Teachers Are Heroes

Hey Y'all! It's hard to believe that we are winding down the last few days of February and only 9 days until SPRING BREAK! Every single teacher out there can appreciate that :) Just the other day, I had heart palpitations thinking about the number of instructional days left until our test. Hard to believe that my first full year is flying so fast. Anyway, TPT has saved me this year and I really don't know what I would do without it. This community has changed my way of teaching and I couldn't be happier with everything I've learned through my many blogging/TPT buddies. I read an article the other day that really upset me. "Teachers don't work hard, we have summers and winter break off..." The list goes on and on. Until you have been a teacher, it is hard to fathom the amount of work we actually put in. I could not have survived this year with the wonderful resources that I've found on TPT so I am excited to give back during the Teachers are Heroes sale. 

So I have linked my with my fellow Texas teacher, Stephanie, from Mrs D's Corner to share what I have in my cart. 

So we use our notebooks almost every day in math. I own nearly every interactive notebook from Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher so my notebooks ROCK! My kids love working in their notebooks and are always 100% engaged. I am excited to add the Fractions Interactive Notebook to my toolbox while we continue to review for our STAAR test. Seriously, once you get one ITNB, you will want them all. 

I love all things task cards! I use them in centers, as scoot activities, and even in small groups. We are currently working on Area & Perimeter and I have my eye on this Perimeter & Area Pirate Task Card Bundle from Debbi at The 3rd Grade Pad.

I love EVERYTHING from Jessica Hursh's Store! Her math centers are phenomenal. This time unit is no exception and I plan to use every bit of it during our time unit! I've had this on my wish list for some time and I am so excited to finally call it mine, and just in time to teach time before spring break. 

With the STAAR test just around the corner, I am so glad to find resources aligned perfectly to my standards, the TEKS. These test prep centers from the Science Penguin will supplement our review perfectly. I am excited to put them in centers as review before the big day. 

This set from Blair Turner is going to fit well into my math centers. I love that it includes multiplication and division fact practice as well as rounding in a fun way. I ALWAYS need new things to incorporate into centers and tutoring!

Last, but not least, is this adorable Math Kidletts set from Melonheadz! I am addicted to clip art and since I am a math teacher, this just seems like a logical purchase. Seriously, these are so adorable! I cannot wait to create some fun resources with this set. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out whats in my cart! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Classifying Shapes Yo

We are in the thick of our Geometry Unit and I am so excited to share this activity with y'all! 

We use Go Math as a curriculum and YUCK!  I mean, I love it! *hint of sarcasm* 

We are working on classifying 2-D shapes so I took an idea from the textbook and made it engaging and hands on! Why do an activity on a piece of paper when they can hold the shapes in their hand and place them in a giant Venn Diagram?! DUH! My kids and I prefer hands on.

We started by creating this anchor chart that I found on Pinterest. This really made sorting figures so much easier. 

Then I busted out my giant Venn Diagram and we talk about what shapes go where. We started with Rectangles & Rhombuses because that solidified our talk about Parallelograms. 

EVERY SINGLE KID WAS ENGAGED AND PARTICIPATING! This activity came almost straight from the book, and I guarantee it wouldn't have gone as well on paper. 

We changed out the categories and sorted more figures based on different attributes. We also did a triple diagram not shown as an extension.

After sorting, we played Quadrilateral Parking Lot from Blair Turner's Quadrilateral Card Game Pack. I swear, I use the quadrilateral cards for everything. They rocked this game after classifying shapes. I was pleasantly surprised. 

I walked out of my classroom yesterday feeling more accomplished than I've ever felt in one day! I'm talking, driving home so tired I thought my eyes were gonna pop out. 

Click HERE to grab this entire activity FREE! If you love it, PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK! It is only free for a limited amount of time!

Getting the hang of this!

I am back again, twice in one month. I think I am finally getting the hang of this!

I am so excited to share with you some things that have been going on in my classroom this week as we finish up our review unit on all operations and start geometry!

I was really intimidated by the thought of teaching geometry and I must say, I am still not 100% sure that I truly know what I am talking about most of the time, but we will get there. I think I say "next year is going to be so much better" at least twice a day. Anyone else do this?

Anyway, I introduced geometry with a sort using Blair Turner's Quadrilateral Card Games. There is a set of quadrilateral cards that made this a breeze. I cannot wait to use the games in centers as review. I of course didn't snap a picture of the different ways my kids chose to sort these cards. From color, to size and a few smarties, by shape!

We then began talking about parallel lines and angles. First, we walked on the tiles staying on parallel lines and talked about how our feet will never meet as long as we stay on those lines. Someone made the connection to a train, PERFECT! This is where I introduced my Geometry Lapbook. I was thrilled to see that our discussion made parallel lines very easy for them to grasp. They were running all over the room trying to find every set of parallel lines. 

Then we went onto angles. I played this Angle Song and we talked about lines, endpoints, and when combined to make a polygon, they form angles. By the end of the period, they were singing along! I think next week, we will solidify our angle and parallel lines lesson with a little project involving toothpicks and marshmallows. 

Finally, we went into the different types of Quadrilaterals with our flapbook and re-sorted the cards from before into categories that matched our flapbook. 

We have ALOT of work to do before we master quadrilaterals BUT I imagine the games Blair created will help with that tremendously. Anyway, stay tuned for more Geometry fun next week as we begin to explore 3-D shapes!!

Whoa February & Unknown Numbers

It's February ya'll! February is one of my favorite months because it's my birthday month and it reminds me of childhood parties filled with lots of red and pink hearts! Growing up, mom would NEVER let me choose a theme. My birthday is a few days after Valentines Day and I somehow always had a heart party. Now I LOVE EVERYTHING VALENTINES DAY AND HEARTS!! Thanks mom!

Anyway, I started this blog to share the awesome things that I have going on in my classroom and this month is no exception. Currently, we are buckling down and getting ready for STAAR. However, I am so anti-worksheets/anything to do with the curriculum textbook. Hence where most of my products are born. 

A few nights ago I was contemplating on how I am going to teach my baby 3rd graders unknown numbers in equations. When I was in 6th grade, we called this ALGEBRA! How in the world did this end up in 3rd grade? Does the state of Texas realize these kids are 8?! Not to mention, most of them still play with dolls and legos. Anyone with me here?

So I came up with a wonderful idea and Round Up The Unknown # was born! We started with the activity! I teach two groups of kids and I taught and used the activity two different ways because of their levels. 

Here are a few kids doing the activity. They used what they know about multiplication and division to come up with the unknown numbers. They wrote all related multiplication and division facts on their white boards. They love doing anything with markers and white boards. WIN WIN!

After we did the activity, we worked in pairs on the task cards! The first set is simple division and multiplication equations. The second set is a bit more difficult but they got the hang of it pretty quick in small group. 

Several of my students are still struggling with multiplication facts so they learned to make multiplication towers and this made the entire activity a BREEZE!

It makes my teacher heart so happy when I hear kids saying "YES! I had it right!" when they get the answer right. Kids that usually don't feel much success in the classroom. I am doing something right. I am completely in love with the way I've adapted my teaching for these kids!

You can find this activity and many others in my TPT store! Go now, I am having a 50% sale! 

Stay tuned for more math fun!