Fall Multiplication Practice Freebie Printable

Hello everyone! Fall is in full swing now and I can certainly tell with all of the teaching going on. Shew! I feel like somedays I'm in a whirlwind! 

This year, I noticed that my kids really need to perk up on their multiplication facts. We use the iPad app Speed Drill to practice, and they LOVE it! And....it's free! I also created a fall multiplication practice pack. This includes a few color by the code sheets. Once students find the product, they color by the code. It's just a fun way to practice multiplication facts without the constant drill, drill, drill. {although we still do those drills} 

You can download your blog FREEBIE "At the Pumpkin Patch" HERE. 

I let my students use colored pencils or markers, but making sure they allow me to still see the answer. This is a change in pace from the normal fact sheets. I hope you enjoy!

This is from my Fall Multiplication Pack. You'll find a few more color by the codes and multiplication word problem task cards, too, which I like to use for small group cooperative learning activities or in math centers. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Freebie #5 - Winter Adding, Subtracting, Multiplication Game Board

Welcome Back!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

 

This freebie will be useful in your math centers or cooperative groups. All you need is a set of dice.

 

Pairs of students will roll the dice and either: add, subtract or multiply the 2 numbers shown on the dice. {If using multiplication, students will probably advance quicker on the board, so they may want to keep a tally chart of how many times they reach the North Pole. The "winner" will be the one who reaches the North Pole 3 times, 5 times, etc..

 

To make this fun and exciting I like to use colored marshmallows as playing pieces- students will pick a color.

 

This a fun, time-filler that's educational and versatile.

 

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR WINTER GAMEBOARD FREEBIE!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you've been able to use these Freebies with your students! I'd love to hear how you have used / plan to use these in your classroom! Please comment below.

 

Have a relaxing break!

Hands On Learning: Weighted Numbers & I Spy Bottles

Hello again, Café Friends!!!

 

It's been a while since my last post. I feel like I've been MIA! Finishing up National Board Renewal has zapped my time! It'll be submitted in less than a month, then hopefully I can get back in my "normal" routine - whatever "normal" might be! :-)

 

All of this renewal business has really caused me to reflect on my teaching and help me to remember WHY I do what I do with my students. I've been working on a component about student engagement and wanted to share a few activities I used this past week in centers to help promote hands on learning and student engagement.

 

(1) Weighted Numbers

 

I love using weighted numbers to show how to balance addition equations. These can be found at most teaching resource stores and online for about $20. I would suggest getting a couple of sets so students can balance equations with larger numbers.

 

Each number has the number word on the back so the 6's and 9's don't get mixed up. Plus, this helps reinforce number word recognition.

 

The picture above shows 6+3 = 9. I also wrote on the board: 9 = 6+3. This is such a hard concept for a lot of my students. The balance scale is a concrete learning tool that helps them see the "balance" {equals}.

 I always tell them when they see the equals sign to think of a balance scale. Both sides of the scale {equation} must be equal in order for the equation to be true.

 

I put the scales and numbers in my math center for students to explore balancing equations, helping them to understand that 6+3 is the same as 3+6.

 

 

(2) I Spy Bottles

 

Another hands on activity my students LOVE are I Spy Bottles that I made. Each bottle contains various objects and ten sight words. I've used these in my literacy centers for word work. They're also perfect for time-fillers. My goal is to make enough for a class set.

 

These are great for your kinesthetic learners and students with attention difficulties. I typed a sheet with the I Spy items, laminated the sheets, and students use dry-erase crayons {or markers} to check what they've found. Coins are the hardest to find. It keeps them busy for a while! They love the challenge.

 

Click Here to view an older post about how to make your own I Spy Bottles.

 

 I'd love to hear about engaging activities you use with your students! Feel free to share in the comments below. :-)
 

Thanks for stopping by the Café!

St. Patrick's Day Fun & FREEBIES!

Happy Saturday, Café Friends!

 

There are about 60 school days left! OH. MY. GOODNESS! I don't know whether or not to be excited or freak out because there's still SO much work to be done between now and the end of May.

Spring break for us will be in a few weeks and time usually flies by after that.

 

 

St. Patrick's Day is almost here and I'd like to share some of the activities we've started working on in our math and literacy stations.

 

In our Word Work station, students love searching for words on the Itty Bitty I Spy. They use a magnifying glass to search for words, then write the word on the lines.

