Integrating Technology into Math...Tune into Technology

I was super bummed that I didn't get to jump in on 

one of my favorite summer linkys last week.

I'm joinin' two of my favorite blogs,

iTeach 1:1 & Learning to the Core

for Tune into Technology.

As you can see by the button, this week's topic is:

Integrating Technology into Math

I do A LOT of Math in my class.

TWO HOURS worth of Math...

EVERY...

DAY!

My kids do not do Math homework.

Yes, you read that right.

I haven't done Math homework in my room

for two years and it's worked out great, but 

that's a whole other post.

I do Math first thing every mornin'.

I call my kiddos over to my carpet area and they

spread out on the floor with their Math textbooks and binders...

with a perfect view to our SMARTboard.

I have written about this here and here before.

After we do a whole group lesson,

I split my kids into five flexible Math groups.

1) Desktop computers

2) iPads or laptops

3) Math games on the carpet

4) Small group at my teacher table

5) Independent/Group work

One of the things that I did last year was Math Journals

Since we moved to online Math standardized testin'

a few years ago in Florida, 

I thought it would be important to add in a component

this year for my students to be able to reply

to a Math journal prompt electronically.

I have battled back in forth between usin' a Google Doc

or just havin' them respond via email or Edmodo to me.

We use Edmodo daily for assignments, but I think my 5th graders 

need more practice with emailin'.

Each student in my district has their own email address.

I think it's good to switch up the programs you use often...or

the kids get bored with the same thing over and over.

I am pretty sure I'm goin' to try out the email first.

My reasonin'...

I can send out an email to each student and

they can send me a reply with their written/typed response.

This gives me the opportunity to add a comment back to them

without everyone else seein' what I've got to say.

Of course this is true with Edmodo too, but

like I said before...change is good.

I can use this idea in the desktop computer, laptop, or iPad centers.

These are the Math journals I use and what I wrote last year:

  I got the Math Journals from K-5 Math Teaching Resources. 

 They have journals for each grade level for purchase.  

They are Common Core aligned and 

so far I am really enjoying them.
I have the journal entry written 

in my lesson plans on my Planbook.  

I project this on my SMARTboard which is 

located in front of my teacher table.  

The kids copy the question and write an answer.  

After they are finished, they share the response with their group.

Now I can draft a few group emails to go out 

when I'm writin' my lesson plans. 

Also, I plan to keep usin' the followin' Math programs for home/school:

1) Study Jams Math-I use these little lessons and videos often

I use this list to keep help me plan and 

keep track of what we have watched.

2) Ten Marks-I love that I can go in and assign 

whatever skill or standard we 

are currently workin' on. 

3) XtraMath-Great for basic math fact practice 

and the kids love earnin'

the certificates from this program.

4) Learnzillion-Common Core aligned

5) Scootpad-individualized for each student.

6) Successmaker-the program my county uses for

Math & Reading.

7) Sumdog-the kids LOVE this site and really get into 

the competitions they offer.

 I also use a bazillion iPad apps...too many to list today. 

I can't wait to see what new stuff is out there

that I need to be doin' also!

I wish there was more time in the day.

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Monday Made It...flowers and ice cream...

This is my first official Monday Made It of the summer...

at home...with all my supplies.

Actually, I spent the day with Miss Nelson craftin' away...

at her house.

Both of us LOVE linkin' up with sweet Tara from 

4th Grade Frolics and both get into some serious trouble

for makin' a mess everywhere.

Maybe that's why we decided last summer to create

a store together called Double Trouble.

Glitter, glue guns, giggles...doesn't sound so troublesome to me, 

but what do I know?

In my classroom, I have a different colored table bucket on each

of my six tables.

Yes, I do tables in 5th grade and it's one of the best

decisions I have ever made in my teachin' career.

In the past, I have stored pencils, pens, etc. in plastic cups

that go inside the bucket.

This year, I wanted to switch it up a lil' bit.

I did a little sneak peek on Instagram.

Make sure you link yours up today and use #mondaymadeit

I like to go back and stalk browse your pictures!

I bought some mason jars at Michael's for $1.50 a piece and

some pretty flowers for 30% off each flower...

makin' each flower $1.39.

I already had some tulle that I had bought at Hobby Lobby last summer.
I used them for this craft here.

I cut off the the stems on each flower and then wrapped the tulle
around the plastic green part.
I put some hot glue in there to keep the tulle inside.

I wrapped the tulle with the flower around the jar and dropped

some pens and highlighters in each one.  

They are so bright and festive!
I can't wait to get the flower caddies in my buckets.

You can check out what the rest of my classroom decor
looks like here.

Kirsten Terborg asked me to make a custom set of 

Fact Families-Behavior Beads

for her this past week.

I wrote about them here.

These are new.

They can be used for Addition/Subtraction or

Multiplication/Division Fact Families.

These will help motivate students to learn their facts

and will give them somethin' to look forward to when

they know they will be gettin' an ice cream

sundae party at the end.

Want to know more about Behavior Beads?

Click here and here.

