Videos, Games, and Resources...Oh My!

For the last two days, I have been at a curriculum workshop. You know the kind...one that could be very helpful if you were allowed to do what you needed to do instead of filling in forms that someone else feels that you need to do.. I am not saying it was a waste of time, but there is only so much that 7 people with differing opinions can do when you are having to type into one document.

So while a couple of us were transferring our work to the aforementioned document, I started searching for electronic resources. I am not one to use "the book". In fact, last year my children never even opened "the book", and I am toying with the idea of not even handing "the book" out this year. I am not judging people who choose to use "the book", to each his own. It is just not for me, and is obviously not for my county since this is the year we are supposed to adopt a new math series and we are opting out. 



My point is....
there are phenomenal resources out there for people who do not use "the book" or who would like to supplement "the book's" resources. I am all for not reinventing the wheel, so I was very pleased to find websites where some wonderful, amazing, brilliant, and generous individuals and systems have listed and hyper-linked a variety of resources ranging from worksheets to videos to game to SMART board activities to ....anything under the sun that one may use to enhance the mathematical education of children instead of just using .....wait for it....."the book".



Here are some of the "Mother Loads" that I found:
(I tried to give credit where credit is due)


http://visalia.k12.ca.us/techcoach/thirdgrade.htm

http://www.elcerritowire.com/3/math.htm

Thank you, Rockingham!
http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/resources/elementary/3math.htm

Thank you, Lee Summit School District
 http://mae.leesummit.k12.mo.us/kprideaux/math.htm


http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/materials/parents/parents3


http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/grade_3.php


http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/3rd-grade-number-activities.html


http://www.oakdale.k12.ca.us/parents-and-students/MathResources/03/MathResourcesGames3.htm

And I can't help but include my own brilliant resources that I put together for my parents!

http://mrshillsallstars.weebly.com/ 

There are tons more resources out there, so get to exploring them!!

Take a Penny and Take Regrouping Out of Subtraction

"Take a Penny" is a 2 step strategy that allows students to subtracting across zeros without having to go through the complicated steps of regrouping. In fact with "Take a Penny", students can subtract across zeros without regrouping at ALL!

I learned the "Take a Penny" strategy last summer, and it has transformed the way my students subtract. I was at one of those workshops that you really don't want to be at but are required to go to, and boy was I amazed. The man that came to talk to us knew exactly how it felt to be in our shoes and did not waste one second of our time. 


He taught us all kinds of strategies to make learning about math not only easier but fun. He only talked to us for two days, but I swear I would have sat there for a week just to learn more ways to help children understand and comprehend math in ways that we have never heard of. 


I have used many of his strategies this past year, but the one that has had the most monumental change is the "Take a Penny" strategy. I actually feel like I have cheated my past classes by not teaching them this strategy. Not only is it faster, but because there are less steps students rarely make mistakes. 

And it works every time, no matter how many zeros you have. The reason it works is quite simple. When you are subtracting two numbers, you are finding the difference between them or how far apart they are. When you "Take a Penny", you are not changing the distance between the two numbers because you are doing the same thing to both numbers. You are just make it easier to find the distance between the numbers.

I created a 23 slide PowerPoint presentation to help students and teachers master this innovative strategy. This product introduces how to "take a penny" and then provides an abundance of practice in working subtraction problems that require regrouping across zeroes using this extremely innovative strategy. Check it out at my TpT store.  I promise that it will forever change the way you and your students subtract!

Orderly Organization

This summer is all about organization for my home, my classroom...my life.

I am completely redoing my classroom. Check out my Pinterest board on my new theme. I have cleaned out, decluttered, and deposited tons of "junk" into the trash. I have been inspired by Melanie at Schoolgirlstyle.com, The Clutter Free Classroom Blog, Alicia at Keeping it True in K-1-2, Ashlee at Izzysharem as well as many, many others. I am excited about getting organized for the upcoming year. My most important year since I will be teaching my daughter and my niece in the fall!

I am also "planning" on doing some major organizing in my home. I have a Pinterest board completely dedicated to getting organized. There are so many great ideas out there. I know that getting organizzed can make our hectic lives a little less stressful! Three kids, a full time job, a football coach for a husband, dance, gymnastics, daycare....all of these things make for a busy life. This busy life needs as much organization as possible.

What are the best things you have done to help organize your life? Do you have some "must-dos" for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also, it would probably be a lot easier to do this if I would stop "pinning" ways to get organized and actually get started getting organized.

Rounding Numbers Round Up

I still remember my first couple of years teaching rounding numbers. It was so hard. I had the most difficult time getting through to children. They just could not understand when to round up and when to round down using the only tool I knew to use at the time: the text book.

Finally, two fellow teachers and I created a song that 10 years later is still helping my students be successful with rounding.

In addition to the song, I developed a technique that has helped countless groups of students master the difficult concept of rounding numbers. This method helps students remember what place they are rounding to, focus on the number that tells you whether to go up or go down, and how to remember that everything turns to zeros.

I developed a packet to teach others this method. It includes notes for teachers, the unique song that we created all those many years ago, several printables on rounding to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand's place, a Rounding I Have:Who Has game, and a list of Rounding Resources including videos, websites, and games.

