#ChristmasInJuly22 Tues & Wed

 Did you snag some good deals in the sale? Today's $2 deals include my brand new Math It, Match It: Geometry game & Mystery Science II

Geometry. In my experience, the kids either love it or hate it. Part of the issue is the amount of vocabulary in the units. Math It, Match It: Geometry is a great way for students to master that vocabulary without relying on flash cards or drill & kill memorization techniques. Directions for a couple of game styles are included, but almost any Spot It (or Dobble) game can be played, giving you a "new" game with the same deck of cards.

Mystery Science is an activity I've done almost every year since I started teaching way back in 2005 (we won't talk about 2020). Mystery Science II is an updated version in which I created stations tied more strictly to the Florida benchmarks my 4th graders will be tested on when they take the 5th grade science FCAT. Over the course of 2-3 class periods, students visit different stations that require them to make observations and think critically about different science concepts. If you're not in FL, either version would be great. But, Mystery Science II is on sale today & tomorrow for $2 - half its usual price.

#ChristmasInJuly22 Sun & Mon

 It starts today! Get ready for a bunch of $1 deals.

#ChristmasInJuly22 Sale

 #ChristmasInJuly22 

A bunch of TPT authors have joined together to create a Christmas in July sale! Check out the schedule of sales below and follow my Facebook page for updates each day.

 

Catering a Feast - An Open-Ended Math Project {Distance Learning}

Halloween rushed by, Thanksgiving is almost here, and the weeks before Christmas promise to come at me just as fast! I like to have holiday themed activities in my classroom, but sometimes it seems my kids can't finish one activity before the next holiday is upon us.

This resource is actually a combination of both Thanksgiving & Christmas. The premise is that your students have their own catering business and a bunch of clients all need menus for their holiday gatherings - both holidays are included. If you wish to remove one of the holidays, you only need to delete those slides. All word problems are editable. To increase or decrease the difficulty, you can change the number of people or budget for each gathering.

"Easy" Classroom Christmas Party

It's that time of the year!!!! Christmas!!! Easily, my all-time favorite holiday and I love sharing fun things to do with the classes. But, with all the stress of it being report card time and trying to make magic happen for my own family, the classroom is one more stress factor that many women don't need. Over the years, my team has perfected the "Easy Classroom Christmas Party."

Morning: Begin the morning with opening Christmas presents. (See below for how I do this cheap!) Then, allow the kids to bring games & play in the classroom.


Middle of the Day: Gingerbread Houses. This is the hardest part, but can be managed on your own if you lack parent volunteers. I set up during our planning time, have the kids come back and give instructions before they're allowed near the tables. On each table I have: a plastic tablecloth to make clean up easy; bowls of candy all mixed together; 1 plate per child holding the following: 2 milk cartons taped together, 4 unbroken Graham cracker sheets, 2 half Graham Cracker sheets; 1 spoon per child. As they come in, I give them the frosting container they brought in and tell to pick a spot. They use the frosting to "glue" the Graham crackers to the milk cartons to make the house. Then, they use the frosting to glue candy decorations to the house. When done, they're given a piece of tape with their name on it to stick to the bottom of the plate. Carefully, place the whole plate & house in cookie platter bags and tie them up  nice and pretty to go home. Once done, clean up and start the movie.

Lunch Until End of the Day: In the classroom with a movie. Polar Express is always a favorite movie, but my kids have seen it a million times (every year in elementary school), so they get bored quickly. For that reason, I'll show A Christmas Carol. It's rated PG, which means I have to get parent permission, but it's really good and one the kids haven't really seen. If we still have time, I break out the old Christmas TV specials: Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, etc. This is when I get out the hot chocolate that was in their Christmas stockings.




Christmas Presents

I order stockings through Dollar Tree ($1 per stocking, but I've also used lunch bag sized goody bags from Wal-Mart) and fill it with books from Scholastic and Dollar Tree items: pencils, erasers, stickers, stamps, coloring books if I can find them less than $1 each. I also include a baggie of "Snowman Soup" - hot chocolate, marshmallows, and a candy cane. I pick up a bag of Styrofoam cups and they use hot water from our classroom sink to make their hot chocolate. The candy cane is used to stir it. And finally, throw a homework pass and/or extra credit pass in there. Free for you and worth its weight in gold to them!

Gingerbread Houses Materials List

• Plastic Table Clothes - 1 per table students will be working at.
• Cookie Platter Bags - Can be bought at Dollar Tree - 1 per child
• Plates - 1 per child
• Spoons - 1 per child
• Bowls - 1-4 per table, depending on the size of the bowl

      Have Students Bring In

• Everyone brings in 1 can of frosting (cream cheese is thickest and works best. Whipped frosting is too thin and everything slides apart) If in a pinch, I've had kids share frosting by putting a glob on a plate or bowl.
• Students with Last Names Beginning A-F: Plain Graham Crackers (or about one-fourth of your class)
• Everyone Else: Bags candy or another item (pretzels, etc) to decorate the houses

"Not-a-Halloween" Halloween Party

Over the years, I've had students that can't participate in Halloween parities. And yet, at my school, we have a costume parade every year (technically, a storybook parade, but it's held on Halloween...every year...and the kids wear their Halloween costumes). So, the rest of the parents sort of expect some sort of Halloween party. I've managed to come up with a solution for all of my students.

Pumpkin Math

We first read How many Seeds in a Pumpkin? Be warned, pre-read the book. The end of the book gives away a little too much information to make determining your own seeds an actual guess.

Then, we break open the math with this activity I found on Teachers Pay Teachers. I wish I had thought of it, but all credit has to go to All4Math. My students thoroughly enjoyed working through the packet this year. We took her ideas and created a large chart of our data.

This will easily take up most of your day - if not all of it. I had to start it a day early last year so we could finish and even then it was tight. The kids love it because it involves pumpkins, but since you're not actually carving jack-o-lanterns, most families will be fine with the seasonal activity.

Movie Time

After lunch, as the students are starting to get trick-or-treating on their brains, I break out whatever treats we have (I usually make cupcakes and put 3 Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans on top - those are fun to watch!) and The Wizard of Oz. Strange as it seems, many students have never seen this movie. I guess it's because it's considered old compared to all the newer movies out there.

Rounding - Sets 7.1-7.4 {Math Ladders Bundle}

My Facebook feed has been blowing up this last week with two things: northerners going back to school and Hurricane Dorian. We went back three weeks ago, but given that we live in FL, a mini "vacation" has been the result of this storm that can't make up his mind where he's headed. Being cooped up in the house has been boring, to say the least. So, with my limited options (Super Mario Bros or Roller Coaster Tycoon), I chose to work on a product my students will be able to use when we get back later this week.

After our first unit, I saw that, as usual, many struggle with rounding. I created these Math Ladders to all be used within my 4th grade class - even though only two hit the benchmark as written for 4th grade, 4.2 & 4.3. My struggling students need to go back to Set 7.1 and revisit rounding with 2 digit whole numbers. My higher students are ready to push forward into the world of decimals (with a place value chart hanging above my white board).