Ice Cream Number Families

Summer is here!!  Woo-hoo!  I am hoping to take this time to update/post some of the things we have done over the year that I have been meaning to, but never actually got around to doing!  So, here is my first item that I am sharing in honor of summer: Ice cream number families:

These are super easy for the kids to make!  I just cut a bunch of 3"x 3" squares, and had the kids cut off the corners and "round" TLC style. (I didn't draw dotted lines for them - too much work!  I just did it here for example's sake!)  The cone I just drew on a paper that was 4" x 3".  I tried having the kids draw their own cone on the paper, but for whatever reason it was harder for them than I thought!  I had them glue it on a half sheet of 12x18 white paper.  When I tried it without the paper background, there was glue everywhere, the ice cream scoops overlapped so much you couldn't read their math problems, etc.

Then I made them pick a number between 5 and 20 (or you could have them roll a die) and take that many unifix cubes, and make them into a "train".  In this case, the student chose the number 12.  Then they break their train into 2 pieces.  Here, the student broke his into 7 and 5.  This is the math problem they write on the ice cream.  7+5=12.  Put your train back together, and break it a new way.  Ex: 2+10=12.

I think they turned out quite nice!  They kids really liked trying to figure out what flavor scoops of ice cream they were using - "I'm picking green because I like Mint,  I think the pink is bubblegum!" 

All this ice cream talk is making me want to scoop a bowl for myself!  Lol!  

Have a great summer!

Mother's Day Necklaces

Here's a quick, easy, (and inexpensive!) project we did in kindergarten that we added to the purses like we made last year (see previous post)- necklaces made out of metal washers!!!  The kids used old nail polish (and who doesn't have a ton of that laying around!) to paint a pretty design.  I thought that they'd just paint it all one color, or rush through it, but they really took their time! I picked up 72 washers at Menards for about $2 (I'm sure they are available elsewhere for a similar price), along with some thin ribbon, and wa-la!  A necklace for mom!

Earth Day - EVERYDAY

Here's a cute little project that my class did for Earth Day.  Like every other class we learned about how to take care of the earth, recycling, etc.  Then we made these hand-print Earths, and wrote what we could do to take care of the earth.  I had the kids paint the "land" on the edges BEFORE I painted their hands - this way the paint brush doesn't get all icky! The poem/song that goes with it goes to the tune: This old Man.  If you need about a the pattern you can pick it up for FREE here.

Websites

So... my New Year's resolution was to do a better job at keeping up with my blog with what I thought my be a manageable goal of at LEAST once a month. Seeing that it is March, and I am finally making an entry, I need to try harder!

Anyways, I just wanted to share some FREE (to public schools) websites that I have come across.

ABC mouse is geared for kindergarten and under students (meaning I am going to have the kids use this in the BEGINNING of the year next year), but teachers can create a classroom account, set students at various levels, and the site will even e-mail parents progress reports!  I have had several parents rave about the site and my kids seem to really like it.

Adventure to Fitness is also FREE to teachers (make sure you register with your school email and address). On this site, you have access to several half hour long "fitness adventures".  Kids follow Mr. Mark hopping, running in place, stretching, climbing as they go on a dinosaur/snow/castle adventure.  There are lots of fun facts thrown in during the adventure and my kids LOVE it!  It is perfect for those inside recess days when they need to get up and move around!

Turtle Diary is not completely free, but has a LOT of free content on it.  It is geared for Prek-2nd grade, and has reading (English), math, science, and fun games on it.  There are also worksheets and activities that can be printed out.

AbcYa! has educational games for K-5th Grade.  Several of the games have sound.  LOTS of great learning opportunities to use on on individual computers or even on your Interactive White Board.  I use the interactive 100 grid on my board all the time!

Starfall.com has a TON of beginning reading/phonics skills for kids.  There is also a Math component/section that I didn't even realize existed until one of the kids showed me the other day!  TONS of stuff to do in your classroom as a center, group activity, etc!

Here's what you probably are used to seeing on Starfall Classic

Here's some of what is available on more.starfall.com  Some of more.starfall is free, but they also charge for full access... 

Well, that's all for now!  I am going to try soooo much harder to post at least once a month!

Alphabet Jump around

So... I realized it has been a LOT longer than I would like between posts.  Summer has been flying by between summer school (yes, I teach that too!) trying to relax/escpae the heat (last week we had 3 days with a temp of 105!) and clean my house and catch up on everything I didn't have time to do during the school year.  But... being a teacher never stops.  Here is what my dining room table looked like last night:

The box in the far corner is stuff I need to bring to school that I had been working on, and I painted some alphabet letters onto those "non-slip kitchen liners" which are available at the dollar store.  What I am going to do with them?  Plenty!  I was inspired by Melissa's McMurry's "jump around" which is a similar concept but with numbers.
You just lay the letters all over the floor, and kids (1 at a time) can jump to each letter as they:
-Spell their first/last name
-find what letter a word starts/ends with
-spell sight words
-alphabet order
-spell word families
-etc, etc etc!
I plan on introducing it as a large group activity, and then having the kids use it during centers.

Keep cool!  I hope to post more soon!