Five for Friday...so glad it's Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week to share my Five for Friday.  Life has been busy and wonderful around here and I couldn't think of a better way to share all the latest!

1.  Last weekend the hubs and I went to my beloved alma mater for a basketball game. I realize I'm a bit biased, but I truly don't believe there are many places better than Allen Fieldhouse on game day.  Right before the game started and we headed to our seats, big Jay walked right up to me to pose for a picture... and who's going to turn that big guy down?  We had a fantastic time and, of course, a big KU victory at home!

2.  Speaking of Kansas... Kansas Day is coming up on January 29th, so we have been working on Kansas symbols in Kindergarten.

My mind was blown last year when a new co-worker moved in from out of state and informed me that not all states go crazy over their birthdays the way Kansas does, but, well, that's just how we do it around here!   Probably one of the cutest conversations I heard this week went like this:

Me: Ok kiddos, who remembers our state bird? (and, of course, several shout out)

Student 1: Bald Eagle!
Student 2: The Jayhawk! (clearly earning extra credit)
Student 3: Hummingbird!
Student 4:  (scrunching up face and thinking really hard) I know it starts with M... um... Mummingbird?

I was just tickled!  He was trying so hard to remember!  FYI, the correct answer is Meadowlark.  You know, in case you ever find yourself on a game show about to win a ton of money and they throw a little Kansas trivia your way.  Just don't forget to share the winnings!

3.  The weather in good ol' Kansas is finally starting to warm up to above freezing temperatures, but we have had our fair share of snow lately (which also means our fair share of indoor recesses).  Rather than hate it, we embraced it in sweet room sixteen!  Snowmen are everywhere!

Inspired by the wonderful and talented Cara Carroll, we did two snowmen crafts this week.

After reading the book Snowmen at Night by Carolyn Buehner, the kiddos began brainstorming what the would do if they were snowmen alive at night to do whatever they wanted.  Their responses were precious!  These were two of my favorites:

Read 100 books

Go to the wedding dance

I made my own number stories to go along with our math lessons this week (see Five for Friday #4) and was very pleased at how the students were able to solve the problems independently.  I think they are truly grasping how to make ten!  If you'd like a copy of your own, click the here for a free download!

4.  We hit a milestone this week in math:  Making 10.  We have been working on understanding addition and number sentences lately, so this week we had some fun with all the different ways we can make ten.

Inspired by A Cupcake for the Teacher, I helped the students see all the different ways to make ten with our Rainbow to 10 anchor chart.  I don't know if it was all the colors or the fact I busted out the smelly markers, but my students loved this chart!  Luckily for me, A Cupcake for the Teacher also posted a freebie for the little ones to make their own Rainbow to 10 to keep.  I had them leave it in their work folders this week to refer back to in different lessons, but sometimes I find my little learners just admiring their math masterpiece!

We just couldn't quite leave our sweet snowmen out of math this week, so we made these awesome ten frame books by The 2 Teaching Divas.

5.  As wonderful as this past week was, I think I saved the best for last.

I can barely type this I'm so excited.

Remember my inspiration for my snowmen craftivities (and a gazillion other lessons I've taught throughout my career)?

I get to meet her!

My principal approved my request to attend the SDE Conference for Kansas Kindergarten Teachers and Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade is presenting!  I'm beyond elated to get even more ideas from her!  

How was your week?  I'd love to know!  

Have a wonderful and amazing weekend!

-Liz

Favorite Spots in My Classroom and A Freebie (just because it's Monday!)

I'm linking up with Flying Into First Grade's "Let's Get Acquainted" party again!  This week's theme is to share our three favorite areas in our classrooms!

1.  My calendar board

I think this area is special to me for many reasons.  Our morning meetings are centered around this calendar board, and that is one of my favorite times with the kiddos as we share about ourselves.  As much as I love teaching, it's also so worthwhile to take a little time to truly get to know my little ones.  I also feel proud of this board because I spent a summer painting (yes painting!) all of my bulletin boards.  This bright blue took forever to go on just right, but in the end it was worth it! (can you say buh-bye to trying to make huge butcher paper fit perfectly?!)  I think having a calendar board like this one is also an excellent resource for students to use for math, science, reading and everything else!

