My Solution to Noisy Dice and a Spring Cleaning Sale

Hi everyone!  How many of you like to play dice games on the floor of your non-carpeted classroom?  We do this quite often in math class.  So often, in fact, that the fourth grade teacher, whose room is right below  mine, had to send up a note asking us to please play on the desks because or dice games disturb her math class.  But then we (I) had to deal with the whole problem of the dice rolling off the desks, under chairs and assorted other furniture.  Now, I've seen all the clever Pinterest ideas, like put your dice in clear plastic containers, but I don't have money or time -- but mostly money -- to spend on clear plastic containers for my classroom dice, nor do I have space to store all those dice in clear plastic containers.  And sometimes we need just one die, so that involves using more time to extract one die from the 20 clear plastic containers  I would need.

Then inspiration hit!  Earlier this year, we had carpet squares donated to our classroom.  We use them for all the normal stuff, like sitting on in the library or defining our space when we're sitting in a circle on the floor.  As I was demonstrating our latest dice game to the kids, I thought, hey, I can use a carpet square to muffle the noise AND make it a rule that if your dice go off the carpet square, you lose your turn!  Et voila!  Like magic, in one moment of shear brilliance, I solved two problems at one time -- noisy dice and runaway dice -- without spending a penny!  Now that is win-win in my book.  We are now happily playing dice games on the floor again in a much quieter and less chasing-after-the-
dice classroom.

I'm pretty sure many of you have already thought of this solution to the dice problem, but in case you haven't, get yourself some carpet squares and breathe a sigh of relief.

Here are some videos I took of my class playing this St. Patrick's Day subtraction game.  The children had to add the two dice and then subtract the total from 17.  Some of my lower math group is still having trouble counting backwards, so this was a perfect game to practice that skill.  In the first video, as I observed this young man counting backwards the first time, he skipped 13.  I told him he was skipping 13, and directed him to the number line above our closets to help him count backwards.  He said, "Oh, I'm skipping 13!  No wonder I keep getting the wrong answer!"  I checked back later to make sure he was counting backwards correctly, and he was!

Click the picture to view the video.

In this next short video, the girl, performs some mental math to come up with her answer.  I was happy to see that she did not have to count all the dice to get her total to subtract.  She just subitized.  Yay!

Click the picture to view the video.

And in this last clip, one of my lower math students is very unsure of herself.  You can hear the question in her voice as she tells me the answer.  You can see she still counts all the dots to come up with her total to subtract from 17.  This is something we've been working on all year with her, and she can do it if I give her one number dice and one dotted dice, but if there are dots on both dice, she is more comfortable counting them all.  But she had made and continues to make a lot of progress since the beginning of the year.

Click the picture to view the video.

As I viewed these videos, what struck me was how one simple paper one pair of dice met the needs of so many different learners in my classroom.  The game automatically differentiated itself with no effort on my part. 

And on a final note, I am taking part in the big spring cleaning sale going on on TpT.  All my products are 10% off until April 1st.  Now would be a great time to get some great spring resources, like my Easter bundle,

click the picture to view all my religious resources

Do you use the Journey's reading series?  I've been developing a series of supplemental workbooks that go along with each story.  I've tried to make the activities the same or similar enough that the children will know exactly what to do on the page without having to read the directions because they've done it before.  The feedback I'm getting on these is great, and many people have said that because I don't make the activities story specific, they are able to use the resource if they don't use the Journey's series.  The workbooks are geared towards first grade, but they would make a good review for second grade or enrichment for kindergarten.  The next lesson, Tomas Rivera, will be ready to post hopefully this evening, but tomorrow night at the latest.

FREEBIE ALERT

click the picture to view all my first grade skill workbook resources

click {here} to download the above contraction worksheet sample from my first workbook, Seasons.

If you are looking for spring and Earth Day resource, click the picture below to visit my store to see what I have.

And finally, I have some great end-of-the-year/summery resources to get you through those last few weeks of school, especially since so many of us have an extended school year this year due to snow days! Click the picture below to visit my end-of-the-year/summer selection.

So that's  it for today!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Spring Has Sprung: Poetry in Elementary

Hi friends!  I am really excited to be taking part in this poetry blog hop

                                     

Now, I must confess that I didn't really do much with poetry until last year.  I decided to create a lesson on syllables to go along with my Earth Day unit, and from there, I decided to have my first graders create a haiku about the Earth.  Pretty ambitious plan for first grade, wouldn't you say?

In case you don't know, or have forgotten, a haiku is a traditional Japanese poem made up of 17 syllables, written in a 5-7-5 format, so the first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 syllables, and the third line is 5 syllables.  I've read that modern haiku is moving away from that format of 5,7,5 as long as there are 17 syllables, but I chose to keep it because I wanted to integrate the concept of counting syllables in each line.  

