Guided Math Resources from Oriental Trading

I am excited about this post for two big reasons: 

One, I had no idea that Oriental Trading had so many resources specifically for teachers and they are priced for a teacher budget. And two, I get to give away a set of everything I show you so that you have the chance to use it in your own classroom!! #winning

You can check out the video above to see these resources in action!

When choosing the things I wanted to try out I thought about all of you. Many of us are just getting started with guided math and others have been at it for a couple of years and are still trying out what works best. Guided math is by far my favorite time of day. My kids love it and I have an opportunity to help them explore new concepts and ideas in small group settings where we can really dig deep and challenge our thinking. 

I wanted to try out resrouces that would help us all do that in our own classrooms. I am new to first grade this year so if I'm being honest, I am still yet to discover all the ways I will be able to use these resources to help students build number sense. Here are some of the ideas I've come up with so far. 

These dry erase math skills boards were a favorite in our house. The dry erase marker wipes off so easily. They are perfect for encouraging kids to show their thinking in multiple ways. On the front side there is a 120's chart and on the back ten frames and numberlines. 

Kids could add, subtract, count, or make ten using dominoes, flashcards, dice, counting bears, or a number spinner. My son loved racing forward and backward to and from 120. This is a game that you could play with a partner using two different colored dry erase markers. Each partner rolls a die and each time moves forward on the number line. The first partner to 120 wins. 

These come in a package of 30 and if you have more than 30 kids in your class, I'm sorry. Been there a million times and it stinks to have to buy a second package of something for a few kids. 

The weiner dog number line sliders are a lot of fun. The slider moves smoothly and easily. They would be a great way for kids to get hands on practice using a number line.  These come in a pack of 12 so though there may not be enough for your whole class, they are perfect for a guided math group or to have out for kids to access during math time. 

These bead slides are perfect for helping students develop one to one correspondence. As they are counting, adding or subtracting they touch and slide each bead. They are sturdy and won't break. I also love that they come with 48 slides and in all of these colors to help kids visualize number relationships. 

Last are these number bond cards. They came with a huge stack of cards to provide tons of practice. I plan on having them out on my group table after kids are familiar with them. While I am helping the rest of the class get settled during math centers the kids in my group can work on these while they're waiting those couple of minutes. I am so impressed with all of the dry erase products. I've bought many other things where the marker still shows, even if it is just slightly. This is not the case with Oriental Trading products. After wiping off the marker they still look brand new. 

Oriental trading now has a teacher wish list. I love that I can add things I need for my classroom and share with parents and friends. You can check out my teacher wish list and create your own HERE. 

Now on to the good stuff! Do you want to win everything you see here for your classroom? Just enter using the Rafflecopter! 

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We are Rounding Stars! Freebie rounding centers, parent page and song!!

My kids are rounding stars!!

This year I decided to teach rounding a little differently. I really thought about when and how I use rounding- when I'm shopping, of course! Since we were moving I had more newspaper ads than usual so I set to work making this chart.

I told the kids that I like to get my Christmas shopping done before everyone else to avoid the crowds. I also explained that I like to make sure I was getting a deal and asked for their help in rounding these prices. Visualizing them on a # line from the very beginning helped to solidify the concept for the majority of kids. For those that didn't grasp it right away I already knew that they were lacking strength is number sense so I worked  more on that with them during our small group time. 

After our chart we did some practice in our journals. Obviously we're not going to draw a number line every time we need to round a number. After some practice kids really got it though and didn't need to draw the number line.

As another strategy I introduced the rhyme:
4 or less let it rest
5 or more raise the score
We practiced using these steps:
1. Underline the place you're rounding to
2. Circle the neighbor aka the boss
3. If it's 4 or less let our neighbor rest and I it's 5 or more up the score.
4. Everything to the right turns to 0's

I'm sure you know the schpiel, schpee??? (uh, is that even a word?) so we'll move on :P

In my homework binder I always include a page in our "help" section when we begin anything new. This helps families when they are feeling stuck at home. Here is the help page I used for rounding:

You can grab yours by clicking the picture!

