  :)  Just kidding!

Monkey Math and a New Freebie!

I've been working on some new math centers for my 1st graders and have just finished a set of "Monkey Math" activities!  I'm super excited about them... and am printing as I type!  :)



Here's a picture of what is included in the 60+ page set...  If you click on it, it takes you to my shop where there's lots more information.  I've got this and all of my Valentine's Day stuff listed for 20% off for the week too!  And... like I've done a few times before... I'll send the first two people who comment and request the file and leave their e-mail address a free copy... if you'll tell me what you think of the activities!

And, if you click HERE, you can download a freebie from the center set!  This is the "number names" follow-up worksheet where kiddos choose a number and add new ways to name that number to each leaf (ie. 5 is 2 + 3, 10-5, 78-73, etc...).  My kiddos love doing things like this and always try to come up with super complicated, in depth ways to add or subtract to make the numbers.  And I love to see them thinking so hard!  If you download the worksheet, I'd love to hear what you think!


Off to a Super Bowl party at my parents' house this evening... I'm looking forward to some good food!

Happy Sunday and here's wishing for a great week ahead for everyone!

Monday Blahs...

We've got snow... but if it can't be here for Christmas and it isn't getting me a snow day, I'm not really interested.

But what can you do? Winter storm warning until Tuesday!

So, to celebrate the Monday Blahs and the impending end to my vacation (why am I celebrating this?!), I've added the Plane Shape workstations to my Teacher's Notebook Store after the feedback from some lovely ladies!

The celebration part is that all of my math activities will be 20% off until the end of the winter storm warning which is tomorrow! Just click the image at the top or the links on the right... see 'em?

This includes anything that could be slightly construed as "mathy" plus the things that are obviously math...

like time workstations,



tally games,


number sense workstation activities,

and the new plane shape work stations,

math games, even the glyphs and the Valentine party candy game!

So, happy Monday... stay warm!

Need a 2nd Pair of Eyes For This...

Happy New Year!

I had a super fun, but late night last night and spent today listening to the Lions get robbed lose against Green Bay while my husband watched it on TV and I worked on school stuff on the computer.

My 2nd graders will be beginning a unit on polygons when we return from break (on the 9th!!!!) and I have been working for the past five hours on polygon math workstation activities for them. I think I have some good stuff and I think it will all logistically work, but what I need is a 2nd (or 3rd even!) pair of eyes to look the packet over.

If you would do that, I would be so happy! Just leave me a comment with your e-mail and I'll send it out. The only thing is that I'm super impatient, so I'd love it if you could look it over and send me some feedback within the next day.

I'll be putting it on my Teacher's Notebook store with my other math workstations after I hear some feedback and make any necessary changes.

HOWEVER... I am putting one of the activities for free right here... but if you download it, please let me know if you think it will work. It makes sense in my head, but I'm not 100% sure that it will actually work like I think it will! Just click the pic below.
So, if you'd review the whole packet, let me know and if you download the game here, I'd love for you to tell me what you think and if you think it will work!

Phew! Off to retire to the couch for the rest of the night!

Math + Reading = Fun and Learning!

I'm so glad Marygrove College has started this linky party on literacy during math time. When I was receiving my degree from them a few years ago, one of my courses focused heavily on using literature in the content areas and I realized I wasn't doing a good enough job of that. So, I went out and bought a ton of math picture books. I was so excited to put them in my classroom library... but finding time to actually use them like I should... well... it just couldn't happen often enough. And then, this summer, I read about math workstations!

And when I started organizing my Debbie Diller inspired Math Workstation tubs (which I might need your help on in a post or two!), I disassembled that basket in my library and divvied up the books into the different tubs.

The result is that I am actually using the books to reinforce math concepts and my students are actually reading them too!

I have several great sets of math picture books. I have these three from Lakeshore Learning that I was able to get funded on Donor's Choose!


I have other books too that I put in the math workstations- Math Curse, Goldilocks and the Three Squares, The Grouchy Ladybug, Cookie's Week, Ten Apples Up on Top, and lots more. Some of the books I do not read to them- I just put in the workstation bin. Others I will read before I put in the bin.