 

 

 

The Lucky Charms activity gave student extra practice recognizing and writing numbers within 120.

 

 

This upcoming week I will be using these activities in my math stations:

YOU CAN PICK UP THESE FREE RESOURCES HERE!

 

We've been working on place value so I thought this sheet would give students some extra practice. It can also be used as a quick check-up to see if students know the basics of understanding tens and ones.

 

This sheet allows students to represent tens and ones using "sticks" and "stones". This is the most effective method I've used so far to help students draw tens and ones. It's quick and it really helps when they start to add and subtract 2-digit numbers. They can easily see and count the tens and ones.

 

This activity will be used with my table groups. Students will pick a card and represent that number using manipulatives {rods & units}. Now that we have iPads, I'll also do this whole group and let them show me how to represent the number on their iPad whiteboard {Educreations app} using the "sticks" and "stones".

I like to have a station that includes puzzles and games. This station usually has pattern block activities, jigsaw puzzles, memory games, pentominoes, etc.

This week I'll use these tens and ones matching puzzles. I like to copy this on green cardstock to make it thematic for St. Patrick's Day.

 





This fun freebie will be used at my table groups. Board games are always needed to help encourage cooperation and social skills. We should do them everyday! This game uses dice to help reinforce addition and subtraction skills as students race to the gold.

 

YOU CAN PICK UP YOUR FREE RACE TO THE GOLD GAMEBOARD HERE





 

 

Thanks for stopping by the Crazy Critter Café to check out my St. Patrick's Day activities. I hope you'll find them helpful with your students!

 

Have a great week!

FREEBIE~ 100th Day of School Booklet for Stickers, Stamps or Fingerprints

Happy Monday! Welcome back to the Crazy Critter Café! Let me just tell ya'--today was a CrAzY day.

You can't convince me that kids don't act differently when there's a FULL moon ~ my own boys included. :-) Whew! And it's only Monday....

 

Well, to get things looking up, our 100th day of school will be this week. Already 100 days!!!

I like to do table rotations as part of my activities that day. It's a good way to stuff a lot of fun activities into one short day. (We always carry over to 101 days anyway.)

 

As one of my centers this year I created a 100 sticker book that could also be used for 100 stamps or 100 fingerprints. I found packs of 350 stickers at our local Dollar Tree, so I'll put several sheets in a table basket for the kids to use while creating their 100th day sticker booklets.

 

They can use colored pencils, crayons or markers to customize and decorate their covers.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE 100TH DAY STICKER BOOK (ALSO FOR STAMPS FOR FINGERPRINTS)

 

 

Please feel free to share how you do rotations on the 100th day of school. What activities are your favorite? Which are easy for kids to work on independently?

 

Thanks for stopping by the café! Hopefully the full moon will be over tomorrow and things will settle back down a little. :-)



Entire TPT Store Up to 50% Off! 3 Days Left to Save Big!

Happy Thursday Friends!

 

Still no snow here in Eastern NC :(

 I hope all of you that did get snow are safe and sound.

My HOT WINTER SALE is still going on!

3 days left for up to 50% off my entire TPT store sale!

Stop by and snatch up some super deals before it ends!

 

Have a super Thursday, and remember, the weekend is almost here!!!



 

Addition Pizzas Craftivity Make Math Fun!

Hello Again Café Friends!!! {I think I've already started Winter hibernation.}

 

Welcome to 2015!

Christmas is over, the decorations are down, and I'm trying to trash as many leftover sweets as possible. {TRYING is the key word here} Ugh! Sugar is my weakness.

 

To help keep my mind off the white chocolate & peppermint covered pretzels and key lime fudge I wanted to share a fun and simple activity I created recently to help students better understand the concept of adding two numbers. We made Addition Pizzas!

 

 

Before starting this activity I cut out some rough triangles to form the pizza crust. Small strips of white paper were the cheese and red circles were pepperoni.

 

I had each student choose no more than 10 pieces each of the cheese and pepperoni. They "made" their pizzas by gluing their toppings on the crust however they wanted.

 

Once their pizza slice was "made" they were given a blank notecard. {A great Dollar Tree find--I use blank notecards all the time for students to jot down quick responses and sentences.}

 

On the board I wrote: I have ___ pepperoni and ___ cheese. Students copied this and filled in the blanks using information from their pizza slice. From that information, they were asked to use the blank notecard to write an addition equation for their pizza.