I've explained my math block before. You can check it out here.

After a few whole group lessons we started some rounding centers while strengthening our skills in small groups. We have been playing roll n' round, spin n' round and pumpkin round! I promise I'm not trying to brag, but the kids are so engaged and independent during this time that you could literally hear a pin drop! These centers are in my TpT store for the price of FREE. All I ask is that you pretty please leave your feedback!! Click the picture below to download yours. 

And I have one last thing for you! This is really just for funzies and keeping em engaged. I have a lot of fun rewriting familiar songs to the tune of learning. This time I decided to go with "Rounding Stars" to the tune of Counting Stars by One Republic. Whatever gets them pumped for learning right?!?! Enjoy!

Click the picture for your copy. 

Math Center Quick Tip: No more mixed up centers or sorting cards!!

Hello, dear readers! I am coming to you tonight with a quick tip. 

I think it is purely genius and it has saved me many headaches not to mention- precious time!

It was some time last year when it hit me. I was sorting through math centers that had become mixed together. I can't imagine how because I know kids always zip those little baggies and make sure to gather every single piece before putting them away. Who are we kidding!?!? It never fails no matter how many times we remind or how much we emphasize the importance pieces always end up getting left out or worse you end up sorting what feels like a thousand cards that all look the same to make sure that every center has the correct cards. Well no more of that!

Solution: 

This is the easiest thing ever it just looks like a lot of steps. I hope I explain it well!

1. Figure out how many pages you will need to copy for each center. For example if there are 4 pages of cards and 1 game board you will need 5 pages per center. 

2. Gather 5 pages of a variety of construction paper colors. (5 red, 5 blue, 5 pink, 5 purple, etc.) You should have as many colors as you have centers. If I have 6 kids per center at a time then I will need 6 different colors. 

3. Once you have gathered the construction or colored paper put it in the bypass tray of the copy machine. Place your originals for the math center in the paper feed on top. 

4. Choose the number of copies you will need (the number of paper colors you have/centers). Click sort and START. (It's very important to click sort so that the all pages are on one color. If you forget this then page 1 will be all orange, page 2 will be all green etc. so choose SORT.)

5. The centers will copy and each center will be on a different color!

This piece actually showed up on my desk yesterday. It was perfect timing for a math piece to be forgotten. No problem I just handed it to a student and asked them to find the green center. It was put away without any extra work! 

On another note, my class is amazing. I don't mean to brag, but I just love em'! Here are a couple of pictures of kids hard at work on our newest center. Happy teaching friends!!

Math Workshop Made Easy

I started guided math workshop a few years ago. 

I made many mistakes along the way, sometimes right smack in the middle of all the action.

 When something isn't working I am not afraid to drop kick it set it aside and try something else, keeping my fingers crossed and teeth gritted that the next thing I try really will be better. 

I have been asked by a few teachers how I make guided math and 

math workshop work in my classroom. There's no big secret, just what works for me. 
 I thought I would outline some key points. 

Keep in mind that I am no expert and like anyone else I make changes each year. 

Every class is different and what worked one year may not work the next. 

One year I had a class of 42. There was no buddy math happenin' that year 

{Puh-leaze! I am crazy but not that crazy!!} 

It was too much chaos, too much noise and things always got out of hand. 

It was just the way it had to be for that group of kids. 

I can't wait to share our math workshop launch with you all, but for now this will have to do!

#1: I only rotate groups when needed. Kids need predictability and the consistancy of their group gives them some of that. This is not to say that my groups are not fluid, but I don't change them unless I have given an exit slip or other assessment that tells me I need to. I also have an easy 
method for changing and moving group members. Students are aware of what group they are in and I don't have to type anything out or put in more work that what is necessary. 

