Keepin' It Simple Money Review

I am going to keep this post short.  I have been sick in bed for the last 2 weeks.  I missed my entire Spring Break (BOO HOO) and then had to miss a week of work after Spring Break because I still hadn't recovered.  I can't remember the last time I've been this under the weather.   I'm going to have to blame it on Spring.  We have these beautiful oak trees in front of our home, but they have been dropping pollen for weeks and my asthma is just out of control on top of a sinus infection and pneumonia!  I got out of bed for the first time today and... jumped right on my computer.  I decided to put some finishing touches on a product I have gotten a lot of use out of already this year and really wanted to share with my teacher friends.

It doesn't have cute borders and graphics, but it does the trick for reviewing computation and coin collections.  I decided to keep these simplistic and leave off all the bells and whistles.  They have 10 problems per page.  The top five are computation problems with regrouping and the bottom 5 problems are coin collections.  There are a total of 20 pages included in the resource.  The half dollar is included on many of the pages.  They do NOT go over a dollar with the exception of about 4 problems.  The pages that contain these problems have a star in the upper right corner.

I do plan to add several more pages that do go over a dollar in the future.  Here is an example of one of the pages:

       Here is a breakdown of the types of computation problems included in the resource.
      * 5 pages have 2 Digit Addition w/Regrouping
      * 5 pages have 2 Digit Subtraction w/Regrouping
      * 5 pages have 2 Digit Addition and Subtraction w/Regrouping
      * 2 pages have 2 Digit Subtraction w/Reg. and 3 Digit Addition w/Reg.
      * 3 pages have 3 Digit Addition and Subtraction w/Regrouping

 Feel free to check it out in my store.  The link is HERE.

 

Monsterrific Daily Five for Math

Hi Friends!

This year has gotten off to a great start! I absolutely love my students and look forward to a monsterrific year with them! 

Today, I wanted to share a little freebie for all the monster loving teachers out there.  I had a request from a sweet teacher to make Daily Five icons for Math with a monster theme.  They go along with the reading set that is also available on my blog here.  I don't currently use the Math Daily Five in my own classroom.  I think the Daily Cafe calls it, Math Daily 3.  I added a few extra icons for those interested in expanding it.  I definitely plan to read the book by The 2 Sisters,  I love the Daily Five for literacy, so I am super excited to learn more about implementing something similar in math!  If you currently use it in your own classroom, I'd love to hear more about how you use it in your classroom.

Click the image below to get the FREEBIE.

You Oughta Know About...Task Card Storage

I am thrilled to be linking with Jasmine from Buzzing with Mrs. McClain for her You Oughta Know Blog Hop! 

You definitely oughta know what I found at Target!!!   I absolutely love shopping at Target.  It's rare that I leave without something new for my classroom, even if it's only a new pack of scented markers. But, one day, I found something even better than scented markers and fancy washi tape!  I was strolling the aisles of Target (okay I was actually chasing around my 5 year old), when I laid my eyes upon this...

You can probably imagine what I was thinking...Oh my gosh, these are PERFECT for task cards!!!  I mean they must have seriously been envisioning teachers as they created these containers.  They are the perfect size for task cards and there are 6 individual containers per bin.  I thought I'd hit the jackpot for sure.  My husband on the other hand just shook his head, and looked at me as if I were crazy.  He simply doesn't get how exciting new containers are for teachers! Of course, I couldn't buy just one, I filled that shopping cart up with 6 of these puppies!

I have been teaching for 11 years, and I am just NOW realizing how fantastic task cards can be.  I can't even come up with a good reason for why I've never used them in the past.  Honestly, I think it was in part because I had no idea how I'd store them.  Now, that that problem is solved,  I've been filling up my TPT shopping cart with task cards galore.  There are so many amazing task cards on TPT, and I seriously can't believe how many are even free!

If you already have a bunch of task cards that simply need a home.  Head off to Target, you'll love these!   I was able to fit 2 sets of task cards in each of the smaller boxes. 