I began with reminding the children what syllables were, and how now that we were becoming better readers, we would be challenged with longer words.  Longer words are made up of smaller parts called syllables, parts of words.  We practiced by clapping and counting the syllables in our names.  Then I gave them white boards, and posted one word at a time in my  pocket chart.  The children clapped and counted the syllables on their own, and I could quickly scan their answers to see if they were understanding the idea of syllables. I also had them insert the slash where they thought one syllable ended and the next began, but that wasn't the main focus of the lesson.  Mostly I was concerned with their ability to count the number of syllables.

garbage = 2 syllables

rainforest = 3 syllables

The next day, after a quick review of syllables, it was time to try to write a haiku about the Earth or Earth Day.  I wasn't sure if  they would be able to count syllables and create the haiku, so I started with having them write a rough draft on scrap paper.  Then they brought it back to me, and together we counted the out the syllables in each line, making sure it followed the 5-7-5 pattern. Once we had the haiku organized , I gave them the paper to write out their haiku in their best printing.

After that, I gave them the pieces to create their haiku craftivity.  

click the image above to see the unit in my TpT store

The finished poems and craftivities came out really, really cute.  I was very pleased with their first attempts at writing poetry in the form of haiku.  I wish I would have thought to take pictures of their finished projects last year, but you can be sure I will this year!  

I also included an acrostic poem in this packet that you could use instead of the haiku. The download also includes the pieces, minus the face, to make the craft.  You can ask your kids to draw the face.  If you would like to get a download of the acrostic poem page, you can click on the picture below.

click the picture above to download your acrostic poem template.  

To read from other fabulous bloggers on their ideas for poetry in the classroom, and other great freebies and giveaways, hop onto the next blog,  , by clicking on the hop over to the next stop button!

Happy poetry month, everyone!  May your meters be measured and your syllables count out perfectly, and may you always find a rhyme in time!

The Saturday Roundup!

Saturday again?!? Where is this month going?  Today it is cold, cloudy, and sometimes rainy in southwestern PA, so we are going to spend the afternoon at the museum.  For the first time in years, our son is going to accompany us on an outing.  Why, you ask?  It's all due to the influence of a girl!  He has done more with us this year than ever since he began dating his girl.  Maybe they will let me get a picture today to share with you.  Can you tell I'm ridiculously excited that he is coming with us?

So let me start up the roundup by revisiting a product I already blogged about, the Autism Friendly Puzzle Token Charts.  I revamped them a bit by adding quarter-page size puzzles so they would fit better on the desks of the students you would need to use them with.

Click here to visit my store and download my FREE Autism-Friendly Token Charts!

Have a few kids with specific behavior issues that need to be addressed? Try one of my puzzle token charts. I'm currently using them with two of my kiddos, and it's working quite well.

I recently finagled my son's tablet from him -- mentioned that I was thinking of buying one, and he said I could have his. I didn't want to just take it, and he always needs money, so I gave $100.00 for it -- and I plan on letting these two guys use some carefully selected apps as a reward when they fill their token chart. Both are currently on the 12-piece token chart, one to encourage finished work on time, and one to encourage in-seat, on-task time.

While you're at my store, if you need some Earth Day activities, be sure to check out the Earth Day story and poetry activities.  I'm so excited to use them Monday with my kids

My Earth Day story, inspired by St. Therese and her Little Way ( but the story is totally secular

Click here to see the Earth Day syllable lesson and poem writing activity, including two easy poetry forms, Haiku and acrostic poems.

Now, on to the rest of the roundup!  This Saturday, Mr. Hughes has his Share the Wealth freebie linky going on.  You're sure to find something there for the next few weeks of lessons!

And Saturday also means Primary Paradise's Top Five Freebies!

Teacher Mom of  3 has her Seasonal Saturday post up.  Meet some new sellers and see some fantastic products.

Next up is Pirate Girl and her Memory Verse Monday -- a must for Sunday School, Christian, and Catholic School teachers.  I love how she makes them relevant to the season!

Do you like to make it and take it?  If so, you've got to visit 2nd Grade Pad and check out her Thursday linky party.  Great ideas!

Remember, you can add your take it and make it link to this as well!

Mrs.  Fultz keeps us up-to-date with all the apps in her weekly App of the Week post.  Now that I've got my  hands on a tablet, I can't wait to dig into some of the apps she has posted about!

Crayonbox Learning has added a new fan freebie to her Facebook page.  You have to like her page to get the freebie.

I  hope you find some great free and paid items you can use to make  your weekly planning a little bit easier!

As always, if you have anything you'd like to add to this list, you can leave a link in the comments on my blog or my Facebook page.  Have a great week, everyone!