Dice Games Freebie

Need some fun for your Math class? Here are some fun dice games to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. They may be adapted to make them easier or more difficult, depending on your grade level.

Click on the pic above to download the games......and be sure to leave me a comment if use these. I love to hear your ideas!

And the winner is.....!

I've reached over fifty followers! Woo Hoo! 

To be eligible for the $10.00 Target Gift Card, you had to become a follower and leave a comment at my original post announcing the giveaway. And the winner is......

Terra!

Contact me and we can work out the details of getting you the card. Congratulations!

Another Great Day!

I got home to another blast of sunshine from my blog! Jan at LifeLong Learning gave me the "I Heart Your Blog Award" and Hillary at Rockin Teacher Materials gave me the Versatile Blogger Award. 

Since I've already posted all the requirements for the Versatile Blogger Award on Sunday night, I'm going to post the info for the I Heart Your Blog award tonight.

This is what the award is all about:

I Heart Your Blog Award: (so sweet I had to share)

A dear friend of mine taught me a profound lesson several years ago when she shared her personal mantra,

"There Is Only Love". Since then, I have realized that by adopting this mantra in my own life, I have changed my whole approach to everything I experience. That being said, as a total newbie to the teacher's blogging world, I discovered this gold mine of amazingly creative and talented teachers out here in cyber space. There are so many of you spreading the teaching Love around the globe by sharing your ideas and experiences. I just had to create a blog award to celebrate those of you who have touched my heart and inspired me, increasing my LOVE of teaching.

Thank you for sharing your talent with the world!

(OK, I keep finding soooo many of you to love!!!)

Rules:

1. Give the "I Heart Your Blog "Award to your favorite Top 10 Blogs that have touched your heart and inspired your teaching by listing them on your blog.

2. Contact that person and let them know of their heartfelt award.

3. When you receive the award,

copy and paste the graphic onto your

blog and give a shout out to the person who nominated you. 

4. Spread the LOVE by passing the "Heart Your Blog" Award on your Top 10. 

I'm trying to pick out some of the blogs that I love, but don't have a lot of followers yet.

Ginger Snaps is one of my fav blogs...and she posts lots of great FREEBIES! (And yes, I gave her the Versatile Blogger Award, too, but I've gotten tons on stuff from her!)

What a Way to Start the Week!

I hope the rest of my week is as good as tonight! I've been nominated by two of my followers for the Versatile Blogger Award! Big, big, BIG thanks to IAMNAN at Third Grade's a Charm
and to Heather at Mrs. Robinson's Classroom!
You have both just made my day......um, week!

When you receive this award, you must thank the person who gave you the award, tell seven things about you, and pass this award on to fifteen other blogs that you think deserve it.

OK...I've offered my thanks. Now for the seven things about me.

1.  I can't go to bed at night without pinning something on Pinterest! (Bet I'm not alone in this!)

2.  I would rather read than do anything!

3.  Sometimes I pull my hair out trying to work both a MAC and a PC, but I think the Mac is slowly winning me over!

4.  My friends don't like to sit with me at movies, because I am a sobber!

5.  I taught for about twenty years before moving into an administrative position with our district for nine years. Four years ago when my son became a senior in high school, I asked to go back to the classroom. Best decision I ever made. Now that both my son and daughter are in college, my twenty-two kiddos at school keep me from missing them too much when they are both at school.

6.  My Daddy is an auctioneer. I can do it, but only in private! No one has EVER heard me.

7.  I would love to open a bookstore one day. Guess it will have to be after I win the lottery so I don't have to depend on that income to make a living!

And now....TA DA DA DAHHHH! My fifteen winners are........ (I tried to pick some of the blogs I really like that everyone might not be as familiar with.)

Ginger at Gingersnaps (If you haven't checked her out, go right now! She always has lots of great freebies!)

Mrs. S at Stapler's Strategies (I especially like her idea of using Goldfish crackers to teach place value.)

Jennifer at Lifelong Learning (Love her technology tips!)

Denise at Yearn to Learn

Melissa at Teaching Fashionista

Toni at Third Grade State of Mind

Mrs. R at Third Grade Gridiron

Hilary at Rockin' Teacher Materials

KevinandAmanda (LOVE the fonts!)

Jen at Runde's Room

Ladybug's Teacher Files

Courtney at Swimming into Second

Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics

Lauren at The Teaching Nest

Plain Chicken isn't a teaching blog, but WOW! What great recipes!

Text Features Freebie

One of our literacy skills next week is using text features to find information. I am going to put this text features scavenger hunt in one of my literacy stations to help the students practice. They will use their Social Studies text to find various types of text features. I thought it might be fun for some of you to try with your kids. Click on the pic below to download. Please leave me a comment if you do!

If you haven't followed me yet, please click the button on the right sidebar and do it now for a chance to win a Target gift card. You must leave a comment HERE at the original post to be eligible.