The task cards I'm using are all Math, so I created labels for each container.  They are free for now, so be sure to go check them out.  The bottom portion is editable, so you can be more specific about the task cards inside.  For most of them, I simply put how many cards are in the set.  I hope you'll leave feedback if you download.  I'd love to hear what you think.

I also created this generic recording page that you can get for free by clicking the image below.  I wanted my students to be able to use the same recording page regardless of which task cards they chose.  It works as long as there are no more than 40 questions.  Luckily, all of the sets I have, have less than 40 questions.  I wanted to have a bunch of these pages available, so my students can simply grab it and go with their task cards. 

Thanks a bunch for dropping by and head on over to check out all the neat ideas by other bloggers.

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Pie Tasting Fun!

Just a quick post to share a pie tasting activity we did before the Thanksgiving break.  Anytime a lesson involves food, you can bet it will probably be a hit!  This was no exception.  My students had such a blast trying the different types of pie.  It's open-ended, so you can choose any four flavors you'd like.

 

I chose buttermilk, pumpkin, apple, and cherry.  I stayed away from the pecan, because I have a student with a nut allergy in my classroom.  I pretty much grabbed whatever flavors they had at the grocery store.  I had never even heard of buttermilk...I honestly thought none of my students were going to like it.  I almost didn't grab it.  Imagine my SHOCK when 18 of my little ones chose it!!!

My students insisted that I taste the buttermilk.  I'm not a big pie eater, so I was hoping they wouldn't notice that I didn't try that flavor.  Sure enough one of my little sweeties said..."One of our mighty messages is to try new things, you should try it."  How can you say no to that??? It honestly was pretty good, just SUPER sweet, which explains why they love it so much.

They enjoyed graphing the results for the class, and I don't think they even realized that they were doing math!

This is a FREEBIE in my store, so head on over to grab it.  You can click here.

 

Math Monsters

I have been so many things I want to share, but I keep forgetting to take pictures at school!!! So, for now I will share something I am really excited about using in my classroom.  Problem solving is a HUGE part of math instruction, and I wanted to create something similar to my Bloom's Buttons that I use during reading.  You can check out my Bloom's Buttons here.  These Monsters aren't exactly the same as the Bloom's Buttons, but they do contain thinking questions on a ring.

After I have my students work on a word problem, I will say it's time to get those monster minds moving...and we will choose a question.  I'll probably just fan them out and let a student pick a cutie monster.  I really hope these get them thinking deeper about the problem solving process.  These little guys should really get that math talk going! And, they match my new classroom monster theme :)

There are a total of 24 questions.  There are a couple questions that ask the same question using different terminology.  This is in order to build their math vocabulary.  For instance, Does your answer make sense?  Is your answer reasonable?

If you are interested in these monsters, you can head over to my TPT store by clicking here.  I'd love to give it to the first 2 people that comment for free, but please don't forget to leave your e-mail :)

Math PODS

In my last post, I briefly mentioned my Daily Math spiraling activity.  I used it last year, and really ended up loving it.  I made a few additions and it's ready to go for this year.

Over the last 10 years, I have tried so many different published spiraling activities.  I liked many of them, but didn't love any of them.  I always felt like there weren't enough of the types of problems I needed for my students.  For instance, I especially need regrouping problems mid to end of the year.  I wanted my spiraling activity to encompass a variety of skills, but I wanted to start very basic and work towards building the level of difficulty.  I simply start with what they should know from first grade.  For instance with money, at the beginning of the year, I'd start with all pennies and gradually increase the level of difficulty.

Using the Math PODS allowed me to make my own problems (within the template) and choose the level of difficulty.  I started with single digit numbers at the beginning of the year and ended the year with 2-3 digit numbers.

There are only 2 pages that I copy front/back.  I give them a blank copy for the week and they keep it in their Math POD folders.  I like to write the answers on a blank copy and then use my document camera to display it on the Smart board.  By doing this, we can discuss the answers interactively.  You could also use an overhead projector.  I simply hand write the problems, and they copy and solve them on their own copies.

Here is an example of the PODS with suggestions:

There are also these additional pages for students to monitor their own progress.  

We complete these each Friday.

