Video Math Prompt Friday! It's back again!

My kids loved the dramatic music and some of the surprise elements. We were able to have a lot of context based discussions about subtraction using this video math prompt.

Click here to see the new video (youtube)

Video Math Prompt Friday - Free math animations

Here is another video that I made to show to my class to start conversations about math. We will use it to generate word problems. Watching a short animation to demonstrate a math idea has proven to be a lot of fun for my class. They are much more enthusiastic to talk about math and it is very engaging for them. Well enough of the hard sell. If you like them please share with your students.

This video features one of my daughter's favorite friends, "Lego" the horse.
Click here for the video:

Video Math Prompt Friday - Free videos to start math conversations.

I am trying to make videos to support math and make the concepts more concrete. These videos will hopefully help you to have quality discussion about math topics. I will try to make this a regular event. Video Math Prompt Friday!

For the tens frames video click here --> Tens Frame Video Prompt

Going bradless... (Much like Jennifer Aniston)

I'm sure that our school is not the only one that is tightening it's belt a little. All those fun things we used to be able to order for our class seem like such a luxury now. On this very topic, let me tell you about something fun that I discovered. Now I'm not claiming to have made this up as the first person to ever do it, but I did come to this realization on my own. You can use tiny pieces of pipe cleaner instead of brads! It is much cheaper than brads and it was actually much easier for my students to do this than to use brads. They always have trouble poking them through the paper. Here is a quick photo-torial with brief directions.

Here is a cute word wheel. Cut a pipe cleaner into pieces just under a 1/2 inch long. You can easily get 20 out of 2 pipe cleaners. Poke it through the first paper. Then poke it through the second paper. After that, push the two papers against each other. While holding the pipe cleaner on one side bend the other side flat to the paper, the fold the other side flat. It allows you moving parts to move while holding the paper pieces together. It is not much more intrusive than the parts of a brad. There you have it. I hope it changes your world the way it changed mine.

FREE Common Core Math video prompt (Bears and Caves)

The year is now well underway and we are going to be getting into our EnVision math Topic 1. We will be asking the kids to learn about spatial patterns and ways to make 6 and 7. This is a fun video prompt to help contextualize ways to make 6. It is a visual that will help them make sense of the "Crabs in the Cave" activity in EnVision. It is a fun conversation starter and way to get kids asking questions about math they find all around them. I hope you find it useful and your students enjoy it. I will try to keep making little video shorts to encourage math thinking as time allows. Hope your start to the school year is/was a great one!

Click here -> Bears and Caves

Common Core - Video Math Prompts

After Linda Dilger (from the County Office of Education) visited us for some Common Core Math training I decided to jump into the fray by creating some Video Math Prompts to support math discussions. Here is a link to my first one on my new Youtube channel.

I hope you enjoy it and find it valuable. As time permits, I hope to make more.

Click here -> Balloon Video Prompt

Back to school, Back to school...

When I hear or read "Back to School" I think of Billy Madison singing.

"Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight. Oh! Back to school... back to school... back to school."

This year I am determined to put something into balloons and have the students pop them. I like the idea of letting the kids pick their own student numbers this way. But, I really want to have that set up before the first day. So, I am going to come up with some sort of game to play. I am thinking of a an "I have, Who has?" game or a secret message where the kids can put letters from the balloons into. I might put their behavior chart clips in balloons and have them find the person that the clip belongs to. Then they can put it on the chart. I am open to your ideas on this. In fact I would love some good ones. If you have any other really fun activities that you like to do on the first day of school with your kids please leave a comment below.

Back after a long break... with Henry and Mudge

I am glad to be returning to blog world after taking a little time off.

I have been enjoying my 2 year old daughter at home so much, I just can't allow myself to spend too much time running around the blogs.

I am going to be working on devoting a little more time here... when I can.

I have also been hard at work on another TPT unit. It is something that I have really been wanting for my students. I finally invested in a couple class sets of Henry and Mudge books. I am reminded of how much work it really takes to move your ideas to reality and how much extra work it takes to make your good ideas for the classroom actually TPT ready.

If you have your students read Henry and Mudge I recommend you give this a look. It is set up just like my Magic Tree House unit. My students have been devouring the Henry and Mudge books and just can't get these question packs done quickly enough. I had no idea how much it would motivate them.

Henry and Mudge Hunt for Home at Teachers Pay Teachers

I was so energized and motivated when I started this blog, and I am excited to tap back into that. So, let me know what you have been doing to keep your students motivated to read at home. Mike