 

 

 

Students enjoyed this simple, fun craftivity to reinforce addition concepts we've been learning. They'd compare how many pieces of cheese and pepperoni with other pizza slices at their table, which led to a lot of purposeful math talk.  :-)

 

Throughout our lessons on addition, students completed math vocabulary journal pages related to addition concepts we were learning. These are on 1/2 pages, so it helps cut down on paper. I would copy and assemble the pages into a mini journal booklet. I chose math vocabulary words from this math pack that aligned with our learning.

 

 

 

 

 

This was also a great way for me to differentiate for students. To enrich, I would give students some additional word pages and allow them to use the dictionary to search for the meaning and compare that to their description.

To remediate, I would allow students to tell me what they knew about the vocabulary word as I modeled the vocabulary word with manipulatives.

These would be perfect to use in guided math groups as you meet with students to talk about these math concepts. It was also a great way for me to informally assess.

 

This is from my Math Vocabulary Journals Pack.

 Click here to learn more ways to use Mini Math Vocabulary Journals with your students.  

 

 

I hope you can use some of these math ideas with your students!

Happy New Year to all and best wishes for a productive year in 2015!!

 



Back to School Blues & Some Zoo Themed FREEBIES

Well, it's the last week of my summer break and I'm really feelin' the back to school blues. Many of you may already be back and you probably can relate to these feelings.

 Feelin' blue NOT because we're starting school and I'm getting ready to meet my new, sweet first graders, not because I've been working on school stuff all summer and I can't wait to get back in class and use it.

Feelin' blue because, freedom, as we know it, is coming to an end.

 Freedom to sleep in.

 

 Freedom to eat whenever we feel the need for a little snacky snack.

 

Freedom to use the bathroom whenever we need to {this one's gonna be interesting since I've been trying to do right this summer with drinking water throughout the day}.

 

Going to the beach during the week. Shopping when it's not crowded. Sleeping in.

 

Hanging out with my family. Taking mini-vacations without having to plan around a schedule.

 

No schedules. Sleeping in. {I'm sure you can tell what I'll miss most about summer. haha}

 

Nevertheless, it's that time again and, ready or not, we'll be reporting back next week for staff development and {more} room organizing and planning. So I'd better shake off these blues and get myself in high gear to be ready next week.

 

I'm excited about my latest project "Busy Bodies Zoo Themed Math & Literacy Printables".  I remember each year during the first few weeks of school I'm SO busy trying to do individual assessments, organize forms, contact information, etc.

 

I created this zoo themed math & literacy pack to have as an extra quick printable resource to keep my class "busy' doing something educational while I had a few extra minutes to assess. The zoo theme is perfect for any time of the year, so I plan to make copies and keep them in storage drawers and just pull the copies if I need a last minute independent time-filler.

 

I also plan to use some of these during my math and literacy centers since many of the pages meet common core standards for kindergarten and first grade.

 

You can download 2 FREEBIE pages below. Click on the links below to download.

 

DOWNLOAD ANIMAL ROUNDUP HERE
 

DOWNLOAD LET'S WRITE ABOUT IT HERE

 

Hope you'll enjoy using these freebies in your class! 

 

 I plan to start my first graders with the color words, number words, rhymes and writing pages. I could use the writing as a pre-and post- informal assessment. Give them the same prompt later in the year and compare their work. Be sure to date them!

 

If you'd like to learn more about the zoo pack, click HERE

.

 

 

 

Hopefully if you're also feeling back to school blues, it'll be gone soon!

Whether you've started school already or not, I hope your year is off to a great start and it's the best one yet!

Thanks for stopping by the Crazy Critter Café!

 

Jack and the Beanstalk {Sand & Soil, Magic Beans and Measurement}

Welcome back to the Crazy Critter Café! I want to share some things we've been up to in science and math.

Lessons like this are why I love what I do. Of course I didn't completely get to what was in my planbook during this block of time, but the overall lesson was well worth the adjustment!

We started by reading a version of Jack and the Beanstalk {we read various versions of this story over several days and compared them} . We've been talking about characteristics of rocks, sand, and soil in science and working on nonstandard measurement for math. As I was thinking about all of the activities involved in these math and science units, I thought it would be so much easier {and FUN!} to integrate the subjects using the story about Jack and the Beanstalk.

