Geometry Fun & Freebie

As a student myself, years and years (and years....but we won't go there) ago, I didn't like Geometry.  I didn't understand it, didn't see a need for it, and certainly didn't enjoy it.   So how did it become one of my very favorite things to teach?  I think that occurred when I realized there were so many fun things you could do with Geometry when presenting  it to youngsters.  I wish some of my teachers 'back in the day' had presented it a little differently.  I might have actually had a good time with it!  I decided to dedicate this blog post to a smorgasbord of Geometry FUN!    Check out the some amazing interactive websites, blog posts, and products all dedicated to GEOMETRY!

Need a quick online interactive practice for your kiddos at a computer station?  This website (click image) will take you to a good handful of geometry games with SIMPLE instructions and very little clicking to get started!  Let your students try their hand at classifying triangles, classifying polygons, or other geometric figures.

Here's another website with quick and easy access to a variety of geometric games, including shapes, angles, and transformations.  This site is a little more challenging than the previous one, so if you teach geometry 3rd grade and up, this might be a better place to start.  The image will take you there.

Finally, this one is a site that our school bought a membership to after a 30 day trial.  It's IXL math.  They have some free games and promos that you and your kids can investigate to see if it's worth a subscription.  Our students LOVE the site and welcome any time they can grab to practice their math on IXL.  As an educator, I love the immediate feedback given to students if they miss something.  A small tutorial "reteaching" that skill pops up when they miss a question. Check it out!

Some of you know I'm totally into my Math notebooking these days.  I started them last year with my students and became a believer that if students can journal about what they've learned in their own words, with their own explanations, then they know it!  I started creating some math notebooks for my teammates and I to use along side our Math series.  They've been a big hit.  I finished the Geometry one and can't wait for some classrooms to give it a whirl!  **SO...the FIRST 3 teachers that teach grades 2-4 that want to try it out, give me a shout out in the blog post comments with your email and I'll send it to you FREE!

It's my favorite of the interactive notebooks so far!!  Grab your notebooks, colored pens, popsicle sticks, glue sticks, etc. to have some interactive Geometry fun!








FINALLY, grab a FREEBIE while you're here!
I always loved putting out some solid shapes on the table and letting students make some guesses on the number of faces, edges, and vertices each solid shape has.  They record with their cooperative groups, then we discuss and clarify any misconceptions.  It's a fun way to investigate shapes!

Bananas for Geometry after all,

Giveaway Winner & 103 Things to Do With a Book

Let me start with a YAY and CONGRATULATIONS to my Giveaway winner, Laura Cooney!  Rafflecopter has spoken, and she won with her blog comment entry!  Thanks to everyone who joined the fun and participated in one way or another.  I appreciate you!

I read so many books to students and with  students, it's easy to find myself getting caught up in the "same ole', same ole' " activities.  I stumbled upon this website and found a helpful article on a variety of things (103) to do with books...before, during, and or after reading.  In my new coaching position, where I never know what will unfold in front of me, I often have to think fast and on the fly.  I've bookmarked this article and found that it's a fantastic resource on the days when I have no time to plan. It can be adapted to ANY age or grade level.   Some of my favorites include:

• Business Card book-Students retell the story in as many creative ways as they can on a business card (*You can simply use small paper, the size of a business card, but the REAL business cards are more fun!)  They'll come up with a variety of ways to express what they know...story maps, lists, summaries, etc.
• Roundtable-Students LOVE to talk, right?  This gives them the floor and the opportunity to just "discuss" the book as adults would at a book study....What confused you?  What do you think the author meant when...?  What would you change about the book?  
• Timeline-Timeline skills can always use a little extra practice. There's no better way than to create a timeline of the events in the story!
• Transparencies-Who says you can't have fun with "old school" teaching?  We still have some overhead projectors sitting around the school collecting dust, but they still work.  Give students some transparencies to create a story map on, character list, setting drawings, theme statements or illustrations, problem solution and/or cause and effect situations.  Slap them up on that dusty overhead projector and let them present.  
• Make Your Own Test-Kids quickly find out how difficult teaching is when they have to design their own questions and test to go along with their reading.  They get creative and have to really think about the answers before they write them!  

