Give me half! A fractions activity!

If there is any math topic I love to teach, fractions is it! I love to teach my firsties all about fractions!

This year I chose the book, Give Me Half written Stuart Murphy. It is about two siblings that have to share their lunch! My kids loved it!

After we read the book, we then applied what we learned! The kids were given either paper to make a chocolate chip cookie or paper to make a pizza. These are the two foods in the book. 

After they made their pizza or cookie, I then went around and whispered how they were to partition it. They were told to either partition it in half or into fourths!

Then they wrote about it!

Here is our wall!!

Frankenstein

My favorite thing to teach in October is Frankenstein!! I love Frankenstein day! Our whole day is focused on teaching the skills with this amazing character!! 

First let me share with you the shirt I made!!!

We read the book, Frank was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance! The kids loved it! 

Then we talked about adjectives and created our chart!

Then theybdidnandirected drawing activity and wrote about their friend Frank!

We did Frankenstein number lines in math! The First Grade Parade has an awesome Frankenstein Unit!!!

We ended the day with Frankenstein Pudding!!

STEM Made Teacher Friendly

How many of you love the idea of STEM but are nervous about what it will look like in your classroom? Scared about finding activities? Worried about getting the materials and about the cost of the materials?

Well, my teacherfriends, Carson Dellosa has done it again!!!! I love this company and all that it creates for teachers! I always have! But their STEM box is amazing!!!

They have created a group of STEM lessons just for us! This box has  30   Lessons ( 10 lessons for physical science, 10 lessons for life sciences and 10 lessons for earth science) and they are all for grades 2 to 5 but my first graders could do them with a little changing of the directions (a little more explanation or different vocabulary at times)! 

These lessons come on laminated cards with the visual list of materials needed on the front! All materials used are found in classrooms and schools so we do not have to go into debt to supply our kids what they need in order to complete these activities! The challenge is also listed on the front! These activities are kid friendly and can be used independently, small group or even whole group!! There is so much flexibility with this product!!! 

The cards are laminated for durability and on the back of each card are questions in each area to ask your students to extend their learning!!! There is also a little more information about the science behind the activity! 

I used these cards as whole group activities at first! I did this just to familiarize them with the cards and what my expectations were when they were completing them! After we did two as a whole group then I let them choose activities as a small group! Once I was comfortable with them completing them as a small group, I have put them out to use independently when they are done with their work. I also use them on science days as an activating strategy, the lesson or a science day wind up!

This stem kit is amazing and I highly recommend it for any Classroom! 

Subtraction with Pete the Cat

Subtraction is always such a difficult concept to teach my firsties. They seem to just be getting addition and then wham we hit them with subtraction. To some, subtraction is mind blowing!!

Kids at this age need multimodality activities and lots of practice to understand many of the concepts we are trying to teach them. I have found that with subtraction just reviewing and having them physically put things on and take things away ingrain into them what subtraction is. 

I am also a firm believer that children's literature is needed to introduce many of the skills we teach throughout the day. 

When I teach subtraction, I always introduce it using the book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons! I mean who doesn't love the books written by Eric  Litwin! 

After we listen to the story and we do a number talk, then we dive into subtracting. I made a Pete the Cat for each of them and they get a small container of buttons! This is where the fun begins! They go back to their seats and we just practice doing subtraction problems with our Pete the Cats!

If you notice there are no worksheets present. J do not believe in giving them worksheets when I am just introducing the topic. We are focusing on what is subtraction and how does subtraction look! They are acting it out and we are talking as they add buttons and take them away! They are practicing writing subtraction sentences on their desk next to their Pete the Cat and we are talking about the sentences they are writing as focusing on the difference! And yes, I make them use the vocabulary!

Going Back to School with Oriental Trading and Learn365

It is that time of year where all of us, teachers, are running around looking for all of those perfect things that wil help us complete out classroom for the new school year!

But there is one stop, we can make and it has everything! Even better we do not have  to leave our house!!! Oriental Trading has everything we need and even better they have a new site, Learn365! This site has so much curriculum and educational materials you will be on this site for hours!!! 

