Five For Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for the Five for Friday link up, which I rarely do because I'm so dang tired by the end of the week. I decided to start early in the week, and spend just a couple minutes each day writing about what we did. What a concept, right?

First off, I love nice feedback, but I got the B-E-S-T feedback on one of my products this weekend! It really made all my hard work pay off. Check it out:

Monday was St. Patty's day and I threw our normal routines out the window for a little fun (and learning!) Leprechaun style. I have been fighting a cold so I just didn't have the energy to do the leprechaun traps and messing up the room business, but I found a bunch of great (FREEBIE) activities to do with my class. I started out with this one I found from The Teacher Wife. They had to write about someone who is worth more to them than gold. Honestly, all of their answers were precious, but I just loved these:

My students have been working on their space research reports and most of them are finishing up. Today I gave them some sentence starters so they could write a 3-5 sentence speech to go along with their reports. I used the sentence starters because no matter how many times I tell them to use sentence variety and no matter how many times I have made them rewrite those sentences that start with the same word, they will still write, "Jupiter is the 5th planet from the sun. Jupiter is a gas giant. Jupiter has a giant storm on it." BORING! I was very pleased with their work today because they had 7 choices of sentence starters and almost every kid had some great writing. Next, I'll record the audio of their speech and make it into a QR code to attach to their reports. They L-O-V-E to hear their voices when they scan the QR code. Here's a picture of one of their reports, minus the QR codes, which will be added next week. I got these Solar System and Planet Flipbook Reports from Creative Classroom Lessons.

 

I have had this stupid cough for an eternity (it seems) and my hubby finally convinced me to go to the doctor Wednesday. Well, it turns out I have bronchitis and he gave me a mess of prescriptions to take and amazingly, I feel so much better! He was concerned that if I waited any longer it could have turned into pneumonia! Yikes. I guess I will have to start listening to my hubby, at least once in a while. 

Finally, spring is in the air! We are finally having some nicer weather and I'm really hoping it will stick around. I've been hearing about other teachers going on spring break next week and I'm so jealous because ours isn't until April 14th, which seems so far away! Three more weeks? Can I make it? I'm ready for flip flops right now!

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm curious, when is your spring break?

St. Patty's Day Math Task Cards {SALE}

I'm not sure why I like St. Patrick's Day so much. Maybe because I just love this time of year, with the temps warming up and the daffodils popping up (my fave flower!). It's also my birthday month!!! I've been wanting to make a new St. Patty's Day product for my math block to help keep my kids fresh on some previously taught skills. I decided to make two smaller task card sets and bundle them together.

 My kids go crazy over QR codes so, even though it took a little longer to finish, I included them on these task cards. I normally set up an iPad as a checking station but sometimes I'll let the kids grab an iPad and scan the cards.

Sorry for the blurry pic, but you can see a student scanning a QR code on a task card to check his answers. They are very excited when they get the answer correct! 

Our math units since Winter break have been measurement, time, money and word problems. I've been sneaking in practice of addition and subtraction during math stations, but they need continued practice. I also have a little problem of kiddos not checking the signs on their problems so I mixed it up and put both addition and subtraction on one set of task cards. 

I also want them to keep practicing those coin counting skills.

Each task card set comes with a student recording sheet and answer key. 

Get on over to my TPT store to grab a set while they're still 50% off!!!! Don't forget your green on Monday!

March Currently {Guess My Question and WIN!}

I've been so flippin' busy lately that I haven't blogged much. I decided to take a break from grading/report cards/laundry/thinking about dinner to link up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th grade for the March Currently. I have to say that I just love her new blog design and feeling a little jealous...

It's already 5:30 so I better get my tushie in gear. Here goes:

My honey has been wanting to watch this movie forever! I can't explain why (I do love Tom Hanks), but it just doesn't sound that interesting. Knowing that I'd be slaving away over report cards, he decided that today would be the perfect day to grab it at the Redbox. He's cuddled up with my 13 year old while my 16 year old is "doing her homework" (aka playing with the dog and tweeting/snapchatting/whatever she does on her phone). 

The regular season of soccer started up today. Of course we've had lovely weather in the 60's all week but today it rained (only during the game of course). Yes, here in the desert, we actually got rain. To top it off, it was also windy. Seriously, tumbleweeds were dancing across the field. It was seriously yucky. Luckily, I was armed (like all good soccer moms) with a plethora of blankets, gloves, scarves, and a giant umbrella. I know we've been lucky to have escaped all the really crazy weather, so I shouldn't complain, especially since BOTH girls won their games. All is well in the Palmer household. 

