Potpourri

Since this is a post of a bunch of random things, I’m calling it my “potpourri”. {Does anyone dislike that word as much as I do?!?! Mark it under one of my most not-favorite things to say}

Is anyone else BARELY getting to fractions?! We started our fraction unit this week and started by discussing equal & unequal parts. I folded a bunch pieces of construction paper {even & uneven} and passed them out to the kids after a little fraction introduction on the SmartBoard. The kids had to go back to their desks and cut the construction paper on the creases and then determine whether or not they had equal or unequal parts.

Then we sorted! As we were sorting equal & unequal parts, I had the kids give me “fraction sentences” for the parts that were equal. If I was holding up 4 equal parts, I put three behind my back and then the kids would say, “3 out of 4 pieces are behind your back. 1 out of 4 pieces are in your hand.” Loved it!

If you’re still looking for fraction ideas and fun, I’ll be posting my Fraction Unit to TpT this weekend.
One of my writing activities this week was Roll, Write, & Revise! The kids are LOVING this little activity and have requested that it stay in the writing center for the rest of the week. This is one request I’m happy to grant :) I taped 6 different MESSED UP sentences and glued them onto a tissue box. The kids had to “roll” the box, read the sentence, write it, and then revise it.

They had to look for punctuation, spelling, and capitalization errors. I was SO impressed with their work! They did GREAT!! I stayed close to my babies who struggle when they were visiting this station. We did this activity together and I had them explain why we had to revise different parts of the sentences. I was so proud of them!

The kids are LOVING it!!! And it goes perfectly along with Kathleen Pedersen’s FIX IT UP! Packet. Do y’all have it yet?! If you don’t, you should! My kids are having so much fun “fixing” her sentences!! You can download the sentences I used on the Kleenex box & the recording sheet here:

Graphic courtesy of Scrappin' Doodles

We’ve also been working on compound words this week. Smart Lesson Stop had a great compound words activity for the SmartBoard that my kids just adored. We went through a portion of it together and I had the kids do another portion independently for Word Work. The kids also got to combine two words/pictures to make a new word & then match it up to the compound word card.

When they were finished with the matching, they made little compound word flip books. They loved it!

Graphic courtesy of Scrappin' Doodles

Here are a few more little activities we’re workin’ on this week, but with no pics to share :) We’ve been busy and I’ve been slightly forgetful.

The kids LOVE this sight word “game”! This is another repeat request. They love playing and don’t even realize they’re practicing spelling. I love activities like that! Directions are included in the download :)

Graphics courtesy of Scrappin' Doodles

I also put out a little synonym/antonym game out this week. It’s a variation of an idea I got from Mailbox Magazine…I just can’t remember what issue?!?! To prepare this activity, you’ll need to copy the synonym/antonym boards and the synonym and antonym cards on cardstock {for durability}. Each board will need a set of synonym/antonym cards as well. Laminate and cut the synonym and antonym cards and place in baggies. Distribute a board and a baggie to each player. Player 1 will reach into his baggie and remove a synonym or antonym card. Depending on the card he draws, he will cover up a corresponding pair of words on his board. {For example, if he pulls out an antonym card, he would place it on top of a pair of antonyms on his board}. The next player will do the same and so forth. The first player to cover up a row {horizontally or diagonally} on his board is the winner! You could also use these as synonym/antonym Bingo boards :) I included two different recording sheets as well. My kids are LOVING this game!!!!

Graphics courtesy of Scrappin' Doodles

Candy Heart Math {& A Making Words Activity}

I know Valentine’s Day is over, but I like to extend my Valentine-ish activities throughout the month. After all, February is the month of LOVE, right?! Well, that’s what I’m goin’ with anyway. Candy hearts are my favorite February math manipulative and here are a couple of little math printables & activities for you!!

The first is a little candy heart graph. I know there are a GAJILLION of these floating around right now. I like to graph the number of letters in the conversation. I pass out a large conversation heart to each kiddo and have them count the number of letters on the heart. Then we create a big ol’ graph on a giant heart to show all the data. I’ll come back with a pic later this week!!

I also love this little candy heart probability activity. I placed a set of conversation hearts in a brown paper bag. I made 4 bags…one for each table. In each bag, I added a different assortment of colored hearts, but I made sure that there was A LOT of one particular color. For example, in one bag I put 12 pink, 2 purple, 1 white, 1 green, and 3 yellow hearts.

The kids had to reach inside the bag…without looking…and pull out a heart {10 different times}. On the corresponding sheet, the kids had to tally the color they pulled. If they pulled out a pink heart, they had to put a tally inside the heart labeled pink.