I love growth mindset and I love anything that will increase my kids self esteem as well as increase their belief in themselves!! So every year I make sure I have special test pencils and smartie beads!! 

Oriental Trading and Learn365

 have such an awesome  selection of pencils! You will surely find some to match your theme! I found these amazing mustache pencils! I mustache you to do your best on your test!!! 

These pencils increase their belief in themselves!!

They love to wear smartie beads! I used to use just plain beads but I found these amazing crayola dog tags that have inspiring words on them. Dream, Inspire, Create!!! I can't wait for them to wear their new smartie beads during assessments!

Speaking of growth mindset, I found these awesome fans for my ceiling that give my kids so many important messages!!

My focus this year, when  setting up my room was my math and number talks area! Oriental Trading and Learn365 have so many math items!!! I had a hard time choosing what to start with!!! I finally chose magnetic ten frames and math strategy posters!

The ten frames are a perfect size for my firsties to manipulate and see! The magnet sticks so well to my chalkboard! The colors are bright!

The math strategy posters are kid friendly! They have both words and pictures for the kids to see and understand the strategy! These are perfect for any math and number talk area!!!

The choices from Oriental Trading and Learn365 are endless and abundant! There is something for every teacher at these sites!!! Please check them out! You won't be sorry!!! 

Disclaimer: I was compensated for my post but these are my own opinions of the products I received!

Mentoring Minds

I was approached by this amazing company and was asked to write a blog post about them. I have to admit, I did not know much about them at the time but after their request, I did some research and got to review some of their materials and I liked what I saw. Their logo caught my eye!

Mentoring Minds is a company that is focused on student success. Their products are created with the student in mind. If you have any questions you can go to their website www.mentoringminds.com and go to their research tab. Here you will find the efficacy studies and the product research they conducted.

The items that I absolutely loved were the CCSS flip chart. They have these by grade level and I was impressed with all of the information in this chart and the good thing is it is all at your fingertips. There are several sections of the flip chart. Here are some photos of the kindergarten flip chart.

This a section that has RTI Strategies for all 3 tiers. In this section, there are also action steps listed for each tier. Then considerations to do before referring them to another tier or other options.

I loved the sections on CCSS for Math and ELA. All the standards at your fingertips. This is a very useful resource for teachers!

The one section that I have to admit blew me away was the Higher Order Thinking Section. This had question frames for all the domains. The power words are listed and It contains Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix and Curricular Examples! This combines the DOK (Depth of Knowledge) with Bloom's Taxonomy. This is so vital for teachers to insure that their lessons are rigorous! Then to even add more greatness to this section, it ends with a Differentiated Instruction Checklist! I am sorry but you can not get any better than that!

Here is a photo of the Differentiated Checklist!

I could go on and on about this one product but I have another one to talk about!

I also got to review the Math Vocabulary Cards. I was impressed with the wording. It is worded so that the students would understand and it also has an illustration with the definition. These cards come with a word play activity book.This book has a plethora of awesome ideas to do with word walls so it can be used with all words not just the vocabulary cards that it comes with. One game for example is Word Wall Baseball. This is a great way to get the boys involved.

Here are some pictures of the Vocab cards: 

But not only do they focus on learning, they also focus on behavior management! They have flip charts for this as well!

Mentoring Minds combines technology with print. The students can have both ways to learn the material. It is not worksheet based!

The Math and ELA programs are geared towards student success: Here are some links to get some additional information:

https://www.mentoringminds.com/products/subjects/math.html

https://www.mentoringminds.com/products/subjects/reading.html

Those are the two items that I previewed. They were at the ISTE 2015 conference in Philadelphia and they are enthusiastic and very knowledgable when it come to ways to improve student success.  

They have programs for both Math and ELA. They also have DOK wheels and many more awesome teacher resources. This is definitely a company you should look at when trying to find that just right resource for CCSS implementation.

Click on their logo below to go to their website!