New Halloween Math and Literacy Center Games

October is such a fun month to me.  I love decorating my house with pumpkins, hay bails and all else fall.  The national fair comes to our town, and our school system has Fall Break for a week at the same time.  My own kids are relentless until we find that perfect costume and we end the month trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with friends.  

 

To add to this month's fun, I've created center games to review much needed skills all in this Halloween theme.  Click here to go check it out. 

 

 

These are the two game boards... 

 

There are 4 sets of game cards

 that cover the skills of...

 

*  identifying nouns,

* identifying proper and common nouns,

* rounding to the nearest ten, and

* rounding to the nearest hundred.

Freebie: Adding on an Open Number Line

We are teaching several common core strategies to our third graders this year to help them add and subtract.  One of those strategies is using an Open Number Line.  This math has definately been challenging as we attempt to stay one step ahead of our students.  With no text books and little practice material, we are creating our own.  Here is a homework sheet we used to check student understanding after our whole group instruction. (Clipart from 3am Teacher). For a full packet of "How-To's" to distribute your parents, or just use yourself, see the blog post just before this one on September 3rd. 

 

 

Handouts for Parents on the Commom Core

Announcing my newest Product...

Adding and Subtracting with

Place Value Blocks

If you have already begun teaching addition and subtraction this year, you may already be facing one of the biggest issues of introducing Commom Core... 

the lack of anything tangible to send to parents.

Our parents were not taught this way, and they are desperate to understand. 

As I mentioned in my earlier post, at our school, we had students copy an example from the board or chart, to use as a guide when doing the 4 or 5 homework problems we assigned.  We typed the homework problems on strips and glued them in their math journal right next to the written example.


Thinking that we had planned this out pretty well, I was quite surprised the morning following the first homework assignment, after all, it was only 4 problems.  I had 8 notes on my desk and two parents stopped in for unscheduled doorway conferences.   Over the first week, I spent several unexpected moments, showing parents the charts we'd used and teaching them how to help with homework and eventuallly the test preparation.  This continued until I addressed it.

What had gone wrong with our plan? 

Problem: Handwriting illegible, incomplete copying, parents completely unfamiliar, etc. One more thing...we have only started the year, so parents haven't had a chance to get to know me.  Who knows what opinions they were making based on this "new math", as parents are calling it. 

Solution:  I just created "how-to" sheets for each addition and subtraction skill, using the Place Value Blocks strategy. 

They are designed to be sent home to parents as you introduce each skill to their children.  These "Parent Guides" provide simple step-by-step instructions along with visual aids to help your parents help their children....and a nice extra... they will help keep parent complaints to a minimum. 

Here is a snapshot of one "how-to" sheet...

  

Here is a closer look at steps 1 & 2:

Here is a closer look at the next step (step 3) where trading is needed...

For each "how-to" sheet, there is an application sheet.   You can use it for homework, independent or small group practice.  I intend on using it for independent practice after I feel they have a good grasp of the skill.  There are 4 of these, so after the last one, I will combine them for one classwork grade. 

Here is what one looks like:

I am currently creating handouts to teach how to add and subtract using an open number line and using expanded form.  I will post here when they are finished.  Soon I hope.  I wish you success and have a great new school year!

How to Subtract the Common Core Way

It seems we have started back to school a good bit earlier than many of the rest of you, so I thought I might share our initial experiences teaching our first math unit after adopting the Common Core.  It may make it a bit easier to see the anchor charts we created.  I hope this proves helpful.

According to the Common Core, there is an emphasis on building number sense with third graders.  Our first unit has included Addition and Subtraction.  To build number sense, we have taught several strategies for addition and subtraction: using a hundreds chart, an open number line, place value blocks, and expanded form. 

Subtraction was the most challenging, especially for informing parents who want to help their children.  Not having text books written for common core makes homework a challenge.  In order to meed this need, we used a Math journal.  In that journal, we had students record an example homework problem that we did together in class.  Then we pasted small homework handouts (half sheets) underneath.  In a perfect world, this would have been just fine....but it's not a perfect world.  The problem we have run into is with those sweeties, that have trouble copying from the board or chart (for the homework example).  This copying thing is still a challenge for many 3rd graders.

I intend on letting my parents know they can check out this blog too, in order to see these anchor charts as well.

This anchor chart shows how to subtract using an open number line.  The hardest part for the students is using the skill of counting backwards, especially when going back over a ten-mark (ie 212, 201, 192).

(*I just realized I left off the letter "e" in the word "increase" below.  I'll fix it soon, upload a new photo and delete this comment, but I wanted to address it until I get the chance to make the change.)

 

 

  Here is my anchor chart for using place value blocks to subtract when there is no need to regroup. We started with real place value blocks.  Then we moved to the picture model.  After a bit of modeling, my kiddos really caught on to this strategy well. When subtracting without regrouping, this method tended to be especially easy for them.

 

However, when regrouping was needed, it got more complicated, but after a couple of days, my students found that they still preferred this strategy.  Here is the anchor chart to teach subtracting with place value blocks when regrouping was needed.

(technical difficulty with photo - will be corrected soon) 

 

If you have questions, I will be glad to try and answer them. 

 

 

 

 

 

School is back in full swing! Classroom FREEBIE to share!

Here in my small corner of the world, in Georgia, we are back in full swing!  We are in our third full week of school - I can hardly believe it!  We are digesting the common core in both reading and math.  Whew!  Lots of work tackling both major subjects at once.

I am so grateful that my Social Studies units are all planned out for the year.  We enjoy teaching this awesome unit on Athens, Greece.  (Lots of great visuals and creative acitities).  Actually it's the influence of Athens, Greece on America's culture, government and architecture.  We really did get a lot from them! 

Toward the end of the unit, when we compare and contrast the U.S. with all that we've learned aobut Greece, we use a double bubble thinking map.  If you teach this topic and would like a FREE copy of your own, click HERE .   I hope you enjoy. 

 If you are in fact, looking for a complete unit to teach this concept, check out what comments others have left at my TPT store, to see if this might fit your needs. (Just click on a picture.)

The complete unit is also available:

 at my TPT store here or

 at my TN store.

Back To School Sale!

To support your efforts as you get ready for a new school year,

I am participating in the huge Back To School Sale on Teachers Pay Teachers! 

Click on the coupon below to go to my TPT store. 

Be sure to use the coupon code to get your additional savings...up to 28% off, the highest offered on TPT

That's this SUNDAY and MONDAY!

I know you will not want to miss it!

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Here are my newest products:

ATreasure of Word Sorts
click here

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Common Core Posters

click here

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Phonics Flashcards:  Long and Short Vowels and Blends

click here

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Common Core Math Lessons for Addition

click here 

Back to School Newsletter

I have only one more day before I go back for preplanning, so I am already in planning mode, working on items for the start of school.  I want to share this newsletter template with you. 

If you can use it...

  1. follow my blog,

  2. like my facebook page and then click on the picture below to get your free copy.

This is one of several newletters in my Back to School packet.