Math Games for the New School Year

My Math Games Posts Part 1 and Part 2 are some of my most visited posts on my blog. I love math games! My kiddos last year loved them too! They begged to do Math Games! I knew that I would need to reorganize my games for the new school year. It was one of those items on my to do list that was important but not quite as important as making name tags and planning for the first week.

So it got pushed back until after school started. One afternoon I went through my cart and pulled out the games that we won't use until later in the year and organized. Here's what the cart looks like now:

Our first unit for math is numbers in base ten/place value. So all of my games that are currently out are place value related. Here's what I have out currently:

Swinging Around the 100's and 200's Chart - Free on TPT from Fourth and Ten

Flash Cards - of course. Such an easy bin. I took out the time and money ones and just stuck with addition and subtraction. Dollar Tree has great flash cards.

Race to 100 - Free on TPT from Primary Graffiti

The ever popular Bump from Sunny Days - My kiddos love, love, love this game! For student led conferences last year they had to show their parents how to play one math game - this was a popular choice!

Addition Jenga - Picked up this original Jenga set at the flea market for $3 and then downloaded the free labels from Minds In Bloom. I printed the labels onto adhesive backed paper and then laminated it. Yep, you got that right - they were sticky and laminated! I wasn't sure if you could do that but it worked out great - I wanted the durability of laminating but didn't want to have to tape or glue each strip. 

The kiddos simply build the jenga cube as usual and then when they remove a piece they have to solve it. Simple, yet fun!

Place Value Bulls Eye from What The Teacher Wants - I think this is my personal favorite because it helps the kiddos practice expanded form and because it's so fun! It reminds me of skeeball - who doesn't love skeeball?

Slides and Ladders from First Grade a la Carte - To practice doubles facts! This isn't a place value game but addition is coming up next and this game is simple so I threw it in there. 

Last but certainly not least in my kiddos' eyes is Power Towers - They absolutely love this!  The original idea comes from Teacher Tipster. 

That's the beginning of the year line up. I've shown my kiddos the games and now we are beginning to practice playing them. They are already excited!

We Like to Move It!

It's already week 5 of the new school year for me! Phew! I'm loving my class!

For the past few weeks I have been teaching them greetings and activities for morning meeting. I've found some new ones thanks to pinterest, TPT, and bloggers. I've especially found a bunch that get us moving!

Here are some of our favorites!

 1. Cha Cha Slide - It's easy to follow, gets the kids moving, and is so much fun!

2. Get Funky - Another easy to follow, line dance type song. It gets stuck in your head easily!

3. Stomp, Stomp Clap

4. Cupid Shuffle - Yep, that's right we're shuffling. I think it's great practice of the ordinal words "left" and "right". So many of my kiddos still get those confused!

5. Jump Up, Bend Down - Haven't tried this one yet but I think it will be a winner!

I've been using these, along with the brain breaks from 3rd Grade Thoughts to keep us moving and thinking. The kids are loving them! Sometimes I'll even get a "Miss R, I think our brains need a break!"
I use my CD player and my projector to show these and it works great!

Marker Management

Today I have a quick management tip to share. I have my students use whiteboards and dry erase markers very frequently in math. I try to be very strict about keeping the boards in their lap, no doodling, following along, etc. But I still have kids who are drawing and rolling their markers on the board or throwing it around in their hands. I was starting to get frustrated last week when I realized that I needed a good motivator to reinforce whiteboard and marker procedures.

My solution is something super simple but effective!

I had some very kind parents donate colored dry erase markers - I'm talking neon, primary and more. All sorts of colors.

 My kiddos each have a black dry erase marker in their pencil boxes. I told them at the beginning of a whiteboard math time that I would be looking to see who was using their board and marker correctly. At the end of math I would pick the one person who I thought did the best job of participating while showing the correct procedures. That person would get to pick a colored marker to use for the next whiteboard math time. They would get to use it for that entire time and at the end they would return it and I would pick someone else to choose a color.

 You would have thought I was giving away a trip to an amusement park - they were so excited!

It's the small things folks! :)

Also be sure to check out my guest post over at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher. Amber is a dear bloggy friend of mine and she has so many great ideas! I posted about how I'm using "math bins" in my classroom.

And for all of you who are gearing up for a new year - I feel for you! I have been back for 4 weeks already. I love meeting my new kiddos but I even more love getting into a routine. :)

I Made It: The Student Tracker Board

I got a lot of comments on my last post about this lovely board I made for my classroom:

Ok so I totally got this idea from Pinterest but I can't find the pin now! Aaaggh! So if you pinned this originally please let me know so I can give you credit!

Here's my quick and easy tutorial!

Materials Needed:
- cookie sheet (I got mine at walmart but you could use a dollar store one too)
- round magnets (again from walmart, they come in a pack of 50)
- hot glue gun and sticks
- pretty ribbon
- cardstock or labels printed with "In the Room" and your destinations
- cardstock printed with numbers or names

1. I printed all my labels. I used publisher to make the circles with numbers and painstakingly cut them out.
2. I glued magnets to the back of each number.
3. I glued a ribbon to the top and then the "In the Room" label.
4. I put all my numbers on the board to make sure I would have enough room for them.
5. I glued the rest of the ribbon and labels to make the remaining sections/destinations.

The awesome thing is I never had to explain this to my kiddos! They saw it and just started moving their numbers down when they left the room. In case you are wondering Mr. H is one of our resource teachers that some of my students see and VI stands for our Visually Impaired department.

I hope you enjoy!

