Chevron Obsession!! (Math Stations Freebie!)

I know I know, everyone is obsessed with chevron. I feel like it started last summer but it's in FULL swing right now. I'm buying things designed with chevron, wearing things with chevron and creating things with chevron!! I just bought a bunch of digital paper on Etsy...in...chevron! My husband is like what's with the zig zags? And I told him...umm it's chevron and it's awesome right now. ;)

Alrighty, enough with my ode to chevron. I wanted to share what I've been working on. I'm creating a back to school math stations unit with easy peasy math stations for second graders. I'm creating fun stuff that is super simple to ease the kiddos back into a routine and also brush up on those first grade math skills. 

I was shocked when I moved to second to realize how many kids did not have basic addition and subtraction facts mastered. We worked on sums of ten for ummmmm the whole first semester it felt like! It was one of those things where you felt like you were beating the topic to death...and then they would still say something like 4+6=11 and you're like "AAaaaahhh I'm the worst teacher ever!!" But no, I wasn't, or at least I hope I wasn't! I figured out it just takes the kiddos repetition and multiple modes of practice. 

So what designs do you think I chose to decorate my packet with...?? One guess...yup! You're right! Chevron! :) Here is a memory match game to brush up on match facts. For this game you can let the kids play by themselves and match up the math facts or let them play with a partner and do it memory style. I always had my kids record their answers in their math journals, just for reinforcement. On the back of the cards you can use some sort of sticky dots, stickers or just mark them with different colors to make the game self checking. The first two slides have the addition problem and the second two slides have the sums. You can pick the file up here. 

Alright friends, I'm off to take Jackson to my sister-in-law's house for a little visit with his cousins! Have a great Wednesday y'all!

An oldie but a goodie!

Hey Ladies!!
If you follow my blog you know I moved and I'm trying to organize my entire house, but really focusing on organization in the office. I posted a pic a few weeks ago of what my office looked like. It looks a lot better now but I don't want to post the after picture just yet, I still have a LOT to do. 

Anyways...so as I was rummaging through old boxes of teacher stuff I have. And I found a sign I used last year during my number talks. If you're not familiar with number talks, you should definitely check out the book by Sherry Parrish. It's kind of expensive, but it comes with a dvd that has teachers modeling the practice which I thought was super helpful. I actually modeled a number talk for one of my district's math trainings, which would have been fine with me if I wasn't 9 months pregnant at the time and about to pop!! My ginormous belly probably distracted everyone from what I was teaching...but that's ok. (Oh and I remember I was wearing this really pretty gold Heidi Klum maternity top...but in the video it just made me look like a giant Cadberry egg!! HA!)

So back to number talks...basically you pose a problem to the kids but you really push wait time. For example, I would write 24+15 on the board. Instead of all of my kids throwing their hands up and yelling out answers, I ask them to think. To reinforce the process, I made a little visual aid with a red think sign, similar to a stop sign. (I found this idea in a Donna Whyte book but changed the images to suit my needs.)

Here's the original sign I made, I just covered up a stop sign I had on a popsicle stick, I think it came in one of those Dollar Tree teaching supply sets. It wasn't very pretty but it did the trick! When I held this side up, the kids could not raise their hand or talk out. It meant it was just time to THINK!

After think time was up, I would turn the sign over to a green sign that had an alarm clock going off. This meant the kids could raise their hands and share answers.  

 

We would share several answers, then I'd call on a few kids to "defend" the answer they believe is correct and we would have a discussion about the method they used for solving the problem. I liked doing this because kids who got the wrong answer could see where they went wrong and had those "Aha" moments.

I made a newer, nicer version but instead of the alarm clock I chose to write "Hands Up". 

To make the sign, print out the pages, laminate them back to back and then cut a slit to stick in the popsicle stick. Or you can laminate them separately and hot glue them together. You can pick up the file here.

Easy Peasy Back to School Math Station

Hey Friends!! I am working hard on some requests I've gotten for TEKS cards. I feel like I know every single TEK for K-5 like the back of my hand...funny! (For those non-Texans out there, the TEKS are our standards. For some reason, we decided to be one of the very few states that did not adopt common core.) 

While I was working on these, I took a break to brainstorm some back to school math stations. I remember thinking when I moved to second, "What do I put out at the VERY beginning of the year...second graders are more independent than firsties and kinders but what SHOULD they already know?" 

So I learned quickly that mastering the basic math facts and ten frame knowledge is a big deal at the beginning of second. Many of them need that review from first. I'm in the process of making a unit with back to school math stations just for little "seconds" and I came up with this diddy. 

Most second graders will find this easy peasy. It's a simple survey that they can use to ask their new friends questions. The bottom portion has some pretty basic questions for the kids to answer about their data. I included a question about the "difference" between two categories. The word "difference" always stumped my kids! Not only will this serve as an introduction/review of data analysis but it will double as a little ice breaker activity. 

I made two: colors and subjects. I'll include more in my upcoming math stations packet. Here's a freebie that you can put in your math stations at the beginning of the year, use as an ice breaker or store and take it out during your data unit later in the year. Pick it up here.

Back to School Survey Freebie

Hola! I'm about to head over to the pediatrician for Jackson's well visit, but wanted to post this little freebie for ya. This is a simple little diddy that you can use for those first days back, when you want to learn more about your kids but also want to keep them busy at their seats while you're doing lunch count, attendance, helping kids get unpacked, etc, etc! 

The front side is a simple version of just favorites, could be used in 1-3 grade. The second page is more fill in the blank style questions. I would use the second page in 2-4th, might be tough for first graders at the beginning of the year. Pick it up here and keep it in your files for that back to school crazy time! :)

Happy Thursday Y'all!

Rain!! :) And don't you love the dollar bins?

Hey Ladies!! I'm feeling pretty thankful today because we are getting RAIN! YAYY!! My husband and I just sprayed nematodes in our yard for pest control and we are supposed to make sure our yard is moist. Well...keeping our yard moist is quite difficult because we live in south Texas and are under drought conditions at the moment! My husband has had to water by hand every night but we are super stoked to see some dark clouds and little water droplets falling from the sky! WOO HOO!! (I guess I don't have to do my rain dance anymore...) ;) 

Alright so this is not my "back to school" hectic time, but it is my friend's! I helped her setup her number line and brought some cute Dr. Seuss flashcards for her kids back to school gifts. They were $1 each at Target...and I actually got a few free. Target was having a promotion going. Yay! I love free. :)

Check out all the Dr. Seuss stuff in the Target dollar bins!

Here's a pic of the transportation signs I made for her. I'll be updating my Dr. Seuss classroom decor pack with these cute little signs:

And the shapes posters...(color posters are on my list!)

I've had a lot of Texas teachers emailing me about TEKS cards with different designs so I need to go get to work! Y'all have a good one!