Math Story Problem Book and a GIVEAWAY!

Hey friends! I hope everyone has had a wonderful and super relaxing break. I've been out since the beginning of December (I LOVE teaching year round!) so I'm the epitomy of relaxed right now. :)

When I first started my blog I posted about my math games, one of my favorite things! Many people asked for a copy of my story problem book. I have actually revised it and made it so much better into a complete pack that will really get your kids writing and solving story problems.

So here it is, my very first product on Teachers Pay Teachers - Math Story Problem Book

I would be so honored if it you would check it out! It's been a long, arduous process but I'm so happy with how it turned out! 

If you had told me a few years ago that I would start a teaching blog and then make products to sell I would NOT have believed you. These past couple years have been such a learning process for me! I am always so pleasantly surprised at how kind and wonderful everyone in the teacher bloggy community is. You guys truly do rock!

Because you rock so much I am going to do a giveaway of the Math Story Problem book. All you have to do is use the Rafflecopter widget below. You can get up to 5 entries. Enter by Friday the 4th at midnight. I'll announce the winner on Saturday. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One of the entries is to tell me what your favorite Christmas present was. I would love for you to leave it in a comment as well. Mine was my Kindle Paperwhite. I've been a reading machine ever since I got it!

Money, Money, Money

Anyone else singing the song when they read that title? Ok, good! :)

The other day at Staple's I found this play money and coins in their dollar section. Add to that I was using the "everything in this bag is 15% off" deal and I was super excited! I bought a few packs of each.

Today I felt inspired to create some money themed games for my kiddos. I don't currently have any money games out in my math games except for a set of flashcards. I decided to use one set of the coins to make a kaboom game. All I did was hot glue some coins to popsicle sticks.

I also wrote "Kaboom" on about 5 sticks.

Then all of the sticks went face down into a pringles can that i cut down to size. The game is super easy to play. (There are lots of Kaboom games out there in bloggy land.) Kids play in groups of 2-4. When it's your turn you pull out a stick. You add the coin values and tell the amount. If your partner or group members agree with you, you get to keep the stick. If you pull a Kaboom stick you have to put all of your sticks back in the cup. :(

I added some scrapbook paper and a fancy little label and voila, math game success!

I also made my very first, I made it math game!!! Yay me! It's called Show Me the Money and involves the kids using plastic coins to show how they would "buy" items. I got the idea from the Debbie Diller Math book. I just wanted a prettier recording sheet than the one in her book :)

To download the show me the money recording sheet, click HERE.

To download the show me the money directions, click HERE.

I'm happy to share these as a freebie with everyone but I do love comments and followers. :) Enjoy!

Math Games!

This year I have started doing math games 3 times a week while I work with small groups. I have been wanting to start something like this for a while but couldn't seem to figure out how to make it work. I can't do math rotations for my entire time but my math time backs up to my team time/intervention time so I have my kiddos do math games while I work with a group of students.

I needed a good way to organize all of the materials. I used extra book baskets and made labels for them. I store the bins on a rolling cart that can be taken apart. I've had it for college and used it for storing things at school and home. The great part is that it rolls! I can't really have things in permanent places since I have to pack up my classroom every 9 weeks.

When it's time for math rotations I simply roll the cart to the carpet so that the kids can simply grab the basket they need.

Game #1 - Pumpkin Poke Addition - A great FREE Teachers Pay Teachers find. The kids "poke" the correct pumpkin using a pencil and check the answer on the back. The correct answer has a green circle around the punched hole.

Game #2 - Power Towers - From Teacher Tipster. This is such a popular choice right now. After someone chooses Power Towers there is a big sigh of disappointment from everyone else. I need to make a subtraction one soon! I have my kiddos do this one on the carpet so it's quiet.

Game #3 - Hundreds Board - I found this cute activity from Christina Bainbridge. I have the kids roll a die onto the hundreds board and then write the number the die lands on in the middle square and then figure out what 10 less, 10 more, 1 less, and 1 more are and write them in.

Game #4 - Race to 100 - Great for practicing regrouping 10 ones for a 10 stick. I found this cute safari one on TPT from Primary Graffiti.

When I first introduced math game time to the kids I MODELED each and every game in front of them. Some of them they had played before, others were new. I chose students to model for the class how to play the games, clean them up, and put the bins back on the cart.

We also had a big talk about using a "whisper voice" during math game time just like during Read to Someone in Daily 5. I limit the number of students I allow to Read to Someone to 6 during Daily 5 but during math games every child is working with a partner so the volume can quickly increase. The first day we did math games it was NOT quiet. I was very frustrated as I tried to work with my small group.

The following day we reviewed using a whisper voice again and practiced touching our hands to our throats to feel vibrations. If you can't feel the vibrations of your vocal chords when you speak then you are whispering. My Aunt (a 5th grade teacher) taught me this one and I love it! They did SO much better that day. I also told them that my assistant would be looking for the quietest pair to give them 10 eagle bucks. I am so not above bribery.

Stay tuned to see the rest of my math games!