Showing posts with label Math. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Math. Show all posts

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Polar Bear Fun!

I love teaching students how to gather information from non-fiction books.  One of my favorite ways to do this is by learning about animals.  Polar Bears are the perfect animal to learn about in winter. Here are some of the activities we did in my classroom and in the home school setting.
  
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First, you have to gather some non-fiction books from your school or local library.  You can also find information ALL over the internet.  Just google kid friendly videos on _____ (whatever you are studying).

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Then, I like to use tree maps to help them organize what they learned.  These also help them learn how to write a paragraph or a couple sentences and stay on topic.

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It's also really nice when your Scholastic reader just happens to be on the same topic! haha

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Then, we have to do a craft!  But, to justify it, we use it to display our informational writing. 

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I also love to do thematic math journals.  This pic came from a TK class.  She doesn't do math journals but she uses my prompts on construction paper.  This little friend made theirs 3D-- I seriously LOVE the creativity!!!

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We practice polar bear sentences.  These can be used in a pocket chart or just like this mom did for home school.

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Searching for Letters.

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Practicing some Polar Bear addition.

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Last but not least, the science experiment!
How in the world do Polar Bears not freeze?!?!

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Because of all that blubber!
Kids love this experiment.  It can be placed in their science journals or simply filled out and sent home.

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 You can find all of these fun activities in my Polar Bear unit!

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Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Learning is snow much fun!

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Ok.. so maybe it's not the only reason...

All joking aside.. (maybe) I recently saw a status on fb where someone was complaining that teachers get out of school for a cold day.. Well, I live in TN and we are not prepared for 4 degree weather. So I simply commented (very nicely) that a 5 year old should not be waiting for the bus or walking to a bus stop in the weather, etc.. AND of course some of the buses in one county didn't start because of the cold but that's an entirely different but valid reason not to have school.  Thankfully, a teacher much older than me gave her two sense and it was pretty hilarious to read!

Anyway, I'm off my tangent.. I like every season for different reasons.. but I figure if it's going to be freezing cold then we should see some snow!  We've only had 1 day of snow, so I'm hoping for my teacher friends to see a bit more. 

I recently went to visit a family using my Kindergarten Home School Curriculum and snapped a few pictures.  It was snowman week in their house!

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Snowman Syllable Flip Book

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I recently updated my Snowman Math & Literacy Center unit.  This sight word reader was one of the additions.

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They played a fun game called Snowman Fair Share.  She had to determine if the numbers were greater than. less than or equal to each other.

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Of course we practice color words all year long!
My kiddos always loved these magnifying glass searches.

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Winter I Spy: A counting math center

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Math Journal Prompts (of course)

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Falling Snow: this is an addition dice game.

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A Snowman tree map to help organize their writing.

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Winter Words: practicing those CVC words.

You can find all of these activities in my Snowman Math & Literacy Center for the classroom.  BUT if you are a home school parent, these are all included in my January Home School Curriculum.

Click either picture to check them out!

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Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Interactive Math Journals for Pre-K

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I am so excited to announce that I FINALLY finished another Interactive Journal set, and this time it's for your little Pre-K Mathematicians!!!  

I have included prompts to match every Pre-K Math Standard.
There are also so many different levels of each prompt.  I did this for many reasons.  1.  You can build on their learning.  2.  You can differentiate their math journals.  3.  Math Journals are the perfect documentation for learning!

Here are just a few examples of the prompts included:

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Think you might want to try them out in your classroom???

If you aren't sure you want to invest in journals yet, use a piece of construction paper or copy paper.  Although, students take a lot of pride and ownership in their interactive journals.  I do not think you would be disappointed if you decided to jump on board!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Working with Teachers

This week I had the privileged to go into a few different teacher's classrooms and do a sample lesson with the Promethean Board.

I have not been trained by the company, but had a board in my own classroom for a little over 3 years.  I definitely DON'T know everything about these boards, but I truly enjoy creating engaging lesson plans and have a love for the school (MTCS)!

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One of the lessons I did was for the Kindergarten teachers.  I had two classes in the room at once, so I had to keep the lesson short and sweet.

They had been working on Pumpkins and numbers. So, I focused my lesson on comparing numbers.  If you have a Promethean Board and would like to have this flipchart, click the picture below.  Pretty please leave positive feedback if you download it.

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I also created a simple assessment so I could check for understanding, but also have a few minutes to talk to each teacher about some of the things I did in my flipchart, as well as answer any questions.

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Click the picture below to grab this freebie!

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I saw so many awesome things hanging on the walls at MTCS, but here are a few I had to snap a pic of!

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Is that not the cutest idea for rules ever?!?!?!?

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And the K classroom I was teaching in had this genius idea!
Stick sight words in baseball card page protectors and slide them in their take home folder. Love it!!!

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I saw some pretty awesome Pumpkin Projects!

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I love seeing KWL's for just about anything!!!

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And, this book was just adorable to hear.  Make sure to check it out (especially for teaching bible class or at a Christian School).

Have a wonderful and safe Halloween and Weekend!!!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Fun on the Farm!

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I just uploaded my newest classroom Fall unit.  I am so excited about it because it is very diverse and has some standards based craft projects inside!

My favorite craft and writing activity is the Farmer!!!

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I found some great non-fiction books at my local library!

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After reading some of the books, we use the information we learned and fill in the tree maps on the farmer and animals.

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This song is hilarious and perfect to teach about what a farmer does and how it helps us! Click the picture to watch.

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Isn't he adorable?!?
There is a template to make a little book to attach to the farmer.
I always have my kids use the tree map to write a few sentences (especially early in the year & and even later when we work on paragraphs).

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There is also an animal research page that can be used for introducing each farm animal or used as homework.

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Syllable sorting page:

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Rhyming Page:

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Farm I spy (basically): perfect to practice counting & 1:1 correspondence.

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Beginning Sound Center:

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Farm Math Craft: I love getting in cutesy stuff that fits a standard! 

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There are so many other great resources in this pack!
Click the picture to check it out!!

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My daughter LOVES animals!! These were just a couple pictures taken at a fall festival.  We will be going to a farm very soon!

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Happy Fall Ya'll!