With all the craziness of the past two years, I almost forgot about the Winter Olympics. I absolutely love all things related to the Olympics and love incorporating them into my instruction. One of my favorite resources is my Winter Olympics Close Reading packet. When I originally wrote these passages, I had to do a […]
2022 Winter Games Close Reading Read More »
The best way to begin introducing decimals (likely to 4th graders) is to teach lessons that connect fractions to decimals. That’s one of the reasons I like to immediately follow my fraction unit with my decimal unit. Like fractions, decimals are a topic that needs to be taught for conceptual understanding, as well as application
Introducing Decimals Read More »
With so many great resources available, it can be hard to pick and choose what works for your classroom. It can also be a challenge to determine how to incorporate all of your resources. In this series, I share my personal lesson plans to show how I integrate my math resources. I start each section
Combining Division Resources Read More »
Every bone in my body wants to stick my head in the sand and pretend that I don’t have to worry about state testing this year. I don’t want to think about it. At all. I would much rather completely ignore testing, but I wouldn’t be doing anyone any favors. If I wait until testing
Test Prep Starts Now Read More »
Teaching multiplication facts is certainly a challenge. I surveyed more than 20,000 teachers about their biggest challenge teaching math, and the overwhelming response was that students don’t know their multiplication facts. We’ve all experienced it. Some students easily memorize their multiplication facts, and other students memorize most of their multiplication facts but struggle with the
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This post is the second part of my multiplication series. It focuses on teaching multi-digit multiplication with area models, partial product, and incorporating problem solving. If you missed the first post in the series, you can find it here. Week 4 1-Digit By 4-Digit On the fourth week of the multiplication unit, I finally begin
Multiplication Resources Part 2 Read More »
Tomorrow, my students will participate in a Halloween Scavenger Hunt. We originally had a school-wide outdoor activity planned, but due to rain, I’m moving to Plan B. The goal of the Halloween scavenger hunt is for students to place the corresponding sticker beside each of the seven riddles. The trick is that students have to
Halloween Scavenger Hunt Read More »
Have you ever stumbled upon a website and wondered why you’ve never used it before? That’s how I was with Math Playground. It was love at first click. I am very picky when it comes to websites and math games. I am not looking for more skills practice with low level computation and little to
The BEST Math Playground Games Read More »
It’s a Tuesday afternoon, and we’re well into the school year. I’ve taught my reading mini lesson and have already met with one guided reading group. I look around the room and everyone appears to be on task during their independent reading time. Things are running perfectly. But not really. One student “finishes” at least
4 Steps to Eliminate Fake Reading Read More »
These Day After Halloween activities are here to help!! I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the only days more challenging than Halloween is the day AFTER Halloween. There is nothing quite like a room full of children who’ve eaten nothing but candy over the past 24 hours. I’ve heard many teachers say that
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