These are on sale again for $2.50 on Monday and Tuesday.

I will be usin' Sign Up Genius to ask parents for

Ice Cream Sundae Party donations for students

after learnin' their multiplication fact families.

I always like to send home Thank You notes

to students and parents for participating in somethin'

or for donatin' items to our classroom.

It's just the sweet thing to do and

I hope my students learn to do the same for others.

I have made a FREEBIE for anyone

that is usin' Fact Families-Behavior Beads in their class

You can click here or on the pictures.

I made Miss Nelson and I some homemade ice cream

to celebrate Monday Made It.

Directions:

1) Open freezer and pick out desired dessert.

2) Take lid off of carton.

3) Scoop contents out into bowl with a spoon.

4) Eat and enjoy at home...that's what makes it homemade.

Total kitchen time from start to finish...approximately 5 minutes...

maybe less if you have an awesome ice cream scoop.

The real stuff: Yes...it's SO Delicious!

My best Monday Made It food item...ever!

I'm even goin' to link it up with Christy at 

Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road

for 

Eating, Drinking, Linking...Oh My!

My friend Cassie Lea over at Funky in Fourth

is havin' an AWESOME giveaway!

Head over and check it out!

Happy Monday, friends!

Thursday travels and a giveaway...

I started typin' this while I was up in the sky.

How cool is technology?!

I had to do somethin' to keep my mind busy 

since I have left my parents after spendin' 

a glorious month with them.

I'm sad.

Guess what is makin' me happy though...

My sweet friend Cassie Lea

(yes, we have the same middle name)

is havin' a 100 follower giveaway

over at her blog, Funky in Fourth!

I LOVE this girl...A LOT.

So...I bet you want to know what's goin' on with this giveaway.

You can check out the flyers below.

She's got some really awesome prizes that I REALLY want, 

so you better get over to her blog and beat me to them. 

I promise if I win I won't rub it in anyone's face...

well, maybe I might have my toes crossed while

making this promise to you.

XO

Be sure to head to Funky in Fourth to enter to win.

Happy Thursday, friends!
I'm home safely.

I'll be sleepin' all day...so I'll catch up to you this weekend...

at some point.

Two for Tuesday....YAY...a BRAND NEW item!

I'm just lovin' The Teaching Tribune's Weekly link-ups.

I especially love Two for Tuesday.

I have gotten so many phenomenal deals the past 6 weeks

from all of you terrific TpT creators.  

Thank you!

For today I have two items in my own TpT store that are 50% off.

#1: Fact Families-Behavior Beads

These are BRAND NEW.

These can be used for Addition/Subtraction or

Multiplication/Division Fact Families.

These will help motivate students to learn their facts

and will give them somethin' to look forward to when

they know they will be gettin' an ice cream

sundae party at the end.

This is on sale for $2.50.

Want to know more about Behavior Beads?

Click here and here.

#2: Math Vocabulary Word Wall Words & Definition Cards

This packet has 80 words and definition cards.

This is on sale for $1.50.

Happy Tuesday, friends

Monday Made It....a lot of grapes had to be tested for this...

I am linkin' up with the wonderful Tara from 4th Grade Frolics 

for her marvelous Monday Made It linky.

I'm also linkin' up with Christy from Teaching Tales Along the 

Yellow Brick Road for her yummy Eating, Drinking and Linking...Oh My!
I also had lots of yummy food this past week that I wrote about here.

I'm pretty sure this will be the last time you 

see me writin' about makin' food this summer.

I am headin' home on Wednesday night from my vacation.

He's probably not gonna like it, but it

will be time for Jerm to take back over the task of 

makin' sure I get fed.

If not...I could always live off this stuff...

This is so easy an Ali can make it.

Taco Dip: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread one package of cream cheese on the bottom of a glass pie dish.

Pour one cup of salsa on top of the cream cheese.

Sprinkle any type of shredded cheese you like on top of the the salsa 

and cover thoroughly.

I like to use the blended shredded cheeses.

Heat for 15-20 minutes and it's ready to serve.

Spinach Dip: Dump in all the ingredients listed on the back of a

Knorr's vegetable dip packet for Spinach Dip.

1 cup mayo, 1 carton of 8 oz. sour cream, 1 package of frozen

spinach that is thawed and drained, and the Knorr packet.

Mix it up and put it in the fridge overnight.

I made this for Nitty's memorial...read here.

It was one of her favorites.

It's really hard to work on crafts when you are 3,000 miles away

from your crafty stuff, but you know what....you just make small stuff 

with whatever you've got handy...no biggie!

I happened to have scrapbook paper left over from last week's MMI here.

These are goin' to look really cute on my whiteboard at school.

I bought the little cardboard butterflies and stars for $1 each at Beverly's Fabric.

I also bought some stick on magnets for the back.

I used the shapes as a guide to cut out the colorful butterflies and stars

on the left over scrapbook paper.

I used craft glue to glue the paper on top and 

peeled off the magnet and stuck it on the back.

This will match my Rockstar sign.

