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!

Listen to Reading Grant

I am super duper excited to have won my very first grant! I have always thought that grant writing was hard and something I could never do until now. The Lee Brothers Sidekick Foundation gave me a grant to get some materials to use for Listen to Reading during Daily 5. Lee Brothers is a Tae Kwon Do studio that is near school and each year they offer grant money to schools in the area. I decided to apply and was thrilled that my project was accepted.

My main purchase with the grant money was 2 ipod shuffles. I can load books on CD onto these for the kids to listen to. It's better than a Listening Center because the shuffles are mobile and the kiddos can choose their own spot in the classroom. My classroom doesn't really have tons of space for a listening center anyways.

I also got some super cute headphones to go with the shuffles since I don't think that the ones that come with them (that go in your ear) are super sanitary for the kiddos to use and share. I got these from amazon.

I also purchased some books on CD from Scholastic to load onto the shuffles. I'm planning on having a few books on each shuffle and teaching the kids how to skip through the tracks and use Voice Over to find the right track. They're pretty technology savvy so it should work great!

Now I'm browsing and searching for more grants that I could apply for. We'll see what I find!

Elapsed Time Freebie

When we go back in January we'll be jumping right into our Time unit. During my planning days (during track out) I got all kinds of excited planning and making games and activities to use. I made a fun elapsed time game that includes Phineas & Ferb. My kiddos love Phineas & Ferb and I hear lots of quotes and stories about the show. It doesn't hurt that my roommate also loves the show. She works at the YMCA and they used it for one of their track out camp themes.

The game is pretty simple. To play the kiddos need a recording sheet, two dice, and a stack of activity cards. You need to make the dice using either blocks or by printing a die template onto cardstock. On one die put times like 4:00, 8:00, 5:30, etc (based on what your kids can tell time to) and then on the other put periods of time lik

e 1 hour, 2 hours, 30 minutes, etc. The goal of the game is to figure out the ending time. I put little Judy Clocks in each game set for the kiddos to use to help them. The activity cards are purely for fun but I think the kiddos will enjoy connecting an activity with a period of time. I can hear them going "What? It only took Phineas and Ferb 30 minutes to build Swinter?".

Click HERE to go to Google Docs to Download. I hope you enjoy and are able to use this freebie with your kiddos!

My First Award!

Well it's been a while! ;) After Thanksgiving I had one week left and then I tracked out. One of the many benefits of teaching year round but that also meant I was super busy getting ready for track out. So not much time was left for blogging. Or sleeping. But who says teachers need sleep anyways?

I'm so excited because I got my first blog award! Yipeeee! Haley at Following Optimism, gave me the Liebster Award for being an up and coming blog. Yay! Thanks so much Haley!

The goal of the award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. The rules are:

1. copy and paste the award on your blog
2. thank the giver and link back to them
3. reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
4. hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers

So, in the spirit of Teacher Blog Love, I'm giving the Liebster award to:

2nd the Best

Smiling in Second Grade

and they ALL fall down

I know that's only 3, so many of the blogs I follow are oldies. If you are a new teacher blogger I would love to check out your blog. Leave me a comment!

I'm hoping to spend some time this week writing some more posts and catching up. I have certainly missed it!

Thankful!

I have so many things to be thankful for. This week was just like icing on the Thanksgiving cake (or maybe pie). This morning one little cutie came in with a bag with this in it:

I mean how could you not love a child who gives you that? I beamed.

My favorite part is the stick picture drawing of the child and me he did on the back of the sign. Man I look skinny. :)

The sign sparked the following conversation with another child:

Child: Miss R, I don't know if you're the best teacher.

Me: Why is that?

Child: Well, I've only had 3 teachers.

Me: That's true.

Child: I guess you're the best teacher SO FAR.

We had a blast on Monday making these turkey hats inspired by this pin on Pinterest.

Today was Book Fair Preview Day and our sweet librarian made each teacher a turkey! They were so precious!

This had to be my favorite Thanksgiving craft! The kiddos chose someone they are thankful for and then wrote one reason they are thankful for that person on each leaf. They wrote the most adorable things like "you always tell me you love me" and "you play video games with me". Later we filled the jars with m&m's for the recipients to enjoy.

Of course my assistant and I had to make our own for another teacher on our team. We're one big happy family.

And what day before Thanksgiving at school would be complete without leaf jumping! I showed my kiddos the proper way to make a leaf pile and jump into it the other day and ever since that's all they want to do outside. It's so fun to watch them! We set some ground rules for safety (and I sat closely nearby) but I let them loose. They made a huge line (like 20 kids) and cheered for each person when it was their turn. Afterwards today they also had a "leaf party" where they threw leaves into the air for 5 minutes and then made "leaf angels" on the ground. So precious!

My list of things to be thankful for could go on for a long time. I'm thankful for all of you - thanks for reading and hanging out! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It's Turkey Time!

Sorry I've been MIA lately, it's been super busy here! Is anyone else ready for Thanksgiving? Turkey Day is my absolute favorite holiday. I rank it above Christmas. I can't wait to wake up on Thanksgiving and watch the parade. :)

We have started a new creative writing project that I am LOVING. My kiddos need practice writing letters so I decided we would make it fun by writing from the perspective of the Turkey. Their job is, as the turkey, to convince people NOT to eat turkey for Thanksgiving. They are coming up with another food that they think should be eaten instead.

We started off by reading Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems. We discussed how the pigeon was trying to get the reader to do something. Then we wrote down the sentence starters that the pigeon used to sound convincing. The kiddos also brainstormed who they could write the letter to and what food they would advertise instead of turkey.

I made a plan using free turkey clip art that Natalie's husband made. It's super cute. Feel free to download your own copy of my plan by clicking here.

Next, we'll use Ashleigh's Turkey Paper (Free on TPT) to write our letters focusing on the parts of a friendly letter. I can't wait to see how these turn out!

How are you getting ready for Thanksgiving?

Thank You Apple!!!!

Yesterday as I walked out to my car after school, I dropped my ipad. I really didn't think much of it then. That was until this morning I opened the case at school and saw that the screen was cracked! It must have hit the corner because that corner was smashed and cracks all came from there. Needless to say I was upset.

The ipad still worked but the only thing holding the screen together was the clear screen cover. :( After talking with our tech contact, she said I would need to take it to the Apple Store.

After school I made a trek to the Apple Store, hoping for some good news. The store was packed but I got an appointment at the Genius Bar. After telling my story to the nice Genius lady, she told me that they would do a one time replacement! WHAT??? I was sooooo excited! They literally gave me a BRAND NEW ipad! I walked out of the store without paying a single dime.

I am so grateful to Apple! They really went above and beyond for me! Since I got my Mac in college I've always been an Apple fan but now I am a customer for life! They really take care of their customers! Apple, thank you for helping this poor (and clumsy) teacher out!