Math Games

We only have a couple of weeks of school left (yippee!). All but one of my kiddos will be coming back to me and my new addition from next door will be coming over to spend some time with us this week and next. I plan on working on getting my students prepared for some changes to expect in my room next year. I've decided that I will do our math groups a little different next year- I will teach the main lesson while my para supervises students participating in individual or small group math games and calls students aside for individual goal work. I want the students working on the math games to be able to play these games independently so I am going to be introducing them over the next two weeks and then we'll spend some time at the beginning of the year going back over them. In order for the students to be independent with these games, they must be skills that the students have completely mastered during teaching sessions. I'll probably come up with some sort of table to keep track of which games each student has mastered and is ready to work independently on. Hopefully I can tie in some IEP goals with them as well!

BUMP!

 A coworker uses this game with her 2nd graders and they love it. BUMP is a two player dice game. There are a ton of seasonal themed freebies out there. Easier versions, such as Bump Like an Egyptian by Kathy Ryan focus on number identification and recognition.  Here is BUMP in the Garden! by Miss Galvin Learns. Here is BUMP addition facts 0-18 by Megan Jacobs. This version of Multiplication Bump by Katee O'Quinn focuses on the 2 times tables. I made a very simple version for number recognition with 1-9 with a Back to School theme for a couple of my kids. It is available (for free!) at my TPT store.

I Have, Who Has?

This version from Jason's online classroom will help my kids with counting coins. Here's a baseball themed version from Math Coach's Corner that involves place value in the one and tens place. This one by Carrie's Creations includes 2-D and 3-D shapes. This one uses popsicle sticks- great idea Classroom DIY!

Go Fish.

Jennifer Bates created this Go Fish game to practice doubles. Here is a number recognition one from FSUshopkins. For my higher kids, this one by Tales from 3rd Grade will help them practice their 4 times tables.

I think these games are a great way for my kids to continue practicing skills that they have mastered so that they don't regress. Plus, they'll be having so much fun that they won't even know that they are learning!

I Love Trees {Science Unit}

We have one last science unit coming up before the end of the school year. With Earth Day last week and getting ready to plant flowers for Mother's Day, I thought it would be a great time to spend a few days focusing on protecting our environment through saving trees. This unit will be aligned with the GPS Standard:

S3L2- Students will recognize the effect os pollution and humans on the environment.
B. Identify ways to protect the environment.

I don't want to reinvent the wheel so I have searched the Internet and found several (FREE!) resources that I will be using during this unit:

Since my kiddos love anythins with visuals, these Tree Life Cycle vocab cards by Mrs Teacher Lady will be right up our alley.

Here's a cute little mini book from Twisty Noodle.

I just LOVE The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein so we'll be focusing on that this week. Here's a great FREE Reader's Theater that we'll use by Buzzing with Ms. B.

I found this video on the life cycle of an apple tree with a cute little song.

We'll also read Dr. Seuss's The Lorax and pull some ides from Amanda Jackson's unit here.
I'll change out our science center and laminate this interactive book from Boardmaker Share for students to do independently by velcroing pictures to the pages.

I always check out 3 Dinosaurs to see if they have a free printable pack. This one will be perfect morning work for my boys.

I threw together this little worksheet and this one using Boardmaker that I may use as a pre/post test. Students can circle their answers with pencils or use a Bingo Marker to place a dot on the answers.

Check out my I Love Trees pinterest board for other ideas. Here are some of my favorite:

1. Draw a tree trunk. Kids write ways we can save trees on construction paper leaves (or sticky notes) and stick on top of trunk to make a tree.

2. Tree KWL chart. (Know- Roots; Want to Know- Trunk; Learned- Leaves)

3. Create tree artwork using recycled items- magazine pages, cereal boxes, candy wrappers, etc.

4. Go on a walking field trip- take clipboards and draw a tree- non-writers use bingo markers to draw.

 5. Plant a tree!



 I hope that you are able to use some of these resources- enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Pack

I finally finished my St. Patrick's Day pack just in time for one of my favorite holidays! Okay, they're all my favorite :) The pack includes about 20 pages of math & literacy activities working on cutting, coloring, color words, number identification, creating sentences, and journaling. As usual, it includes activities that can be used with younger, typical students, older students with special needs, students with fine motore delays, and more. There are several activities that can be used as regular worksheets, used to create interactive worksheets, or to create file folder activities. Here's the link to the product over at my TPT store.

