End of Year Math Review

End of Year Math Review

As every teacher knows, the end of the school year brings challenges. We are all but standing on our heads to get the last drop of teaching in. We had our end of trimester test and a few things to review. During this trimester we had our PARCC testing. So with kiddos that were tired and just as ready as their teacher to go to the beach we had to get creative.

I sat and created a game that would review all the standards I needed to review with the students before their big test. Of course my color printer and the school color printer were not working and took forever to fix. I laminated, cut, and sorted. It took me a while to prepare this game, but the results were completely worth it.

My kids loved it. I broke them into groups of 4 or 5. I will be ordering game pieces this summer for this reason because they used a piece of paper. ( I had to pack up my room too during this time so of course I got ahead of myself packing).  

Working hard as a group to solve. 

I had them roll a dice. Move their piece. Everyone solved the problem to check the work. No one looses a turn and if someone gets a problem incorrect the person who caught it had to explain the steps to getting it correct.  They had great accountable talk. Total success!!!

I hope it works as well in your room. It does not have to be just for the end of the year. It could be used as just a review anytime. 

TpT Store

Love, 

Miss Stetson

Math Rotations

Snow, snow, snow!

I keep seeing on most teacher’s blog, Instagram, and Facebook stuck at home with the snow. I am knee deep in snow myself and no sign of any relief or stopping.

This week is my vacation week and I am snowbound. I tried to drive yesterday to feel like I was ice skating on the road. This Mississippi girl is not caring very much for all of this snow. It was beautiful at first, but enough is enough. I am suffering from cabin fever.

Today I began working on a review for math. PARCC is quickly approaching. My kiddos needed a little review of all the skills that were previously taught throughout the year. I made a different center before vacation and realized that we needed a few reminders of a couple of skills.  I learned last week though how not to make a double sided book. ( Still working on that format) My kiddos were a little confused flipping back and forth through answer book. I did not want to waste paper so they survived my mistake.

This new center includes 7 centers. I did not make these linked to any month or holiday. It does say February, however you can use these centers anytime throughout the year and can be a great way to reinforce skills.

 TPT Store

I am 60 days away from our big day. I am so excited and I am now sprinting to the wedding day. I have already had 2 showers in 2 states. My girls did a fantastic job and I cannot wait for our day to arrive. Of course I may change my name but the blog will always remain Miss Stetson’s Classroom in honor of my special guy. My grandpa who passed away this summer to lung cancer was always proud of me and I will always be a Stetson girl.

I hope you enjoy and stop by my store. Be sure to follow so you get any updates.

Happy Snow Week, ( or sunshine if your lucky)

Miss Stetson

Back To School

This week in Miss Stetson’s Classroom

We are back! This week our classroom had a hard time waking up from our 2-week vacation.  I must say even I was super sleepy coming back. I even had a moment this week I walked to the office and stood wondering why I even went to the office. I figured it out finally. It was for an envelope. =)

This week the kiddos were introduced to the PARCC. Words cannot describe the look on their face (even mine for that fact). They huffed and puffed for a few minutes, but when we started talking about the strategies we use in reading class will help us. They felt better, but boy was it tough.

I realized quickly that we would be learning direction words. I had the students make some kid friend definitions of the direction words they saw. These words included two scary words: essay and excerpt. They came up with these definitions:

Excerpt – came out of a book

Essay - writing information about a topic

Our class motto about PARCC- “ It is going to be ok”

In math we continued to review fractions. We are working on fractions on the number line. We will continue to work on this next week. They were super excited that we also began our multiplication facts.  We only learned factors 1 & 0 this week. I must say I believe they are excited.

I was so fortunate to have some fantastic parent volunteers to make our multiplication center run smoothly. Last weekend I was over productive and got in over my head in flash cards. I had several parents help me cut out the task cards and return them. They are now stored away until we learn the factors.

My intention for the flash cards is to differentiate where each student is. The fast fact test will match what skill they are practicing. Each deck is color-coded. The colors match the fluency test. (I admit I am still making those.) They were so excited to use the cards.

In reading I went laminate crazy and zip tie crazy. Mid week I got the urge to make flash cards of the Fry Phrases. My classroom-reading group is working on fluency to help their reading comprehension. They were super excited to flip through these and compete with themselves. They were all smiles.

Next week, I hope to have a few fable activities completed to close this unit. I also hope to get caught up in math.  I also hope to be better with my resolution of grading papers. I completely failed this week getting things back early.  I introduced cursive this week and plan on making sure I keep up with this at least 2- 3 times a week.