 When students score a 100 for the day, they will get a punch on their POD Squad punch card.  I don't actually use them as punch cards.  My students glue them into their folders and I initial them. 

At the end of last year, I was super pleased.  My students were very strong on every skill covered on these Math PODS, and I know the reason had to do with the repetitive review.  They never got bored, because the problems were always different.  They loved to be challenged weekly and looked forward to our MATH POD time.  I was also super excited when I got to money and time, and all my kids already knew how to do it.  YAY!!! When it was time to teach those skills, I was actually just reviewing.

If you are a second grade teacher looking for something a little different as a math review, you can check it out HERE.

Math Pocket Station Signs FREEBIE

I have had math stations on my mind all summer!  Here is my predicament when it comes to math stations---TIME!  By the time I finish everything I need to do during my math block, there is never enough time. 

This is my daily routine:
I always start with Math POD's.  This is my spiraling activity.  I created a page last year that's 2 sided, and I couldn't be happier with how it worked out with my second graders.  Stay tuned....I will post about that next time.  After POD's we move onto Problem Solving.  Then, I teach my lesson for the day, and then there is a follow up activity or assignment.

The only place, I seem to have a gap is during the follow up activity.  They generally finish completing their tasks at different times.  I began thinking that perhaps I could work in some station time while students are finishing their independent work.  I only plan to have them go to one station each day.  Each station will have several activities for them to choose from.  I know most teachers have their students rotate through stations, but I'm going to try the one station and see how it goes. 

I decided to go with the pocket theme.  I really wanted it to be different from my literacy stations.   I also wanted it to sound catchy.  I can just hear myself, what is your pocket for today? 

The idea for using the word MATH as an acronym came from the fabulous Clutter-Free Classroom.  I love her board and acronym.  If you haven't seen it, check it out here.  I would have loved to use her board, but I just knew that I didn't have time for them to rotate though several stations daily.

Then, when I saw the idea below at the adorable blog, Sprinkles to Kindergarten, I knew it was the perfect solution to my problem.  Please check out all of her great tips.  I love that she lets her students pick their station each morning.  I will definitely do the same thing.  I also love that she has boys on one side and girls on the other, so that you don't have a group of all girls or boys.  Great idea!

I decided to go with the acronym MATH instead of NUMBER.  I have soooo many literacy stations, I really wanted to keep math stations simple.  But, there will be plenty for students to do in each of the pockets.  If you like the NUMBER acronym in the pic above, you can get it as a freebie at her blog.  Just click the image above.

After merging the two great ideas from my fellow bloggers, this is what I came up with.

My plan is to use the red clothespins, you see in the image above.  I am going to write their numbers on them, so I don't have to get a new set every year.  They will place their clothespins in one of the grey spots on the pocket.  There are enough spots for 6 students to go to each station.

But, I also like the idea of using numbered magnets and hanging it on my front magnetic dry erase board (see below).  I am torn, I'll have to see which idea works out better.

The magnets fit perfectly in the grey dots where the clothespins go.

Here are the 4 Pockets:

M- Math Facts

This is self explanatory, it will be all about practicing those math facts.

A- A Flashback

All the activities in this station will review concepts we have already covered.  I always have extra activities that I never got around to in class, now they will be a perfect addition to this station.

T- Teach Time

Either Teacher Time or Buddy Time

H- Hands-On

Anything that involves students exploring and actively engaged with their math tools.

In order to keep up with who I am meeting with daily, I will use the printable below.   I'm going to select which 6 students will work with me before they arrive in the morning.  I decided to go with Teach Time instead of TEACHER, because I wanted to have the option of it being a buddy time, also.  I may choose 3 students that really understand a concept well, to buddy with 3 students that are struggling with a particular concept.  Most of the time students will be working with me, but I wanted to have options. 

This resource also includes the pages below that I will attach to file folders, so students know what their choices are in a particular station.  Even though they aren't rotating daily, I plan on having more than enough activities to keep them engaged. 

 

I plan to laminate each file folder with the pages above blank, so I can use a sharpie to write in the activities, Then, if I want to change something, I can easily erase it and make any additions or changes for the week.

