Five For Friday & Singapore Math

1.  Recently my school was extremely blessed to have someone come to our school for a whole day and give us training on using "Singapore Math" techniques. I learned so many things and look forward to blogging about what I learned.  I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with number bonds, but I began to use addition using number bonds in the beginning of the school year.  However, after our training, I felt like I had a deeper understanding on how to use and teach number bonds.  This week I used number bonds to teach my students the different ways to make ten.  During our training I learned just how important it is for students to have the mastery of 10.  It is the building block for math the rest of their lives. 

Bad picture.  Sorry, but I wanted to share a visual.

Something else we learned was the power of the bracelet!  Below is a picture of a bracelet made of pipe cleaners and beads.  We used this bracelet to as a visual for students to see how you can add two numbers to equal ten.  After I introduced them to the problem, I completed flipped the bracelet around to show them that 3 + 7 is the same thing as 7 + 3.  You will keep on getting the same answer.  We used the wording "turn around fact.  Ideally I should have used two different color beads.  Five of each different color.

We also made renkenreks.  Below is a picture.  Once again we used pipe cleaners and beads.  We also used craft material to attach the pipe cleaners.  It is another manipulative used to teach students how to add. I will blog about that more on a later time.

2.  Greater Than, Less Than

We also used different Singapore Math techniques to learn greater and less than in our classroom.  I created this tpt unit with different printables, visuals, and methods to teach greater and less than.

 You can click here and it will take you to tpt to see a preview of this unit. Below are some pics of a game we played in class to learn greater and less than.  The directions are in my unit if you are interested.  

I created this cube using a Boggle Junior game cube.  I just wrote the words on the cube on labels.

Look at these cuties having fun.

3.  Number bond bulletin board. Isn't it adorable?  

I differentiated this lesson by using splitting my class into students who could add to 20 fluently and those who could add to 10 fluently.  The craft is really simple and cute.  I used my silhouette to cute flowers out. Students wrote numbers on the flowers, we added green tissue paper, and a ribbon and viola.  Adorable!  

4.  Easter

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.  I was blessed enough to spend it with my sister and her family.  We husband is in ministry so we moved and don't live close to family.  We have fallen in love with our community, and are happy here.  But holidays are no fun without family!  

5.  Legoland

Recently during our spring break my family and I went to Legoland.  It was AMAZING! My overall review of Legoland is that  I would recommend it to anyone.  No matter the age!  I think the online reviews did not give it justice.  We have such a great time with all of our children.  The best part is that is very reasonably priced compared to other parks. Below are way too many pictures!  I thought people might want to see some images since the park is somewhat newer.  

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!  We celebrated Earth day today by planting a tree in our school.  A local company Dot Food was very generous by purchasing and bringing the tree to our school today.

We have been working on my Emeraldlicious unit. If you are interested in taking a look at it here is the link.   I have used different portions of my unit the last couple of years depending on my students' needs. 

One of our writing prompts is "If I had a magic want I would . . ." This student wrote about recycling tires to make a race care.  The paper on the right is a picture he drew on his wand handle.  

One of the books I am currently reading is Word Nerds.  I am really trying to focus on vocabulary.  My unit contains vocabulary flashcards.  Students matched up the word, image, and definition.  

After they matched the vocabulary cards students placed the cards in the correct category.

This is the first time I used images of the vocabulary words to teach students their meaning.  One of the words in the story was "cape."  I taught students the two different definitions cape can mean.  I was so stinking excited when one of my students saw a cape on the water in their guided reading books and asked if that's what it was. I loved seeing him make those connections and use what he had been taught!

March MaDnEsS

Well March is definitely full of MaDnEsS!  Between the battle mother nature is having with the weather, and lots and lots of testing that is going on in all the schools, it is definitely maddening!  

We celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by reading some of his amazing books.  I made a special little snack for my class.  It didn't quit turn out the way, i would have wanted, but that's ok.  The whipped cream didn't quite puff up the way I would have liked it.  I added a little bit of food coloring on the top to make it look like Thing 1.  I made labels for each of the treats.  Each student received their own "Thing #."   

 

Can you say blue mouth?  Yup, most of my students walked around with blue lips for the rest of the day.

 After students ate their snack, they wrote about the different things they would do if they were one of the things in the book The Cat in the Hat.  

"I would be thing 22 if I could an I would play with the cat in the hat."

Students learned how Dr. Seuss began his writing career.  He was inspired when he first went to a zoo.  He wrote and drew, and wrote and drew some more. Students were very inspired. . . so we began writing our own story.  I created this little  Story Writing unit.  It's free on tpt.  So click on the link for a freebie.

We also began working on St. Patrick's Day math tubs.  I created this little unit.  St. Patrick's Day Math Tubs & Printables

Here are a few pictures of the math tubs.

And here's a picture of my son.  We brought his sax home to practice for his band concert.