Money, Money, Money!!!!!!

We had a great spring break, even if it was cold, but it’s time to get back to work. My class is starting a unit on money we made a 5 column chart today describing each coin and discussing each coins value. The kids are so into learning about counting money and have really had a good time with this unit so far.

 

After analyzing each coin we read the book, “Making Cents,” by Elisabeth Keeler Robinson       and added any additional information to our chart.

 

 I bought Amy Lemons money unit called “It’s All About The money” to help in teaching this unit. The money pictures came from her unit.

Famous Inventers (A Common Core Unit)

This is what we will be doing when we come back from Spring Break. We will be working on common core standard RI.2.3 Describe the connections between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in a technical procedure in a text while also teaching students about famous inventors and their impact on the world.

You can get it at my TpT store!

Inventors Included in this pack:
• Thomas Edison
• Alexander Gram Bell
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Benjamin Banneker
• George Washington Carver
• Henry Ford
Lesson plans for this unit are included, along with an article for each inventor. Each article comes with timeline cards for students to sequence. There are also two response sheets to accompany the activities. A home project, with parent note and rubric for grading are also included.
Students will love this engaging unit!

Addition and Subtraction Extravaganza!

Wow! It has been so crazy around here. We have been giving our district assessments and getting ready for Spring Break. So here are a few things that I have been working on over the last few weeks. My Response to Intervention teacher wanted an assessment for math fact fluency numbers 0-5 for our kindergarten and first grade teachers. We also made flash cards to go with the unit so that the students can practice their facts.

 Get a sample of the assessment here!

Get a sample of the flash cards here!

 

If you like what you see, you can get the whole unit at my TPT store!

Class Elections were a big hit!!

The students had a great time with the class elections. We made campaign posters:

Then we voted with our secret ballots and used a line plot to discover the results:

 

We interpreted our data and elected a president and vice president for the term on one month.

 

This week we are learning about the legislative branch and wrote a bill and sent it to the president (A.K.A. the principal) for her approval or veto. We read the book “House Mouse Senate Mouse,” By Peter Barnes. It takes the student through the process of a bill being written and becoming a law in a language that they can understand. Not to mention that it is a bit funny too.

 

One more week and spring break is here. I think that this year I am as excited as the kids to have a week off!

So you want to be class president…..

My class has started learning about the three branches of government. This week we are focusing on the executive branch. We are focusing on the president and his responsibilities. We began this section of our unit by watching a Brain Pop Jr. video about the president.

 

We then brainstormed a list of the president’s responsibilities and discussed what each of those meant.

 

After discussing the President of the United States, I told the class that we were going to elect a class president this week. We will be writing an opinion paper (campaign speech) about why we or someone else in the class would make a good class president. We will also make campaign signs, and end the week voting for our class president out of our top four candidates. We will hold a vote on Friday and the class president will serve a term of one month.

As a culminating activity for our introduction to the president and the idea of electing a class president we read “Grace for President,” by Kelly Dipucchio.

 

There is also a YouTube video for this book.

I will share more as we go through the week. The kids are so excited! I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Being sick is no fun!

It has finally hit out house. My daughter and I have got whatever has been going around school. A very unproductive weekend of soup and sleeping, but I finally think that we are both feeling a little better, just in time to go back to work. Hopefully we are getting over this stuff and I can post some exciting happenings soon. My class is loving our measurement unit and we are about to start Measurement Mania next week. I will let you know how that goes.

Measurement fun has begun!!

We have started out measurement unit. The kids are having such a good time working cooperatively and exploring measurement. We have now learned about nonstandard units called “length units” by common core, inches and length units that correspond to inches, and centimeters and length units that correspond to centimeters.

 

 I found the cool poster on Pinterest, but could not find the original pinner. I made it for my class.

 

One other thing that I did this week was put my centers into old DVD cases for storage. I wish I had thought of this a long time ago. They store so well and I created a cover that gives the students directions for each center. My plan is to go back and make one for each of my math centers. I also included a little ruler on the spine so that the students know what standard of math that they go with at a glance. Do you have any unique ways to store your center materials? If so please share.

Valentine's Cards for my Students!

Its Valentine’s Day week and we are counting down to the big day. My class is celebrating Valentine’s Day on Friday with a pizza party and ice cream party. I thought I would share my cards that I made my students with you.

 These are the valentine’s cards that I made my students they say “you are so smart that it blows my mind,” and then I put a blow pop through the middle.

 If you would like to card template click here!

Valentine’s Day is on the way!!

I have been working on two different Valentine’s Day themed center activities for my students to use in math centers. The really enjoy it when I tie what we are learning to the holiday or a theme. We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on next Friday with a school dance and a class ice cream social. My first center activity is designed to meet common core standard NBT.2.8 mentally adding and subtraction 10 and 100.

 Check it out here!

The other unit is a Valentine’s Day math hunt that my children just love. I place the cards around the room and they hunt for the cards. When they find the cards they solve the problem and place their answers on the recording form. I normally give the student that gets the most problems correct a treat. They really work hard to solve the problems correctly.

Check it out here!

 FREE!!!!!!!

If you go to my teacher pay teacher store and follow me and then leave me a message on this post I will send you one of the above centers for free.

 

 

I will also be using Mrs. Adkins Valentine's Day Party pack:

                                       

                                           Check out her bolg here!

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

 

Common Core Word Problems

This week my class will be reviewing word problems and how to solve multiple types of them. I have made a review activity that may class will use to prepare for our assessment on word problems this Friday. I thought I would share it with you. I hope that you find it helpful. Please let me know what you think. 

Click here to get the word problem review.

 

If you like what you see, I also have a Common Core Word Problem unit on my TPT store.

 Check it out here.

UPDATES from Tech. Confrence

Wow! The FETC Technology conference was amazing! There is so much technology out there that is really cool, too bad that most of it cost an arm and a leg. I did find two things that were really cool and were no cost to the teachers. First, Grade Cam is a web page that automatically grades your multiple choice test allowing you to get instant item analysis. This web page will also send the graded work right into my digital grade book. All you need is a document camera or a webcam. I am going out this weekend to get a webcam so that my students can grade their own papers instantly. I will let you know how it goes. Check Grade Cam out here! (www.gradecam.com)  

 

 

The other thing that I found was ABCya! It is a wonderful webpage with free educational games for students that work wonderfully with my interactive white board. They also offer apps at the App Store. The webpage is awesome! My kids were so excited today when we used it.  

Measurement Mania! and Technology Conference

 

 

Check out Measurement Mania here!

My class will be starting a unit on measurement in a few weeks. I have designed this unit as a culminating activity for our exploration into measurement. My students this year are really into outer space and the idea that there may be aliens, so I ran with that. The students will compete in 6 track and field type activities with alien themes like UFO toss or Moon Walk. They will then measure their results from each activity and record their data on recording sheets. After that they will graph their data using line plots, pictographs, and bar graphs. They will then use the graphs to collects a variety of data. Our school has gone whole hog with common core and it has been quite a challenge to make sure that we are meeting the intent of the standards, but I more thoroughly understand the standards and expectations than ever. I love creating thing that make learning fun for my students! Please let me know what you think! I will post pictures as soon as we start! I can’t wait to share more with everyone.   I am off to the technology conference in the morning and can’t wait to see what new and exciting things are available to make our students ready for a technology rich world.

I have been thinking about doing a blog for quite some time. Every time I sit down to do it something else needs to be done. This time I gave in and made one. I can't wait to share all the exciting things that are happening in my class.