#2: I keep 2-3 centers at a time and change them out once a month on average. Changing out centers too often creates more work and introducing new centers takes important time away from teaching.  It also doesn't allow enough time for kids to become confident and familiar with the center and standards. By keeping the same centers for a longer period of time students gain confidence in the skill and are more likely to remain on task. 

#3: When I introduce a center I either do it as a whole class game or I teach it in small groups. This helps me to ensure that every student is competent with the skill and center before sending them out to work independently. I am not sure there is anything I dread more than discovering that someone has been practicing a skill incorrectly!!

 #4 When students are not in small group with me they are 100% independent. I spend 20 minutes with each small group. Every second of that time counts! I do not help students log on to the computer, or remind them how to play a math center. Which leads me to my fifth point...

#5 Slow and steady makes everybody ready!!! 

I introduce everything slowly and until students have the needed stamina 

with the first math choice I don't introduce anything new. 

I start with Math Writing because everyone can do  it at the same time. We slowly build and keep track of our stamina during math writing and once students reach 20 minutes I introduce the first math center. Just like anything else those first few weeks of school I model, they model, we practice again and again and again and AGAIN x 50! 

Once my kids can handle math writing and 1 center then I introduce a second center. Once groups of students can do math writing and centers for 20 minutes then I introduce math technology. 

At this point I haven't done any small groups.
After all choices are introduced we go back to the beginning but with all math choices.
I start with 5 minutes of all choices running plus a small group.
This is the first time that I have been working with a group while they are independent. When students can make it 5 minutes we increase to 10, then 15 and finally 20! It can take a few weeks, but once those few weeks are over and every kid is successfully independent during math workshop and I can attend to individual students needs every ounce of patience was worth it for the rest of the year!

 Here is my math workshop board. I use those little white boards to write student names for each group. It makes it easy to make quick changes! Here are the cards I use too. They are editable so you can add math choices that fit your classroom. When I rotate them I simply move one to the right each time so that every group completes each activity. 

I hope this was helpful! Happy teaching!

Just click any picture to grab your copy of all the math workshop cards. I laminated mine and put a magnet on the back of each. You will need to download the font Howser HERE or you can go in and change all of the fonts. If you would rather have the PDF instead you can grab that HERE. 

B2S Prepping '13 New Mommy Style

Having two little ones at home is a whole new world for me. I am so used to be able to do it ALL and that just does not happen these days. At first I would make these extensive to do lists that I hoped to complete each day. That lasted about hmmmm... 1 day until I was crying over all the things I was "supposed" to do and didn't. That was early on so don't worry I am not a sobbing mess anymore. I have a new outlook and it makes a lot more sense. 

I get done what I get done and if I get nothing done that's that. 

It's sort of an "It is what it is" mentality and right now it just works. I am too Type A (all the way) to just do nothing this time of year when kids will be filling my room in just a short couple of weeks whether I will be the one there to greet them or not. 

My back to school prepping has been a little more here and there than usual. I leave crossing a few things off my list on a good day and sometimes I cross nothing off. Things are still falling into place though and I am so lucky to have such an amazing teacher in my place while I am away. 

Here is some of what I worked on today. Averie had her 2 month check up and that tired her out. After a full belly she slept the whole time. Conner made messes and entertained me. I loved taking them with me. I didn't miss out on a second with them!

This is our focus wall. The writing poster is a place holder for now. When I make it to the store it will be replaced with a giant piece of notebook paper to add daily homework. -- More on that part later (see bits and pieces). 

Here is a close up of the I can... portion. 

This little guy will tell us the pages we should begin with each day so that I don't have to repeat my self 150,000 times. :) 

Is my theme for this year obvious yet? Love these elephants!

Math board. There will be more on this later, as well. In short it will show Math rotations for small groups and below the kids will add the vocabulary we are currently using. 

This will be the math word wall. The vocabulary words will rotate over here as we add current ones. The titles/headings are straight from common core. 

Got these clocks at Ikea and they are perfect to show off important transitions in our day. 

