Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Anchor charts and Classroom charts Galore!

Well I am home again.  This time my youngest daughter is sick.  We seem to be spreading this lovely stuff over weeks and months.  Anyway, she is asleep right now so I caught up on my blog-stalking and thought I'd post a few pics of my anchor charts and classroom charts.  So this is going to be very random - no rhyme or reason at all - just the pics I could find.  I hope my sharing will help someone out there because most of these were inspired by someone else, and those someone else-s have made me a better teacher!


Our newest anchor chart on re-telling.

Our Inferencing chart.

One of our weather charts.

We created this chart together by brainstorming describing words.  They then wrote their own poems using these words.
 I have posted most of these before but I can't remember which ones. So, here they are again!





 Here are a few more from some past units.  I just didn't get around to them at the time.  My class this year keeps me hoppin'!
Based on an investigation activity from Deanna Jump's America unit.

More describing words.  We taste tested popcorn and used our five senses to describe it.


I think this is based off of Mrs. Jump's page out of her Penguin unit.



Our snowman brace map.

Our student sheet to go with the snowman brace map.

More describing words.  This time we tasted and described hot chocolate!
That's it.  I hope there is something here that is helpful to you!

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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Subtraction Bump Game (freebie)

I love all of the bump games out there and my kiddos love them too.  I made a winter bump game a while back and it is a favorite of my darlings during math workstations.  I decided to try and make a subtraction bump game.  Ok.  Let's see if I can explain this. (BTW: this works better when the kiddos have a fairly good grasp of subtraction!)

Each player has either 10 red or yellow (or whatever) tokens. Give the kiddos two dice. The first player rolls the dice and decides which die has the biggest number.  They then subtract the second die from the first die, find that number on the board and cover it up.  If your partner is already on that number you can bump your partner's token off.  If you bump your partner they take back their maker and have a chance to use it again.  If you roll a number that you already have covered, you can stack another marker on top of it.  Any space with two markers stacked on top of each other is locked and that space can't be bumped.  If you roll a number that is not available on the board, the next player takes their turn.  The player to use all of their tokens wins!

Was that clear as mud?  I swear the kiddos will love it.  It's just hard to explain!

Ok, here it is if you want it!
SUBTRACTION BUMP

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Monday, March 12, 2012

Moving on to Subtraction! (freebies)

We recently started teaching the kiddos the basics of subtraction.  To help out I made this subtraction mat.  Here are some pictures to help explain.  (freebies are at the end!)
First the kiddos put 10 tokens in their "stash" at the top.  This is where they return their tokens after each problem is worked out.  This has to be taught to them.

I pull out a card.  We talk about which one is the biggest number and how in subtraction we always have to start with the largest number, therefore that is the amount we put in the large square

We then take away or in this case "throw away" the other number into the cup.  It is a great visual for the kids and it keeps the subtracted pieces separate.  We then find the answer card and put it on the board.  When this card is finished we put all the pieces back in our stash at the top and start over.
Please tell me that made sense!  Here is the math mat and the cards.  They are very simple but they seem to be working for my kiddos!  You'll have to provide your own cups! :)

Subtraction work mat
Subtraction number sentences
Subtraction mat answers
Subtraction record sheet

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