It's the Little Things that EXCITE us!

OK...so if you think it's a bit sad for a person to get excited about a ONE DOLLAR FLY SWATTER...then I would generally be in agreement!

BUT...people...I found the most stinkin' awesome fly swatters at Wal-mart today for ONE BUCK!  I was happily rolling along with my binders, pocket files, ink...you know...boring stuff...when out of the corner of my eye these babies were screaming at me!

I love the bright colors and knew they would be a hit with my kinder kiddos right off the bat.

NOW---I had to find a REAL reason to get them, other than the fact they were cute and cheap.

So here's my plan of action:

Since they came in 2 colors, I figured we can use these to  play games.  Each player has a different color swatter thus there will be an ORANGE player and a TEAL player.  I am thinking they will need a 3rd kid to be the "caller".

Then the possibilities are WIDE OPEN!

*Lay out sight word cards on the floor.  Caller has a set of matching cards.  They call out a word and the 1st kiddo to hit the correct word, "SPLAT", wins the card.  The kiddo with the most cards, wins the game!

*Make 2 cards...one that says FACT and one that says FICTION.  Read, or make up, a paragraph or even just a sentence that you tell the kiddos.  The first one to hit (SPLAT!) whether it's fact or fiction, wins the card!

*Make 2 cards that say "Sentence" or "NOT a Sentence".  Read, or make up, sentences or phrases.  The first one to SPLAT the correct one wins the card.

*You get the picture...endless possibilities!

*I was thinking I would lay out my number line on the floor.  Then use flash cards to play.  So if I were working on number words I would give the caller a stack of words zero to twenty.  They would show the 2 kiddos the word and the first one to hit the right # gets the card.

*Use it for addition and subtraction.  Show addition equations and they "SPLAT" the answer!

*Tell them a number and they SPLAT the number that is "one more", "one less", "two more"...

*Endless possibilities!

I actually bought 8 swatters so I could have several kiddos playing at once.  I am sure I can think of a way to use ALL of them at  once, but haven't made it that far. :)

Now...do you guys have any more ideas for how we can use these AWESOME "Finds of the Day"?

Also, I was thinking I may create the cards needed to play the games just so I wouldn't have to come up with sentences/phrases or equations...off the top of my head.  Or so I could leave it for a sub to do.

Would you guys be interested in something like this as a product to purchase?  Or totally not necessary?  Would love to get your opinion!

Retiring, Egg Hunt & Happy Spring Break!

Hi Friends! Hope you are either finishing up or beginning your spring break with some rest and relaxation!!

Before you get too SAD, Cristy and I are not the ones who are retiring! We have lots of years to go (13), but who's counting :). Any way our SUPER FABULOUS principal announced her retirement. While we wish her well, we are a bit devastated at the news. We knew it was coming soon, but just didn't want to think it was now.

Have you ever had a principal who expected 110% from everyone and if someone could not give 110% he/she devoted time and resources to help get that person performing? Well, that's our principal!! She is one of those service leaders who will get you what you need so you can do your job better. She is also one of those leaders who goes into any situation with a bucket of water in one hand and  fire in the other. She is ready to put out a fire or get one started depending on the situation!

Enough about our sad news! On to FUN things like---EASTER!  So sorry if this activity is a day late! Maybe you could use it next year ;).

We had a super fun "Egg"tastic Math Egg Hunt! It was awesome. We bought enough plastic eggs for every kiddo to have one. We stuffed each kid's egg with 10 jelly beans. If you want to do this activity, feel free to put any number of jelly beans that work for you.

After we stuffed the eggs, we wrote each kid's name on an egg then hid them outside. The kiddos had to find the egg with their name on it. They couldn't tell their friend if they saw someone else's name. After finding the eggs, the students got a clipboard and work paper.

Students had to count the number of jelly beans and record. Then students had to decompose the
number of jelly beans they were working on into pairs. Finally, students wrote a word problem about their jelly beans and then gobbled them up. Yummy! Thanks Mrs. Kari, our student teacher, for getting us jelly beans!

Below is a copy of the "Egg"tastic math recording form we used. If you think you could use it sometime, feel free to grab it by clicking on the picture!

Hope y'all have(had) a great spring break and fabulous Easter!!

Fabulous Math Video and Fun Number Combination Stations!

Check Baby, check check baby....Oh sorry, I guess we are still singing!  This awesome song we found helps teach our new Common Core Math Standard that requires students to know when adding numbers 0-9 what is needed to make 10.

WARNING!!! This song will get stuck in your head, so if you have a tendency to lose sleep because a song constantly replays through your mind, you may not want to check out the link below.  The song is called...

What Makes 10

So this week we started stations for decomposing numbers or in the olden days we would say building
number combinations! The kids are having a blast. However today was KUH-RAY-ZEE!!! Can you say we introduced too many different stations and kids were everywhere!!! They were working hard and we love organized chaos, but today was a definite reminder that sometimes less is more :).  So below are some of our featured stations that we got from Math Their Way or the Frameworks from Common Core. 

We did make our own recording forms for stations so that all the kids could use the same form no matter what math manipulative they were using.  The only time they need a different form is when they move up to building combinations for the next number. We start everyone at 4 and test them for fluency after completing 2-4 stations. They advance at their own pace. If you need cards to track the numbers that your kiddos are working on or forms for stations, check out our....

Addition and Subtraction: Common Core Kindergarten-Unit 4 pack. 

Happy Birthday Jake!! He turns 10 years old today!! I can't believe double digits!! Yikes!! I am so lucky to be his mom!! He is a fabulous kiddo that makes us proud everyday!! Love our Jake! (Love our Brooks too!!!)  Jake is the best big brother ever!!

Thanks for reading!!! Let us know if you have any great ideas for practicing building number combinations!!

Freebie Addition Game, Unit 4, Shape Shout Out!!

Crazy day friends!! We are sending thoughts and prayers to any friends caught in the crazy, scary weather today! While we were not hit too heavily with storms, the threat was enough to send our poor kiddos into the hall for about 40 minutes during a tornado warning and delay school release time for 30 minutes!

Yikes an extra 30 minutes with our babies who did not get recess today!! NO problem! We really could use an extra 30 minutes in order to fit in everything we need! It's frustrating that everyday we have to leave out something because we run out of time. No, lie! We don't even nap!

So, you want us to stop jabbering and tell you about the FREEBIE?

Oh, yeah! We can finally wrap up our unit on shapes and start with addition and subtraction. Why? 

Well we just finished a huge, action packed unit that is 190 pages long, full of games and activities to make our kiddos and yours magnificent mathematicians!!!

If you like the sample below, just click and check out our complete preview. Oh yeah, don't forget to grab that Addition Freebie Game. Just click the game board below the unit sample and it is yours! Enjoy Friends!

Shape Shout Out!!
 My sister-in-law, in Valdosta, Georgia, sent us her pictures of her kid's shape projects that she used from our Shape Explosion: Unit 3 pack (check that out here). They are awesome!!! Sooooo creative!! 

Hope you have a great weekend!!!