Monday Made It!

Good morning, y'all!  It's time for another round of Monday Made It!  I am excited to show you what I made last week!  

I bought these pumpkin/fall cutouts at Dollar Tree for $1.00 a few weeks ago and planned to write Math problems on them.  Two weeks ago I showed you my Pumpkin Place Value for Monday Made It (Click here if you missed it).  This week I did the same thing, except I didn't use place value.  This time problems were: estimating sums and differences, rounding, adding and subtracting decimals, and multi-step story problems.  The answers are on the back so students can self check their answers.

After seeing this SUPER CUTE chevron background, I decided to re-do my binder covers again!!  I actually made new covers about a month ago, but I LOVE this background so I did them again!  

This week I am spending time at one of my favorite places: the beach! We live about 3 1/2 hours from the beach, but that can still be a long drive for my little one, who is 3 years old.  So, I decided to make a road trip notebook!  First, I bought a binder and a pencil pouch.  I already had the page protectors and all of the materials I put inside.  Inside the pencil pouch, I put some crayons for him to use.  Then, I filled the page protectors with things like coloring pages, blank pages with stickers, and thin books.  I got this idea HERE.  Here are some pictures of our road trip notebook!  

Looking forward to seeing all of the other Monday Made It's!!



Pumpkin Place Value

Can you guys believe it is July 1st?  Eeekkk!  My summer is going by so very fast!  Time needs to S-L-O-W down!  This morning I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!

While I was shopping at Dollar Tree last week {love that store}, I saw these cute pumpkin cutouts and knew I could do something cute with them.  

Monday Made It #1: Alphabet Matching Game

This is, of course, for my 3 year old.  He loves to play "school" and loves to practice letters, shapes, etc.  These will be great to match uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as practice putting the ABC's in order.

Monday Made It #2:  Pumpkin Place Value

Next year we are adopting a new Math textbook (enVision) and the first unit in 5th grade is place value.  I made these pumpkin place value questions for students to practice with.  The answers are on the back so that students can easily self check.

Last year in 4th grade, I put multiplication problems on foam shamrocks {also found at Dollar Tree} and my students LOVED solving them!  It was so cute to see how excited they were just because their Math was on something different.  Hopefully the excitement will continue with Pumpkin Place Value!

Five for Friday

Hello friends!  TGIF!  Summer vacation is so close!  10 full days and 3 half days before it's here!  How long do you have left?!

It's time for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!  This is a great way to recap your week!

Since we don't implement Common Core standards until next year, we have to teach a Common Core Math fraction unit after PASS testing to help get our students prepared for fractions in 5th grade.  We started this unit this week and it should last until the end of school.  

One - One of our activities involved an activity called Race for One.  In this activity, students work in groups to try to get to the whole number first.  They draw cards, mark their spots on the appropriate number line, and try to be the first one to get to one!  

Two - Another activity involved students working in groups to put fractions in order on a number line.  They started with their whole numbers, then moved to mixed number, before turning all improper fractions to mixed numbers!  There was some confusion, but overall they did soooo good! I have several really smart kiddos this year!

Three -  In our lesson today, we pretended we were at a place called Kellan's Candy Company.  At this special candy company, all guests get 8 free pieces of candy and you can make any selection you wish.  First, we decided what color was what flavor.  Yellow=pineapple, red=strawberry, brown=chocolate, etc.  We then drew our "candy" in our notebooks and identified the fractional pieces for each color.  

Four - Since it's the end of the year, I am determined to clean out my closet.  I am pretty organized in my classroom except for my closet.  I am almost embarrassed to show you the before (left).  I cleaned out the right side and the top two shelves so far!  It's a work in progress.  Anyone else relate?

Five - We have been working hard to transform my son's nursery into a big boy room.  He is turning 3 very soon so it was time for a change.  He LOVES animals, especially elephants and jungle animals.  We are finally finished and LOVE it!

Happy Friday, friends!

Fraction Design

This week we are working hardcore on fractions!  Our district requires us to teach a fraction unit (in addition to the one we teach throughout the year) after PASS testing.  These units are based on Common Core standards to help prepare students for Common Core standards next year.  Today's lesson called for students to create fraction designs using square tiles.  My class worked in partners, drew cards, and made designs.  Cards G and H gave them a little trouble, but they did really good overall!

Car Race

You can imagine how excited the boys in my classroom were when they saw the words "car race" under our goals for today!  We reviewed metric measurement, which they have had a little trouble with.  After our review, they got to participate in a car race.  Before the activity, we used a meter sticks (100 centimeters) to mark measurements with tape on the floor.  Then, each student estimated in centimeters how far they thought their car would go.  They LOVED it.  They were pretty excited and got a little "off" from the lesson so next time, I'd make the objective a little more clear.  Overall, they had a good time!

This lesson was an idea given to our 4th grade team from our district Math coach.