Throughout the activity, the kids were having awesome discussions. They talked about how they kept pulling out the same color over and over and then…on their own…started making predictions as to why that was happening. Sweet!! After each person at their table had a turn to pull 10 different hearts, I had the kids empty their bags so they could see what was inside and then they wrote about it.

Click on the pic to download the printables to go with these activities!!

Speaking of candy hearts, I found these darling little heart-shaped boxes at the Dollar Tree and snatched ‘em up. I knew they’d be perfect for something ;) I put these in our Word Work station for a little making words activity.

I labeled each with a different number and filled them with letter tiles to spell different popcorn words or chunk/digraph words. The kids had to open up the hearts, spill the tiles, and spell a word using those letters. After they spelled a new word, they had to write it in the matching heart on the corresponding sheet.

My favorite thing about these little boxes is that I can use them for ANYTHING!! I think I’ll put coins in them next week for a little hands-on money activity!!

Click the pic to download your copy of the recording sheet.

Place Value, MLK, and Snowmen!

First things first…I’m a fool! Y’all. I’m blushing red with embarrassment. For those of you who have purchased my Place Value Mystery Pictures…and those of you who have downloaded the free preview…I apologize. One of my firsties pointed out a HUGE mistake on the 100’s Chart this morning. There’s an 81 where there should be a 90!!! Yikes-a-bee! See…I TOLD you! Pregnancy brain strikes again…and I’m not even preggo! You can download the corrected 100’s chart by clicking on the pic below :)

SO sorry!!

Speaking of place value, here’s a fun little activity I made for my kids to do in their math tubs last week. It’s a snowman place value spinner!

Graphics courtesy of Digi Web Studio

Last week we were working on place value with teen numbers, so that’s what this particular activity reinforces. The kids spin the spinner on the middle portion of the snowman and collect that amount of ones cubes...or whatever kind of counter you want! Then they spin the spinner on the bottom portion of the snowman and collect the same amount of ones cubes as well. Then they count their cubes and see if they can make a set of ten. I always tell them, “If you can make a 10, trade it in!!!”. Then they grab a tens rod, place their base 10 blocks on the place value workmat accordingly, and then fill out the corresponding recording sheet. Y’all…they LOVED it!!!!

I LOVED our week of snowman fun!! It was absolutely the PERFECT week to learn about snowmen because it snowed like crazy last week {only 1 day} and the kids were SO excited! I took A LOT of ideas and activities from Deanna Jump’s Snowman Math & Literacy Unit. LOVED IT!!! It’s not too late, so if you don’t have yours yet, go grab it!

We read one of my favorites, Snowmen at Night, and imagined what it would be like to be a snowman in that story. I had the kids write about what they would do at night if they were a snowman and then create their DARLING snowmen with marshmallows & white paint! LOVED that idea!!

I originally saw these cutie snowmen on What the Teacher Wants and bookmarked it for this occasion! Rachelle said that they used black paint & tiny marshmallows to create the buttons & the face, but I just had the kids use construction paper for everything…except the white! They just dipped the marshmallow into the white paint and used it like a stamp.

Now…y’all PUH-leeze take a look at mister mister’s writing below. MERCY!! This one is a RIOT!!! I’m nervous to send it home :) And this just makes me wonder what the heck my boys will be writing about when they’re in school! HA!!

I also had the kids write a 4-step how-to on building a snowman. They had to use the words first, then, next, and last at the beginning of each of their sentences. Then they got to create their snowmen using construction paper. They all turned out SO different and I love that!

I had a lot of different writing activities for the kids to work on at the writing station this week. They couldn’t wait to finish one thing so they could move on to the next. They were really engaged and I was so proud of their writing! No pics of samples, but you can download the pack below.

Graphics courtesy of Digi Web Studio

And here’s one of several activities my kids did at word work…build-a-blend snowmen! Really…it was just a word to picture match, but we were working on blends this week and this just fit perfectly.

Click HERE to download your copy of the snowman blends.

And finally, I just wanted to share with you our sweet little MLK writing. We read a few non-fiction stories about Dr. King and the kids were TRULY shocked to hear about the way things used to be. It was really precious to hear their sweet hearts talking about how sad it must have been to live in a world where ALL people weren’t treated equally. We brainstormed words and phrases to sum up what we learned about MLK.

I showed the kids a snippet of his famous , “I Have A Dream” speech on Montage. Although it was hard for the kids to really hear…and understand…what he was saying, it was really powerful to show them how many people were there the day he gave his speech. Then I told them they had to write about their dreams…the kind of dream that’s in your heart, not your head.

