The week or days before Christmas break can be hectic in the classroom. Between school events and the students' excitement, it is difficult to teach new skills during this time. For this reason, I choose to use this week to review all (or most) of the skills that we have learned so far in the year. To make things more interesting, the review has a holiday theme. This post ... Read More
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Teaching Math with Coupons Freebie
For this month's Math is Real Life, I am talking about one of my favorite things to do: Cyber Shopping (and sharing a math with coupons free printable!). My husband swears I am addicted but with Amazon prime and all the other conveniences, how can you not just love it? Did anyone do any cyber shopping this weekend or Monday? I picked up a few things online for the ... Read More
Guided Math in Upper Elementary (Free Math Centers Included!)
Each year, I find that I have such a huge divide in my classroom as far as mastering 5th grade math skills: students who get it and could teach it, students who could get it from some quality (and sometimes additional) instruction, and students that need major intervention and cannot focus during whole group because of attention or because of gaps in knowledge and ... Read More
Data Tracking {A Fun & Delicious Way to Track Data}
All year I have been trying to think of a way to make data tracking fun and engaging for my students. My students are a lower group this year, so I needed a tracking system that was super easy and super motivating at the same time. After seeing a cupcake printout in the copy room, I had a great idea to design a tracking system around cupcakes! I worked with my good ... Read More
Measurement Conversions for Kids Who Just Don’t Get It
Do you ever find that those are some kids who just can't seem to get a skill after the millionth time you have practiced it? This was definitely me a few weeks ago while teaching measurement conversions. We were struggling with measurement conversions because they had little understanding of measurement and little to no knowledge of relative sizes of the unit. They ... Read More
Division Practice: Division of the Day
Division is by far one of the most difficult skills to teach students. The process is lengthy and requires strong number sense. There is also so much room for error that it can be quite frustrating for the students (and teachers!) Last week, I put together this packet of FREE repetitive division practice to keep my kids practicing division even after we have moved on to ... Read More
Interactive Hall Displays
I jumped headfirst into using interactive notebooks this year, and I am loving it! My class is doing a great job of using their notes, keeping them neat and organized, and taking pride in them. I teach in a school with no textbooks so our interactive notebooks are becoming our textbooks. But, I did run into one snag using interactive notebooks. I had NOTHING to hang ... Read More
Give Them Choice with Reading Choice Boards
Happy Weekend! Tomorrow my sweet Brody turns 10. Yikes! He is getting so old! I wanted to pop in real fast to share some new resources that I created over the summer for reading and math. I don't know about your kids, but my kids LOVE choice! Even if it is all still the same kind of work and still the same skill, just something about being able to choose is so awesome to ... Read More
Easy Prep Math Centers: Roll and Answer Games {Freebies}
Happy Thursday! This week has been super busy for me! I finally got to set up my classroom yesterday! School starts next week so I was working like a crazy person to get as much done as possible. I will post lots of pictures next week! I have had quite a few questions about my Roll and Answer Math Centers. I wanted to write a quick little blog post to explain how to use ... Read More
Advanced Thinking Strategies in Math
I am back with another chapter review from What's Your Math Problem? I felt like this chapter was really key for those states that are shifting to Common Core. As the students are presented with more challenging problems, they need more advanced thinking strategies in their toolbox. Let's take a look at some of these strategies. I am in love with this advanced ... Read More
Math Problem Solving Strategies
Happy Wednesday! I recently read Chapter 4 of the book, What's your Math Problem? and this was my favorite chapter so far. This chapter is all about the students using math problem solving strategies to get themselves organized before or while they are solving a problem. The math problem solving strategies discussed in this chapter are: Look for a Pattern ... Read More
Multiplying and Dividing Fractions: Fraction Fun with Snacks! {Freebies}
Multiplying and dividing fractions are some of the most difficult skills for my fifth graders to understand and master. The actual solving of the equation is not difficult and many prefer these operations to adding and subtracting fractions. However, my students struggle with word problems involving multiplying and dividing fractions because their conceptual understanding ... Read More
