250 Followers Everyone Wins Giveaway!

Stacia and I sooooooo appreciate all of our wonderful followers!!  We have reached 250, which astounds me!

As a thank you- I wanted to give show you something I've been working on for about a week now.  

PLUS there are sheets where there are four posters to a page in case you want to have students put them in their math notebooks (which is what we are going to do!)

We have been working on exemplars (does everyone call word problems that??).  This past week they had a  problem similar to this:  Fourth grade is going on a field trip.  There are 187 students, 6 teachers, and 14 parents going.  If 45 people can fit on a bus, how many buses will they need?  

So, you and I would add all the people going, divide that by 45, get a remainder of 27.  We'd realize that we can't leave 27 behind so we'd need 5 buses.  Done (except the part where we write and explain how we solved, which is the whole purpose of exemplars).

So....most of my students....

DREW A PICTURE!  

No lie.

Drew all 207 people getting on 5 buses.

Really???  That's the best strategy???  

No.  

I have failed them.  

But now I have my superheroes done and next week, we are gonna attack some problem solving like MATH SUPERHEROES!!  (can you hear the theme to Rocky playing in your head, or is that just me?)

Obviously I have learned that we need to review different ways to solve problems and when some strategies work better than others and I think this is the perfect way to roll this out.

So, yes, I made you read all of that before I told you how YOU can get the posters for yourself (I'm so mean!!)  ;O)

This giveaway ends Sunday, Feb. 10th at midnight Pacific time.  I will email these out in a zip file to everyone Monday.

Rules of the Giveaway:

1)  You must be a follower, since this is a giveaway for our cuties that read our blog.

2)  Please pin these posters on Pinterest and leave the URL in the comments.

3)  Most importantly- LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS so I can send them to you!

That's it!!  We SO appreciate you for following our little blog!!  

What do you think about the posters?  How do you teach problem solving?  

*Amanda*

PS- They did get the right answer, which is great, but hopefully they'll see they could have gotten to it in a different way!

It's Friday!!

Hey there!  How was your week? 

Ours felt pretty busy, but I think it's that time of year, and I'm sure you all have been busy in your classrooms as well!!

Here is what we have been up to!

1) We finished our unit on light.  Here they were using concave and convex lenses to inspect a jellybean and how many spots it had on it.  :O)

2)  If you read our blog, you know we have been studying the American Revolution.  This week, we learned about George Washington's role and how he became commander-in-chief.  We also read this book:

This book is full of facts about both Georges.  The kids actually really like it.  I do NOT read it all in one sitting because that would be TOO much but I read bits and pieces to give them information about them.  They filled out a compare/contrast H (I feel like 4th graders have graduated from the Venn and that middle section of the Venn is so awkward).  Then, I had them choose either George Washington or King George III out of a cup.  They did not tell anyone who they had.  I made this All About Me (George) poster for them to fill out.  They needed to fill it out in a way that the other students would know which George it was by the information on the sheet.  I am going to have this as a freebie on Monday, so come back and check it out!

3)  We are still working on fractions.  But, they finally seem to get improper and mixed numbers...mostly...

They took their test today, so I will know very soon how it went.  Stacia found this cute, free game, on TpT and my kids really like it.  It's just a different way for them to practice it in a different way.   It's a I have, Who has game but they can play in pairs or quads and make a spiral.  It's called the Mixed Number and Improper Fractions Spiral Card Game.  Click the link and it will take you to it.

4)  Stacia and I had to spend some money that our district had given us for some classroom supplies by Jan. 31st and our orders came in this week.  Our head custodian brought my box down and I clapped and told him it was like Christmas!!  I think he thought I was crazy getting so excited about supplies.  But you guys are with me, right!?!  New supplies IS like Christmas!!

So here is what came in Stacia's box:

 Here is what came in mine:

So, do you see anything wrong with these pictures????  I do!!  I see that I was cheap and tried to get the most for my money and I got generic, nonsmelly markers!!!  I see that Stacia was smart and got the best markers ever, PLUS, now they have mini-smelly-markers, too!!!  Who knew???  I think I learned my lesson.  What was I thinking??????  I wonder how much bribery it's going to take to get Stacia to share her markers with me?

The good news is, I still have one more box that should have some really fun pens in it, and I didn't go cheap this time.  So, I guess the bad came before the good and so I'll do my happy dance when that box comes too!

5)  Finally, even though I'm cheap, I'm super excited about this purchase!!  