2.  "Watch Us Grow" board:

My classroom door is settled back into a nice little nook and I can decorate both sides of my "doorway".  My mom also happens to be a first grade teacher (I swear, teaching is genetic!) and I always admired this idea that she does every year with her classroom.  Each month, I pose the kiddos to take a class photo and display them as we go through the school year, with the month written at the bottom.  It's so fun to be able to see how the kiddos change from August to May!  They also feel quite grown up when they look back on how many teeth they have lost since then and how awesome their newest haircuts look now :)

3.  My Art Museum

While this may not be anything I created personally, it is one of my favorite parts of my classroom.  Whenever I'm feeing low or stressed, at some point in the day I can't help but catch one of these lovelies out of the corner of my eye and I remember why I do my job each day.  I think it's easy to sometimes get caught up in the overload of Common Core/Report Cards/IEP Meetings/Parent Conferences and while we don't forget why we teach, we may not see as much of the joy as we'd like.  These pieces of art bring me joy :)

Aaaaaand here is your freebie!

Just a simple addition dice roll, but prettied up for spring!  Students roll a die (or two dice, or my personal favorite, the double-die) and create an addition problem to write in the boxes.  Students may then count up the dots, use their number lines or mental math to solve.  For a challenge, I have my kiddos roll the die twice to get one addend (EX: Student rolls a five and then a four.  She writes nine in the first box).  This helps them practice more math facts up to adding 12.  You can print these out as worksheets, or you can put laminate them or put them in a page protector for the students to use over and over with dry erase markers.  Click the image to download!

Have a favorite spot in your classroom you want to share?  Link up here! Don't forget to follow or comment on the last two bloggers!  Enjoyed my freebie?  Let me know!  I love to hear from other teachers!

-Liz

Fractions are SWEET! (and a mini-freebie!)

This week we started studying fractions, and whoo-hoo are my babies loving it!  I'm so proud of them! We started with the basics of 1/2 and 1/4 fractions.  To help them physically see fractions in everyday objects, I treated each student to a graham cracker.  I gave the students a piece of construction paper that was creased in half and labeled on each side and challenged them to figure out how to put the exact same amount of graham cracker on each side.  I loved that some students broke their crackers the "short way" while some others broke theirs the "long way"!  We were able to discuss that both were correct forms of halves and that was because they both showed one piece out of two equal pieces.

Next, each student was given a piece of construction paper that was divided into fourths.  I asked the students to figure out how to divide their crackers so they had four equal pieces.  By now, we were really rolling!  Some of my budding mathematicians even made the connections that 2/4 was the same as 1/2! 

The next day, we reviewed what we knew about halves and fourths and then discussed thirds, fifths and sixths.  I explained to the students that any number could be the denominator as long as all the pieces were equal, but these are some of the most common fractions.  These would also be the fractions we would use in our Ice Cream Fraction Craftivity!

To make it fair and still ensure all students were understanding what different fractions were, I wrote the numbers 2-6 on scrap pieces of paper and put them in a bucket.  The students drew out a number and that became their denominator for their Ice Cream Fraction Craftivity.  

We then decided on the flavors of ice cream they could choose:

Pink - Strawberry

Green - Mint Chocolate Chip

Orange - Orange

Purple - Berry

Brown - Chocolate

White - Vanilla

Then I put them to work to make their fractions out of ice cream scoops (each scoop was an equal piece of the whole ice cream cone).  The kiddos were very thoughtful in their ice cream flavor selection and were mindful of what they wanted their fraction cones to look like. (I wonder if if they would be this thoughtful about all their classwork if I tied the lessons to desserts...)  After carefully cutting and assembling, each student wrote what his or her ice cream cone was made up of in terms of fractions.

Aren't these just so sweet??  (Haha, see what I did there? Sweet art work...sweet treat!)  We had so much fun working on these today and I know my little ones are understanding fractions quite well after our hands-on activities.

Want to make your own Ice Cream Fraction Craftivity?  Click here or the image below for your own copy of the recording sheet!
(font by Learning Tree/Kimberly Santana)

-Liz

Springing Into Math Centers and a Freebie!

As I write this, a nasty cold front is heading my way.  Like it's so nasty, that we are going from short sleeves and sandals today to coats and boots tomorrow.  However, I refuse to let winter crush my springtime spirits by sharing my latest Springtime Math Activities! 

Sorts, whether the word or number kind, are so student-friendly.  I can easily see if they understand the concept without having to spend a lot of time giving instructions.  

I loved creating this Rainbow Fact Families sort!  I think it turned out to be quite cute and it can be used with the number cards to place on the mats as a sort OR you can laminate the Rainbow Fact Family mat and have the students simply write the numbers with a dry erase marker before recording them on the worksheet.

