New Winter and Christmas Math Activities! (Better late than never...)

I realize that Christmas break is only... 1 1/2 days away for some of us.  Some of you may already be on break- lucky ducks!  As I begin to dabble in the world of blogging, teachers pay teachers, and creating fun things for my own kids, I realize how *behind* I am in posting resources!  Maybe it's because I'm still collecting, creating, and planning things for my kids as this is only my second year, or maybe it's because I'm still nervous to share my things with everyone else who has FANTASTIC things in their store.  Well regardless, here are the things I created for my kids to do this week as we close on long division and do a quick unit on factors before break.

 

 These are task cards I made to use past winter break and into Winter.  There are 10 cards with each card having 12 marshmallows to sort into the "chunky chocolate composite coco" mug or into the "positively puffy prime" mug.  I figured my kids could play scoot in partners with these or they could cut and glue the marshmallows into the correct mugs.  I'm looking forward to using them on Friday!  We normally have a cumalitve math quiz on Fridays with review or unit games afterwords.  My kids love it :)

These winter task cards were created to use as scoot cards.  Students look for all of the factors for the given number and identify it as prime or composite.  They are also Winter themed so I can use them for a little longer than just Christmas ones. ;)

 I'm on a task card kick in case no one has noticed.  We just started factorization the week before break so I knew I HAD to do some Christmas themed to keep my hyper kiddos engaged. These task cards are Christmas themed with the given number in the star and the ornaments empty for the factors to be recored in.  I plan on laminating them and giving kids dry erase markers to use or maybe having my teams work together to solve each tree.  I have four kids in each team or table so it works pretty well.  I love having my kids collaborate together to solve problems.  :)








Ahhh... word problems.  These cards were used for our long division quiz.  The kids played scoot (sometimes called skiddadle) and quickly and effectively worked for 40 minutes (with Christmas music playing).  It wasn't until the end that I told them I was taking this up as quiz grade.  They all did remarkably well and loved the Christmas themed questions!  I even wrote one about our principal, my neighbor teacher, my husband Joel, and my sister.  It's amazing how making work meaningful can totally boost my kids morale and enjoyment towards math!
 

Well, this post is all about the math (obviously) stuff going on in my class.  I plan on posting an upcoming blog on everything we've done in Reading and Writing this week.  I've had so much fun planning meaningful, fun Christmas activities for my kiddos. I hope everyone has had a great week before break!  I know the full moon has totally gotten my kids out of whack!  I hope I survive!

AHH!!! Any advice?!

Whew.... an hour and a half later... I finally figured out how to A) link to another blogger's site B) add a photo and make sure it goes to another site when someone clicks on it and c) how to change my profile pic for my gmail stuff  and D) how confusing this blogging world is!  I didn't figure out how to use google docs for uploading stuff to share and I can't figure out exactly what the blank box under my "button" is all about!  At least, I think that's my button, I think that's what it is called, I want people to want to link to me?  I know I have a while before my blog views go up or before I have enough worthy posts for people to check out... but I'm trying and I'm determined to be successful!  I did just make my second ever teachers pay teacher sell so I am currently feeling pretty proud of that!  Hopefully I can figure more of this stuff out!  Many thanks to anyone who leaves feedback or helpful hints!  I want to learn and be successful!

Here is my AHH I'M SO OVERWHELMED face while thinking, "I hope my husband doesn't notice me making this face on my laptop right now..."

My first link up! (And Christmas gifts for my kiddos!)

I'm linking up with a blog I often visit, Stephanie at 3rd Grade Thoughts for some awesome ideas so I'm going to link to her for my very first linky!

Glitter Ornaments!!! Last year was my first year teaching and I knew I needed to do something cost effective yet fun and special for my kids.  I found this idea from pinterest last year and my kids LOVED their ornaments.  I was able to get the class ornaments and glitter from Michael's for 50% off and floor cleaner from Target.  Ya pour some cleaner into the jar, swish it around, pour it out, and then funnel in some glitter.  You swoosh the glitter around and ta-da!! Glitter ornament 1 complete!  My ornaments for my kids last year were all blue and gold, our elementary school colors.  This year, my mom scored a sweet deal for glitter assortment packs from TJ Maxx so I used those to make sure each ornament was different, yet reflective of my kids' personalities. I used paint pens to write their names in a fun way.

 I know, that's an impressive collection of glitter! EEK! I love them all.  In this photo I collected I everything I needed, glitter, glass ornaments, floor cleaner, and my class list.  (I was missing the funnel in this photo.) Oh, and the marshmallows on the side are part of a later photo :)

 Last year I wrote my kids' names on last, this year I wrote them first.  I don't think it matters either way.

 Ta-da!!!! After I poured in some floor cleaner, swooshed it around, poured it out, and put in some glitter and swish-swashed that around, I made my 16 ornaments for my kiddos!  Aren't they fun and pretty?!

 Here are two of my favorites. Love those colors!

 

For all of my teacher friends I made Snow Day Hot Coco. (Actually double chocolate hot coco).  Again, this recipe is from pinterest. :) I planned on making cookies in a jar, but the price for everything totally overwhelmed me!  I really like the look of the hot coco in the jars though.  I made the tags and directions (on the back) for everyone to follow.  Most of teacher friends have kids or will be having kids so this is fun and hopefully enjoyable! I did half the recipe to try out since I LOVE hot chocolate and thought it was DELICIOUS!  MMM I love hot chocolate on a snow day!

At my school, we have three fourth grade classes and ability group our math and reading classes.  So in addition to my 16 homeroom kids, I also see about 25 other kids and didn't want them to feel left out!  I did last year as well for little gifts and they were quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive.  I bought the jumbo box from Walmart and stuck on a cute little label.  Ta-da!  Love hot chocolate!

Just because, I found this super cute frame from Kohls for 60% off.  It's our first Christmas together so I HAD to frame our first Christmas card as a married couple.  

Check out my TPT store to snag the snow day hot coco labels!  (I haven't quite figured out google docs yet... anyone know of a good tutorial for that?)

Thanks for stopping by!  I am super excited for all of my fun Christmas activities for this week- maybe I'll find time to post about all of the fun things we are doing!? Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm BACK!

Oh my goodness! How embarrassing; I completely dropped off the planet since this summer! I guess you can say my second year of teaching combined with my first year of being a head coach while being a newlywed got the most of my time.  Oh well! I'm back now and with a snow day, Christmas (excuse me, I mean "Winter") break coming up, and the ease of coaching my cheerleaders during basketball season, I will have more time to blog it up! Woohoo!  I even managed to get my TPT store up and running- check it here! It's also a work in progress, but I'm hoping to spend more time on that as well!

So hmm... where to start?  I've taken tons of photos of my lessons and kiddos so far this year: VA salt dough maps, chlorophyll rubbings, writing offices, book talks... my list goes on!  For now I will organize my photos of my projects with my kiddos, watch the snow fall a bit, and craft some Christmas gifts. (Anyone else LOVE snow days?!)