Measurement...Twice the fun!!

I spent some time this evening looking online for some {free} fun ways to review measurement when I came across this darling FREE activity from Hooty's Homeroom on TpT.

It was exactly what I was looking for and did I mention that it's FREE! Right away I started printing things out so I could cut and laminate. I knew that I wanted to do this activity in a "scoot" sort of fashion to get kids up and moving. I was in my office getting pretty excited...oh, the things us teachers get excited over. While things were printing, I figured I would be a responsible TpT downloader and leave Hooty some feedback. 

As I scrolled down the feedback page you'd never guess what I saw!

Yep, that's right folks. I've already downloaded this activity AND left feedback. I felt like such a doofus, but in my defense it was way back in June the first time around.

Head on over to TpT and download this right away. If it's good enough for me to download twice, it's gotta be top notch stuff. Thanks {again} Hooty for your generosity!

Introducing Fractions

Today I introduced fractions with a short little lesson that took about 30 minutes. I used 4 sheets of construction paper per student. Each student will need a pair of scissors and a markers. 

Here's what you'll end up with at the end of the lesson.

My students were thrilled the minute the scissors and markers were passed out. I had their attention...first part of the battle, right.

I started with the blue piece. I passed one to each student and explained that this would represent one whole. They wrote a 1 in the middle. 

Then, I passed out the green piece. Without using the words half or halves (tricky, trust me!) I walked them through folding and cutting the green paper into two pieces. I asked a series of questions until we were all in agreement that these were called halves and that you write the fraction 1 over 2. 

I continued with this same process for the other two colors. 

Then we spent some time discussing how many one-eighth pieces are needed to cover half, and how many one-fourth pieces are needed to cover half. Without knowing it, they were reasoning through some equivalent fractions on day 1 of this unit! Yahoo!!

I had one student show me his pieces laid out like this:  

He thought it was so cool that he made a neat pattern with his fraction pieces. 

Here's how our little conversation went:

ME: So, you have one-half and how many one-eighth pieces.
HIM: Four
ME: And four one-eighth pieces is how much?
HIM: Four-eighths...?
ME: Right, and how much of your one whole is covered by your one-half and your four-eighths?
HIM: The whole thing.
ME: Wonderful. So, one-half plus four-eighths must equal what?
HIM: One whole.

Now addition concepts on day one! I could have done a cartwheel right there in class. Nothing beats hands on math. Now get to your class and start cutting those fractions squares people!!      

What?! You mean you can't read upside down and backwards?

I've been working on some fun posts to schedule for the next couple of weeks and when I popped in to check on my blog I found several pictures upside down, backwards, or scrambled up!

See what I mean...

Apparently there is a problem with Picasa Web Albums (which is what Google uses to store pics) supporting .TIFF files, which many of mine are. I don't know all the "techy" details as to why my files are formatted that way, I don't know what .TIFF means, but I do know that I'm super bummed by how crazy my blog is looking!

Picasa is {allegedly} working on a fix and hopefully it comes sooner rather than later. In the meantime, bear with me and keep in mind that I am NOT a crazy lady posting upside down, wacky photos. 

Happy spring break folks! 

Techy Tidbit: Remind 101

My all time favorite teacher app is Remind 101. 

I cannot tell you how often I send that last kiddo out the door and then, bam! I realize that I forgot to tell them that the lunch menu for tomorrow has changed, or that I postponed their history test until Monday, or that their library books are due tomorrow.....the list can seriously go on forever. 

With Remind 101 I don't have to stress because I can easily send a mass text (or email) to the parents who have subscribed to this service.  

Your parents send a text or email to a number that has been assigned to your class. When they do that, they are automatically enrolled as a subscriber.

Here's what that looks like through the app. If you go the website you can find a cute printable to send to parents. 

Once in the app, I can create a new text message that will automatically be sent to all subscribers. The best part is that I didn't have to type everyone's email into a group or put everyone's cell phone number in my phone. No need for me to have their number and no need for them to have mine!
 

 
This is a completely FREE service that I have really enjoyed having. I get great feedback from the parents too. 


You can see a great video tutorial over at Mrs. Standford's Class.

More and Less- A Math Activity

Every year the unit on place value, number sense, regrouping (for number sense, not computation) and rounding gives my kiddos such trouble. I need a lot of resources in my aresenal to allow them to work with place value concepts. 

This more and less activity where students draw out a card, write the number in the middle column of their recording sheet, and then fill in the more and less column was a great way to accomplish this. It helps students think about how place values change and what happens to numbers when this occurs. 

And with adorable ladybugs, perfect little polka dots, and the beautiful bright red color, you can't help but feel cheery while you're doing math!

 

I like the idea of having those little blanks before more and less so I can decide if I want everyone doing 100 more and 100 less, 10 more and 100 less, or if I want to individualize for each student. If I don't want to use the cards I'll just fill in the center column before running my copies.

The cards can be kept in a plastic baggie or container and set in your math center.

I started creating this resource way back in the beginning of the year and for whatever reason it never got finished. Probably because life and school happened! Earlier this month I was able to put the finishing touches on it. I'll definitely be using it when we get to review math center activities.

You can check it out here.