It's Fall Ya'll!!

Ok...pardon the southerness of that title, but hey, I'm from Georgia! I think I have said it before..I LOVE fall!  Since it is officially here....I thought I would have a sale to celebrate!! 

 

 

Beginning tomorrow all items in my store will be 20% off.  The sale will end on September 26th at midnight!

 

Enjoy:)  Have a great week!

 

Morning Work Idea

So, I am going to be very honest here!  I have been completely overwhelmed learning a new grade level!  I taught third grade for five years, and I knew the curriculum and the kids so well.  I could predict the mistakes they would make and misconceptions they would have, so I would plan for that in my lessons.  Not so much in second grade...I am learning the curriculum, so I don't feel like my instruction is as deep as it should be.  And just about everyday I have been completely surprised by a misconception that my kids have.  They are very sweet kids, and I love that I don't have all the testing demands that I did in third grade!  I am just learning, so it is a bit overwhelming!  Sorry...I just had to get that off my chest!  I have been struggling with it all week:) 


I did want to share something that is going well in my room. I made this page for morning work. 

 

 

I included five problems that I feel like students need consistent practice with.  I made a math board for the problems.  However, if you have a smart board or promethean board, you could project this on there, and just change the problems each day. 

 

Here is a description of each problem:

 

1.  An open number line-give the students an addition problem.  They use the open number line to solve the number sentence.  The open number line is great because it gets kids to practice mentally adding tens and ones in their brain, and they don't have to use the traditional regrouping algorithm. I started with just adding one digit numbers on a number line, and I will move to two digits soon.

 

2.  A chart that the students complete for place value. The chart includes standard form, word form, expanded form, and base ten model.  I give one part of the chart each day, and the students have to coplete the other. 

 

3.  On the third problem the students have to balance an equation. For example 5 + 4 = _____ + 6.  I included the visual of a scale so that they remember that each side has to equal the same thing. Right now we are just using one digit numbers.  As the year goes on, I will include two digit numbers.  

 

4. Number four is a space to solve a daily word problem. My school uses a program called Target The Question. They have a word problem each week.  Each day of the week the students answer a different question about the problem.  I love it!  I makes them really think about what information they need/don't need when answering questions.   You could use or make up your own though. 

 

5. The fifth problem is a part/part/whole box.  I fill in two parts and they have to find the missing part.  We have a lot of discussion about related facts/fact families when we go over this problem each day. 

 

I like this morning work beacuse the students get used to the structure, and these are skills they can practice all year.   As the year goes on, I can just make the problems harder. Depending on your class, you may want to have them do a couple of problems each day. You can totally use your judgement though:)   I started having my students only complete 1-2 one day, and 3-5 the next.  We have worked our way to all five!  I love going over this morning work each day because I feel like we have a lot of rich discussion about the strategies that the students used/could have used.  It has been very helpful to me, so I hope you find it helpful also! 

 

You can pick up your copy for free by clicking here!  I hope you enjoy!  If you have any questions, let me know!  This all made sense in my head, but if something is confusing, let me know! 

 

Enjoy your Saturday!!



Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!  The winner is......

 

 

Lisa R. !

 



 I will be emailing you tonight with your prize:)  If you didn't win, you can pick up a copy for only $3.00 by clicking here!   I hope everyone has a happy Friday:)  



Fall Fun Giveaway

I absolutely love fall!  I am so excited about the cool weather, fall scented candles, football,  and fall craft/food festivals!  Oh yeah...and I am excited that Starbucks is serving Pumpkin Spice Lattes again. Ahhhhh! 

 I also love all the fun teaching activities that you can do in the fall.  So, I created a fall themed pack for teaching even and odd numbers.  There is A LoT included in this pack! 

It includes four very hands-on lessons. The students participate in several different sorting activities and games to discover the meaning of even and odd.

 



 

 

The students create a scarecrow glyph (Ex: if  your age is an even number- color the pants blue, if your age is an odd number-color the pants green, etc). After creating the glyph there is a bar graph to create based on the class information collected through the glyphs.  There is also  a slap game included in which students practice quickly recognizing even/odd numbers.

 

 

 

There are three sorting activities.  Students sort leaves and scarecrows into even/odd categories.  Then, they complete a cut and past sort as an assessment.  In additon, there are even and odd vocabulary cards included.

 

 

I actually created this pack back in the spring, and did a giveaway then.  However, since fall is officially here, I decided to do a BONUS giveaway!  I will give this pack away to ONE lucky winner on Wednesday.  I will use a random number generator to select the winner! Just leave a comment with your email address to enter the giveaway!

 **I know that several of you have already purchased this product. So, to be fair, if you win the giveaway (and have already purchased this product), you can choose another item in my store of equal or lesser value instead:)** 

Catching up!

Whew!  I can't believe that we are already in the fourth week of school!!  Holy Cow!!!  I have been so busy getting to know my kids and learning the second grade curriculum!  Second grade is soooo different than third grade, but I am loving it so far!  I am working on creating a few things that I wanted to let you know about!  1. I had a request to create the Spin That Number game for numbers to 1,000.  I am hoping to have that done by tomorrow!  2.  I am also working on a morning work packet.  I have been using it in my class, and it has worked really well!  I can't wait to share it with you:)  Look for that next week! 

So I have a fun activity that I wanted to share with you. In math, we have been review place value concepts.  I finished the unit today with one of my favorite activities that I do with my kids each year. A lot of teachers that I work with use this activity, and they always turn out so cute.   I did not come up with this idea, and I'm not sure where it came from, but it would be so simple to recreate if you wanted to! The only materials that you need are paper base ten blocks and construction paper! 

The students use paper base ten blocks to create a base ten creature.  Then, they find the value of their creature, write the value in word form, and then write the value in expanded form.  Here are two examples that my kids did today!  I love seeing how creative they get:) 

 



 

Well, that's about it for now! I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend:) Have a wonderful week! 

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