Tuesday, December 10, 2013

400 Followers!

I am working on two new products for my store. The first is a research project I'm finishing up with my 5th graders. They are creating some amazing snowmen inspired by famous artists. The second is a 3rd grade cookie multiplication/division craftivity. I hope to have both posted by Friday. (Fingers crossed.)

Back to the point of this post, I just got an e-mail saying that I am up to 400 Bloglovin' followers! To celebrate, let's play a little 'Pin it to win it' game. To enter, pin any product from my TpT store to Pinterest. Leave the link to the pin in the comments here. You may enter as many times as you would like. Each comment containing a pin counts as an entry.  I will pick three winners to pick the prize of their choice.

The game ends Sunday night after my kids are in bed. Good luck!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Winter Planning Giveaway Stop B-1

 How did it get to be December already? My Pinterest boards are brimming with winter projects to start on Monday. Speaking of winter planning, I’m excited to be part of the Winter Planning Giveaway hosted by I’m Lovin’ Lit.

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This is my favorite kind of giveaway. Everyone wins! If you haven’t been there yet, go visit I’m Lovin’ Lit for all the details. Prize Pack B has two of my favorite things: Math and Clip Art. Love it!

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For those of you who might be new to my site, I teach at an elementary school in Florida. After ten years in third grade, I am now teaching in a K-5 STEAM Lab. (Think STEM + Art.) It has been a big transition, but I am LOVING what I do!

As for my contribution to the prize pack, I’ve donated my Merry Measurement and Writing.

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I’ve made applesauce cinnamon ornaments with my class for years. When I was student teaching (over a decade ago – goodness!) my kindergarteners talked about the senses as we made the decorations. Teaching in an older grade, we added some measurement activities and then wrote about observations we made using our senses. Last year I got some great clip art that I used for writing organizers and paper for publishing the student writing. I hope you enjoy this activity as much as I have in past years.
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For my part of the giveaway, I’m asking you to please follow me:


While you are there, be sure to check out my Math QR Code games. I have several in my store, but this might be my favorite:
 
Operation Snowball Fight
I love self checking activities. My students love the games. It is a win-win! (End of shameless plug)

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Here is my secret word:

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Thank you for stopping by!

Friday, November 22, 2013

Long Time, No Post

I have dozens of pictures and tons of ideas for posts, but this year has gotten the best of me! I haven’t even managed to find time to read blogs. I miss it!

I’d like to say that I have spent all my time cleaning my house and that I am all caught up at work, but I can’t. I am happy to say that I finally have all the computers set up in my classroom.

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I’m thrilled with the computers and the tables I picked out. They are set up and functional, but there are still a few things that need to be installed/updated on the computers. I’m thrilled to actually HAVE computers though, so I won’t complain!

I also just registered for FETC. Anyone else going? I've signed up for two workshops that sound fantastic. This will be my first time and I can’t wait

At home, we’ve spent the last two weeks celebrating our birthday princess. She has never actually watched The Little Mermaid, but she loves all things Ariel.

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We brought a cake to her class at day care and celebrated at home. Instead of a party, we went to Disney last weekend. She beamed every time someone wished her a happy birthday at the parks!

My how the time flies!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Using the Wii in the Math Classroom


At the FCTM Conference last month I went to a session on gaming in the classroom. I am not a gamer. The only game I could almost play successfully was Tetris back in the day. I really stink at video games.



WiiMath

I bought my husband a Wii several years ago, but we haven’t used it in a long time. We decided to donate it to my classroom. My students were THRILLED!

At the conference we used Wii Golf to practice subtraction. I did this with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes.

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We did this as a center. I had 6-8 kids at the Wii at a time. They split into two teams. The first group recorded the math, while the second group golfed. After each student had a turn to swing they switched places. I used the SMART board to record answers.

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My first and second graders were bowling. They wrote an equation to show what happened each time a player bowled. I talked them through it. “There were 10 pins. I knocked down 8 pins. How many pins are left?” (One of those pictures was taken on Halloween. They do not usually dress like that!)

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I’ve been researching ideas online. I’ve used this site quite a bit. My students are now looking for a “math excuse” for some of the other games. We will definitely be doing this again!

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I’m linking up:

Be sure to join the math fun!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

The S.T.E.A.M. Lab Pumpkin Patch

I submitted a proposal to the PTO a few weeks ago for Pumpkin Week in the S.T.E.A.M. Lab. 

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They provided the funding to allow me to purchase two pumpkins for each of my 18 classes. (I wrote about my wonderful husband’s buying adventures here.)

Thanks to a few additional pumpkin donations, we decorated about 45 pumpkins in three days. Each class had one 50 minute class period to complete two pumpkins. I’m still recovering from the craziness of it all!

I’d planned to do a little more on the math and science components, but because I was at the math conference last week and my pumpkin deadline, it didn’t happen to the extent that I’d hoped for this year. That aside, I’m calling it a success! I’ll make changes for next year.

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We auctioned off the pumpkins at the school Halloween Howl Friday night. I haven’t seen the final figures, but two of the live auction pumpkins went for $50 each, so it should be a nice ending figure. The rest of the pumpkins were part of a silent auction.

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I’m really proud of my students. I figured out that tissue paper was the best way to “paint” the pumpkins. I coated the pumpkin with a glue/water mix using a foam brush and then the students all got to place and flatten a piece of tissue paper on the pumpkin. This way everyone got to take part and the end result was a pumpkin that looked (nearly) perfectly painted.

I took pictures of most of the pumpkins. My own two little ones arrived for the carnival at about the same time I got my pumpkins put out, so I missed a few.


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I let the 4th and 5th grade carve pumpkins with varying degrees of independence. 

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carve
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So there you have it! Pumpkin Week in the S.T.E.A.M. Lab. Enjoy!