Two New Units and A Little Freebie!

I don't know if all of you have been on spring break but I have sure been enjoying some time off as well as sleeping in! I have been starting the day around 8:30 or 9:00! It has been like a dream! lol! I have been pretty busy though.... We have the closing on our home on the 25th of this month! Yikes- it is coming up fast! So we have been trying to get everything packed up. We definitely have more stuff now then compared to when we first moved in. I am in the "let's get rid of everything" mood and Mark is more like "maybe one day we will use this" kinda mood! This is when compromise is key!!! I do have to say he got our whole guest room packed up and the bed is already taken apart! I have been less successful in the kitchen.... I am only half way done!! This is really when I wish I had a magic genie to *poof* us in our new home! That would be AMAZING!

During all the packing I have managed to squeeze out two new units! I am excited about them both, so I wanted to show you a little peek at both of them.

My first unit provides resources for life cycles. I tried to think of the most common used animals and insects for this life cycle unit! It covers the growth of an ant, butterfly, chicken, frog, and mealworms.

I am really excited about this writing connection I have provided int he unit! There are resources for students to create their own Diary Of A Worm addition to the series! I made it so the students can choose the animal or insect of their choice. There is a planning guide to help them get ideas about their animal's or insect's special features as well as their life cycle. Then I also included an 8 day storyboard for them to plan out their diary entries. That is just the planning and brainstorming pages. Then I have provided a cover, about the writer page, as well as diary pages in two different lines to choose from. You will also find teaching posters for speech and thought bubbles. As you know in the Diary Of A Worm series they love to use those, so I wanted to focus on this teaching point for the students. Tons of writing fun here!

Next to provide some text resources I have added one article for each of the 5 life cycles covered in this unit! Exciting, I know! Sometimes finding text is half the battle, so you at least have a starting point!

In the unit you will also find a way to display the students understanding of the life cycle. There is a little craftivity for each of the 5 life cycles! I have also included teaching posters for all 5 life cycles as well! They are a cute little ribbon display for each one!

Here is the ribbon display for the 5 life cycles!

The last resource you will find in this unit is teaching posters for life cycle as well as metamorphosis. Then I have made worksheets for 4, 5 and 6 step life cycles. You can use these with any animal or insect but I have provided the stages in pictures for the 5 covered in this unit! This makes a great assessment for your students. There are lines for them to label each stage in the life cycle.

The other new unit that I have made is for addition and subtraction 2-digit numbers. It has resources for both with and without regrouping.

I wanted to show you the foldable that I created for this unit.

This foldable focuses on both addition as well as subtraction. It also requires them to know when they need to regroup! So there ate 4 different sections in this foldable. On each problem there is a place where they need to identify what operation they are using as well as if they need to regroup! It definitely teaches them to think before they solve!

Before I wrap it up here I wanted to offer a little freebie. It is just something I have had sitting on my computer and I received a few emails asking about thinking stems. So I thought I would post it at my store for anyone else who needs a resource for this! it is nothing big, but it is FREE!

If you click on the product cover you can download it at my TpT store!

Well that is all I have for you today. Don't forget if you follow my store you know that I am having a SALE right now, 20% OFFall my products! The sale will be over after Monday, March 18th! Make sure you pick up some resources for reading back to school after spring break! =) You can click here to head on over to my store!

A New Math Unit, 100th day, and A House Update!

Well with this post I am finally able to get it to you before the end of the month! Ha! =) I am really so excited to talk about math today because I came up with a new strategy that is going to work perfect for a little place value review as well as get them started with regrouping! I am in love with it! Let me start with my new unit.

As you can see this unit is all about place value! It is meant for grades K-2 but I think 3rd grade could use some of the materials as intervention support. I know that one of the hardest skills for my second graders is to understand the relationship each place has with the others and then apply that knowledge to a word problem! Over the years I have created many place value charts to use in my instruction. This time I think I found the winner!

This is a picture of the chart you can find in my unit! Of course I have printed out the color option. It is great for a lot of reasons. The first reason is that you can use the colors to help them identify the different place value sections. Another is that I have added in two tens frames in the ones place. I LOVE this. I have used it for a few years now and it is a great way for the students to see that they can make the same number different ways. However, since there is a tens frame , the kids don't forget the idea of ten ones is the same or equal to a tens rod. This little feature also comes in handy when you move into regrouping in addition and subtraction! Last, I have added picture support into each place value section. So for example, in the ones place you will have the word ones, a picture of a ones cube, the quick picture of a one, and and equal sign with the number one following it (=1). Lots of great information in each section! This also comes in black and white!