I also have made activities for several of the book. For Cookie's Week, students have "days of the week" cards to sequence after reading. Right now my 1st graders are learning about time, so in workstation bin #1 (which is the one that will always have books in it), one of the stories is The Grouchy Ladybug with some little clocks so they can use their clocks as they read the story.

Integrating books made for math along with books that are just easy to use along with math topics is a great way to help kids make connections to what they are learning to the real world... and is just plain fun. My students like reading the math books because they like math... which make a teacher's heart so happy!

Please head over to Marygrove College's blog to join their linky party and share how YOU encourage literacy during your math time. As someone new to the world of workstations, I'd LOVE to hear your take on things!

Month Headers Freebie!

I am SO excited to be a contributor to the "Classroom Freebies" blog!

And today is the "GRAND OPENING"!

Head over to the blog to check out tons of freebies from the other contributors.

Here is mine... month headers! My first graders will be using these at a math workstation after they read a book about the months then they will organize the cards in order.

Google Docs really doesn't like Thistle Girl backgrounds, so this is a direct download that you won't be able to save in Google Docs. I did make the file preview in Google Docs but the February header is not black! :)


Enjoy! I'd love to hear a peep from you if you enjoy the file... and don't forget to head over to Classroom Freebies!

:)
Christina

Saturday Sharing and Two Thumbs Up to Scholastic!

Well, my teammate and I did not win the goat milking contest... BUT... it was really good to see two teachers who used to work in my district and competed together for their new district! They didn't win either- the reigning champ from last year took the trophy home again! But I miss my friends and loved seeing them there!

I SO keep planning to add some pics of what we've been doing in class... we made super cute butterfly life cycle projects, wrote fall leaf poems and decorated with gilttery leaf confetti, and are at 20+ minutes of stamina for Read to Self during Daily Five. But, in the buzz of the day, I never remember to do it! Goal for next week: TAKE SOME PICS!

So, last week, I made my book order for Scholastic. And I made a mistake. And it was TOTALLY my fault. They were giving three free books with your order and I didn't realize that and I bought four of the books that I would be getting for free (three free from Lucky and three free from Seesaw). Well, I called them and they sent me four different titles that I chose to "make up" for the ones I had purchased duplicates of... AND let me keep the duplicates that I had purchased! So, I just wanted to give a shout out to Scholastic and their great customer service!

I got a set of "time" books in my order with books about days of the week, months of the year, am/pm, etc... It's a great little set! I'm going to put the days of the week and months of the year books into my math workstations this week, so I made days of the week cards for my students to arrange after they read the book.

You can snag them here! I don't know why but, for some reason, Google Docs doesn't like Thistle Girl backgrounds and they never show up right. I promise that after you open these in Adobe, the backgrounds will tile correctly!
I'm planning to make some months ones too, but I started and they are taking a bit more time as I have to (of course) add some clip art and change the fonts and such. But hopefully you can enjoy the free day ones!

I'm off to a bonfire tonight and looking forward to having fun with friends after a long day at school on Friday (PS- never announce to the world that one of your "sweeties" has been making great behavior choices... I SO paid for doing that on Friday)! I had to laugh at the end of the day because my kiddos were just a bit crazy! I was thinking there must either have been a full moon or a massive snowstorm coming my way because man-oh-man... my school was a nutty place on Friday!

It's a Tally-stravaganza!

Happy Monday!

I have been going tally mark crazy this afternoon while trying to digest my fair food lunch before a grease-induced coma sets in! :)

So far I have three activities... a super cute "Star Wars" themed tally building game, a tally, numeral, one-to-one correspondence matching activity, and a dice rolling tally table activity. These will be PERFECT for my first graders' math workstations this week!

They will all be on the Teaching Oasis soon... but, I thought I'd share the love with ya'll before Ms. Winston uploads them to our site. Especially because I have over 900 followers! That makes me feel so special! :)

So... leave me any sort of comment below (please include your e-mail address!) and I'll choose 4 winners by random number generator on Thursday!

Feel free to share the tally-stravaganza on your blog too! If you do, leave a 2nd comment for a 2nd chance to win!

