Area and Perimeter Fun!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! 

Okay - before I get into writing about the awesome, fantastic, superb, amazing lessons that I did on Area and Perimeter, I want to remind everyone that TpT is having a SALE. I am LOADING up my shopping cart. Seriously. 5 items in there already - and I'm counting down til tomorrow! I am participating in the sale, and my ENTIRE store will be 20% off! 

If you're like me, Area and Perimeter just doesn't EVER seem to sink in with your kiddos  (I teach 3rd graders). Sure, they understand the unit while you are teaching it, and a week or two later. By the time you are doing end of year review, every year they start to mix them up again! Since we missed SO many school days because of snow, and state testing starts THIS WEEK, there isn't as much time for forgetfulness this year. It's also VERY frustrating to hear the 4th and 5th grade teachers talk about how they don't remember things I KNOW I've taught them! This year would be different......

After putting together some definitions of Area and Perimeter based on our background knowledge of area models of multiplication, we showcased the area and perimeter of our desks with sticky notes. You may remember reading it on a 5 for Friday post (Just click the picture if you want to read about it!) 

Then, I had my students create Area Robots. In 3rd grade, Virginia says we must find the area of "a shaded region". Basically, they give our kids this funky shape that has been colored in on graph paper and ask them to determine the area. What better way to practice that, than to DO that! SO....here's my "Anchor Chart" we made to go along with the activity: 

Here are my students' robots! The boys LOVED creating Mine Craft Creepers! 

Students drew robots on graph paper, and calculated the area of the head, body, arms and legs. Then, students found the total area of their robots and compared to a partner. 

The next day, we did a lesson practicing area and perimeter using Educreations on the iPad. This app lets students complete problems on multiple types of paper, and record their voice explaining their work. As you can tell by some of the faces, the word problems were TOUGH. They had to work with a partner to explain their thinking. Check out some of these faces! The best thing about Educreations, is that your students can save their work to your account with just a code.

 After we finished our problems, we watched groups explanation of problems. There were some "Ah-ha" moments -- you know, the teacher has said this 1,000,000 times and I don't get it, but my friend says it one time the exact same way, and I get it "ah-ha" moments! My favorite thing about Educreations is that students could change their plain paper to lined or graph paper. They could also insert photos from the camera roll, or take a photo. I had students take a photo of an area model for one problem, and record their voice and writing on top. This app is AWESOME for science vocabulary books, social studies reports on famous people, the list is endless!

Celebrating 100 Followers!

I haven't been in the blogging world in the past few days week because it has been CRAZY! We even had SNOW days Monday and Tuesday, but I was just super busy with other school items. My calendar is PACKED as I am sure everyone elses is too! So, when I settled down with my first   second third cup of coffee this morning to read, I checked out Bloglovin, and I have surpassed 100 followers!!! I have 100 followers on Bloglovin', so I decided to change my blog design! I went over to The Cutest Blog on the Block and found this design, called Lemon Pie. It's SO cute, and I love yellow and grey. It reminds me of Spring, which even though has officially started, needs to hurry up and get here! I know a lot of states are beginning their state testing, and I'm starting to panic maybe just a little bit. We have missed SO much school because of snow this year. I need to make up for some lost time, quick! So I have spent my Sunday cruising around Teachers Pay Teachers looking for some new ideas for my next few units.
The title of this blog however is CELEBRATING! So....I would like to do a giveaway! I just donated my year long spelling lists to Carrie over at Anchored in 3rd grade for HER giveaway, which was awesome! I thought, what a better way to celebrate than to partner up just like she did for a fabulous giveaway!

If you would like to donate for my 100 followers giveaway, leave a comment and I will email you :)

I hope to hear from you soon!

Teachers Pay Teachers Store Update!!

I realize I am blogging TWO days in a row, but the post that was published yesterday I actually wrote last week, but I had to add the pictures in! Tonight, I have had time to work on a few things because my poor puppy has another ear infection :( So, drumroll please..................I have FINALLY updated my TpT store!! I have uploaded 10 new things this week! WOW...just WOW. Some of the items are even FREE.  So, to CELEBRATE, I'm doing a TpT GIVEAWAY! You can win $10 worth of product in my store!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So, join this giveaway to win some GREAT things! :)

Do You Have The Time? My favorite Telling Time activity EVER!

Happy New Year!! What a holiday season! I feel like I have been running a marathon, and the finish line isn't anywhere in sight! My weekends have been CONSUMED with school work, and I think I'm even going to have to give up coaching our school OM team this year because I just have too much on my plate. (I'm hoping to turn this over to a parent). I have had this post in "drafts" for a while.... I haven't blogged in forever, and I PROMISED myself I would do it over Christmas break. Then, the week before Christmas (on my BIRTHDAY!) I woke up sick....it started with the new strand of norovirus, then I got strep throat, then an eye infection, and then a sinus infection. I truthfully wasn't feeling better until New Years! I don't wish that virus on my worst enemy-- it was brutal!!

Anyway -- the real reason you are here! I just did a telling time to the nearest minute activity last week, and it is by far my favorite activity ever in the history of teaching math. I absolutely love, love, LOVE it! I call this activity, "Do you have the time?"

I saw this on Pinterest about 1,000 times, but didn't know if I would like it. Each child gets their own "watch", and then students travel around the room reading each others watches and recording the times. I was originally just working on some clock faces of time to the nearest minute to glue down in a folder and laminate for Intervention practice in my small group instruction. After creating the clock faces for my game, I realized I would only need to create 4 more to have a class set. Well........... 4 more turned into 6 more, because I always like to have extras. After creating the clock faces, I cut strips of construction paper to make watch bands and glued the clock to the construction paper. Viola! Construction paper/card stock watches! I laminated the final product (this is all with the help of Ms. Bailey - an AWESOME paraprofessional at our school who is working on her teaching degree!) and punched holes in the bands. My original thought was to hook the watches with paperclips through the holes. Third graders do not do paperclips well enough for this! In the interest of time, we just taped the bands on, but I may add some string for next time, or even make the bands out of string. 