Diary of a Worm

We are reviewing sequencing, graphic organizers, fantasy, and realism this week. I'm using one of the students' favorite books, Diary of a Worm, for some fun practice. Click on the pic below if you want to download these activities. The activity packet also includes activities on making lists and identifying cause and effect. If you download the packet, please leave me a comment and let me know how it went with your students.

A Little Bit of This.....A Little Bit of That.....

Wow! Have we been busy this week! Here are a few pics of what's been going on in our classroom.

We have had some trouble with catching on to rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. I started with the Rounding Rollercoaster that lots of you use. I also found several rhymes on the Internet to use, but like the one on the chart below the best. 

Mark the place. Look to the right.

Four or less, just sit tight.

Five and up, you add one more.

Now toss those "righties" out the door.

In those empty right-hand places,

Zeroes keep the proper places. 

(Click on the pic below to go to the original site for the poem.)

We also wrote the following chant (sung military-style):

1 2 3 4 (1 2 3 4)

They're little and small so make them fall (repeat)

5 6 7 8 and 9 (repeat)

They need to grow so make them more! (repeat)

Rounding! Rounding! Estimating! Estimating! Go! Go!

(I am now singing this in my sleep!)

The Helper chart I posted before just wasn't working out. I decided to simplify it so that I have two helpers instead of every child having a job. Those two students run errands, take lunch count, whatever needs to be done. Since we sit in groups of students, each group has a table boss. These students come get any papers or supplies I need to hand out to all students and take them back to their group. They also bring me work notes from home, lunch money, etc. I just wrote the names on the magnets I ordered from VistaPrint and attached them to the cookie sheets that are velcro-ed to my cabinet doors.

This is one of my favorite new things in my classroom. We have been talking about expectations and how we can make our work the very best it can be. We talked about cupcakes before the icing is added and how much better they are with icing! Each student then wrote on a pink post-it at least one way they can put the icing on their own cupcakes (work). They had great ideas!

Here is our character map of Robbie from How To Be Cool in Third Grade. One of our skills has been identifying characters and character traits.

Be a Froot Loop in a World Full of Cheerios

May I just say that our principal is the BEST of all those in the principal world? She has recently discovered Pinterest and shared the following with our students during our Morning Meeting. She asked the kids to think about what this meant and let her know.

My kids were all excited about her request and were talking about it on the way back to our room. I drew the following Venn diagram on our Promethean Board and asked them to compare Cheerios and Froot Loops. They all made their own Venn diagram and compared their ideas. We decided being a Froot Loop meant it was OK to be different because if you are different , you can share what makes you special with others. On the back of their diagrams, they wrote how they can share their uniqueness with our school.

 I can't wait to see how she responds to their ideas!

Freebie Whole Class Activity for Types of Sentences

Here's a quick whole class activity for reviewing the four different types of sentences. Students pair up and write about the picture of a monster they are given. Click on the pic below to download. If you use it, please leave a comment and let me know how it went in your classroom.

Monster Sentences Freebie

We are working on correcting sentence fragments by turning them into complete sentences. Here is a short activity for small groups or a learning station to help your students distinguish between complete sentences and sentence fragments. If you download it, please leave me a comment. Click on the pic below to download the Google doc.

Wait Til You See This!

Just browsing around tonight and I found this GREAT (did I say GREAT?) FREE random name selector for classroom use! Just type in the names of the kids in your room, click Save and Share, copy the URL, and you have a FABULOUS way to randomly pick the names of your students for jobs.....answering questions.....whatever you need! Click on the pic below to go to the Teachmeet Victim Selector!

Leave me a comment and tell me how you are going to use it!

Updated Ladybug Estimating

The file for estimating to the nearest hundred activity I posted last night had an error in it. I have corrected it and reposted it below. Just click on the pic to download the corrected copy. My kids used this today and LOVED it!

Ladybug Rounding to the Nearest Hundred

Here is a new Math activity I made. I'm planning on using it as part of my introduction to rounding to the nearest hundred lesson tomorrow. We are going to do it in small groups. Later on, I will put it in one of my Math stations. Click on the pic below to download. Please leave me a comment if you download. I love to hear from you!

And if you haven't entered my giveaway for a $10.00 Target gift card, please click here to enter!

Hope you and your students enjoy!

Monster Compound Words Freebie

Here is a fun activity to review compound words for your Word Work station or center. Some of these words are from What About Me? in the Third Grade Scott Foresman basal, but many others are included. Students choose a card and make a sentence that correctly uses the compound word. If they draw a Monster card, they must turn in ALL of their cards! Click on the pic below to download the game. 


If you download, please leave me a comment. Better yet, vote for my Limeades for Learning project by following the link on the right of my blog!


If you haven't become a follower yet or are already a follower, but haven't left a comment, go HERE to post a comment so you can be entered in my drawing for a $10.00 Target gift card.

My Top Ten

Wow! It was really hard to find ten of my favorite blogs who have not already received the Top Ten Award. Here are ten who haven't received it yet, (I don't think!):