Math March Madness

I’ve mentioned before that I love SumDog. I gave a Tech Tuesday presentation to interested colleagues earlier this year. In the course of the training, someone mentioned having a tournament. I’ve been throwing around the idea all year. Now that March is here, it was time to act!

I managed to put together 16 teams from grades 1-6. I logged onto Sumdog and created teams based on each class. Then I entered an activity for each match-up. The two classes compete to have the highest average score. On Monday morning we will announce the classes that move to the next round in the bracket. Because the questions are adaptive, the students can compete across grade level for the highest number of correct answers.



I created this bulletin board to track scores daily. I used these awesome free basketball frames. I'm writing the scores on the teacher’s team sign using dry erase marker. The visual has been a big help to the students who weren’t too familiar with the bracket idea before this contest!



I often use SumDog contests in my classroom. I had monthly contests to find the “Top Turkey” and “Top Elf".” I offer the top 5 finishers a homework pass. To sweeten the deal I offer an extra homework pass for ever 5,000 correct answers. One month my top students answered over 15,000 math questions correctly. That is a LOT of math questions!



I created this little freebie that I use to award my “Top Dogs.” Click on the picture to download a copy for yourself!

While last year I did just fine with the free features, my school does now have a subscription to SumDog. For our summer challenge, the top student answered over 30,000 questions correctly. The numbers are impressive. The kids love the games. They will answer Common Core aligned questions for hours at a time. They do not view it as work – in fact they see time on SumDog as a reward! With numbers like that, I was able to convince my AP that it was worth the cost to get the reports and extra features.

This is not a sponsored post. I just really love using SumDog in the classroom and at home. I do not have to give nearly as many timed multiplication tests as I used to do. SumDog at home and school is a much less painful option!

Have you tried SumDog?

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I’m linking up my Spring Bulletin Board with a Techie Twist:

Happy Tuesday!

Currently

March is one of my favorite months! I’m loving the Currently template this time around!



LISTENING: So I starting working on this last night. While a napping three-year-old would be ideal, it is not looking likely right now! Though it is just about time for the little one to head to dreamland…

LOVING: My husband is from Cork, Ireland. His parents and five siblings all still live there. I take advantage of my “Irish by Marriage” status year round, but especially in March!

THINKING: I rolled over in bed a couple of nights ago and realized that I had been dreaming about fractions. My student teacher is at 100%, so she is doing all the teaching right now. Math and specifically fractions are the thing she is least comfortable with, so I have been working on some activities for them to do to help her out.

WANTING: One of the Irishman’s sisters was in town last week. She’d offered to babysit so we could go on a date night. Instead we had sick kids who got the two of us sick. I was reading this post and drooling. We are lacking in the babysitter department and usually only go out when we have family visit. My dad is the next to come visit. Here’s to hoping he offers to babysit!

NEEDING: All those fractions I’ve been thinking about? I’ve only finished 1/4 of the products I’ve started. I’d started this font back in January and finally finished it last night:



Then there are the projects around the house. My to do list might stand a chance if I didn’t keep adding to it! Sigh.

LIKE, LOVE, HATE: I know I cannot be the only ‘J’ in the world who hates finding things that start with the same letter as your first name. I play a game with my summer camp kids each year and think the same thing.

I’m a team player though, so here goes: I like jello. It isn’t my favorite. I don’t hate it. It is just a like.

I LOVE jellybeans. When I am REALLY stressed I can go through a bag without stopping. Both times I went back to work after maternity leave my husband bought me a Costco sized tub of jellybeans to get me through the first week.

I HATE juggling work and home. I throw my all into everything I do. Try as I might, I still feel like I am juggling to keep everything balanced. I always feel like I should be doing more!

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I am part of The Sister Teachers’ 400 Follower Giveaway. I found this blog through a pin on Pinterest and have been a follower for a while now! There are lots of great prizes, so stop by and check it out!

Five for Friday

Friday, again?

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My new case

My IPEVO Wishpool wish came today. I am in love with my new iPad case. Seriously. I love it. I was carrying it around with me for most of the day. One of my friends was teasing me about it. She joked that it even matched my shirt. Expect photos soon.

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Fractions

This week was all about fractions! I bought more fraction clip art than I care to admit this week. Bring on the fraction activities!



