Halloween Math Centers

With Halloween quickly approaching my students have been very excited about all things Halloween.   I have made four Halloween math centers.  The first is matching addition facts to sums 5-20.  Two others are around place value with base 10 blocks, and the third is counting coins with amounts of 11 cents to 30 cents.  We have been on working place value in my small math group, but I also have students who have goals around counting coins.  I created the coin counting center to reinforce the place value skills and practice counting coins.  All of the cards have values made up with pennies and dimes.  

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year!

I truly think teachers are some of the luckiest people in the world.  In what other career do you get the opportunity to start fresh every twelve months ?  I love this time of the year because the kids are excited and I am eager to try new things and implement what I learned the previous year.  This year has started off busy, but has been great.  We have a wonderful group of students.  I have several goals this year and one of them is to really get into blogging.  I started last year, but due to some health issues I had to put it on the back burner.  I am happy to say my health is much improved and I am excited to get started.

S-Blend Freebie

It's been a very busy few weeks.  For those of you who blog several times a week or even every day I don't know how you find the time.  I have an s-blend word sort to share.  I just made this for one of my reading groups.  This sort contains words with sl, sn, sm, st, sp, or sw blends.  Each set has a picture of the key word for that blend sound and four words.  The s-blend words in the pictures do not all have short vowel sounds, but all the words do.  I also stayed away from words in the sw family with a short a that is impacted by following the w (for example, swat and swap).   To put this together just print on card stock, cut the 

cards out, and laminate.

:)Amy

Click here to get this word sort

A Vowel Switch Freebie to Celebrate My First Week of Blogging

So in my first week of blogging I feel like I have learned a lot from watching tutorials and experimenting with different tools.  I still have so much to learn.  I have also learned that I am totally hooked on clip art.  I dunno why I love it I just do:)  I don't know any other bloggers yet so I am still a bit curious about blogging etiquette.  I feel a little like the new kid at school.  Is there such a thing as a blogger mixer? :) To celebrate my first week of blogging I am posting a freebie.  This is a visual aid/student reference sheet for the vowel switch decoding strategy.  I made it based on a resource from the Florida Center For Reading Research.  A year or so ago I found the format for making a poster to cue students to use this strategy.  Below is a picture of the poster from my classroom.  When I introduced it to my students last year they liked it.  I found they used it a lot as a tool to help them remember short vowel sounds, especially when writing.  I have made this small sheet to use in their reading folders as one of the strategies we review during guided reading lessons.  

To get this freebie click here

More Winter Themed Base Ten Practice

For more information about this activity click here

This activity works on number identification with numbers 10-30, identifying values of base ten blocks (10-30), and place value.  It could also be used to work on sequencing and comparing numbers.  It is aligned with Common Core standards 1.NBT.2, 2a, and 2b.

Snowmen and a Freebie:  

 Baby It's Cold Outside!  

When I got into my car tonight to leave school it was a chilling 7 degrees!  So I decided to make a snowman themed math center.  It's Base Ten Snowmen and I am offering it as a freebie in my Teacher's Pay Teacher's store.  The center works with numbers 10-20.   I created it for some of my students who are working on number identification and place value to 20.  Have a great night and stay warm!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snowmen-Base-Ten

New Year New Blog

     I only discovered blogging this summer and have quickly  

     become totally addicted.  This is my first attempt at blogging   

     myself, but I have spent more time than I would like to admit  

     blog hopping.  I think this is a great way to share ideas and after 

     reading so many blogs I am so impressed by the creativity and  

     thoughtfulness that people put into the planning they do for  

     their students.   So my first goal for the New Year is to start my  

     own blog.  I have to admit it is a bit intimidating at first.   

     Thankfully I found Lauren from The First Grade Diaries   

     who made this template for me.  She is wonderful!