I guess the next three all go together. The little darlings don't have school on Thursday and Friday so we can hold parent teacher conferences. I have 24 kids plus 2 that come for inclusion (science, social studies, specials, lunch, etc.) so I have to attend 26 conferences. I've done the math: 26x30 minutes each=13 hours of talking. I never talk that much. To top it all off, I've had most parents request Thursday and being the accommodating teacher that I am, there will be 18 conferences on Thursday. Yes, the fun will start at 7:30 and won't end until 6:30. The upside? I will be done by noon on Friday!!!!!! 

Can you guess my question for the answer "6"? If you can (or even get close) I will give you one item from my TPT store. By the way, there are 2 possible questions that will fit and if you paid attention to what I said, you might have a better chance. 

Enjoy your weekend!!

TPT Sale

Teachers Pay Teachers is celebrating 3 million members by having a sale! If you add the 20% discount I'm also offering, you can get some pretty great deals!


Enter the promo code TPT3 when you check out. Now's your chance to load up your cart with all those wish list items and shop away!


Thanks to: www.theschoolsupplyaddict.com and www.kimberlygeswein.com for the sale banner.

Subtracting Across Zero and a Giveaway!

My students have been getting pretty darn good at using regrouping to subtract. I only had to ask "more on the top or more on the floor?" about 7,000 times! One thing they are stumbling on is what to do when they encounter a zero when they "go next door" to regroup. It is now time to drag out the Boxing In (or Squaring Off) strategy I learned last year. I found this YouTube video that explains it better than I ever could:

click here to take you to the video

I show this video to my class SEVERAL times so they can get the hang of it. It is a very short video, but the best part is watching the student do an example at the end. I think this really shows the kids that they can do it! To give the kids some extra practice in a fun way, I made this set of task cards with QR codes:

click here to get it

Each card has a 3-digit subtraction problem in which there is a zero "next door" when you are regrouping. I added QR codes so students can get immediate feedback about their work. 

I usually use these types of task cards as a math center. In this case, I'm going to break it into two stations because it is a relatively new skill. I will probably bring this out later in the year as review and make it one station when they become more fluent.

For some reason, this technique makes so much sense to my kiddos. Here is an example:

I hope this helps take the frustration out of teaching subtraction with regrouping across a zero. I'd love to hear how you teach kids to use regrouping to subtract! I'll pick one comment at random to receive this product for free.

Fraction Love

I was recently asked to make some fraction task cards with QR codes for the 4th grade teachers at my school. I made two products so far. One is adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike numerators:

50% off until Valentine's Day! Click here to get it.

The second product features multiplication of a fraction by a whole number:

Click here to get it.

One of my 4th grade colleagues has already tried them with her class. She is very new to using QR codes and was a little nervous at first. She loved the idea so much that she actually chose that lesson for our principal to observe! My principal mentioned it to me later and was impressed with that teacher's use of technology in her lesson. The kids really loved it too! They had a blast checking their answers by scanning the QR codes with iPods. 

If anyone wants me to make something like this with a specific skill for your grade level, I'd be happy to do it! I'm always looking for more ideas from other grade levels.

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five For Friday.

What a week! I'm sure I added more things to my To Do List than what I crossed off. 

Speaking of lists, I can't live without this app. It has helped me to ditch all the sticky notes and random pieces of paper that served as my reminders. It is called Any.Do and it is free! I always have my phone with me so this app makes it easy to remember what I need to do anywhere.

We had a field trip on Tuesday and some of my little darlings were more excited about the bus ride than the actual play we went to see. They were having a blast singing "Down by the Bay" and even raised their hands (roller coaster style) in the air as we bounced over the speed bumps. 

 We've been working on telling time in math and today we raced to finish our timeline of a school day. I gave each student a different activity that we do during the day. They illustrated them, wrote the time in numbers and words and then showed the time on a clock. It was a great activity (from It's About Time by Amy Lemons) and looks awesome in the hall but it felt like pulling teeth to get them finished.

My sister went out of town today so I am dog sitting her two precious Yorkies, Lola and Brinkley. My dog, Scruffy, loves them and is probably worn out from all the playing, chasing and barking (he is starting to get a little old). The other two won't sit still but I did manage to snap a pic of Brinkley.

Finally, I am getting excited/nervous about a NM blogger meet up tomorrow. I am still new to the blogging world and I'm looking forward to getting some advice and ideas. I've been working on a Valentine craft to share with the ladies and all I have to say is that I got out glitter!!!

Have a great weekend and be on the lookout for a post on how our meet up went.