Enjoy the article and trying some of these creative and fun things to do with your students and the literature they're reading!  The image at the right will take you to the article!

Bananas for somebody else's quick ideas when my brain is on overload,

Happy New Year, Happy Freebie, and Happy Giveaway!

Happy New Year, bloggy friends!  Not sure what your 2012 was like, but mine was full of surprises.  Some fantastic ones, some rough ones, some interesting ones, and some incredibly fun ones!   More than anything, I find myself THANKFUL and BLESSED for my family, friends, faith, job, health, and surprises...it keeps life interesting. 

Happy Freebie!  Here's a New Year's Resolution FREEBIE for your students!  Teach them what a resolution is, challenge them to set a goal for 2013 and think about what steps it will take to get there, as well as celebrate their successes for 2012!  Click the image to download.  


Happy Giveaway!  I'm so excited to start 2013 off with 600+ followers on my blog.  What a better way to celebrate than to give a few things away?!  If you're like me, shopping on TpT is one of my favorite hobbies!  Maybe the $30.00 will help you grab some great products for the New Year!  In addition to that I'm throwing in 6 items of your choice from my TpT or TN store...anything goes!  :-)   There are LOTS of ways to enter and lots of chances to win!  Good luck!




a Rafflecopter giveaway Bananas for New Year's Fun,

Holiday E Book is here!

YAY! If you weren't already in the holiday mood with the growing number of Christmas lights appearing, trees going up, Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers, then maybe this will do it for you. :-) The Holiday E book on TpT is ready! I should say E BOOKS, because there are 3 this year! There's a 1-2 version, 3-6 version, and 7-12 version to suit your needs. The E books are each filled with 50, yes 50 holiday FREEBIES from some of TpT's finest!  The E book can be downloaded at the following TpT stores...






1-2 Holiday Freebies










3-6 Holiday Freebies














7-12 Holiday Freebies

I was SO HAPPY to be able to contribute TWO FREEBIES to one of the E books this year!  I hope you can use and ENJOY this holiday season.  :-)




Bananas for the HOLIDAY SEASON!  *Maybe, just maybe I'll get my own tree and lights up this weekend!  ;-)

CYBER Mon. & Tues. SALE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING blog friends!  Hoping this season finds you thankful for so many things.  My list is so long I don't even know where to begin.  The 4 F's are at the top of my list:  Faith, Family, Friends, and Freedom!  The 3 T's are right up there close to the top of my list, too...Teaching, Tea (love my tea!), and TpT!  

TpT is showing their gratitude for teachers and the hard work they put in daily by running a HUGE CYBER DAY SALE!  Join myself and other sellers on Monday, Nov. 26th and Tuesday, Nov. 27th @ TpT for 28% off all your favorite items!  Be sure to use the promo code CMT12 when checking out to get the additional % off your purchase! 
Stock up on your favorite units, activities, games and more at huge savings!  I'm looking forward to having my WHOLE store on sale!   Here's a look at some of the newest items you can find...    *Click any of the pics for direct links!














Blessings to you and yours this Thanksgiving!

Bananas for some time off work to spend with family,

Other fabulous sellers who are participating in the TpT sale below!

Veterans Day Freebie

Veterans Day holds a special place in my heart every year. Read below... I'm RE-POSTING an "oldie, but goodie" blog post from last year.  I added a FREEBIE to go with it!  Enjoy and Happy Veterans Day! 


