Michael Recycle and Earth Day math!

Earth Day is almost here! I thought about this one day as I was recycling my milk jugs and water bottles. I thought these caps could be used as good math manipulatives! IDEA sparks shooting out everywhere....then dollar store trip. I made two math stations to use with my Michael Recycle lieracy unit.  I couldn't stop there so I made 5 math journal word problems....my students LOVED these! I really enjoy using literature as my hook....what do you use to get your students engaged?

First, I collect so many caps....whoa that's a lot! 

This  math station is using part part whole stragegy. I used, or should I say, reused water bottle caps as counters...amazing results with my struggling math students. 

 Here are the containers I purchased for these stations...which I will reuse for other stations too:)

I really like this station....because it looks like real recycling bins.  I put out more caps for counters.  This was a favorite! you can see this math unit and my other Earth Day unit at my tpt store...just click the button or brose my store right from this blog :)

Thank you for stopping by! Happy Earth Day!

math for St. Patrick`s Day!

Top o`the morning to you!  I love teaching children how to love math. I was recently at the Dollar store for some inspiration and didn't see much for St. Patrick`s Day...but I did find foam shamrocks....yay! So then I went on over to Party City....that is the place ya`ll! I grabbed some erasers and some coins, more paper shamrocks,  and leprechaun pots....what a fun trip!

Then, I thought about the needs of my students and how each one would love to learn that lesson. I created an addition/subtraction game (which by the way I am giving away free on my teachers pay teachers store) 

My students enjoyed this game so much....I really like hands on learning and I have found in my years as an educator....that is the best way to engage a 6 to 7 year old into loving and learning math!

Here are some more hands on math I made for my students....LOVE IT!! 

I hope you enjoyed these ideas! I would love to hear about your ideas too! What exciting lessons do you create for math?

The Three Million Strong TPT Sale!!

3 Million----WOW!! Teachers Pay Teachers has made my instruction so much more exciting! Thank you to all the ladies and gentlemen for creating and designing hands on materials!! In honor of this great achievement, Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale----can I get a WOOT WOOT!! Please check out my store and all the TPT sellers' stores by clicking on the link below:)

Click the link below to see who else is throwing a sale:)
http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-three-million-strong-tpt-teacher.html

data notebooks

I am soooooo glad I finally decided to do data notebooks! They have made life very easy when it comes to keeping track of my firsties progress....or in a few cases....no progress. In those few cases (3 to be exact) I can then create a small reading group for those children and voilà...problem solved. I created my own data notebooks to use for my students and my team of teachers. You can find these at my teacher pay teachers store by clicking the tpt button :) Here's a few pics.

first we read a story. It might be from our reading series and/or a story of the week.

This week we used Go To Sleep Groundhog! I chose a response sheet that targeted the skills we are learning. These response sheets are super duper because they each (over 70) have the Common Core stander at the bottom for you to seeand record into their data notebooks. Plus it shows parents what their child is learning....love it!

Next...if they have mastered the skill I record it in their data notebook....or just highlight the standard...easy peasy!

for each standard they master, my students earn a colorful card on a ring. This way my students and their parents see the progress they are making. Yay!

please see my earlier post from June on how I put my notebooks together. It is aaesome fun to do! I love Michael's craft store so I went crazy putting mine together.

Thanks for visiting!

Groundhogs and puppies

Happy Groundhogs Day! My firsties are having a great time learning all about groundhogs and wood chucks. First we started our unit off with the cute book...Go To Sleep Groundhog! By Judy Cox. Since the Groundhog already came out of his burrow, we predicted if this groundhog would see his shadow or not. I read the story up to the point where he finally came out. They loved it!

Then we went to our workstations

For the rest of the week we will read other groundhog stories....

Here's some pics from my Puppy Time Pals Common CoreLiteracy Stations.

We read the story Fancy Nancy Puppy Party. It is amazing how engaged they were over these puppy dogs. We did puppy compounds and y sounds like e. Fun~fun~fun! Thanks for stopping by!

100th day and other winter activities

We are off to another busy week here in first grade.we are past 100 days and on our way to 2nd grade! I am so proud of all my firsties! They work so hard everyday! Our Fancy Nancy story this week is Fancy Nancy Puppy Party. So....I created a puppy packet to go along with our skills we are working on this week...long and short vowel sounds, compound words, and paw print read the room sight words. Check out some of the pics...

I will have this available on Teachers Pay Teachers in the next day or two. Here's some pics of my son's 100th day activity...they are having a fashion show of 100 things glued to a shirt or hat. We chose 100 googly eyes...25 of each size.

we had a lot of fun! have a great evening everyone!