New Blog for Guided Math

There's a new blog in the blogosphere that I am really excited about.  It's called Adventures in Guided Math.

I've been dabbling with guided math for a couple years and finally jumped in whole-heartedly this past year while I had a student teacher.

It wasn't easy or perfect, but I loved it and so did the kids.

I'm still trying to figure out what will work best for me and the kids so I plan on visiting this blog often for great ideas and inspiration.

If you are already doing guided math or just thinking about it, you should too!

New Number Line

It's another late night folks.  Even the pets have gone to bed.  That's a bad sign especially when one is a cat.  Aren't they supposed to be nocturnal?

I believe I'm turning into a vampire or some other creature of the night.  This is not going to work when school starts.

But I'll start dealing with that next week...right!  (I know I said that to someone last week...probably my mom since she always worries about me getting enough sleep...still...after all these years.)

Anyway, I've finally got the fonts to not cut off on my first completed school project.  Funny thing is I actually like the font I ended up using better than the one I originally had.  Yes, things always happen for a reason!

So here it is...

my new bee themed number line.

I think it's pretty darn adorable if I do say so myself.

It has a little chalkboard (which unless you live under a rock--you know is all the rage right now), numbers in word and standard form, and ten frames to visually show numbers.

Disclaimer:  The author of this post intended no offense to those who actually live under rocks, want to live under rocks, like rocks, don't like chalkboard, or didn't know that chalkboard rocks!

They are going to look fabulous on my wall IF I find the time to print, laminate and cut them out.  (I will, I will, I will...)

You can find them in my TN shop by clicking on the preview above

or

you can win a free set by leaving a comment...

Now it's time for bed finally.

Money & a Hip Website

I love teaching my kiddos about money. Although we've been doing coins all year, we are "formally" doing money in math towards the end of the upcoming week. This year I've been using the "Honey Bunny" song from Teacher Tipster. At first I thought my second graders would think it too babyish, but I was wrong . . . they LOVE it! We do hand motions with it to show the amounts as we sing and jump around.

This is the printout I made of the song to use in my calendar flip chart for my Promethean board and to put in the kiddos poetry/song notebooks and math journals.  Click on the picture if you'd like a copy.

This week we are adding in the half-dollar "officially", so I adapted the song a bit to include the half-dollar. Here is the new version we will use this week.  Click the picture to grab a copy.

We had a parent a few years ago complain that we teach the kids how to make change. Yes, complain!! Because cash registers do it for you, dummy. So why bother to teach it. I was shocked to say the least.

Why do we teach spelling? Spellcheck does it for you, stupid. Why do we teach adding or subtracting? A calculator can do that, idiot. Heck, we don't even need to know how to back up a car because now the sensor thing beeps if you are too close to something. So let's just dumb our society down even more people.

Okay, I think I'm done ranting. I'd love to know your thoughts on teaching this senseless crap garbage.

This year I am also going to use some ideas from this website created just for kids by the United States Mint  called H.I.P Pocket Change.

The site has animated games, coin-related cartoons, and informational features. It connects coins to our history and culture. Here is what H.I.P. stands for:

I love that! There are more than 500 free cross-curricular lesson plans for teachers. The activities range in length from quick and easy to full-length plans. Teachers are encouraged to share ideas on how they use coins in the classroom and can contact the Mint with ideas and questions.

We have our students bring real coins as part of their school supplies so that when we are learning about money they don't just have to use plastic coins, although we use those for a lot of things.  Each child brings a baggie with about $2 worth of coins that they keep in their pencil box.  We specify on our supply list what coins to bring.  At the end of the year, they take the money home.

Teacher's Clubhouse has lot of great money resources such as PowerPoints about coins and counting coins, coin signs, coin booklets, and coin games galore.

Don't forget to let me know what you think about teaching kids how to make change or any other stupid thing you've been teaching!  :)

Reindeer Rounding

It's Sunday night after a five day vacation and I gotta be honest. I'm more than a little depressed! Don't get me wrong. I love my job, my class, my co-workers/friends. But this five day break just wasn't long enough. Boo Hoo Hoo!! Anybody with me? On top of that I've got a bugger of a cold winding up. Blah!

Sunday nights are the worst, except during the summer. Then I luv 'em! It helps now that I've taught my 12 and 14 year old daughters how to do their own laundry. Don't miss those "Mom, I neeeeeeed these pants washed for school tomorrow!!" right before bed time! Now if I could just the hubs trained....

So in math this week I'm doing rounding to the nearest ten. Fun! This is so hard for some of my kiddos. I found a rounding chant way back and I don't know who the author is. If you do please let me know. Anyway, I made this cute little game for my friends to use for practice. Hope you can use it. If you do, please leave me a comment! Click here to go to my Teacher Notebook store to download. Everything is on sale today for Cyber Monday!

Click {here} for a freebie of the rounding chant.

Vacation Ramblings

Ahhhh, I've got my sweats and fuzzy socks on. The couch is cradling me and the dogs are snuggling up to me. I've officially begun my five day Thanksgiving vacation. WOO HOO!

Today and yesterday weren't extremely productive days with all the kids who take the whole week off for family trips or are sick from the recent stomach flu outbreak. Don't you just love the ones that take off on those short weeks...especially when the parents want to take school work with just to keep the kids busy. Uh!

