SDE Conference & Giveaway!

Yesterday I gave my first presentation at an SDE conference! It was in Norman, OK and it was COLD and SNOWY. In fact, when I started the drive Sunday I almost turned around! The roads right outside of our town were bad, but once I hit the main part of the interstate it cleared up thankfully.

Anyways, I usually start off my posts with a picture of Sullivan but that sweet little boy came down with a stomach bug on Saturday which he quickly passed to me and then to my husband and daughter. Apparently my 12 year old son spent the night looking after Daddy, Sissy and baby. Figures they would all get sick the first night I have to go away right? So here's a picture of little amn after his ER visit:

See that twinkle in his yes? He knows he's about to get everyone sick! And yes, his eczema is still a big issue, we finally get to see a pediatric dermatologist on the 19th!

 

My first presentation was Fun-Tastic Math Games which I thought went very well (if you attended and are reading this please chime in to the affirmative!). My second presentation was on Technology Tips for Teachers and I hit the top 5 sites - Pinterest, Facebook, Blogger, TPT and Twitter as well as Class Dojo and Planbook.com

I really need to remember my camera instead of relying on phone pictures!

No one booed or hissed or got up and left, and everyone stayed awake, so I'm counting that as a success (heck, even some of my first graders nod off while I'm teaching!) In honor of this success, I'm having a giveaway! My good friend Kaci of Mrs. Hoffer's Spot was also presenting, so she and  I got some of our sweet Kinderland friends together to donate prizes, so here we go:

Fabulous Kinderland Products Pack 1:

From me, my We Love to Measure pack.

 From Arianne of Ketchen's KIndergarten, a February Common Core Aligned Math Stations pack.

 

From Faith of Kindergarten Faith, a Trace, Say, Glue & Write Phonics Worksheet Set.

 

From Heidi of My (Not So) Elementary Life, a Healthy Teeth pack.

 

From Laura of Peace, Love and First Grade, a Sound Box Fun set.

From Lori of Conversations in Literacy, a Learning My ABCs pack.

 

Fabulous Kinderland Products Pack 2:

From Kaci of Mrs. Hoffer's Spot, a Be My Love Bug pack.

From Shuna of A Pocketful of Kinders, a Let's Get Cracking pack.

From Tiffani of Time 4 Kindergarten, a CVC Cut & Paste pack.

 From Danielle of Kroger's Kindergarten, a St. Patrick's Day Morning Work pack.

 

 From Jennifer of First Grade Blue Skies, a Bumble Bee Mine Craft pack.

From Krissy of Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business, a Draw It Now Bundle pack.
 

Fabulous Kinderland Products Pack 3:

 From Maggie of Maggie's Kinder Corner, a Are You Ready for Lines? pack.

From Rebecca of Kindergarten Sparkle and Shine, a Chevron Word Wall Cards pack.

 From Angela of The Daily Alphabet, a Cupid Is In The Air pack.

 From Cheryl of Crayons & Curls, a Mitten CVC Making Words pack.

 From Kristen of Kristen's Kindergarten, an I Love Math pack.

 From Vickie of Mrs. Plant's Press, a Super St. Patrick's Day pack.

 

From Mandy of A Special Kind of Class, a Winter Sports Math pack.

 

Here's the Rafflecopter to enter, good luck to all and hopefully there will be many more conference presentations in the future!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

January Math with Pictures, a Freebie and a chance to Win!

I cannot believe how fast time flies - it seems like just yesterday we were gearing up for Back to School and now its almost the end of January!

My requisite pic of Sullivan - his eczema is still going full force, we are seeing a pediatric dermatologist in February. He is still the happiest little guy ever though :)

 

My class thoroughly enjoyed our winter break and came back refreshed and with reinforcements! I now have 29 kiddos (ack!) and they run the gamut from so far behind I don't even know how to start them back on the proper track to so far ahead I am struggling to keep them challenged! It is absolutely amazing (and tiring!) how diverse my class is this year.

Non-standard measurement with snowmen!

Today's post is all about the math   some of us are still working on K skills, some are firming up their grasp of 1st grade skills and some are ready to explore 2nd grade skills. Trying to manage math rotations with so many students and such diverse needs is making me stretch my organizational capabilities! I'm going to add pics of all of our Math Centers we've been working on so far:

Non-standard measurement with arctic animals!

 

I've been working on teaching measurement, as well as reviewing place value, number sense, addition and graphing. We have time to the hour down pat, now we are learning time to the half hour. I'm also focusing on writing the numbers from 109-120. We can fill in a mean 100 chart, but get past 109 and you see the strangest things! Fractions were easy for this group to understand - one less thing to worry about!

Penguin Fractions sorting activity - FREEBIE!

 

We also are reusing my Snowman Group Motivator from last year - aka an on-sale snowman decoration with reusable stickers! I think I paid $1.50 for it at Walmart after Christmas last year. I let my class add a sticker any time we are all behaving at carpet (29 kiddos get kinda wiggly!) The theory is that we will finish him before we finish January and we will get a dance party :)

 

Graduated order sorting activity 

 

 Time to the hour and 1/2 hour with penguins and fishes!

 Penguin Fact Families!

 

 Graphing according to a tally chart.

 

 Penguin ten frames - first they matched them then I had them put the cards in numerical order!

 Winter Addition Search - anything is more fun with magnifying glasses!

Our Math Wall has penguin ten frame cards right now. I frequently switch them up so the kiddos have to be paying attention to them - anyone who figures out one is in the wrong place gets to clip up on our behavior chart :)

Penguin Roll & Cover Addition & Subtraction Games

 

Now, here's your chance to win: Rustle up a Comment below and tell me your favorite math game to play in the classroom - it can be a board game, a made-up game, paper and pencil game-  anything, as long as its fun! I'll choose 2 commenters to win their choice of the math packs seen in this post!

Holiday Linky, Elf and a Freebie!

I'm joining up with Daina from Sticky Notes and Glitter for a Holiday Linky!

When I think of holiday foods, two things come to mind:

True story: when we lived in Germany the Commissary would get a very limited supply of Archway cookies. And since we were overseas, it wasn't like we could just head to another store to get them. So, when the Wedding Cookies hit the shelves I would end up buying like 10 boxes! The cashiers thought I was nuts, but they are truly the best holiday cookie!

Alright, onto the classroom! Today we had Pajama Day/Movie Day. The kids watched Despicable Me 2 in the gym while the teachers got report cards/permanent records done. Well...actually I just picked up my permanent record cards and slapped them next to the pile of report cards, but its the thought that counts, right? I have NO IDEA what I did for that 2 hour window, except that I did eat a lot of beer batter bread and dip since the lounge is holiday goodie central now. I went in for coffee and came out 5lbs heavier!

For some reason I thought that we were actually going to be able to be academic this week. Umm, no, not so much. My kiddos were ALL over the place. It could've been the full moon, but the frequent counting down of days to Christmas makes me think its more Santa's fault. Seriously, they counted the days in line for breakfast. Forgot the count and counted again in line to go to the movie. Had to recount after the movie, debated whether to count today or not during lunch and finally decided not to only count to Christmas Eve. By the end of the day I wanted to tattoo the number 9 to my forehead just so they would stop counting lol!

Anyways, One thing they DIDN'T do was mess with our Elf. Am I the only one whose elf hasn't been touched yet?! Today our elf, Chippy, was playing tic tac toe with our friend Alpine!

Alright, I am off to contemplate procrastinating on report cards some more. I'll leave you with this little gift. Last year I created this fun little Holiday Gift Pack freebie as a thank you to all of my followers! Its still available for free in my TPT store in case you need something fun for the last few days before break!