Because I know that having the right tools really helps deliver the instruction I have created tons and tons of mats. I started with a variety of tens and ones mats. I love to start the year reviewing with tens and ones. I also use a lot of different materials to help do this, To be honest you never know what one will get the kids comprehending the idea! There are mats for snap cubes, base ten, popsicle sticks, and regular tens and ones (these sport the same colors as the mats for hundreds and thousands). The colors will be great for building upon one another!

Let's talk about popsicle sticks for a minute! This is the idea I am so excited to share with you! Okay, so how many of you make bean sticks with your students? I know there has to be someone out there like me... It really helps them visualize their tens as well as have ownership over their math manipulative. So let me ask you another question...Don't you hate making them! (Sorry that was more of a statement! ha!) I mean all the glue and sticky fingers and not to mention then you can't break them apart for ones. Well if you feel the way I feel then you will love my idea...

Ta-DA! Break apart tens sticks! So I was surfing the net and I came across this patterning idea with magnetic tape, paper clips and jumbo popsicle sticks. It is from a blog called Teach Beside Me. You can click on the blog name to check her out, she looks like she has some great ideas for Kindergarten! Anyways, when I saw this idea for some reason my brain though tens rod, ones cubes and regrouping! So a new manipulative is born! I am really excited to use this with my students.

Here is how I plan on using them. As you can see in the picture it is a great way to show the same number in different ways. In addition to this I want to try it with regrouping. There are always a few strugglers when it comes time for regrouping. Hopefully since they will have created the tens sticks they can easily break a ten apart in subtraction with regrouping as well as make a ten in addition with regrouping. I hope you like my idea and it is some sort of help to you. I can tell you, I can't wait to get down to business! lol!

There is a ton of other resources you can get in my unit. Here are a few samples of some of my favorites.

I have made digit character cards. The character holds up the number of fingers to represent the number that they are. I love when things are cute but totally academic! You can use them in games but they really just help the students understand that there are 10 different digits that are used in our everyday numbers.

I have included bulletin board materials for you to display in your classroom. There is a number represented in 2-digit, 3-digit, and 4-digit as well as the corresponding examples in expanded form, number form, place value chart, and word form.

These cards are so useful when teaching students about expanded form. They stack on top of each other to create a number and then as you slowly break them apart you see the value each digit has. Talk about a visual! They come in color and a white card with color trim.

The last thing I will show you is a fishing for digits game. They have to find a number that has the digit they rolled in the ones, tens, hundreds, or thousands place. There is 3 different versions of this game (2-digit, 3-digit, and 4-digit). Then the unit is finished off with some word problems, 12 to be exact.

Alright, so onto some cute 100th day portraits! I just love making these. Here are some of my favorites this year.

I just love the one that says, "Old People Rock!" I almost died laughing! Kids are so cute sometimes... I mean check out the one with his hat tilted sideways! Can you say too cute or what!

They really got creative with these portraits. I mean they are going to be really cool and hip when they are 100! My students also got really into the wrinkled skin. The got a charge out of that step in the craft!

Well that about does it for me! I did want to leave you with an update on our house adventure! We were able to accept an offer on the house, so know we are waiting to be approved! It is a big waiting game... I am driving myself crazy thinking about it. I think I have bitten down all my nails and I am not a nail biter (or at least I wasn't). If you sent some prayers our way in my last post, could you keep them coming!? Technically speaking, it is not ours yet. All the paper work has to clear and the bank has to approve us! So we are not out of the water yet. Thank you for all your support! It really does mean a lot to both Mark and I!

We got to put up the sold sign in the front yard! I was not expecting this and I thought it was totally cute, so I had to have a picture of the moment! I know we are totally cheesy, but I love it! This is definitely one for the photo albums! Hope you all have a great week ahead!

An Addition and Subtraction Game.....

I am really excited about this post because I am selling my very first item on TpT! If you didn't get a chance to check out my last post, over the weekend I started my TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers) store. Check it out by clicking my new button on my blog.  Everything I have upload to the store was free until now. Although this little game is for sale you can pick it up for only $1.00! Yep,  just $1.00!

The game has all the student response sheets you could ask for. I have included 1-digit to 4-digit problem response sheets. Meaning you can make a sheet of all 1-digit,  2-digit, 3-digit or 4-digit problems.  However, the great thing about these sheets is that you can also choose to mix and match them. In addition I have included a 1 and 2 digit mixed response sheet as well as a 2 and 3 digit mixed response sheet. Check out the preview below or head over to my TpT store to pick up your own copy.

Well that is all for tonight friends! I hope you enjoy this little math game and pick yourself up a copy to use in your classroom! Your kids will love it! Tomorrow is Thursday so Friday is just around the corner! I am ready for the weekend! I don't know about all of you but this week has been a long one.....

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