If you're looking for a cool, meaningful volunteer or service project to do with your students, consider "adopting a soldier" who is currently serving overseas.  My classes and I for the last several years have adopted at least 10 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq.  "Adopting" a soldier consists of making the commitment to send one letter a week and one care package a month to someone on active duty. (Which is easy when you have 20 some eager students ready to write their letter!)  My students and I have made some great friends, encouraged someone is serving our country, and participated in some of the most amazing events through this adoption.
How do you "adopt" a soldier?  You sign up with the non-profit organization called Soldiers Angels.
After they give you clearance, they will assign you a soldier and give you his/her address overseas and you're ready to go!  Who says the academics have to take a back seat?  I teach my parts of a friendly letter, map skills, addressing an envelope, focusing on common/proper nouns, some history, and of course, citizenship and volunteering.  I'd love to say that all my soldiers have been actively involved in the process of writing back to us faithfully, but that's not the case.  I've had everything from no letters in return because they're just too busy, to other soldiers who write us back faithfully.  I've even had one show up for a visit on Veterans Day the following year he returned from active duty.  Last year my students got to be involved in a soccer ball drive with our soldier.  He wanted us to collect soccer balls to send to him overseas where he distributed to the local village children in Basrah, Iraq.  The whole "adoption" process has been a WIN/WIN for everyone involved.  Enjoy some photos from some of our FAVORITE moments.

The soccer ball drive was on the news and
in a military publication. My students were
so proud that they helped get 200 soccer balls
delivered to such eager children in Iraq.

Some very excited 3rd graders collecting 
soccer balls for a good cause









We were lucky enough to have one of our 
adopted soldiers come VISIT us on Veterans Day!  
He presented our class with a certificate of appreciation,
coins from his platoon, and a flag flown over their 
camp in our honor while he was stationed in Iraq.


As always, if you would like some additional information or are interested in getting started, just let me know!  I'll help in any way I can!  

Click on the image to grab your FREEBIE Veterans Day timeline.  

Bananas for those that serve and sacrifice for our freedom,

Good Ole' Problem Solving

As we dig deeper into Common Core, we're finding that more and more of our Math is looking like those good ole' fashioned "word problems" (as they were called in back in the day).  Our students can't seem to get enough of them.  The more tasks they do and are able to solve, the more they seem to want them!  I think the thing students are enjoying most is the challenge itself.  Speaking of "back in the day," I can't help but wonder if I had been given an opportunity to solve some real world problems with my friends, been able to talk about them, share our ideas, make a plan of action, implement, and solve them, I might have been a little more successful at problem solving.  All I remember is someone telling me to look for key words like "all together" and "difference."  Yes, those are important too, but shouldn't drive how a student goes about solving a problem.  There are many ways to solve problems.
  
At an inservice this summer our presenter gave us a super difficult 5th grade math task.  She gave us a few minutes to think about it and plan for how we would solve.  I began drawing pictures because I'm an artist...Um, no, that's how my brain works!  When my table got a chance to get together and share how we solved the problem, I was amazed at the different strategies all the teachers used to get it!  I honestly didn't even understand how one teacher got there, but she did! (She must be gifted!)  
Anyhow, I loved the process and although my title says "Literacy Coach," I've been able to work with some small groups of students.  Their little faces light up when I bring in some problem solving for them.  It's no longer a chore, but a coveted challenge.  They want to show me not one way, but multiple ways they can arrive at the same answer.  Check out the work a group of 2nd graders did for me today trying to figure out what combination of 14 coins made $2.14.  Each one worked individually on the outside of the circle while discussing with each other what worked and didn't.  What did it sound like?  "Don't try a bunch of pennies...that sure didn't work." "I tried half dollars and some quarters, but that doesn't work either."  "I'm getting closer when I change my quarters to dimes and nickels."  "I'm giving this problem to my DAD!"
What did it look like?  A MESS!  Don't ya' love their scribbles where they tried something and it didn't work?  When they finally arrived at the answer it went in the middle so they could proudly display their accomplishment.  

All this problem solving motivated me to create a problem of the day activity for each month.  I actually started in early October, but it took me longer than I hoped to finish.  So...the October one is done and October is about OVER!  Yes, that's how I roll sometimes.  :-)  I scrambled to finish NOVEMBER for those that want to start right away!  Click on the image for a trip to my TpT store to investigate. It's geared specifically with 3rd grade in mind, but 4th would enjoy, and if you have some high flying 2nd graders, they'd be challenged!  If you like it, let me know and I'll throw the October one in FREE for ya' from now until the end of November!   

UPDATE to this post:  I now have 9 school months complete!  September through May units are finished! You can get them individually, or all bundled up for a cheaper price!  

Bananas for math when it's fun,