I’ve just posted this pack. We’ve broken up our fraction unit into two parts. This pack covers the fraction identification piece. Number lines are big in third grade and with common core, so I’ve included that as well.

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More fractions!

At the FCTM conference last October I went to every fraction session I could find! One of the activities I saw was fractions on an open number line.

I bought all this great fraction clip art, so I made these fraction outfits to practice on the line.
I’ll be adding this to my store once I create a few worksheets for my class…and to finish the pack.

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Shhh! Don’t tell anyone!

I have a secret. 

I’m not a big fan of the Dr. with a birthday this week. It isn’t that I don’t like his books. I just don’t feel the need to spend an excessive amount of time on in them.

I know. You can start throwing stones now!

I vaguely remember being so excited about my first copy of Hop on Pop. Then I remember asking my mom what the whole thing was actually about. At seven I was concerned about a lack of plot.

I was a bit of an odd child that way!

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Cold!

The Irishman is still getting over his cold, but this cold has to do with the weather! We are getting the longest, coldest weather of the year this week. I can’t wait! Florida cold is nothing to most of you, but I’ll take it!

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Have a great weekend!

Check it out!

I do most of my blogging/TpT work late at night after my kids are in bed. With company in town from across the pond, illness, and projects, this week has worn me out! Wednesday night I had to struggle to stay awake until my three-year-old went to bed.

I meant to post all week about a giveaway.



I’ve donated any two items in my TpT store to the winner. Be sure to stop by and check it out!
In other news, I have just finished a fraction pack I am really happy with! The Irishman is proofreading it for me so I can post it tomorrow. I decided I had to finished a couple of these projects before I could start another!

Hall Pass

I saw this earlier in the week and meant to participate. My Google Reader Account is now full of Hall Passes! Such a great idea!

P- Product

My favorite product in my store is my (Math) Operation Snowball Fight.



My class still asks to play this as a review during math centers. I  am a big fan of the self-checking QR codes!

A- Area

This corner of my room is my favorite. In fact I just moved the carpet over so that it faces that direction.

What I like about it:

The quilt on the chair was part of a service learning project I did as an undergrad for my honor’s thesis. The class voted to have me keep the quilt so I could repeat the project with future classes. Since then my future classes have donated quilts for media centers post-Katrina and raised $3,000 by auctioning quilts for Haitian Earthquake Relief. 

The frog chalkboard was a class auction gift a couple of years ago. As I’ve mentioned before, the principal let me paint the rest of the door with the chalkboard paint. I post a question of the day for my students to answer. The kids still get a kick out of writing on the door and we’ve done it all year!

The curtain was one of my projects this summer. It is actually half a fitted bed sheet wrapped around a tension rod. (I got the idea from this pin.) I tied it up with two pieces of ribbon and had instant no-sew curtains. I used the flat sheet as the background on my bulletin board. (see below)

The flowers are a recent addition, but daffodils from my Irishman make me smile!

S – Signal

I was fortunate last year to take a slightly extended maternity leave. My sub started the year and I took over mid-December. For the most part it was great. There was one habit though that made me crazy.

My students had been trained to use the finger signals when they had to go to the bathroom. As in hold up one finger or two depending on….well….you know. I couldn’t handle it. To me that falls in the category of TMI.

Then I found this on Pinterest. The link here is for free printable classroom sign language posters. What I love most is that they are based on real sign language.

My students use sign language to ask to go to the restroom or to get a drink of water. When they raise their hands, they use the sign language to let me know if they have an answer, a question, or a comment. 

They have small individual posters for each sign or the one page overview. I used the poster machine to enlarge the one pager, but I may go back to smaller signs and post only those we use regularly.

To transition between activities I try to incorporate a brain break. I posted about a few of my favorite websites for transitions last week in this post. Also pictured here are even more free brain break resources. (Link 1 and Link 2)

S – Sanity

I used to live for reading blogs during my lunch break. Everyone at my school takes a working lunch alone in their classroom. Now that I have a student teacher in my room with me, sitting at my desk reading blogs might be considered a *tad* antisocial!

Other sanity savers: audiobooks from the library on my phone and photos of my kids posted behind my desk.

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Now I’m off to read some of the other posts with a cup of tea and a cupcake from Costco. Yummy!