The students traveled around the room asking their classmates, "Do you have the time?" The classmate would then show them their watch and let them read the clock face. This was REALLY hard for my students who could tell time really well because they wanted to tell their classmates the answers. Since I did this as a graded assignment, they knew they couldn't! Each child had a record sheet that was numbered from 1-22. In our class each student has a number, so when they read that child's watch, they wrote their answer next to that child's number. It was SO MUCH FUN. In the end, I was quickly able to see who really "got it" and who really needed help. When several students missed the same problem - I could easily tell that they had simply looked at the hour hand wrong.

If you love this activity- you can find the clock faces I used on my TpT store here! They are only $1!! I hope this post finds all in blogger land healthy and happy in this new year!

Celebrating 20 Followers, B2S, a SALE and a GIVEAWAY!

Today, I reached 20 followers on Bloglovin' ! There are also 7 people who follow on Blogger- which means I'm almost at 30! Monday is my first "official" day back as well - I'm excited to get my room finished, but I'm not excited about the inservice meetings I will have to be in! So, to celebrate, I'm throwing a sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

To celebrate my followers, I'm going to have a giveaway! I created these teacher postcards to give my students who make it to the "Homework Club" each month. Any student who has their homework every day for a whole month gets the special treat of eating lunch with the teacher. In order to make it an even more special event, I created these postcard invitations that look FABULOUS when printed on colored cardstock. The whole file contains 3 different designs to print for your students. The postcards are set to print 4 per page, and my students always get excited to see this note on their desk.

In addition to winning the postcard pack - you can pick ANY 3 items in my TPT store for free. (Now - I don't have tons of things uploaded yet - so if you want to wait on that until I upload more items - I totally understand - it won't have an expiration date!) 

So - to win, all you have to do is leave a comment with your email address. I will then ask the hubs to pick a random number, and that person will win! It's a very delicate and scientific procedure! I'll end the entries at 9:00 pm Sunday, August 4. Good Luck! 

Make it Monday!! and a Freebie!

Wait- it's Monday?! Where did my weekend go? I was SO excited to cross off some items from my "Pinterest To Do List" for back to school! Since I'm not allowed in my classroom, I figured I need to have everything finished and ready to go for my first day in my room!

For Monday Made It, I'm linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics!


If you remember Friday, I spent the whole day with Momma. After we went to the doctor, and took care of some other things, she helped me create some totally awesome bulletin boards for my classroom!! This project cost about $20 for two bulletin boards! I was super excited! I present to you, Make it Monday -- bulletin board style!

 I have had this idea for a while now -- and I have seen it on several blogs done different ways. Several I saw used glue, or tape. I decided to use my staple gun. One of the blogs I first saw it on YEARS ago was HERE.  First, I went to Walmart, and found these twin sheets for only $4.00 a piece! I was SO happy because the turquoise color is PERFECT for my room this year. They only had it in a fitted sheet, which I thought would be okay -- I really had to make it work! If you plan on making your own, stick with the flat sheet! I also picked up some staples for my staple gun.
Then, Momma and I climbed in the Avalanche and headed to Lowes. I was on the hunt for Foam Board. You can find it in the building section -- this is the stuff they put on a house under the siding for insulation. I suggest you get the foam board with the coating on each side, not just the plain foam. It was $10 for something like an 8 or 9 foot board. I knew it would fit in the Avalanche, if I moved things around. Wait - I didn't want ONE board, I wanted TWO! So, I borrowed the cashier's box cutter, and cut my board in the checkout line! Simply score the board down one side, then the other, and fold! I was able to bring home two smaller pieces that didn't require any rearrangement!

I faced the foam pieces so that you can see what each side looks like -- one side is silver, and one is white. Next, I took my gray flat sheet, and laid it down, placing the foam piece ontop. If you only wanted to use one sheet, you would have to undo the hem in the sheet. I bought two, so I knew I would have some extra fabric. The next part is sooooo easy. Very neatly, pull tight and fold the fabric over. Use your staple gun to staple down the fabric! This was MUCH easier with Mom to help keep the fabric smoothed out! 

We went around each side, and on the fourth side, we cut off extra. I wanted some open space in the center to put my mounting tape. (Scotch 3M mounting tape). 

I thought the fitted sheet would be just as easy. Boy - was I wrong. Oh so wrong! Thankfully - my Momma is a patient woman, and we made it work! I HAD to have that color -- and she understood that! I ended up cutting out the corners and elastic on the fitted sheet. 

Not nearly as neat and pretty as the gray one! We flipped it over, and saw a problem!! 

My bulletin board had flabby skin on the front! 

Mom and I smoothed and pulled, and smoothed and pulled, and restapled along the back and.......

All is well in bulletin board land! I am SO happy with these two boards! I cannot wait to hang them on my wall! I only have one bulletin board- so this REALLY opens up some options for me! I cannot wait to hang these up! 

Also -- to celebrate my Liebster nomination, as well as making it to 5 followers on Bloglovin' I'm going to add in a Freebie! This is a poster I created to teach rounding, using the idea of a mountain! Do you like what you see? Go on over to my TpT store and download it! Rate my product, and let me know what you think! Check out the other freebies I have there too!