Summer Math Activities!

Two weeks away folks! 

10 more school days. Well, 9 and a half if you want to be specific... and I do... so 9.5 more days.

We are trying our hardest to remain engaged while still having fun in class these days. The sun is blazing and the last thing my kids want to do is sit in class for 8 hours a day. So in room 102, games are where it's at!

I introduced our last themed math centers for the year, Summer Math, and the biggest hit of this pack was our board game, "The Summer Before 2nd":

This is a simple, yet engaging game that allows students to review all sorts of math before they head out for the summer! Students roll a die and move that many spaces. In order to stay on that space they must choose the matching card and answer it correctly (the other students check). There are 6 different categories of cards: subtraction, addition, time, place value, number sense, and challenge!

In my summer math unit there are also the usual story problem booklet and quite a few print-and-go games with no prep needed. I figured the end of the year is all about easy my students love partner games:

These activities and more are in my Summer Math unit:

and this COMPLETES my math centers for the whole year - Yahoo!

You can snag all 10 units below for pretty dang good discount - you get 2 free with the bundle :)

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Life as of late!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a little 5 for Friday action! It has been quite awhile since I've blogged here at TGIF because.... well... life is life... and life can just be busy! Here is a little peek into my life as of late:

1.

Being pregnant! This journey sure has its ups and downs, but I am enjoying almost every minute of it. I can tell you my belly is way bigger already than it was above and I know I will just be getting larger and larger and LARGER! Yikes.

2.

Field trip!! I am so happy to be back living on the East Coast... right on the water. Granted the water is always cold and it's not like we go IN the ocean ever, but it sure is beautiful. We had a FUN field trip to Odiorne State Park where there are a bunch of tidepools for my kids to explore and search for tidepool animals and sealife. I was lucky enough to have my mom, my sister, and my husband chaperone this field trip. The kids were in heaven to meet these special people in my life and they thought this day was "THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!" I agreed.

3.

School is O-V-E-R! I had such a great class this year and I am going to miss them so much! My summer will be jam-packed with packing and moving into my mom's house with husband and baby-to-be, but it will be nice to know that my classroom will be waiting for me in August. The top picture is an adorable gift one of my students gave me for Theo. He was so proud to give me those onesies and they sparked some tears in my eyes for sure! The second picture is our annual last day breakfast! We all sat around our big family table and ate breakfast, shared memories, and drew pictures/wrote notes on our butcher paper tablecloths! It was a great way to end our year together.

4.

That last picture above is depressing! It is so bare in my classroom and I was ready for some new classroom decor, so oddly enough, only a day out of school, I created a classroom decor set that I will be using in my room. It is simple and bright and primary and I love it. Here is what's inside:

I am really excited about this set and I will be sure to take lots of pictures in August when I can set up my room!

5.

Last but not least, a few weeks ago, I was getting prepared for those first weeks of school in August and our first math unit is Numbers to 120. I love the unit I made 2 years ago, but it was in need of some major updating. So that's just what I did. I added a few new activities, updated the clipart and look of the pack!

These activities are some tried and true favorites from the pack, but with a little updated look:

Spin & Graph - number recognition and graphing (6 differentiated games)

10s and 20s frames - cards for matching and memory games

120 charts - for student reference as well as 4 different games to be played with the chart

Read the Room - activity for identifying number words

Number cards 1-120 - cards as well as 3 different games to play with the cards

120 chart puzzles - 7 different chart puzzles with varying degrees of difficulty

Assessment - 3 page assessment to check the Common Core Standard: 1.NBT.1

I also added a center game: before, after, & in between with recording sheets as well as 4 different practice pages to help students reinforce skills learned in this pack. My favorite is the number detective one!

So that is just a *little* bit of what I have been up to lately. Now that I am out of school, I will be sure to blog more often and keep up with everything else in the teaching/blogging world!

Happy Summertime :) :)

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Andddd it's over.

Many tears were shed this past week as I wrapped up my last 4 days at school. It has been such a great 3 years of laughing and learning and I will never forget all my students, parents, and colleagues who I had the pleasure of getting to know!

After a few hours of cleaning and packing this is how my day ended yesterday:

My teensy little classroom looking all dark and dingy.

Let's rewind a little bit.

Here is how I spent my last few days with the kids.

Monday:
 we made memory books and I gave the kids their end of the year gifts:

I used the same gifts as last year - water bottles from the dollar store and bunches of smarties!
I also gave out Reagan's free candy awards that were a HUGE hit!

Tuesday:
Game day! I spent the morning cleaning our math tubs and letting the students play all our math games from the year. They reviewed some important math skills and had a blast! After lunch, my kids had brought in their own board game from home and basically had a free-for-all playing all sort of different games with their friends.

Wednesday:
Half-day and last day with kids.
No lunch is served on our last day so I decided to provide breakfast for my kiddos! We had cereal, poptarts, and lots of OJ!! I also laid down some butcher paper and markers for my kids to decorate while I was serving breakfast.

After breakfast we read a few of our favorite stories from the year. Watched an episode of Phineas & Ferb and shared lots of hugs and tears before we left for summer!

I cry every year, but this year was a whole new level of sadness since I will be moving so far away.

Now that this chapter of my life has closed, I will be anxiously awaiting what life has in store for me next. For now, all I know is that we are hoppin' in our little mazda 6 on June 30th to head out for a 8 day, cross-country road trip back to Boston.

It will be a wild and busy summer, but I will be sure to keep this blog updated as much as I can!

For everyone still in school - YOU CAN DO IT - and for everyone else that is already on summer break with me.... Cheers!! I am heading out to the pool with a margarita in hand.

See ya sometime next week ;)

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End of the Year Trivia!