I did this with my 2nd graders last year and I LOVED it. I got the original idea from one of my favorite websites, Little Giraffes. Here’s the LINK for the TLC directed art.

We also did this AWESOME egg activity with the kids. I originally found this idea on Teaching Heart. I did this with my kids a bit differently than she did with hers, but it made the same point. I showed them the brown egg & the white egg and we talked about the similarities and differences between the two. The only big difference being color. Then I went behind my easel, broke the two eggs, and brought them back out for the kids to see and asked them if they could tell which yolk was from the brown and which was from the white. Of course, NO ONE could tell! About that time, one of my firsties spoke up and said, “So…the eggs are like people. Dr. King knew that everybody was really alike and the only thing that was different was the color of our skin, so that’s why he thought that things were unfair.” Ding! Ding! Ding! I LOVE this activity…and I love my little GT kids who help the rest of us “get it” :)

In other news, I’ll be adding a Place Value Activity Packet to TPT tomorrow…Wednesday at the latest! It will include 15 games, workmats, printables, and ideas for you to use with your kids…and the games can be used for 2nd grade, too!! I’m just LOVIN’ place value right now!!!

Anytime Math

Do you ever have those weeks where you feel like you’re just behind?! I had to jet outta school early on Friday because BOTH my sweet boys were sick with a 24 hour tummy bug…my oldest one {3 years old}, threw up for the first time. Poor baby!! ANYWAY…Mommy had to leave early and come to the rescue :) Then my sweet family came in town to celebrate Halloween with our little family of 4, so needless to say…I’m BEHIND this week!!! I knew this was the perfect week to pull out my “anytime math” stations!! I love the kind of activities you can just pull out when you’re in a bind! And thankfully, the kids love ‘em too!!

Roll & Remove. This is a fun little game played with number dice, a game board, counters, and two players. Both players start with a counter covering each number of their number line. Each player rolls the dice and adds the two numbers together to find out which counter to remove. If the player rolls a sum that’s already been removed from his/her number line, the player loses a turn and passes the dice. The first player to remove all of his/her counters from their number line wins the game! This has been an awesome activity for reinforcing “counting on”. We talked about starting with the highest number and counting on from that number. They’re doing so well!!

This little activity is called ‘Missing Part’. The object of this activity is to match the missing number to the number card. The numbers are in the form of pictures and the sum is programmed at the top of the card. As the kids match the missing part, they have to record a number sentence on a corresponding recording sheet. They’re doing great with this activity and they’re really being challenged to think!! Love it!!

Pumpkin Day!

Pumpkin Day! What a fun end to a week filled of learning about pumpkins! Luckily, I’m blessed to teach at a school where the parents are really involved and eager to help, and that made our Pumpkin Day run SO smoothly!! I had 4 parent volunteers come in and each parent brought in a pumpkin, spoons, carving knives, a bowl, and paper towels. We covered the tables with orange butcher paper and each parent took a group of 4 kids {which is why I got to walk around and take pics of our fun day!} Each of the kids was given a Pumpkin Math & Science Booklet to complete and the parents did an AWESOME job of working with the kids!!

First up…estimating the circumference of their pumpkin. The parents talked about estimating & circumference and then helped the kids cut a piece of yarn to measure.

Next…estimating the lines on the pumpkin. Once the kids made their estimates, the parents helped keep track of the counting.

Time for a sink or float activity! Most of the kids hypothesized that the pumpkin would sink. Did you know they float?! This was an awesome opportunity for the parents to talk about making a hypothesis and testing it to see if it was right! The kids were FLOORED that their pumpkins floated!!

After the floating experiment, the kids got to use a scale to see how much their pumpkin weighed. The parents had the kids weigh themselves also to see how their weight compared to the weight of a pumpkin. I also heard a few groups talk about how many pumpkins it would take to equal their own weight… FUN!

Finally it was time to estimate & count the number of seeds in their pumpkins. This was their favorite part! Each group carved open their pumpkin and spooned out the seeds. The kids counted the seeds by groups of 10. Some of them talked about skip counting by 2’s & 5’s but decided that it would be faster to count by 10’s. Woo hoo!

The kids circled each group of 10 to make counting easier. The final counts were impressive!!

One of the sweet moms collected all the pumpkin seeds and took them home to roast. Come Monday our class will be dining on roasted pumpkin seeds! YUM!!!

Finally it was time to carve their pumpkins. It was fun to see how different each group carved theirs…they all got to vote on what they wanted!! And of course, the parents that brought in the pumpkins got to take theirs home for Halloween :)

Such a fun way to end the week!! And the kids learned so much!!! I love Pumpkin Day!