*Disclaimer: 

A lot of grapes had to be tested for the next three crafts.

BUT, I did not test all of them on my own.

These corks were saved over a long period of time

 for me to use for craftiness.

It's all about the recyclin'...okay?

Just like that time when I made Christmas trees out of corks.

Of course I had to pick out my favorite corks because those bottles at 

one point in time had my dad's grapes in them. 

Now our bellies have those grapes in them.

I took the little screw eyes that I got in the jewelry section of the craft store

and put them in the bottom of the corks.

Then I twisted them on my dad's key ring.

This seriously took less than one minute.

My favorite kind of craft.

See it attached to his keys at the top?

They are restin' on that cool plate I made here.

Wine corks continued...

I used the left over screw eyes for this craft also.

I put a screw eye into the top and bottom of two corks on the end.

The ones in the middle got one screw eye on the bottom only.

I used the hot glue gun and glued the corks to one another.

I threaded a ribbon I had into the top and tied it into a knot because

I don't know how to tie bows.

This was super easy too other than the corks took a little bit

to stick to one another with the hot glue.

The hot glue of course had no problem stickin' to my fingers.

Go figure!

If I were goin' to make this again, I would glue the corks onto

a ruler also to help it stay sturdy.

You'll see what I'm talkin' about on the next cork craft.

I would like to make one to hold necklaces, but I would

use hooks at the bottom instead of the screw eyes.

That's right...the corks are continued again..

I threaded some ribbon into hole on the top of a yard stick.  

I hot glued corks onto the yard stick and this time...not on my fingers.

After it dried...I hung the corky yard stick on the wall 

and pinned some pictures up.

Another quick and easy craft.

Oh...I can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with.

Happy Monday, friends.

Saturday Snapshots....my vacation continues...

Hello, Saturday.

I've had another busy week this week and have taken lots 

of snapshots so I could link up with my 

bestie Miss Nelson from Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera!

for Saturday Snapshots.

Want to see the beginnin' of my vacation?

Read here (Days 1-5), here (Days 6-9) and here (Day 10-15).

Day 16 Cali...we drove over to Pismo Beach.

We stayed in the same exact hotel that I used to stay in when 

I was younger.

Seriously...this is the view from the room.

Sea Crest OceanFront Hotel in Pismo Beach.

Day 17 Cali...these are the stairs that I posted on Instagram.

What goes down...must go up...

or somethin' like that.

UGH...we had take a break...clearly I am out of shape

because I was out of breath goin' back up there.

Check out these cool lil' caves.  

Day 17 Cali continued...we had such a relaxin' day sittin' around

outside...by the pool durin' the day and by the fire pits at night.

They had about four different fire pits around the property.

Of course I had to test them all out to figure out

which was my favorite.

Day 17 Cali continued...Overall, Day 17 was my amazingness 

(Did you like that I used your word, Chelsea?)

Day 17 was also the day that I got to meet Kelly in real-life.

Read here to find out more about our fun time!

Day 18 Cali...we stuck around the hotel all day and then 

headed to F.McLintock's.

I remember fond memories from my childhood

of this restaurant.

One of the things I remember most was the waiter pourin' water

from high up over the table...into your glass.

This brave child let the waiter pour water into his glass...

blindfolded.   

My steak was YUM!

Day 19 Cali...Drove home from Pismo, hit 600 followers on Bloglovin'(WooHOO),

ate a healthy lunch and found some popcorn stickers at Dollar Tree...score!

Day 20 Cali...didn't really leave the house.  

Did find a random bottle of grapes hangin' out in the hallway.

Day 21 Cali...Nitty's memorial day.

Check out the Flipagram at the bottom for a slide show of the memorial.

A great big thank you to George and Pris for hostin' the dinner

at their house. It was a beautiful event and lots of people

that adored Nitty were able to make it.
We handed out dish cloths that she had crocheted.

Everyone loved them.

Day 22 Cali...a day filled with laziness and not leavin' the house.

I did celebrate my One Year Blogiversary and stayed in my 

pajamas until 7 p.m.

Read here to find out about that.

Day 23 Cali...had lunch at Tehama with mom and Pris.

There were deer all over the course yesterday...just hangin' out.

Check out the little baby with her mama.

Happy 4th of July.

Day 23 Cali continued...had dinner with the 'rents and their sweet friends.

We ate at Corkscrew Cafe in Carmel Valley.

We started outside in the cute garden seatin' area, but it was too chilly.

The food was delicious and the company was even better!

Day 23 Cali continued...They served the table with warm

bread, creamy goat cheese (no...I didn't eat that, Jivey), and 

roasted garlic to spread on the bread.

Mom and I split a yummy Pear salad with melted Gorgonzola cheese

and had a Meyer's Lemon pizza with prosciutto, arugula,

mozzarella and Parmesan.

This was place had the coolest atmosphere. 

I couldn't stop snappin' shots.

Day 23 Cali continued...went to Patria in Salinas to make 

reservations for dinner tonight and to check on some grapes.

The most important part of my week was this...turn your volume up.

Happy Saturday, friends!