Wordless Wednesday

I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice:

I love to use these expanders to teach place value with my intervention group. What do you use to help students grasp place value concepts?

November Currently

Fashionably late is what I'm calling this...but I couldn't miss a Currently with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade! 

Listening:
I love this song and can't get enough of it! I wasn't a huge fan of her first song, but this one is awesome!

Loving:
*Disclaimer*: I am a summer girl. I like it hot. I'd like to wear flip flops year round. However, I have to admit that the cooler temps are pretty nice once in a while. It isn't cold here yet so I'm still happy. Here in NM, we get 50 Shades of Brown during the winter and it is just depressing!

Thinking:
I'm ready. Right? What do I have to worry about? I'm a great teacher, gosh darn it! So why am I worrying? Oh yeah. It's that kid. The one who knows how to throw a wrench into the best lesson? You know what I'm talking about....

Wanting:
Conferences are coming in 3 weeks. I dread writing report cards and my district has changed them YET AGAIN this year. I just wish there was a magic app that could automatically enter my grade book scores onto the report card. How hard could that be????

Needing:
We haven't had one day since the beginning of October that the entire family was healthy. My oldest is still recovering from pneumonia and a nasty cough and now the hubs is sick, which is actually worse than the kids being sick. Sigh.

Reading:
Ha! I am in the middle of Allegiant, but I haven't read in a few weeks. I'd like to read, but there are more pressing things to do like watching Sons of Anarchy, Scandal, and my new favorites, Red Band Society and Scorpion. I really do love to read but my worn out brain just craves some down time. I read like a mad woman during breaks to make up for my lack of school year reading. Unless you count reading student work...which I think you should.

Five for Freaky Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for a spooky Five for Friday.

 My student teacher is solo teaching this week, so I don't have tons to share. It is kinda nice to have some time to "catch up" on all the nagging tasks I've been meaning to get done since school started. I set up office in the teachers lounge all week, which is fun because I get to talk to people in other grades that I normally don't get to chat with. This also means I'm not all that productive. Can you say social butterfly?

 My student teacher is working with the students on measurement and did a few activities from the oh-so-fabulous Amy Lemons' I Can Measure pack. It is just too adorable and really full of good hands on activities to practice measurement. Here's my favorite part:

 We are also gearing up for an election next week so we're learning about election concepts. BTW, can all those senators, governors, and other people just STOP calling my house all evening?!? Sigh. I digress, but the kids are making lapbooks with some election vocabulary and other elements and then we're going to vote next week. Stay tuned for the results!

It is a well known fact that I'm a book hoarder bibliophile. The kids love my featured book shelf which changes frequently. Do I have enough Halloween books? I think not.

I'm Purplicious! Our admin requires that costumes be based on a book. This was the easiest and most comfy costume ever!

Multiplication Freebie

I am just popping in to tell you about my newest freebie for my upper elementary friends, Double Digit Multiplication Owls.

This product contains 12 double digit multiplication task cards with QR codes so students can check their answers. It also comes with a recording sheet and answer key. The task cards with adorable owls can be used any time during the year. Use it as a math center or post the cards around the room to get kids moving during math. It meets CCSS standards: 4.MDT.B.5 and 5.MDT.B.5

For more information about using QR codes in the classroom, also check out my free info pack:

Now click on the pic below to hop back to Classroom Freebies and grab more great freebies for your classroom!

Five for Friday: a $1 Deal, a tech tip, and monster fun!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for FFF!

I prepped all my Halloween math centers for next week and I'm just loving how they turned out.
There's my Place Value Math Center with cute ghosts and a fun Pumpkin Place Value Math Center.

I think my favorite is the Even and Odd Sorting Center with the cutest witch legs!

Students will sort the task cards, write them on the recording sheet, and then can scan the QR codes to check their work. I have marked this down to $1 for the rest of the weekend!

My dear Yorkie, Scruffy, hasn't been doing so well. He's been hobbling along on 3 legs and not wanting to bear weight on his 4th leg. It got to the point where he couldn't even climb out of his bed, go through his doggy door or go up one 2-inch step to get back inside. I took him to the vet and she prescribed an arthritis pill. I gave him his first dose and the very next morning he was hopping and prancing around like he was (almost) his old self.

Tuesday we watched a video of I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll and read by Rita Moreno. Then we made our very own monsters! They look adorable! Check out the video here:

We're working on place value to the hundreds place. First, we put these flip flaps in our interactive notebooks from my Monster Math Place Value pack. Then we practiced writing our numbers 4 ways. Get my 4 Ways to Show a Number here for FREE!

 Have you heard of Padlet? It's a great web 2.0 tool that you can use with students to collect evidence of learning, share ideas, and collaborate on. It's super easy to use and can be a great digital portfolio to show parents at conference time. For the first Padlet lesson,  we started with a simple task: tell about a 3 digit number. Students were given a card with a 3 digit number. They had to build it with base 10 blocks and write it in expanded form and in word form (see above). Then they took pictures with the iPads and added them to their individual math Padlets by scanning their own QR codes displayed from the interactive white board. Here's an example:

You can imagine the possibilities with the ability to add photo, video and text! You can also make a Padlet for certain topics. We made a bat Padlet with video of kids telling what they learned about bats and pictures of their projects. I'm working on a more detailed post on using Padlet so stay tuned!

Spooktacular Sale and $1 Deal!

Hey everyone! I'm popping in to let you know that all my Halloween/Fall items will be on sale starting today and going until 10/22. This is your chance to plan out your Halloween math stations for a discount. Here are the products I'm featuring:

Place Value Math Center 

Even and Odd Sorting Center

Going Batty for Telling Time

Pumpkin Place Value This is only $1 !!!!

 
Spooktacular Math Center Bundle (which includes all the above) is valued at $9 if bought separately. It is normally $6 but is on sale for under $5!!

Five for Friday: field trips, bats and prizes!

Hey everyone! I'm linking up with the Oh So Fab Doodlebugs for the best linky party of the week. It's Five for Friday time and here's my crazy week:

 I just love Kacey from Doodlebugs! I recently won a little giveaway on her blog and my prize arrived in the mail on Saturday! Eeeeeek! I was a little bit down in the dumps with a cold and some bad news but this little package just turned my day around!

She sent me a personalized notebook, Sharpies, jumbo paper clips, a Scentos marker and the most darling string/twine. It was such a nice surprise to get something besides bills in the mail. Thank you Kacey!

We're doing a big bat unit in 2nd grade right now and my sweet student teacher was so excited about it that she just took off running with the idea and came up with some great science lessons. 

Meanwhile, I made some batty telling time task cards for math. My kids are all over the place with their telling time skills so I made differentiated task cards with three different levels: telling time to the hour, quarter hour and 5 minute intervals. 

I'm using the time to the hour with my intervention group while the rest of the class is using time to the quarter hour this week.

 Next week, we'll move up to the time to the 5 minute interval. You can grab my Going Batty for Telling Time pack for 50% off until this Sunday. 

Thursday we had a field trip to the zoo. It was my darling sister who convinced our grade level to go to the zoo in the fall.

It was a perfect day! The weather was in the 70's, the animals were active, and we were the only school there! 

We also made these cute hot air balloons for our hallway. We have a huge hot air balloon fiesta in Albuquerque every year and it literally fills the skies with balloons. We took their school pictures and taped them in the baskets.

One of my upper grade friends is doing multiplication with decimals in her 5th grade class so I made this little task card set for her. It's on sale for $1 through the weekend!