We do have a laminator at school that we can use, but with my luck, it's never on or hot when I need it.  It's a bit of a hike to get to the media center from my room (we have a big building) and half the time I forget to take my stuff down there when we are traveling to specials.  Anyway, it's just been a process for me to get my stuff laminated at times.  So, I saw Noelle from The Frizz in First Grade mention this last week on her Five for Friday and she so sweetly replied to my comment and gave me more info.  I got this laminator for $25 at Target.  It's the kind that you put the paper in the pouch and it goes through, and VOILA!  Done.  It took no time to warm up!!  I didn't want to spend a ton on a laminator since we have one at school and I really just wanted it as a "spare" for when I just can't get my stuff done at school.  This is the perfect solution!!  I went to SAM's and got 200 sheets for $20.  I feel pretty good about it!!  And, it's the HARD lamination, not the flimsy kind!  I've almost talked Stacia into one!!  :O)

A great big thank you to these two ladies for letting us link up!

Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching    

Amanda at Teaching Maddeness

So, do you think my awesome laminator outweighs my not-so-awesome markers???

Friday Freebie

Here is our Friday freebie...just click the picture below and you can grab it!

This is a polygon poster and assessment that is in our Geometry Pack from our TpT and TN stores.  It seems that so many people are doing geometry right now, so I thought this may come in handy for some of you.

Here is a link to the entire pack if you are interested!  :O)

If you download it, please let us know how you like it!!

Monday Made It- February

We are linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!!

I'm gonna start with our home made it.  My daughter needed to make a Valentine box for school.  She is all about zebra print right now.  Her bedroom is done in zebra, hot pink, and teal.  So, in keeping with that theme, we decided to do Valentine's Day zebra style.  At first I thought we'd just wrap a shoe box in zebra print paper, throw a bow on it, and call it a day.  But, they hold a contest for these boxes, so we wanted to make it cute (I'm not competitive at all....ahem).  So my crafty voice started talking to me and I decided we needed to do something a little more.  :O)  Here is the finished product:

Here is how we made it.

 

Glitter Warning- the glittery bow left millions of pieces of glitter all over the kitchen.  But it's still cute and sparkly!!  :O)

If these directions aren't good enough, here is a link where I got the idea from, but I'm not sure if I did the same steps.  

I learned that duct tape is very versatile and easy to work with.  If we taped it on crooked, it peeled right off, even off the cardstock.  And if for some reason it hadn't, we could have just taped over it and you would have never known.  :O)

The trickiest part was tracing the side arch onto the lid to get the back end because the cardstock was flimsy and moved as I traced.  I ended up doing it too tall and then hot glued it to the box and THEN trimmed it once the duct taped cardstock was on for good.

(Did any of that make a lick of sense???  Craft picture fail.)

Here's my made it for school:

These are the dominoes that I made last year for the causes of the American Revolution (the domino effect- get it?).  I made the line and clipped it up.  We aren't supposed to have anything hang.  Oh well.  If Mr. Fire Marshall comes I'll just play, "Whaaaaat?  We aren't supposed to hang a string?   Well I declare, I had no idea!" says Amanda in her Scarlet O'Hara voice.

This is a picture of my Road to Revolution Bulletin board.  Last year I had one really long board.  This year I have 2 short boards.  I made one long timeline last year but now I'm splitting it into causes and then the actual revolution.  I put the dates and the line up.  The sheets were printed with the names of the events.  The students work in pairs and draw what happened on paper and then we put that up with the date.  They LOVE doing this and it's a great visual reminder of what happened.

Here are some Valentine centers that I printed, laminated, and cut out.  I'm super excited to use them!!  If you'd like to know where I got them from, click here for that post.

Last, but not least, I got these Monster Fraction Centers from Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper!  We are just diving into our fractions unit so they are going to have fun with these!!!  They are so cute!!

(The super cute glitter borders and hearts came from The Bubbly Blonde!)

Phew!!  I think that about covers it.  I hope you're a visual learner because this post is full of pictures!!!  Head over to the linky to find more ideas from Monday Made It!

So, what do you think about the Valentine box?  You can be honest!!  I can take it!!  ;O)

*Amanda*

Super Bowl Sunday Sale

Weeeeell.  

The moment of truth.  

What will I actually be able to afford that is in my shopping cart on TpT?  

DUN DUN DUN!  

I'm going to have to make some tough decisions.

I hope that you have your shopping fingers ready.  

There are so many great products.

What to buy?  What to buy?

I have all day to think about it, right?

Ok. 

I have to stop shopping.

You get sucked in.

Someone with ADD should not play with TpT.

Click here.

Click there.

Click everywhere.

BUT

I'm so glad that wonderful teachers make such wonderful products!

So, 

If you haven't already,

go check out the sale!

You'll be glad you did!

(unless you are ADD like me.)

:O)

*Amanda*

(This writing style is an homage to Katie at Teacher to the Core!)   ;O)

Click the picture to find more stores having a sale!

February Currently

Can you believe it's already February??  I canNOT.  Where did the time go??  How much do I still have to teach??  Ok, I can't think about THAT so instead I'll do Farley's Currently!!

Listening-  My 4 and 2 year old are playing (quite nicely) with a train set that Santa brought!  Happiness to a mother's heart!!

