Matter, Fractions, and Letters From Kiddos

More amazing weather! Eeek! It is 73 degrees!

Of course, I had to spend some time outside, but then I had to come in to get some work done. :-(

I'm linking up short of Five for Friday...just forgot to snap pictures, but hopefully have some fun things to share.

1

Do you survey your students? Or ever ask them to write to you about the classroom? If you don't, you SHOULD! It is so helpful to me as a teacher to know what they are thinking. 

This particular assignment: Write Mrs. R an opinion letter telling me what we need to spend more time on or something you are struggling with in class.

Fluency is this little kiddo's biggest struggle.

This one cracked me up a little bit because of that last sentence. She is the secretary's daughter, a perfectionist, and has had a little bit of trouble with the Number of the Day in our HOTSHOTS. Fortunately for her, the pack comes with more than we could ever do in class so I was able to send some home for her.  :-)
I didn't think she was having too much trouble, but obviously it has been bothering her so another reason I love getting the kids to tell me what they are thinking!

Keeping it real... Here's one from one of my kiddos that struggle. The victory in this is that up until a month ago, I could barely get two sentences out of her!

 2

Matter, matter, matter! 

We have been studying matter for awhile in 1st/2nd grade science and I am always looking for ways to supplement the text book. A Venn diagram comparing solids, liquids, and gases was perfect. Students had to work together, use their text to find answers, and review all we had learned about the three forms of matter.

3

Fraction fun! 

Our fraction unit was fun AND the kiddos rocked it. In this picture, we are playing a Kagan game called Quiz, Quiz, Trade. Students "mix," pair up, and read each other's card correctly. Then they trade cards and continue mixing.

We also played the "I have...who has...?" games from Kristi's fraction pack. I just realized that her memory game card pieces would be perfect for Quiz, Quiz, Trade!

4

And finally...a sad, but happy picture of my table.

Sad because it was taken this morning which means I had to work on a Saturday--I have really been trying to avoid working on the weekends this year (and have been mostly successful).

Happy because it is all clean and my teaching materials are ready to go for Monday!

We're gearing up for parent teacher conferences this week.

 Basketball (I'm the high school assistant) is winding down--or up depending on how you look at. Big games ahead.

And I just made a hair appointment for spring break.

Doesn't. Seem. Possible.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hotshots, Whacky Watches, Counting Races and More!

Hey there! I hope you're having a great weekend.

I spent 6ish hours at the school today. Ugh! 

But I accomplished so much, I can't be too upset...

Dinner's in the oven, so I can finally prop my feet up and relax blog for a few minutes. ;-) I'm linking up with Doodlebugs again.

My students were rocking our HOTSHOTS this week. They were so excited that our "Number of the Day" is in the thousands now!

I am absolutely loving these this year! We only do them 2-3 times a week, so I've been able to jump ahead as needed for the skills we're working on. Seriously...my favorite thing Kristi and I have created.

 

 

Thanks to The Teacher Idea Factory we had counting races this week. Tons of great ideas in the post I've linked for whole group math games. Check it out!

We worked on telling time again. This time to the minute. These Whacky Watches were a hit (she has them to the 5 minute too)! My kiddos love using QR codes and I love that they can check their own work. ;-)

 

On Thursdays during Daily 5, I always try to allow some game time in my groups. This week we played "I Have...Who Has...?" I think we should be playing more! The kids love it. They become familiar with our sight words from our reading series. There really is no downside. I've got to make time to play it more often--especially for my lower groups. If you're looking for some games, we have plenty in our TPT store.

 

And finally, this is what awaited me this morning. I just had to get out of there yesterday...no focus...even if I did only have a few minutes before having to leave for our basketball game anyway.

I was able to get it all cleaned up (no pic, but I promise I did) and get all of my reading copies and plans done for the next six weeks. I also took a bunch of those online classes we have to do (think bullying, slips and falls, etc.), cleaned out my e-mail box, and made some parent phone calls!