Here's a peek at a few pages of each item:


I actually hope to create a few more tally items by then so if I do (and that might be a BIG *if* depending on how the next few days go!) the winners will get a copy of each of them too!

If you didn't see my "tally freebie" yesterday, be sure to check out that post too!

On a side note, I just re-read this and am in shock over the sheer number of exclamation points I managed to sneak in to this blog post. Notice the use of a period there. And there.

Time Game Freebie

Before I tell about this game, I have to say that I saw a picture of a similar game on someone else's blog... but I don't remember who! So, if that person happens to see this, please let me know so I can give you credit for inspiring me!

So... I saw these foam shapes at Target and they were only $1.00 so naturally I bought several sets of the squares and the random shapes just hoping that I might find some way to use them!

And I was inspired by someone else's time telling game to create my own and I thought I'd share it with you! Tomorrow it will get laminated and then tucked inside my "Time Telling" workstation tub.


You can go out and get yourself some of these great shapes at Target or make cards that have the times printed on them.

To make this game, you'll need to print out two game boards and then write the 12 different times two times each on the foam shapes or your own cards (so you'll have 2 sets of 12 times for a total of 24 digital times) AND you need to write "Time is Up!" on 5 shapes/cards.

Students work in pairs to play and one partner pulls out a digital time and places it on the matching clock on their board. If they have already covered that time up, they must return the digital time and their turn is over. If they get a "Time is Up!" they have to return one of the times that they already matched!

The winner is the one who fills their card with matched times first.

If you download it, please leave me some love in the comments! I do love them so! :)


I've recently added a fun way to practice time to my TpT store... a classroom or hallway hunt for students to tell time to the hour and half hour OR this one to tell time to five minutes!  So fun!

More on Math Workstations

I went in to school today for a few hours... a lunch date with my dad cut my morning short, but was a nice treat! :) We had Chinese which I haven't once eaten since starting Weight Watchers in January. Oh how I missed it! But... I was quite terrified when I calculated the points when I got home!

Anyway, I got lots laminated and finished organizing my math workstations.

Here's what my closet looks like now... I hardly recognize it!


So, the tricky thing for me right now is figuring out workstations for a split class. I would LOVE to hear from any other split class teachers who are using workstations.

The plan right now is to have five workstations for each grade level (since I'll have 10-12 students from each grade level in my room) and 1 computer station. I set aside a math area with my updated math focus wall and shelving for workstations and labeled 10 tubs with numbers 1-5... 1 set for 1st grade and 1 for 2nd. Here's what that looks like:

My updated math focus wall- the shelf underneath holds my workstation tubs... see the next pic!

Here are my student tubs. The ones for second grade are green and purple. First grade tubs are blue and pink. I just realized when looking at this picture that my 2nd grade tubs are first... that's going to bug me so they will be getting switched around tomorrow! HA!

My plan is to head in tomorrow to finish organizing... I have a looooong "to-do" list scrawled on my white board and would love to actually tackle some of it!

Pics of my 2011-2012 calendar area should be coming tomorrow!

Anyone doing math workstations, I'd love a comment from you! I'm excited about implementing them, but nervous about running two grade levels' worth. Help put my mind at ease please!

Math Workstation Organization

I spent several hours at school this week getting things organized for my future math workstations.

Who knew I had so much STUFF?!

I so should have taken a "before" and "after" picture because the after is pretty impressive... I'll post the "after" once I get the labels on my workstation containers.

So, here is how I started:

I went in to class and made labels on sticky notes for all of the workstation containers I thought I might have and put them on a table.

I started taking apart the manipulatives that came with our math program. I put 6 of each in a baggie with that workstation, 5 of each in a small container that will remain out just in case we need one of them randomly, and the rest in a large freezer bag to put away.

Then I took apart the "workstations" that I used last year. They weren't true "workstations" and they all dealt with math facts, so I re-assigned them.

Finally, I had a three drawer cart full of math games that I used a lot when I taught 2nd grade, but with the split class, it was hard to find time to use them so we didn't. So, I moved each of those to a workstation bin too.