Well there is the quick run down. I promise to be back to tell you more about the Math Vocab. and the Focus wall soon and give ya some freebies. 

I HEART you!

I think I came off just a teensy bit grumpy yesterday... I have to say I am loving being pregnant and do feel incredibly blessed (INCREDIBLY) to be gifted with another little miracle in my life. Being the only prego in my little circle of friends I think sometimes I jump at the opportunity to vent aka whine (waaa waaaa waaaa) and I need to remember to share all that I am loving too!

So even though this is not a very "teachery" post so far (hang in there, I promise) I thought I should share all that I am loving about this sweet little (fingers crossed, do I dare say it?) girl. We don't know yet but as you can tell I am hopeful. 

1. I love you... yes you, sweet baby growing inside me. I didn't feel Conner until about 20 weeks. This time around I am feeling you squirm and wiggle all day long. It is THE best feeling!

2. My belly! I was so concerned with growing out of my pre-mom jeans last time that I didn't truly enjoy that baby belly. I find that I cannot keep myself from rubbing it. Maybe this Buddha is bringing me some luck. 

3. Everything baby. I cannot wait to see those sweet little tiny toes, soft little cheeks and to soak in that new baby smell. 

4. Big brother is getting older by the second and is not afraid to show it. I have been reading (not to mention, sobbing over) all of his baby books, pregnancy journaling and memorabilia. It is making me soak up just how little he is no matter how grown up he may believe he is. 

Thank you all for your sweet support and listening to me whine. I am glad I have family, friends plus my blogsters!

And, as promised on to the teachery portion...

Last year I bought these cutesy pie heart shaped containers from the dollar tree. They came 12 in a pack..... doesn't get any better than dirt cheap. I just couldn't let them go to waste so I made this fun little division game!

Each heart has a certain number of beads in it. Kids count the beads and find it on the game sheet. They then use the beads to practice dividing and recording the correct quotient.

The containers stay closed pretty well but I can certainly foresee pieces getting left behind. I have a couple of kiddos who need some counting practice so at the end of each day it will be their job to count the beads in each container and make sure that it matches the number I have written on the bottom of each container. This will help to make sure the center stays (my fave) neat, clean and tidy! You could also give this job to those sweets who are just always asking if you need help with anything. I am sure you have a few!

If you can't find the hearts I am sure you can find something just as cute to use.

Click on the picture for your freebie recording sheet!

If you do try it out let me know what your kids think... I would love the feedback. Happy dividing!

Sunday FUNday... Math Technology

Happy Sunday and Martin Luther King Day!

Over the weekend my principal ask me to lead a portion of our upcoming Curriculum and Instruction day. These are those teach inservice days we have been given in place of our prep-time this year.

I was asked to talk with our staff about IXL and how I use it in my classroom. If you have not heard of IXL you are missing out!

For the past two years our district has purchased a license for the site and every teacher and student in the district has access at home and at school. Each student has a username and password. When entering IXL they can practice skills at any level from pre-k through eighth grade. As the teacher you have access to reports that show individual student performance, time practiced, skills mastered, skills student need more practice on and more. Before our district purchased a license I created a 30 day free trial using my email. I loved it so much that I just could not give it up. My students practiced at home and loved when I would get them a specific challenge to complete. When my 30 days were up I have to confess (shhhhh) I created another 30 day trial on another email address. I considered asking families to send $5 for an IXL membership the next year. Lucky me, the district was on the same page and I didn't have to!!

While exploring IXL, I have discovered that :

-You can change your students passwords to something generic and easy

-You can hide the grade level labels so that students don't feel self-conscious about practicing a 1st grade skill when they are in 3rd grade (very handy for me)

- You can print a letter to send home to families with each student's username in password

I am going to share these tricks and several more with my team teachers next week. You should check out the site and create yourself a few 30 day trials too. I am sure you'll love it. Oh yes, I forgot to say that all of the skills and practice are based on CCSS! 

Let me know if you have any questions about getting started. My kids and their families love it!