See a preview of it at my TpT store.

I also have several estimating and rounding PowerPoint Presentations and a multiplying by multiples of tens and hundreds at my store and on my Facebook page.

Career Day

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching. In fact, we only have 10 days left! I can't believe it. This year has completely flown by...in the blink of an eye.

But in that same blink, the behavior of the students has gone off the deep end. They are ALMOST as excited about the upcoming summer as we are. The massive full moon does not help at all! It is crazy up in here!!

So we are trying very hard to survive. And the best way to survive is to engage children. To get them excited about something, excited enough to try to behave. This year we have planned several educational, exciting, and engaging activities. We have a walking field trip touring our downtown, a 2nd/3rd grade picnic/orientation where our third graders will share their favorite memories and give them a tour of their future classrooms, and we will celebrate all of the places they will go with Career Day.

I created some phenomenal activities to help students share the career they chose to dress up as, research careers, set goals, and learn about all of the options that await them in this big world we live in as long as they keep their head on straight and pursue their dreams.

  

  My Career Day packet includes a graphic organizer for researching, a crossword and word search puzzle, "My First Resume" sheet, an "I Have, Who Has" game...and much, much more! Check it out my "Career Day: Oh the Places You'll Go" packet at my TpT store.

Esti...Who?

Estimation! I love teaching estimation. It is so much fun when students realize how much easier it is to estimate the answer to two numbers than to add, subtract, or multiply them together.  Over the years I have developed all kinds of tricks for teaching estimation.

My most effective trick in helping students remember how to round and estimate is the integration of some of my unique songs, chants, and raps. The first song I created help students remember when to round up or round down.

Next I created a song to help students remember the steps to estimation. Students frequently want to add, subtract, and multiply first and then round their answers. The problem is that it could result in a wrong answer on a test. They need to remember to round first and then add, subtract, or multiply. You can hear the tune of the song when you purchase my Estimating with Addition and Subtraction PowerPoint Presentation at my TpT store. (I honestly could not figure out how to add the sound here and I made up the tune.)

Finally, I (with the help of a class a few years ago) created a song to help students remember how to multiply after rounding by multiplying by multiples of 10's, 100's, and 1,000's.

You can hear the unique tune of Zero the Hero and get so fantabulous teaching tools, tips, and lessons when you purchase my awesome PowerPoint presentation Estimation with Multiplication from my TpT store.

Here are some of my favorite videos and songs from YouTube and United Streaming that I use when teaching my units on Estimation:

Math Confusion

      My idea for Math Confusion came from the fitness craze, Cross Fit. The goal with Cross Fit is to do many different activities in a short amount of time, switching it up so that your muscles never know what is coming next. You work out your arms, then do cardio, then do abs, then do legs...and repeat as many times as you are able to make it through the circuit. It makes your muscles stronger and burns more calories because the muscles are working harder when the exercises are not repetitive.

     So as we were coming back from a field trip one day, I thought about using the same idea for a math review. Math Confusion uses the same idea as Cross Fit. Students work on lots of different math concepts in a short amount of time. They rotate from station to station working on place value, fractions, multiplication, addition… They get 2 minutes at each station and must try to get as many questions right as possible. The Confusion continues until time is up. The goal is for students to make it through the circuit as many times as they can in the time allowed and to get as many cards right at each station as possible.

I created 11 stations 2 place value, 2 addition, 2 subtraction, 2 multiplication, 2 fraction, 1 number forms. I printed the circuit (instruction) card and activity cards on card stock and laminated them for safe keeping. I folded the circuit card in half and added Velcro to the inside to make a little pocket for the cards to fit in. All 11 stations fit nicely into a gallon Ziploc bag. 

I set the stations up so that none of the same skills are side by side, hence the CoNfUsIoN! Here is an example of how I set up the stations: 

Next I divide the students into groups of 2. Each group rotates from station to station spending 2 minutes at each station. There are 32 activity cards at each stations so it is rare for any group to finish a station before time is called. 

Here is how I explain the confusion to the students:

There are stations set up around the room. At each station, there is a set of cards face down. I am going to assign you to stations where you will sit and wait until I say go. When I say go, you are to turn over the first card and write, down the answer as quickly as you can. After you have written down the answer, turn the card upside down and check to see if you got it right. Remember, don’t cheat. If you cheat your muscles (brain) want get any bigger (smarter). If you get it right, put it off to the side. If you get it wrong, put it back into the deck of cards on the bottom. When I say stop, you must stop writing and count the cards you got right. Then place all the cards back in the deck face down, and return the station to how it was when you started. Do not rotate to the next station until I give the signal. When I give the signal, rotate to the next station. Sit down and don’t touch anything until I say to start. Remember, the goal is to get as many right at each station as you can and to get around to every station. Are there any questions?

This was one of the best reviews I have ever done in my classroom. It reviewed every concept in Numbers and Operation in less than a 30 minute period. Check it out at my TpT store! Download the free preview, or get it to use in your classroom. I was so pleased, and I am going to soon begin working on the Geometry, Measurement, and Algebra versions.