Oh yeah- I also have a basket in my classroom library for science and math books. I took all the math books out and assigned them to one of the workstations.

Here's the giant mess on my table when I was done!


Then I started putting them in the extra containers I had left over. Wow, was Debbie Diller ever right! I had so many containers at the end and I am so glad I didn't go out and buy a bunch to get started!

I had one huge empty container in my storage, so that is where the rest of the "extras" went. I never really thought about how much extra materials I had... but did I really need 30 sets of dominoes or 40 1000 base-10 blocks?! Seriously!

Here's my stack of extra containers...


And those bins on top have 6 smaller shoe box sized containers inside! I used the big one with the black lid for my measurement stuff because I have a large set of jugs for measuring and I also used all of the clear containers. But I was able to use the shoe box sized containers to organize other things AND the three drawer pink container is now empty! An empty container is a teacher's dream!!!!

It was very gratifying to get that job accomplished. I know my math time is going to be so much more effective this year for my kiddos. This approach is perfect for a split class!

Here are some labels I made for my tubs. I plan to print on cardstock, laminate, and use my marvelous "Mavalus" tape to affix to my tubs!I have been working on some math workstation activities that are appropriate for 1st and 2nd graders. So far, time and number sense are complete and available at my TpT store. Both files have six activities that you can use to supplement workstations you already have in your classroom!

Ok! I'll post a picture inside my now beautifully organized closet when I get the labels on my workstation bins... and, hopefully, I'll be back on here soon to upload a freebie for everyone! :)

Have a great Friday!

Money Math Workstation Game... OOPS!!!!!

If you downloaded my money "Cha-Ching!" game earlier, you'll need to re-download it.

I was sharing my game with my lovely husband who pointed out that "Lucky You!" wasn't really that lucky because, even though it said you'd get another turn, you weren't really getting a turn to begin with if that is what you rolled! As much as I hate to admit it... he's right. But let's not tell him that! :)

So, I changed the rule to make it so that if you roll "Lucky You!" instead you get to choose which coin you want to take and you take the amount indicated by the second dice that was rolled.

Hope that makes sense! You can download the corrected file in the post below.

Money math workstation game freebie!

So, I was at Target (imagine that) and I tried... I promise... to walk past the dollar section. But then I saw these silverware trays and they were only $1.00! Not even the $2.50 section! I knew I had to have them but didn't know what I'd use them for. Well, today I dreamed up a money math workstation for them! I call it "Cha-Ching!".

Now, I think that even if you don't have these, you could still make the game by making paper work mats or something. I am just excited about these because my kiddos will be able to keep the coins separate to make it easier for them to keep track of everything.

Here is the file... I hope you can use it! Be sure to open it with Adobe because the last page has a region that you will need to fill in before you print!

Just got Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller!

I'm super excited... my copy of Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller came today!  Teaching a split class, I had to be very creative last year during my math time because half of my class was learning with me while half was not.

Though I am pleased with what I threw together for my kids, there were definitely times where it could have been much more meaningful and structured.  Just flipping through this book, I can already tell that it is going to be a huge help in setting up meaningful math practice for my students.

I have loved checking out all of the bloggers who are reading this book right now... there are so many talented teachers out there!

So, I expect I will be studying my book for the next few weeks and creating some resources for my classroom.  That, however, does not start today.  This is my first official day of summer since summer school ended yesterday!

I spent the whole morning in my PJs, drinking a crazy amount of coffee, listening to old episodes of "Will and Grace" on Lifetime, and woking on a Chocolate Touch unit for The Teaching Oasis.  Then I made some cream of asparagus soup (except I put in a little milk instead of sour cream)... then I watched last night's episode of "The First 48" on the couch with my doggies... and then I finally checked the mail and got my book!  And though I am super pumped about reading it, I am loving this day of minimal accomplishments!

So, just so I don't feel like a total heel, I've attached a predicting document that I tweaked from something I found online for summer school.  This one is for non-fiction texts.  We looked at all of the text features (table of contents, index, some of the pictures in the book) and the kids had to predict what they would learn and support it with evidence.  I used a book about animal feet, but you could use any non-fiction text for this!

Enjoy and if you like it... comment away!