Five for Friday

For a short week, it sure felt like a long one! It always seems to work that way though!

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Boosterthon

 

Today was the big day! After a week of cheers and pledges, today was our Fun Run. I used some of my new clip art from Creative Clips to make our class sign.

My class held the sign as they walked together around the track towards the end, so it is a little beat up! 

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Fonts

 

The font on the sign is one I created myself. I have to tweak it a little, but I almost have it ready to post. St. Patrick’s Day is a BIG deal in my family, so I had to have a font to match!
I have come across a few things written in my Sully Lovely Class List Font. I even got an e-mail from someone who said they used it all month. That made my day! I’m still starting out and improving, but it makes me feel good knowing people are using what I created!
Check back soon for Sully Lucky!

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Wishpool

 

Last week I read a blog post about IPEVO Wishpool. The teacher in the post had just received an iPad keyboard/case and a telescoping stylus. My own stylus recently met an untimely death. I have never heard of a telescoping stylus, but I love the idea of being able to reach across the table to share an iPad in a small group.

I’ll let you know how it works. My wish was granted this week and my items shipped today. I'm super excited!

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Donors Choose – Worms

 

Another blog I read last week was about a Donors Choose project a teacher had funded. I got to thinking about it and decided to apply myself.

I was awarded a grant from the local chamber of commerce about five years ago to purchase this:



I had a successful vermicomposting project going on for a while. Then I went on maternity leave. My class survived my absence, but the worms did not.



The PTO replaced my worms and all was good. Then I had baby number two. Again the class was fine, but the worms did not make it. I have no intention of going on leave anytime soon, and I have an empty worm bin that is just taking up room.

Thanks to Donors Choose, there are about 4 pounds of red worms on their way to refill my Can-O-Worms. My class is SO excited about the project. They are already planning the healthy snacks they will bring so that they can feed the”trash” to the worms. Success!

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Sharing Germs

 

I got a call from the nurse at the kids’ day care last Friday that my oldest was sick. After four days with a fever and cough we got her to the doctor and on the mend. Of course if you have kids you know that means it is onto the next one! My husband was home sick on Thursday. After two days of migraines, I’m now fighting this cold, but not successfully. At this point I can only hope the little guy doesn’t catch our germs.

My sister-in-law in in town from across the pond. We have not been the best of hosts. I’m hoping she doesn’t get sick! She did bring over some Karvol Capsules. I love these things! They are like aromatherapy oils that you put on a cloth near the head of the bed. I can’t find them anywhere in the states – or anything like them. I usually use them sparingly when the kids are really sick, but now that our stash has been replenished I am using one just for me.

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Enjoy your weekend!

Links to Make You Boogie

I have a reputation at school for being a bit techy. I have loved following this linky the last couple of weeks, so I thought I would join in with a few of my favorite finds.

Up first is a website I use quite a bit for transitions. Need students to clean up from one activity and get out supplies quickly? ClassTools.net Timer is the answer.



What sets this one apart is the music. There is a drop menu of songs to choose from. Need a quick tidy? I recommend 57 seconds of Hawaii 5-0. Not long enough? Watch the kids scramble when you play 2 minutes and 30 seconds of Mission Impossible.

I keep saying I am going to try this with my husband. I wonder if 5 minutes and 37 seconds of Star Wars is enough time to do the dishes?

I also use this timer without the music for timed math tests. I enter my time and project it on the screen so students can track how much time is left as they work.

My other new favorite find is a bunch of YouTube videos perfect for a brain break. I found Koo Koo Kangaroo on Pinterest. The Irishman looked over at me while I was watching Dinosaur Stomp one night.

He couldn’t believe I was going to show that to my class. I did. They LOVED it. We have bookmarked all the Koo Koo Kanga Roo Dance Along videos, and we take a dance break 1-3 times a day.

Some of the favorites:

No Crust

LMNOP

A word of advice – the dance along videos are best for the classroom. One of the other third grade teachers did one of their regular videos by mistake and couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about.  I have them bookmarked and choose a student to decide which one we will dance to when we need a brain break.

What is your favorite site for a brain break?

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My  big project for the weekend was to set up a Facebook page for my blog. I'd love it if you would follow me there! I just read about posting freebies for Facebook followers and I hope to try that out in the next couple of weeks.