Back To School

Yep, I'm already back to school for a new year! In year round we start our new school year in beginning of July. But before you start to feel sorry for me remember that I just had 4 weeks off which is one week longer than my usual 3 weeks. It was fantastic!

I don't even know where to start with this blog - so many ideas, so many great things I've found, phew! Also I took pictures of my classroom at the end of my last workday but they were taken with my phone and are no good. Boo that! So instead I'll share some things I'm loving so far about this year:

1. I'm loving Whole Brain Teaching. Yep I've joined the WBT bandwagon! I did my research over my break and watched a ton of youtube videos. So far it's going great! Class? Yes! is such an easy and quick way to get my kids attention and they are loving the scoreboard. I'm also loving mirror and teach okay. I feel already that my lessons are becoming much more interactive and engaging. The kids are gesturing, talking, and moving. It's awesome! I still feel like I have a lot to learn with WBT but I'm taking it slowly with my comfort level. One of my favorite examples of WBT is this video below. I love how engaged her students are but how it's not a LOUD screaming classroom. I can't handle that!

2. I'm loving the new school supplies. Anyone else have to seriously avoid the back to school section at target and walmart? If I go there I WILL find something and I WILL think of a reason I must have it!

I made this little "Where Am I?" board after seeing it on Pinterest here. Love it! 

3. A little more sleep! My school is starting 45 minutes later this year. While this means my afternoons seem to stretch on a bit more I'm liking the mornings. I'm still getting to school way before I have to be there but I'm getting a bit more sleep and having some quiet time in my classroom in the morning to get things done!

4. Pinterest - Goodness gracious I was pinning it up over break. Even at the beach on vacation! If you aren't following me on Pinterest you should - especially my "Beginning of the Year" board. Lots of great ideas - many that I have already used!

5. Blog world! Seriously YOU all rock! I have found so many awesome ideas from YOU! Also I love the blog comments! Sorry that I definitely not the best blogger ever about posting frequently but thank you to those of you who stick around and share some love!

Open House & Getting Organized

A few weeks ago I had Open House for the upcoming school year. I know it seems early but my "track" has ours early right before we track out. Pinterest inspired me this year to try some new things for Open House. Our Open House is basically a Meet the Teacher night where parents and kids stop by, meet their child's new teacher, check out the classroom and get a supply list/information for the new year.

The weekend before Open House I was a busy bee at home making some things. I made my coworker and I new signs with our names on them. I am in LOVE with the dots on turquoise/paisley decorations. This poster was clipped to my easel and put in the hallway to let parents know which room I am in.

 I saw a glow stick idea on pinterest and made a quick little note to go with it. 

 I was so excited about my wish list/giving tree. I put it up on the door and actually even made it look like a tree. Only problem was NO ONE SAW IT. Since the door was open and people were constantly coming in and out no one really saw the door and I was so slammed meeting parents I didn't have a chance to direct them towards it. I was kind of disappointed in that I didn't think it through but oh well I saved the apples to have out at parent night.

 Here are my student information folders. They contain a letter to the parents, a letter to the students, a supply list and information for the parents to fill out and send back the first week of school.

I also have the parents stop and write a little encouraging note to their child. I call them "shine on notes". I put them on each child's desk on the first day of school. The kids love them!

While I was on the creating kick I decided to work on a few organizational things as well. I use plastic drawers to organize papers. I simply added some paisely border behind them and they look so much cuter!

 And I had to make the teacher toolbox from Create Teach Share. It's perfect since I try not to store these things in my desk drawer since I have to move every 9 weeks.

I can't believe I'm already planning and organizing for the new school year! 

Why I Change Classrooms

A few people have asked why I have to move classrooms every 9 weeks. The answer is that I teach in a year round school. Let me explain:

- I still teach 10 months out of the year but those 10 months are spread out over the year. I do not have a long summer break.
- Typically I teach for 9 weeks and then have 3 weeks off. That means I get a break in each season!
- There are 4 different schedules in our year round system. Each schedule is called a track.
- Only 3 tracks are "in" at a time. There is always one track that is "tracked out". For example - Tracks 1, 3, 4 may be tracked in and track 2 is on break for 3 weeks.
- Because only 3 tracks are in the school building at a time, the school is designed to only fit 3 tracks. This allows there to be more students enrolled in the school than the building's capacity allows.
-In second grade there are 8 teachers/classes but only 6 teachers/classes are tracked in at a time. This is why we have to move - when you are tracked out you do not have a classroom!

It may sound complicated but once you get used to it all it's pretty simple. As a teacher I LOVE teaching year round. I love having breaks in each season. I love having breaks more frequently. It really cuts down on teacher burn out.

One disadvantage is that when I set up my classroom it's only for 9 weeks. I don't put up near as much things on my walls as the typical teacher probably does. At first this bothered me but honestly I like it now. I only put things on the walls that have a purpose. I don't have cutesy bulletin boards but I do put up student work and anchor charts. As year round teachers we also tend to be super organized - because we have to be! We all have 2 large rolling carts that we store our materials in. When it's time to track out the carts are moved to storage. As a grade level we have many items that stay in the rooms so we don't have to move them around.

This is my little cart - full of craft supplies, manipulatives, workbooks, tissues, pencils and SO much more!

I always store my large cart behind my desk because it houses my teacher manuals and resources that I use frequently. In this picture I have containers stacked on top of my cart because I took this right before I tracked out - so I was packing up!

Year round is definitely a different kind of teaching, but I've found that it's just right for me!