As Earth Day approaches, I thought I'd share some exciting and educational activities that I plan use to celebrate this day with my students. The BEST part is that they are all PRINT AND GO! We are all so busy this time of year that I was so thrilled to open up my "April" binder and pull out these activities and add them to the copy bin! I am an outdoors person and I spend a LOT of time talking about my gardens and I used my love of gardening and hiking in a … [Read more...]
Extension Activities to Make Fractions More Fun
This month I wanted to share some ways that I make learning fractions more fun in my classroom! I have several activities that my students love to make during our small group time. I find that the more we practice in fun ways, the better my students learn and retain fractions skills. Real World Fraction Crafts: Fractions Greater Than One I created these food fraction activities out of necessity! Fractions greater than one ONLY make sense if … [Read more...]
Read Across America Week
This past week we celebrated Read Across America week like many elementary schools around the country. We put our own spin on it and included some really diverse texts. Some of the books we read were books on inclusion of others and kindness. We were also learning about different rights and responsibilities of citizens so we incorporated some deeper texts as well. We put out a flier for our students that included a week of simple activities that we would … [Read more...]
8 Things You Should be Doing In March
February is on its way out, so I am starting to think about what we are going to be doing for the upcoming month. It seems wild to be thinking about March already, but it is just a few days away. Here are some of the things that I pulled to get ready for St. Patrick's Day. Area Houses These area houses make a great craft during my small group time. It really is "Print and Go," even though it looks like it might involve some prep. You can read more about … [Read more...]
Perimeter Person (with a FREEBIE)
We are [FRANTICALLY] trying to get through our math units before the SBAC testing begins in a few weeks! I don't know about you, but we have had 11 snow days this year! That is crazy and it has lead to very fragmented instruction. We just finished up our unit on perimeter and are just starting to dip our toes into the "fraction pool." We wanted to find a fun activity to have our students do for Maker's Monday this week, … [Read more...]
Maker’s Monday: Gingerbread House Fact Families
Maker's Monday this week was the perfect blend! Multiplication and division fact families, easy to assemble art work, and a quick holiday bulletin board made for a great morning. Normally Monday mornings bring in kids bummed that the weekend is over, but ever since instituting Maker's Monday, kids come bouncing in and immediately read the SmartBoard in order to find out what they will be making for morning work. They nearly … [Read more...]