 It feels good to be caught up!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Big Heartland Back-to-School Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hey there! We have some new friends from the Heartland, and we've teamed up with them for a back-to-school blog hop.

First, we wanted to share our back-to-school tips with you!

If you want to see how I'm doing #2 and #3 with a video this year, check out this post!

Kristi and I picked some of our best back-to-school resources to giveaway to one lucky winner. Here's what our winner will receive:

Math Helper (with workmats)

Super Sight Words Pack (level of your choice)

1st Nine Weeks HOTSHOTS (your choice 1st or 2nd grade)

Check out this post for an explanation of HOTSHOTS!

Go ahead...enter to win these back-to-school goodies!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Big Heartland will also be having a linky each month that you are going to want to check out!

That will be a featured product priced at only $1 on the 1st of every month!

This month our featured product is our Sight Word Connect Four game pack (regular price is $5), so hop on over to our TPT store to pick it up for only a $1! 

Then you'll want to visit our new friends to see what back-to-school tips and tricks they have for you, enter their giveaways, and check out their $1 deals. 

An InLinkz Link-up

What do you mean--Hotshot?? #MakeYourMasterpiece

This week's #TPTSellerChallenge was all about making a new product. It was the perfect motivation I needed to *finish* a product I've been working on since March!

We call it HOTSHOTS.

I want to explain how these daily math and language "hot topics" review pages came about. I also want to explain how I've used them and how I plan to use them this year in my classroom.

You're also going to want to stick around and check them out for yourself because they are 40% off today!

Two years ago (when I switched schools and switched to 2nd grade), I had 15 minutes at the end of the day in my schedule when we returned from specials. We called it "Snack and Pack" but it didn't take anywhere near 15 minutes and my bunch would get talkative and rowdy waiting to be dismissed. It was a complete waste of time!

I also had a group that struggled with math and wanted to give them all the practice I could on the skills that seemed to cause them the most problems. I created some PowerPoints with math review questions on them and projected them on the board. Students worked in folders to complete them before being dismissed.

I did the same this past year until March. 

I had noticed some things I wanted to tweak and tried out my new HOTSHOTS for the remainder of the year. 

SUCCESS! 

The first problem...projecting on the board. Some students struggled to follow along or copy problems from the board. Also, if they needed to go back later and finish, I had to pull up the slide for them. 

The second problem...sentences! My second graders (which I would call a "high" class) were still struggling to use correct conventions and misspelling "easy" words. As I thought back to when I taught first grade, I remembered Kristi and I used a "Fix the Sentence" book. We thought it was a bit hard, but it definitely made them be detectives and spot those common errors in sentences. 

So HOTSHOTS was created!

#MakeYourMasterpiece

In my classroom we don't do them every day (to make a complete product, I made 180--four sets of 45). We usually do 3 each week, but my students remind me if we haven't done them. They loved them. Of course, it helps if you really "play up" the name and tell them they have to be Hotshots, show me their stuff, etc. :-)

I'm also excited to have plenty to choose from. Sometimes I have kiddos with wandering eyes (if you know what I mean). It would be easy enough to give half the class HOTSHOT #1 and the other half #2 (for example).

If you purchase HOTSHOTS, you're going to get two versions. One with a margin and one without. As I mentioned, my students kept theirs in folders with the brads so the margin is needed.

No folder at home, but you get the idea...

 You'll also get the version without a margin--perfect for a printable worksheet or putting them in a plastic sleeve to be completed with a dry erase marker. 

This is the direction I'm leaning for next year. I'm considering putting them in my math rotations. I love it when I can save paper, and my kiddos love using dry erase markers! 

Don't worry my First Grade Friends. Kristi is working on a HOTSHOTS set for you! 

Second Grade Friends - Head on over to our store and check out HOTSHOTS for yourself. They will be 40% off until tomorrow morning!

#TeachMiracles

Thanks to Ashley at Teach Create Motivate, Jen at Sparkling in Second, Amber at Peppy Zesty Teacherista, and Emily at Third in Hollywood for putting together the #TPTSellerChallenge!