It's the most wonderful time of the (school) year!

I think I will start this with a random thought.. I am feeling just a tad bit random as per usual. You know that "Mama" commercial for the movie with the spooky girls? I am sure you do because I feel like it is on every 5 seconds. This is why I cover my ears and close my eyes whenever I watch T.V. or for that matter when my hubs watches T.V. It doesn't matter how distracted I may be with whatever I am doing. I hear that commercial and I freak. I just don't like it one tiny bit!!! I don't know how I ever watched these scary movies. I feel like back in high school that was all we went to see. Even then I buried by face in Josh's arm. That was before I knew he would be dealing with my fraidy cat ways for life! I can't wait until that dang movie finally comes out so they can stop showing the preview, ugh.

On a less random note I am starting to feel like my self again. I started creating again last week and I haven't needed an afternoon nap in a lil over a week now. That is sayin' a lot people, lemme tell ya! After the break it actually feels really nice to back to work and into the routine. Just because I am not crazy sleepy doesn't mean I am not crazy emotional though. I cry over ev-er-y-thing! Sometime I am not even sure why I'm crying. It's all a stage though I am thankful for each and every bit of it.

My two favorite times of the school year are September and right after Christmas break. I love all of the newness, and feeling of school, fall and meeting my sweet kids in September. After Christmas break there is just this sense of routine though that I feel more than any other time of the year. The kids are refreshed and ready to learn. I am refreshed and ready to teach my booty off! 

Now that my thirds have been introduced to the basics of multiplication we are moving on and adding the more complex pieces. This week we worked on what I like to call the CheeriO trick. Hopefully this will explain...

They think this trick is pretty darn cool. For extra practice and to free me up for small groups they practice with Cheerio Memory. 

This week we are going to learn more about the commutative property. I have included Triple Times War as a freebie just for you here... you know I can't blog without a freebie! I just love em! Click the picture to get yours. BTW I was going to use dice but when multiplying 3 numbers if the product gets to high on the first roll it creates quite the problem. The spinner keeps the product low enough on the first and second spin so that they can find the final product on the third spin. 

You can also get these and other ready to go centers in my Multiplication Centers and Activity Pack from TPT!

Soooo sleepy, but I have a FREEBIE!

I wondered for a while why I just could not find the energy to blog about everything we are doing at school. I mean I always think this is seriously cute, or this is amazing, wow my kids are really getting this I have to remember to share!! Well, for one I can't seem to remember to take pictures. I am barely making it through the day getting every little thing done that I had scheduled to do. When I walk those last little sweeties to the bus I was practically falling asleep at my desk. When I got home there was no way I was thinking about turning on the computer... no sirrreeee!

Well....

 I figured out just why my lids have felt so heavy lately!! Another baby Newport is on the way! We could not be more excited or feel more blessed. Conner is so happy that he is going to be a big brother, though he thinks that the baby is in his tummy too. 

I am sure that you can imagine that my mind is nothin but baby, baby, baby now! It has been hard to find the inspiration to take pictures and to share. I promise we have been learning all sorts a' stuff! 

My kids are rocking multiplication... we are learning about Northwest Native Americans... they are paragraphing like little geniuses and their art is fantabulous!! 

I'll ease myself back into all this slowly... Multiplication

Each time we teach a "trick" we talk about how skip counting can help. We also learn a song to go help us skip count. Musical Array-ngements is great! If you haven't heard these songs you must take a listen. Click the picture to take you to the link. I couldn't find any samples online so if I find the energy (ha-ha) I might have to have my kids sing a number or two for ya to share! 

Any-who after we learn the song we practice skip counting in our skip count book. We discuss patterns and what we notice. We then create flashcards for the trick. Kids have a set of flashcards for home and school. Each week they are tested and they add to their cards. This is going so well- I just hope it STICKS!!

Andddd because I feel so guilty for leaving you all for so long here is a freebie! Hope you can use this skip counting book! Click here to get yours!