I plan on using these pages with the kiddos on Monday & Tuesday. These will be great practice activities for my kids to work on while I pull them individually for goal work. I need to get some IEP goal data collection finished up before report cards go out since I've been gone so much lately with training. Don't get me wrong, I love that my district is so focused on professional development but I sure hate being away from my kids and getting behind on paper work. I only have one more day of training this week & then things should settle down. This week I will learn about the Fundations program- I am super excited about getting a better understanding and to begin implementing the program fully into my classroom! Have a great week!!

And We're Done!

Well, this week was a big one for me. I just got back from the Georgia Autism Conference in Atlanta, I had training for the new SEAS program that we just started using in our district, and my GAAs were due! I am so relieved to be finished with those assessments. I feel like I have learned so much over the past 6 months or so and I definitely want to remember a few tips for myself *if* I have to do them again next year. Here are my top three things that I learned to help me:

1. Plan, Plan, Plan. Since I had never completed GAAs before and wasn't very familiar with what the finished products would look like, I looked at each activity in each standard in each content area in each collection separately. At the end I was able to see how it all fit together. Next time, I would sit down and and plan out EVERYTHING using a graphic organizer. I think if I started earlier and took more time in the beginning, I would not feel as stressed throughout the process. I like the tables included in the manual but I think I would prefer to create my own.

2. Write it up ASAP. This go round, I completed all-or almost all- of my activities before beginning on the writing/documenting process. Next time, I hope to immediately write up the activities after the assessments. Not only will I be able to stay more organized but I won't have to take as many notes on the activities while implementing them because the details will be fresh on my mind.

3. Use my info chart from the beginning. I started using a color-coded chart that included all of my activities for each student. Between creating, implementing, writing, printing, and filing all of the activities, things got a little confusing. For the second collection period, I created the chart and color-coded each activity to remind myself where I was. If it was highlighted green, it was created and ready to implement, red meant it was written and ready to print, yellow meant it was completed finished and filed, etc. The chart included the student name, the content area, the full standard, and each activity. This was so helpful, given my inability to remember anything!

Now that I am finally finished and have tons of free time (ha!), I plan on finishing up a few products I've been slowly working on and getting those over to my TPT store. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often- stay tuned!

Valentine's Day Pack

I have a new pack up over at my TPT store just in time for Valentine's Day! It's a 33 page math and literacy pack, much like my 100th Day of School pack. Most of the pages have adapted copies for use with students who are unable to write. Since I was so slow on getting this one finished and we are out this week for Winter Break, I won't actually get to use this one with my kiddos. I hope some of you find it handy and are able to use some of the pages! I'm going to start working on a St. Patrick's Day pack this week- let me know if there are any pages you would like to see me add for this one.

I LOVE the feedback I've been getting over at my TPT store- thanks y'all! What's Skow-ing on in 4th Grade posted some adorable pics from her class celebrating the 100th Day of School using the crowns from my freebie. Y'all check out her blog- it's great. I also have had a request to redo my Penguin Number Match-Up using one color for all of the number cards. I'll be working on that and hope to have that added in the next few days. I purposefully made it with the matching colors to help my kiddos out so your feedback is so helpful in letting me know what you need for YOUR students. Keep those comments coming. I hope everyone is having a great school day today!

TPT Sale!

Head over to my TPT store today- 20% off!!

Penguin Literacy Pack

We just finished up a unit on penguins last week & I had several activities that I created along the way so I decided to combine them into a little pack for my TPT shop. It has 9 pages of literacy printables that can be used with If You Were a Penguin by Florence & Wendell Minor. Most pages have an adapted version for students who cannot write but can use a bingo marker to select the answer. Get yours here for just $1!