So we did some "fun" work like the fraction turkeys Becky over at Dots-n-Spots created. We played Odd and Even Turkey Trot from Denise over at Sunny Days in Second Grade and I was planning on playing her Turkey Scoot Game and doing the awesome Odd Thankful writing activity too, but some interruptions (unscheduled assembly, kids getting sick in class, and incredibly unfocused kids) kept us from getting to everything on my list. Well, that's part of the joy of being a primary teacher, correct?

Now, forgive me, I know it's almost the end of November, but I finally have pictures of a few of the activities we did in October. And I am a firm believer in "better late than never" so here goes.

I taught a "how to draw an owl" lesson from Art Projects for Kids which we did on black construction paper after practicing on scrap paper first. Then I went over the drawing lines after school with white liquid Elmer's glue. The next day the kids used chalk pastels to color their artwork. In spite of all the smudging, I think they turned out great and each is unique. To set the chalk I sprayed each with a light coating of hair spray. (FYI we've been told we aren't supposed to do art since we have an art specialist once a week, but let's just say her stuff leaves a little to be desired. Guess who walks in while the kids are working on these? The PRINCIPAL. She immediately asks one of my little innocents "What are you doing?" The innocent says with glee "ART!" Uh-oh!)

We wrote some facts about spiders using Reagan's (Turnstall's Teaching Tidbits) spider writing idea. Learning about spiders when you have a tarantula for a class pet is essential! And even though spiders truly creep me out, they ARE fascinating and amazing creatures. The kids are always surprised to find out that I don't really like spiders. (Okay, I'm a wee bit scared of them!) But hey, Kiwi (our pet) doesn't crawl around the room. If she happened to get out . . . STOMP . . . STOMP . . . and the shoe(s) would go in the trash . . . that's all I'm saying!

Then we made the adorable silly spiders from Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching. But we bumped it up a notch (since we aren't supposed to do art because we have an art specialist once a week...remember) and used our spiders to practice different ways to write numbers. On the spider's nose each child wrote their number in standard form. The body had a portion of the hundreds chart (think tic-tac-toe grid) with the child's number in the center and the numbers one less, one more, ten less, and ten more written around it. Each leg had a different form of the number such as tally marks, expanded notation, symbolic form (using base ten blocks), comparisons using greater than and less than (two separate legs), odd or even, word form, and money. The kids LOVED it! I gave my little friends the choice of choosing an easier or a harder number. Then knowing their abilities, I gave them the number I wanted. But they didn't know that! ;)

Well, enough ramblings for tonight. I need to go check out everyone else's blogs and catch up on Pinterest! Happy vacation to all!

Place Value (Regroup Ones to Tens)

We are still working on this place value thing where my kiddos have to write the number and remember to regroup the ones to tens. Uh, they get it when we add two double digit numbers! But when it is written in expanded notation form and they have to regroup they fall apart. Not sure what it matters if they can do it when adding...but it's on the test and so we plod on. Here is a boring practice/assessment sheet I made to follow up the "Birds of a Feather" center activity. The only thing exciting about it are the new graphics from KPM Doodles on it. :) Click here to get it.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

I am thrilled to announce the opening of my Teacher's Notebook store! Drum roll please...I just sold my first item for $1. Wooo Hooo! I am so excited! Mr. Hubby is a little less ecstatic being that he is in the banking business and he's figuring in the store start-up fee and the Paypal fees. But he isn't bursting my bubble! No way, no how!

I created a center activity for my kiddos to use this month called "Birds of a Feather Flock Together" that will reinforce writing numbers in different ways. It includes numbers with two and three digits, place value blocks, expanded notation, number words, and counting bills and coins. I added a tricky skill that my students are tested on...hundreds, tens, and ones with trading. This is what I mean--75 is 7 tens + 5 ones. But it is also 6 tens + 15 ones. Are your kids tested on this skill too?

If you are interested in this activity head over to Teacher's Notebook and grab one. You will probably hear me doing another happy dance if you do and the hubs doing an eye roll!!

The Doubles Chant

I don't recall where this chant originally came from. Possibly Math Facts to the Max. (If you know please let me know.) My kids love it and the military march beat. I made it into a Power Point presentation for initial teaching and also a poster for my math wall.

I uploaded the presentation to Google docs so we'll see if it works. Click here to get it. (I've never tried this before, so let me know if it doesn't work.)

The picture shows a portion of the poster. Sorry about the glare! After we do the Power Point a number of times we only need the poster's minimal cues to remind us of the chant. It is fun to see kids who are doing math problems do the movements to the chant when they think no one is watching! Love that!

Double Chant

Doubles Derby Math Game

At the beginning of the year we work hard to master our double facts in math. A friend and I created this game years ago and the kids absolutely love it! They beg to play it all year long...I think it must have something to do with the little race cars. :)

Doubles Derby

All that is needed to play are mini-race cars (I think I purchased mine at the Dollar Tree or Walmart--it's been so long I can't remember), a clear spinner, and a game board for each child. You can also have the kids record the doubles equations on a small white board for practice as they play. If you like to have something to check or show parents, have the kids record on a piece of paper.