It all started something like this....

(1) We observed sand and soil using a microscope. The kids also used magnifying glasses when observing at their tables.

(2) They glued sand and soil samples on an observation sheet.

{download a copy of the recording sheet HERE}.

(3) After reading a version of Jack and the Beanstalk, I showed the class some Magic Beans, and you would have thought they were REALLY magic by the looks on some of their faces. A bag of gold beans mysteriously appears after reading a fairy tale about a never ending beanstalk..... now I have their attention!

Magic beans were easy to make: northern beans, gold craft paint, sandwich bags, a stapler and the labels for bags {Download Jack's Magic Beans labels HERE}.

 (4) Since we've been talking about soil & sand and their properties, it was only fitting to try planting Jack's Magic Beans in a cup of soil and a cup of sand.

  I put 3 magic beans in each container and we gave each container the same amount of water and sunlight. Here's where the lesson took an unexpected turn.

When I watered the soil {all of this was taking place under the document camera so everyone could see}, we found an earthworm! And another. And another! 3 earthworms in one little cup of soil. I used my pencil at first to pick one up, then put it in my hand. That caused some excitement!

This was the perfect opportunity to reinforce the concept that earthworms help the soil, but are not found in the sand {linking back to what soil and sand are made of}.

(5) After the unexpected earthworm visit we got back on track and predicted which container - the soil or sand {or both} Jack's magic beans would grow. We voted to leave the earthworms in the container. Our question was: Will Jack's Magic Beans Grow in Both Soil and Sand? I used this question also as a graphing activity as students made their predictions.

We found that the beans could grow in both soil and sand. We concluded that since they both received equal amounts of sunlight and water, that helped support plant growth. We discussed how the soil had more nutrients, but there are plants by the ocean, so sand is also capable of supporting plant growth.

Next time I'll also try to plant the seed in a Ziploc bag with a paper towel and tape it to the window. I've had luck in the past growing beans in bags, so this should lead to some good discussion when comparing it to the soil and sand.

(6) Now..... moving along to the math integration.

We read another version of Jack and the Beanstalk. This time the kids found the Giant's footprints when they came back in the classroom from lunch. {download a template of the Giant's footprint here} We discussed the words longer and shorter. Their job was to walk around the room and find items that were either longer or shorter than the Giant's foot. I gave them 3 minutes to go explore.  They had so much fun with this! After their exploration time we came back together and shared our thoughts.

I told them they'd now be going back to compare the Giant's foot again, but this time they were going to record their findings. {download a copy of the recording sheet here}

  

We had so much fun with science and math using Jack and the Beanstalk. Now I have so many more ideas that keep coming to mind to use next year when teaching this again. I'd love to know how you've used Jack and the Beanstalk with your class ~ math, science, literature, etc.

Thanks for stopping by the Crazy Critter Café!  

St. Patrick's Day fun ~ Lester the Leprechaun writing & Shamrock Sums math

Welcome back to the CrAzY Critter Café! I think I'm finally getting over the time change - lovin' these longer days!

This past week we got a head start on some St. Patrick's Day activities. The kids had a BLAST drawing their own leprechauns. {This cute drawing idea is from First Grade, Blue Skies HERE.} Their drawings were of "Lester the Leprechaun". We used Lester to begin a creative, narrative-style writing.

Kids used the Story Starter cards from my St. Patrick's Day Pot O' Gold pack to choose a setting card {Where?} and one or two action cards {What?}. They recorded this on their Lester Leprechaun Story Planning page{also included in the pack}. They then created their "Sloppy Copy". Once I conferenced with each student, they wrote their "Neat Sheet", final draft. These were some really cute stories! I was so proud of my kids for their hard work and creativity! Check out these adorable leprechauns!

Students also worked on the Shamrock Sums activity with their table teams . They used a 120's board to check their work on adding ten to a number. Using the boards as a visual really helped them see when adding ten to any number, you'll go down one space on the chart.

I'm so excited to use activities from my Pot O' Gold pack this upcoming week! {and probably continue into next week, too} I'll use the Itty Bitty I Spy sheet at my word work center.

Thanks for stopping by the Crazy Critter Café! Hope you have a great St. Patty's Day!