This resource is a FREEBIE.  If there is a station activity that you love, I'd love to hear your ideas.

 

Math Fact Practice and Punch Cards

I created punch cards to use along with my math fact drills last summer.  But, I quickly realized that I didn't like any of the drills that I had saved over the years.  I wanted something to go along with the punch cards that I had created- I needed drills for 0's, 1's, 2's, etc.  All the drills I had were either mixed drills or had too many problems for students to reasonably finish in a minute.  I knew I was going to have to make something that would work perfectly with my punch cards.

Below are the punch cards. One for each of the operations. 

I titled the pages- A Minute to Win it, because in order to win a punch, they must get a 100% in less than a minute.  I'm not a drill kinda teacher, but  my students really loved doing them! They were begging me during the day for opportunities to retest on whatever number they were trying to earn.  How could I resist that?

 Below are examples of the Minute To Win It pages for each operation:

Each of the Minute to Win It pages are half pages with 21 problems.  Research says that students should be able to accurately solve 25 problems in under a minute, so I gave them some leeway and went with 21 problems.  The division pages are the only ones that have 20 problems.  Some of the multiplication and division are trickier, so they may need more than a minute, especially when they're doing their 11's and 12's.

I also made 3 Mixed Reviews for each of the operations.  I thought they would make great reviews or even possible quizzes.

Even though I named them punch cards, I didn't actually use them as punch cards.  I decided to go simple last year, and simply had them glue them in their math journals.  I just initialed each time they completed a number.  This worked out great because I didn't have to worry about lost punch cards.

If you are interested in math fact practice pages for your students, you can check it out in my TPT store by clicking here.

* If you already have drills that you like, you can also get the punch cards only in my TPT store.

Money Monsters

Money...money...money....

We started money last week, and I am super excited about teaching it this year.  I got a Smart Board at the very end of last year, and now I don't know how I ever taught without it.  It makes everything we do super interactive, I absolutely love it! Yay, now I can drag and drop coins on the Smart Board rather than hunting for the coins in my Ziploc baggy of overhead coins.

I decided to create a simple monster themed coin page to spice up my money unit.  The Money Monster strip is just a fun reference strip that I'm going to have my class add to their math journal.  There is also a page for students to practice adding collections of coins.  I plan to use the coin die on my Smart Board to randomly choose coins.  They will write the values of the coins that get rolled in each circle.  I also plan to use it as a station activity.  They have wooden cubes at the craft store that are perfect for making teacher made money dice. 

You can get the FREEBIE by clicking on the picture below.

 

Reading and Math Strategies

I've been away from work for almost 2 weeks with Greysen.  He has almost healed from his tonsillectomy and thank goodness our days in the hospital are behind us.  I go back to work tomorrow and I know that it will be a hard transition for him, especially because he still has pain from surgery.  He's napping now, so thought I'd post something I had been meaning to post for awhile now. 

I saw a Reading strategy anchor chart on Pinterest awhile back.  She used the acronym- UNREAL to teach students her reading strategy steps.  Check hers out here.  It only linked to an image, so I'm not quite sure of where it originated.  I liked it and thought it could be modified a bit for my own classroom/grade level. My grade level preferred to go with the acronym REAL with a couple extra R's at the beginning instead of UNREAL.   This is what I finally came up with.

 I'm going to have my students keep it in their Daily Folders along with their  Math strategies (see below).  You can get both at my Teachers Pay Teachers store for free. Simply click on the images to head to my teacher store.

Math Caps

This goes along with my Choosing Caps post from awhile back.  Click here to see the original post. In that post, I talked about using baby food lids to create choosing caps.  They were a fun way to randomly call out students' numbers during class discussions.  They really were a big hit last year, and I ended up using them for multiple purposes in my classroom.  Since they were so popular, I decided it was time for another set that I could place in a math station.  They could be used for skip counting, comparing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, etc.  I went ahead and added the math operation symbols and they are no longer black and white! I decided to add color.  If you cut them out and laminate them, you can pop them right in the lid.  No glue/tape necessary.

Click on any of the images below for a free copy.