4 days.

FOUR.

I am really saddened by this. Normally I am jumping up and down and the days feel like they are crawwwlllinnngggg. Not this year. My last days at my school are coming to an end and I actually want it to slow down... just a bit. I just want to hang out with my kids and chat! I am going to miss them SO dang much :(

In the meantime, we are having fun reviewing what we have learned this year!

I made this trivia game last year as part of my end of year pack and my kids are loving it.

I display the gameboard on my smartboard and the students work in teams to answer the questions! It is huge motivation to keep my kids learning and listening throughout these last few wild days.

Some of the questions I included:

Reading: 

What is the problem and solution in the story _____? 

What is a glossary?

Math:

The sum is 27.

a) 10 + 9 + 8

b) 17 + 10 + 1

c) 5 + 5 + 11

Language:

What is an adjective?

What is the difference between a verb and a noun?

Science:

What is the life cycle of a plant?

What are two reasons we should take care of our earth?

Social Studies:

Name a president we have learned about this year and give me 2 important facts about this person.

Who were the pilgrims?

I also have bunches of blank question cards and I will have my students come up with their own questions tomorrow!

Here are my teams and their points before we went out for an afternoon brain break:

In case you couldn't tell by my obviously amazing drawings that would be: team puppies, team tigers, team zebras, and team seals - HA! My kids think I am an excellent artist...

Before I go finish report cards, I have to share this photo I put on my facebook page the other day:

One of my sweet students came in really early the other morning and took this out of her backpack while yelling "HAPPY SQUASH DAY!!!!!!!!!!" She was so excited!!!! I don't think this is a real holiday... but I went with it.

Now I need to learn how cook something with a squash...

TGIF!

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Swimming into Summer!

I gave a little "face-lift" to my end of the year product I made last year!

It is amazing how much you can learn in a year...

Here is a preview of the pack:

Swimming into Summer!

My favorite thing in this pack is our end-of-the-year trivia game! 

I made these questions based on the 1st grade common core standards and I have sample questions for reading, math, language, science, and social studies. There are blank cards as well for you to make your own questions!

This is a veryyyyy popular group game in our class at the end of the year.

Some other activities in this pack are:

Language activities:

-Long/short vowel review

-Digraph seach and sort

-Inflected endings board game (3 sounds of ed)

Math activities:

-I have, who has? 2D/3D shape and fractions game

-Froot Loops graphing activity.

There are also some opinion writing prompts for the end of the year as well as a simple end of the year medal craft!

If you bought this last year, please re-download!
If you want to get your own copy, click HERE!

Happy Sunday :)

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Writing Through the Seasons {Summer} and a BUNDLE!

Technically, it is still Spring... but the sun is blazing, my kids are squirming for Summer, and I am doing everything I can to keep them moving & working!

After days and weeks and months of learning about a topic, I begin to call my students EXPERTS! I explain to them that an expert is someone who not only knows something in and out, but can explain it to others in a way that they understand it. 

I can tell you my kids are EXPERTS at explaining their thinking and they make their teacher proud!

To help them feel proud of themselves I made this cute little craft:

^This little guy makes me giggle and I think the kids will get a BIG hit out of it!^

(There is a girl hairstyle as well)

I plan to have my students brainstorm some things they are experts at after their year in first grade and we will display them on our last bulletin board of the year!

This craft is included in my Writing Through the Seasons {Summer & End of the Year} along with a few other writing prompts and graphic organizers:

^These are only a few examples from the pack.^

Click on the link to my product above to see more.

I also made a discounted bundle with ALL my writing through the Seasons packs in them:

Click on the photo above to see more!

This pack is 190 pages long and has FUN writing prompts, crafts, and activities all of which are aligned to to Common Core writing standards.

My bundle will be 20% off for the next 2 days!

Happy hump day!

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3.5 more days!

Oh me, oh my!

Thursday is my last day and I will be equipped with sunglasses and tissues all day because I hate goodbyes and I turn into a blubbering fool when they give me hugs and tell me they're going to miss me :(

I am trying to mentally prepare myself and focus on all the things I have to look forward to this summer. Like flying home to Salem, MA to visit my family, going to a friend's wedding, and trying on my own wedding dresses for the first time!!! (Note-to-self: must lose 327819364 lbs before August)

Until then, this is what we've been up to:

This is the cover I made to a Father's day book I found from 1st Grade Hip Hip Hooray. It was free and really, really cute! These are some of the activities in it:

 

 So cute... for that first one #4 says "affectionate" and #5 is "angelic" - this lil lady is so smart!!

 

 

 This was my favorite part of this packet. The students made Do Not Disturb signs to hang on the door when their dads want to be alone. Then they said why their dad might not want to be disturbed. Hilarious!

 ^^That second one is supposed to be watching *inappropriate movies. Uh-oh!!

 ^^This one was funny.... and if you read my last post you know what this little girl means when she says her dad is busy doing "private work." Eeeek!!

 Tomorrow I am giving out Reagan's Candy Awards (seriously adorable!) and these little gifts:

I found some cute water bottles at the dollar store and I call my kids "smarty pants" all year long. After we gave out these little smartie gifts to our 5th grade buddies I thought my kiddos deserved some of their own.

You can click on the picture below to get the freebie labels! 

P.S. I need a color printer next year... I am sick of black and white!!

And one last thing... I hit the teacher jackpot!!!!!

I have won TWO giveaways in the past couple weeks... TWO!!

A big shout out and thank you to:

Kelley Dolling @ Teacher Idea Factory

and 

Jessica Stanford @ Mrs. Stanford's Class

These ladies are fantastic :) much love to both!

Have a great Sunday!!!

Susan

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