Oh Snow!

Baby, it’s cold outside!!  I’ve been working on this new fact practice set for a couple of weeks now.  Ironically, I was able to finish it on a day school closed early because of icy conditions. 

For those of you who are familiar with my BOOM! games, OH SNOW! is the same game with a seasonal makeover.  OH SNOW! is a multiplayer fact practice game where students take turns drawing fact cards. They get to keep the card if they know the correct answer. The winner is the person with the most cards when the OH SNOW! card is drawn.

 

I created a set for each of the 4 operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

 

I plan to store my games in cute snowman sacks I picked up at Walmart.

If anyone is interested in getting a FREE set, leave a comment below.  I’ll have a random drawing when the temperature here gets above freezing – sometime Sunday afternoon.

 

Stay warm and have a great weekend!

6 comments addition, fact practice, math, math facts

Round and Round and Round We Go

Do you ever feel like you’re going around in circles teaching rounding?  OH MY -Rounding is such a tough skill to teach!  I really tried hard this week to teach rounding to my kiddos.  I spent a lot of time using visuals, and for the most part, it worked. 

 

We used rounding charts.

 

We worked with number lines.

 

We sorted.

 

And, we played PowerPoint games.

 

If you want need some rounding charts, click on the picture below.  There are several different charts in this FREEBIE.

 

After all that rounding practice, I feel a bit like that caveman!

 

Have a great weekend!

Leave a Comment freebies, math, rounding

Organizing Journals with Tabs

I’m linking up with Ladybug’s Teacher Files and Fun in Room 4B for their Optimum Organization linky.  It’s pretty ironic that I would have an organization tip because I really try to be organized but it doesn’t come easily to me. 

For years I’ve used interactive math journals in my classroom.  I’m hooked and I’m sure I’ll use them forever more.  My students are encouraged to use their journals as a reference.  I mean, that’s why we put all the effort into them, right?? But the kids sometimes have trouble finding what they need when they need it.  We put so much into our journals that the table of contents gets overwhelming even for me!  The picture below shows just part of last year’s table of contents.  See what I mean?


For this next school year, I’m going to try something a little different.  I decided I would divide my math journal into sections with a separate table of contents for each section.  I’ve done something similar with our writing journals in the past.  Here’s the prototype I’ve been working on.


The table of contents is less overwhelming.  Kids shouldn’t have a problem skimming and finding what they need.


One problem I think I’m going to run into is that many kids aren’t going to know which section to look in.  I added details to the section headers to help out.  Underneath “Measurement” I included all the topics we cover.  I also plan to reinforce which category each skill falls into as I teach the skill.


So far I’m happy with my prototype and I’m looking forward to trying this out.  Have any of you ever sectioned off a math journal?  How did it work out?

For those of you who are interested in using tabs, I’m offering a FLASH FREEBIE for this set from my TpT store.  This is a zip file that includes an editable pdf file and a Word doc.  Hurry over before time runs out.

Have a great weekend!

2 comments journaling, math, notebooks, organization

Skip Counting Game and Mastercard Winner

I’d like to start today’s post off by thanking everyone who participated in my Mastercard Giveaway.  I appreciate you so much!  Without further ado, the winner is….

Vicky Hunt! 

Congratulations, Vicky!  Be on the lookout for an email from me.

Now for today’s post -
I teach 3rd grade so my kids mostly come to me knowing how to count quarters. But as you know, there’s always one or two who aren’t fluent skip counters.  I learned a quick little activity at a recent math conference that should help.  I got this idea from Wendy Hill from The Learning Carpet.  The game is like the math version of playing Sparkle and is a great time filler for when your class is lined up ready to go somewhere but you have a few minutes to spare.

Pretend like this is my class (scary but some years are like that).  We’re waiting in line before going to lunch.

My little monsters start calling out numbers.  The Purple Monster yells out 25, then the Neanderthal mumbles 50, Green Dude says 75, and then Zombie Kid dejectedly mutters $1 because he has to go to the end of the line.

The kid who never faces front, Green  monster, starts the count over with 25.  And, the game continues until you run out of monsters kids or run out of time.

Variations
Why not do this with other counting skills? 

• Count single-digit odd numbers and whoever says 9 goes to the end. 
• Skip count multiples of 3, 4, 6, etc.  You will need to decide which number causes a kid to go to the end of the line.  In the beginning, you could start off small then add more multiples as the kids improve.  Example: start off with 3, 6, 9, and have kids go to the end of the line on 12.
• Skip count fractions – my kiddos have trouble with this one.  Since I teach 3rd graders, I would have mine count 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and go to the end on 1 or the next consecutive whole number.

Have any of you ever played this game before?  How did it go?

Have a great day!

1 comment math

Saturday Snapshots from Math Conference

Hey everyone!  I just got back from a road trip to San Antonio where I attended a math conference.  I had a blast as usual and learned tons!!  I’m linking up with Miss Nelson at Run! Miss Nelson’s Got the Camera! for the first time ever.  Today I’m sharing some random pictures but I plan to share some of the really cool things I learned in the next few days after I’ve caught up on some sleep. 

The Alamo


The Riverwalk


I met Stuart Murphy, author of the Math Starts series.  He was nice enough to autograph a couple of books for me.


I got some great ideas from visiting Dinah Zike’s booth.  She is an amazing woman with some very creative ideas.  Here are a few:
Fraction Quilt




Addition Flap Book



Envelope Book

This book has 3 pockets for storing goodies.



More Cool Stuff from Dinah Zike



If you ever have the chance to attend a conference with Dinah Zike, you MUST do it!  She is very inspiring and she is the queen of all things foldable.

Have a great weekend!  I hope to be back soon to share what I learned at the conference.

4 comments CAMT, foldables, linky, math

Foldable Fun–Geometry

WARNING: This post contains A LOT of graphics!



My students get a kick out of adding new things to their math journals and they learn so much doing it.  We recently added these to our journals as a way for us to remember some key terms associated with 3 dimensional shapes.  The kids love turning a flat piece of paper into a 3 dimensional shape.



I love that these foldables flatten out so that the journal can be closed without smooshing the shape.



It can also be lifted up so that notes can be written underneath.



And, it’s super easy for your kids to make.  Here’s how to do it…























If you give this a try, I would love to hear how they turn out.  I hope you enjoy your weekend!

6 comments foldables, geometry, math, notebooks

Making Measurement Fun

My kids recently had the opportunity to practice area & perimeter in a fun way.  My friend Liz had the wonderful idea of creating Area and Perimeter Zoos.  After her class created this adorable zoo, I decided my class just HAD to make one too.



I really like how Liz arranged her animal habitats and added details to her zoo.



For this project, we cut up chart paper with 1 inch grid lines into random sizes. The kids had to find both the area and the perimeter of their piece of chart paper.  After that they were allowed to decorate their habitats and then add animal clip art.



Some of the kids put a great deal of effort into their pictures and many of them wanted to make extras.  Liz’s kids added a gift shop and restrooms.  You gotta love it!



My kids did an awesome job with their zoo.  For mine, I crumpled my butcher paper to give it a grassy texture and added crumpled brown paper for the fence.  I really think I need to add more detail to my zoo but this is what I have so far.



I had kids who loved this project so much they begged to work on an extra habitat during recess.  I was shocked!



Because of my kids’ enthusiasm, I’ll have to do this one again next year.



I am bothered by the fact that the measurements are not labeled. So, next year I think I’ll add a little more complexity to this activity by having my kids use scale.  I could have one square inch of paper equal 1 square foot or 2 square feet depending on the ability of my class.

I’d love to hear about the ways you make measurement fun in your class. 

1 comment math, measurement