My students this year often need reinforcement with number order, so I like using "greater than/less than" activities to help them to recognize numbers and understand the value of numbers in the tens and ones places. 

 

Ah, I feel spring coming back to me through these math activities!  To download previews or snag the whole activity pack, visit my TPT store.  For just a little fun spring math practice, here is a Missing Number Addition worksheet!  Click the image to download for your own springtime kiddos :)

-Liz

Spring Things

I'm hesitant to say this.

I don't want to jinx anything.

But... it's finally starting to feel like spring again around here!  The snow has melted!  The sun is out!  I didn't even need a jacket outside!

Naturally, it was the perfect time to do some spring activities in first grade.

First up was our math lesson about symmetry.  We found things around the classroom that had a line of symmetry.  We thought of things on the playground that could have symmetry.  We discussed why certain objects may look alike, but are not symmetrical.  But seriously, what better way to teach students about symmetry during the spring that to make butterflies?!  

I traced the pattern on construction paper for them (to avoid the "accidentally traced on the edges instead of the fold and now I have two pieces" scenario).  The students cut out the butterflies and then in small groups I called them to use my Paint Dots to decorate only one half of the butterfly (because if we want it to be the exact same on the other side we can't decorate both or they'd look kinda different, Ms. Fowler!).  I've done this before with regular paint and brushes, but this was a little more controlled.  My only suggestion is to MOVE QUICKLY and be ready to squeeze a little extra paint out so that it will transfer to the other side when you fold the butterfly in half.  

I let the students fold over their butterfly and press down all over so the paint would transfer, but for a few I had to "touch up" because the paint was too light.  Usually I don't like to intervene with student art, but I did want them to understand that if an object is symmetrical, it needs to be the exact same on both sides.  I think these turned out pretty cute :)

Another activity we did was simple and fun and is actually two games in one!  On plastic Easter Eggs, I  wrote addition problems in permanent marker, with the addends on one half of the egg and the sum on the other half.  For the first activity, I split the eggs up and gave each student one half.  They had to find the student who had the missing part of their math problem and match up their egg halves to make the equation true.  Because I purposely had more than one egg with the same answer, the students could not rely solely on matching the egg colors.  Once they found a correct match, the students held their egg in the air and waited until everyone was matched and we could mix it up again.  

The second activity was in the form of Quiz-Quiz-Trade.  I gave each student a full egg and had them turn the halves so the answer was not visible when they read the addition problem.  We play Quiz-Quiz-Trade all the time using cards, so the students LOVED using eggs to jazz things up a bit!  

The students mixed (and they know to do this silently) and partnered up with the closest student near them.  Student A showed the addition problem to Student B.  Student B answered it correctly (way to go! says Student A) and then Student B shows Student A the addition problem on her egg.  Student A answers correctly (you're awesome! says Student B) and they trade eggs, only to partner up with another student.  I have found this is a good activity for 5 to 10 minutes or self-control tends to be forgotten :)

Do you have any creative spring math or reading activities?  I'd love to hear about them!

Heading out to enjoy the fresh air,

Liz

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like March Madness!

I love July because it's my birthday month.

I love December because of Christmas and holiday cheer.

But I LOVE March because of March Madness.  And Spring Break.  Since March Madness usually starts at the same time as Spring Break does around here, I get a nice bundle of fun all at once!

My students all know what a huge Kansas Jayhawk fan I am and how excited I am when my team wins, so I try to keep a basketball theme going throughout the classroom during this wonderful month.  I decided this year to try to incorporate the activities we do into one collection to share with other teachers (hey, I don't want to be the only one celebrating March Madness!).  I loved working on this packet and cannot wait to share it with my little ones this week!  Click any of the activities below or click here to get your own packet of March Madness FUN!

Students can "play" basketball and sort the basketball cards onto the even and odd sides of the court.  Once they have sorted the cards, they record their answers on the printout that is included in this packet.

There are 14 pairs of compound words in this memory game.  Students can play by traditional Memory Game rules or these cards could even be used as flashcards in a small group.

These worksheets are fun ways to practice greater than/less than and ABC order.  I find that these activities are PERFECT for morning bell work!

To share some of my love, I have taken this activity sheet from my March Madness packet to share with you as a FREEBIE!  Click here or click the picture to download your freebie and enjoy!