Loving- That it's the weekend!  More time with my littles!!  :O)

Thinking- I can't believe it's February!  Where did January go??  February seemed so far away!  I have so much to accomplish with my students.  I'm going to deny it's February for another day or so...then I'll be kicking it into high gear!!

Wanting- Something to warm my bones!!  I LOVE coffee and flavored creamer.  I am now enjoying coffee with York creamer, yet I'm still not warm...more blankets please!!

Needing- To clean.  But then I do clean and I turn around and it's messy again.  It's just this stage in life with having little ones.  I know I'll miss it one day...but I can't get motivated to clean, knowing it will be messy in 5 minutes.  So, I'll procrastinate a little longer and read blogs!  ;O)

Pet Peeves-  Disorder-  I feel very chaotic when things around me are chaotic.  My home (that's why I need to clean!), my classroom...anything.  If things are disorganized I need to organize them or it will drive me nuts!  I love to organize, but there are usually a million other things I should be doing.

Negativity-  I can be negative sometimes, we all can be.  But I can't stand when people are negative about EVERYTHING all the time.  I realize that it comes from an inner unhappiness, and I try really hard to lay on the positive.  But, when you are surrounded by it constantly, it starts to sink in. If being positive doesn't work, I tend to go into a shell (or my classroom and shut the door) and avoid it.  I want to stay away from it.  We are all stressed and I try to take away stress from others when I can, but I can't take others laying more stress on me, which is why I retreat!  I just have to find something good in everything and I know everyone is not like that, but that's how I get through the hard times!!

Ok, enough of the deep stuff!!   :O)


 Don't forget the big sale this weekend!! We will have our items for 20% off at Teachers Pay Teachers and 25% off at Teacher's Notebook!!  Our sale will be Saturday and Sunday!!   Don't forget to use the code SUPER at Teachers Pay Teachers!  :O)  Happy shopping  my friends!!


I hope you have a great weekend!
*Amanda*  

February First Five for Friday + Freebie + Flashbacks= Fantastic Fun

Can you tell we talked about alliteration this week.  I promise it won't go beyond the title of this post.  ;O)

Here are our link ups for today:

Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching

and

Amanda at Teaching Maddeness

Let's take a look at our week:

1)  Stacia's class got to play with prisms last week and we got to play this week!!

Can you see the rainbows???  Pretty!!

My girls in the bottom right corner said, "Mrs. Broadnax, look, we have a rainbow colored wound on our hands!  We are bleeding Roy G. Biv!"  That's one of the things I love about 4th graders...they are clever and funny!!  But best of all, they get my little quirks and jokes, too!! (I asked them if a leprechaun was going to jump out of their hand!!  And they laughed and started making up stories!)  :O)

2)  We are still working on fractions.  Woe....is....me....  It's a process for sure.  Right now we are working through making improper fractions into mixed numbers and vice versa.  They don't see it.  Out come the manipulatives.  And, we just learned about a new website that has TONS of common core resources for math.  You can even download the powerpoints and tweak them to meet your class's needs!!  Here it is:

You sign up (for free) and then you can search by the common core standard.  Check it out!!!  I think I may blog more about this later with visuals...maybe I'll dare to link up the a techy linky...maybe!!   ;O)

3)  We are finishing up our unit on the Road to the Revolution.  I read this book

about the battle at Lexington and Concord.  It's a GREAT book!!  They loved it!!  It was completely silent the entire time I read it (which, these days, is a miracle with my 29 students!).  Then, we had some great discussion about it!  So much more fun than the textbook!!  And Paul Revere's famous ride finally makes sense!!

4)  We are still working on figurative language.  We made a book of similes, metaphors, and then creating metaphors from similes.  Here is a picture of our books.

The simile page says, "My sister is as funny as a clown."  Then, at the bottom he says: "a.k.a- My sister really acts like a clown."

(different author)  The metaphor page says, "My sister is a pig when it comes to food."  (I'm noticing a sister theme.)

Then they had to write a simile and make it a metaphor.  It says, "She is as busy as a bee.  ->  She is a busy bee."

They are simple, but I'll take it!!

Our freebie is a graphic organizer book for figurative language.  We hope it can help you in some way!  If you think you can use it, let us know what you think about it!  :O)

          

 

5)  Last, but not least, I headed up a Relay for Life fundraiser at our school this week.  It's for a schoolwide pajama day.  We set a schoolwide goal of $750 dollars.  We raised over $1600!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am so honored to have been a part of such a great fundraiser and to see these little ones bring in their money for a good cause, sometimes sacrificing their ice cream money in order to help out!  Here we are in our pjs today!!

(Stacia wasn't at school today or I'd have gotten a picture of us in our jammies together!!)  ;O)

Don't forget the big sale this weekend!! We will have our items for 20% off at Teachers Pay Teachers and 25% off at Teacher's Notebook!!  Our sale will be Saturday and Sunday!!

How was your week??
*Amanda*