I am so happy to be back to school.    It is nice to see their smiling faces everyday. They do bring much joy.

Love,

Miss Stetson

Amazed

This holiday season I have locked myself to the computer. I have organized files, deleted unnecessary files, and went shopping for wedding stuff. The one thing I have accomplished is updating old files. 

When I began my TpT journey I did not realize how hard it was to format centers. I had always made really simple centers and did not use clipart often. I found myself frustrated and annoyed. I felt this way because I was constantly comparing what I did to everyone else. It wasn't until 4 months ago that I discovered PowerPoint to make centers instead of using Word. 

If you are new to making items for your classroom, whether it is worksheets, centers, or classroom management tools PowerPoint is the way to go.  I know there is a ton of other formatting programs out there. This is one many of us have on our computers. I have used an older version and a newer version and I am so happy I read someone's blog about this. 

Tonight instead of getting ready to ring in the New Year, I have been updating a few of my centers. ( My fiancé is a fireman saving the world so I didn't want to go out and have to drive in the dark). My fluency in working on activities is always improving. I am in no way a professional nor do I have any affeliaction to Microsoft, but if you ever have any questions in how to troubleshoot basic tasks please feel free to contact me at missstetsonclassroom@gmail.com. 

This is a link to my updated center. Please feel free to download for free and leave feedback. I would appreciate your feedback so I know how to improve my product. 

Free Product Link

Thanks for your support as always, 

Miss Stetson

Addition & Subtraction Task Cards

I love task cards. At any given time you will find a trail of laminate. I believe I get so much more accomplished in my day using task cards. This week I created a quick checkup using addition and subtraction for my classroom. 

This product also includes word problems for your students to complete as well. I hope you enjoy. 

Remember by leaving feed back you gain TPT credit and TPT credit = money. 

Miss Stetson's Classroom TPT Store

Thank you for your support!

Love, 

Miss Stetson 

Rounding to the Nearest 10 and 100

I am super excited that there is only a few days left until school starts. I still have to label everything and get a few little odds and ends finished in my classroom before Wednesday. Today was a gorgeous New England day to have the windows open and feel the breeze. I decided to start on my first math unit. 

I am super excited because this is one of my first projects that I used on PowerPoint to create the center. I was always trying to make centers in the past on Word and it was a little tricky to say the least. I read a few bloggers ( which I cannot remember now) post about how they make the centers and discovered it was much easier than I was making it. So, I sat with the cool breeze blowing making my first center for 3rd grade. 

TpT Store

 The preview page below is a few things that are inside the 30 page file. I plan on having the students use the cards during B.U.I.L.D math and as an around the room buddy search. 

This is where each student is given one card and they are to find their partner. I have made 3 sets

Nearest 10
Nearest 100
Mixed ( They will find 2 partners to both 10 & 100)

The packet also includes:

1 poster

2 Rounding Up or Down games ( with recording sheet)

1 Worksheet

I may also have the kids play memory or goldfish with one another if they complete their work early. 

Please feel free to follow my TPT page and make sure to leave feedback to gain your free credits from TPT for points. Those are a great think to bank when you want something nice from TPT. 

I truly appreciate your time, 

Miss Stetson 

Reflective Bins

   Last school year I found myself getting overwhelmed by grading my students work. If you are a teacher you understand the hassle of trying to balance lesson planning, assessments, and grading papers. Well, I admit I have not mastered the art of not having a stack of papers as tall as I am to grade. So this year I was looking for a solution to at least making it to the papers of the students who need my help. I saw on Pinterest different ideas about how to turn in work. So naturally I created one myself after seeing many examples. 

The purpose of the bin is to encourage the students to reflect on the activity. Many times there is a student who does not wish to raise his/her hand or finds themselves wanting to ask but nervous to ask. I am hoping by dividing the bins into 3 categories this may help ease some stress around peers. 

 I will use them for the students to turn in everyday activities. I have thought about having them underline there name in a marker in the coordinating color. Attached to the document from TPT is an example letter that I will send home to the parents explaining the coloring in the corner or the underlined name. I believe this will help the student to communicate with myself and the parents about the confidence level of academics. 

Please use the link below to view my TPT store. 

Reflective Bin on Teacher Pay Teacher

I look forward to trying this in my classroom. Please leave any comments below if you have used this style of turning in work and how it worked in your classroom. 

Thanks for reading. 

Miss Stetson