Tomorrow, 2nd Grade Nest is having a linky party where you post pictures to show a day in your life!  Click on her blog link to learn more.  I'll be back tomorrow to share my day with you!

Five for Friday

It's time for Five for Friday over at Doodle Bugs Teaching!  Here's a glance at my week!

1.  This week my class learned about faces, edges, and vertices of three-dimensional shapes.  We had fun using straws and pipe cleaners to make 3D shapes and then point out their faces, edges, and vertices.

2.  Does your teachers and staff do Secret Pal at your school?  We do and I enjoy participating in it each year.  We fill out papers about ourselves at the beginning of the year, randomly pick someone, and buy gifts for each other throughout the year.  This morning I dropped off a green tumbler and a card for my Secret Pal in the main office...

And was pleasantly surprised when I saw this plant waiting for me from my Secret Pal!  

3.  I got the sweetest note from a student in my bucket today.  How about the use of that vocabulary word we recently learned?!

4.  My little man celebrated St. Patty's Day at school.  Isn't he the cutest?  We are in the process of completing re-doing his bedroom and he is going to love the final product!  

5.  Today, I put out a few Easter decorations! I am READY for Spring and these 70 degree temperatures feel amazing! 

Have a good weekend, friends!

Dollar Tree Finds

Yesterday I was on a mission to find some baskets for my classroom library.  I have some new {to me} books, but I don't have any baskets for them.  I went out to Dollar Tree, where I have gotten a lot of my baskets.  

But, I couldn't find what I was looking for.  I would LOVE to have these neon baskets from Really Good Stuff.  Right now, I have primary colors on one bookshelf that was already in my classroom when I began teaching there.  Then on other bookshelves I have blue and green baskets.  I would love to add some pink and orange to brighten things up and get rid of the primary colors.  

I saw on a blog {can't remember which one!} about these cute little frog fingers that she got at the Dollar Tree.  I've looked high and low for them but can't find any.  The only thing I found was this nail set {which I did not buy}.  I don't think boys would appreciate that.  :)

I did find two books, The Lion King and Jungle Book, which appear to be chapter books, but aren't.  You know how you always have those students who want so badly to read a chapter book, but just can't?  These might be good for them.

I also picked up a tumbler for my Secret Pal for St. Patty's Day!  I love that our school does Secret Pal!  I also bought these foam shapes in the hopes of using them in Math.

Although we've already covered multiplication, they always need practice.  So, I use the foam shapes for multiplication practice with the answer on the back for self-checking.

Translations, Rotations, and Reflections FREEBIE!

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post about using pattern blocks!  I am happy to report that I have really cleaned out and organized my math manipulatives and began using pattern blocks this week.  We are beginning our geometry unit with translations, rotations, and reflections!  We used pattern blocks to draw original shapes and then made translations.  

I made a translation, rotation, and reflection quiz that I wanted to share as a ~FREEBIE~. I plan to use it for a quick, easy grade but it could be modified for practice.  

Happy Saturday, y'all! 

February Fraction Bulletin Board

At our school, teachers are assigned a hallway bulletin board to decorate.  My month was February so I knew I wanted to do something related to Valentine's Day.  Since we've been studying fractions, we decided to make a fraction board!  Some students solved for equivalent fractions, some changed mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa, some found simplest form, and some compared two fractions.  I thought it turned out cute!  

Now, I need some advice from you!  I ordered pattern blocks for my toddler for Valentine's Day.  He LOVES blocks and LOVES to learn (alphabet, colors, etc) so I know he'll just love these pattern blocks.  I bought these from Discount School Supply for only $18 for 250 wooden ones.  I thought that was a great deal! 

Now, here's my question.  I have TONS of pattern blocks at school, but rarely use them in Math.  I have completely organized all of my Math manipulatives at school because our school is placing a large order on manipulatives needed next year when we implement Common Core standards.  Our district Math coach help us to identify what we would need per grade level and she said we'd need pattern blocks.  I will admit, I haven't focused much on Common Core standards, except for Writing, since we haven't implemented them. But, I would love to hear how upper elementary teachers (especially 3rd-5th) use pattern blocks in Math.  

100th Day of School

In upper elementary, the 100th day of school isn't as big of a deal as it is in the younger elementary grades.  But, we still had a few 100 day activities yesterday!  

At the beginning of Math class every day, we talk about the day of school and they decompose that number.  They started off by decomposing the number 100.  Then, I split them up in groups and they had 100 seconds to decompose the number 100 on a poster.

They also enjoyed a 100 calorie snack, a Milky Way chocolate bar. We also had hot chocolate.  Not for the 100th day of school, but because I am trying to clean my closet out and needed to get rid of it!

Our last activity was to walk 100 laps as a class.  You should have seen their faces when I said 100 laps!  They thought we all had to walk 100 laps.  But, we used Math to calculate how many laps we would have to walk to get to 100 as a class.  

Have you celebrated the 100th day of school yet?  If so, what activities did you plan?