Reasons for My Blogging Absense

Whew! Long time, no blog!  Who knows where this blog would be if it wasn't for Juli.  I have had a lot going on.  Lots of reasons for my lack of appearance on this blog...
Reason Number One:
Our new puppy! If you are a follower of our blog then you know that we lost our dog Georgia in January.  About a month ago we decided to get a new puppy. His name is Banjo.

 Isn't he cute?!  He has one blue eye and one brown eye which I love.  Here he is below meeting my boys for the first time. 

As cute and cuddly as he is, he is a lot of work! House training isn't going as well as I would have hoped.  I also didn't want to crate him at first so I spent about 3 weeks getting up in the middle of the night so he could potty.  That got old FAST and my husband was getting tired of being a human chew toy at 3 am so we bought a crate. He now sleeps in his own room in a crate with a comfy bed.  No more accidents at night but we are still working on using the pads or going outside when he is out and about. We also discovered he has a tumor on his eye - his cornea to be exact. Due to it's placement, the vet cannot do the operation.  We have been referred to a veterinary ophthalmologist - who even knew such a profession existed???  As with any person whose title ends with "gist", he is charging an INSANE amount to remove this tumor.  We have to remove the tumor or Banjo could lose his eye. So here's to hoping my TPT sales take off.  At this rate, Banjo has cost more than any piece of furniture in my house!

Reason Number Two:
DRAMA! The drama in my classroom continues, much to my dismay and exhaustion.  Makes me glad that I have 2 boys!  Everyday several girls are reduced to tears for various mean things said to one another.  I am afraid the next one in tears will be me! It takes so much energy to address the smallest things ALL the time!  There are fingers waving, hair swishing, and "Oh no you didn't" postures in my room at every turn.   One day coming in from recess I saw a shirt that one of Juli's little girls was wearing. Juli snapped a picture of it and I am now trying to figure out how to get one in my size and work it into my wardrobe for the remaining school days.  

Please excuse my appearance! Juli failed to mention that I looked somewhat like roadkill when she took it.  It's the drama - it is physically wearing down what I look like! Plus this was at the end of the day and recess....bless my heart.

Reason Number Three:

New product! I have been busy creating activities for our math workshop stations.  I put this one up at TPT if anyone is teaching this standard.  It meets 2.OA.1  This is a standard our kiddos are really struggling with.  I made this for our math game station.  It allows the students to play a game, practice the standard, and includes a recording sheet for teachers to get a glimpse of student understanding.

You can click HERE to see this product at TPT. Like Juli always does though, first to comment gets it free! I would also love some feedback to see if there are improvements that can be made. Make sure you leave an email address for me to send to if you are the first to comment. THANKS!

I have other products and a few freebies to share but those are on my computer at school so they will have to wait for another day.  Now that we have our new Macs that Juli told you about, I am hoping I won't have products spread out on different computers.

I am off to tackle Reason Number Four that I don't blog often - laundry! It's never ending. Is it living with 3 boys or do all houses have this much laundry?  I love this pin even though I have yet to experience those 12 seconds!

 

Word Problems...Oh My!

I am trying to make up for lost time by posting twice in one week.  We have officially made it to our fourth quarter and the official countdown has begun.  35 days and counting.  It is exciting and scary at the same time.  So much to teach in so little time.

Our state unrolled an unpacking document when the Common Core was introduced.  Our county then worked with teachers to create a "pacing guide" to match.  On this pacing guide it had second grade teaching 2.OA.1 in the fall.  We tried to teach this and felt like we had hit a brick wall!  It was SO hard for them and SO much over their heads.  We decided as a grade level that it wasn't fair to expect our students to complete this task that appeared to be not developmentally appropriate.  We have proceeded to push this skill off until the fourth quarter.  Well, we found ourselves here and ready to teach it...again.

We really wanted to reteach it in a completely different way so that we could make it relevant and concrete.  I did some research and found the Singapore Math teaches basic word problems and equations with a rectangular bar to visually represent an equation.  I really liked the idea of it.  But I wanted an even more concrete way to go along with the rectangles.

I came across this great idea from love2learn2day.  Isn't that awesome!?!

So I took the idea and put it together with the rectangular bars.  All week long, we have practiced with the plates and then drawn the rectangular bars to match.  Here is one of my students using the plate for a start unknown problem during our Guided Practice time.  I noticed on their math homework this week, that there were only a few students I needed to review with.  

 So today, I took the plates away as we practiced and had the students use their whiteboards.  I was so pleased with how well this worked.   

I am very happy to report that we have slotted another full week to teach this skill.  Now that we are getting the hang of it, I am excited to see what another week will do for our mastery of this skill.  

Preparing for this week, I dug deep into the Common Core and found that this skill is an Operations & Algebraic Thinking for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades.  I am pleased to know that we are helping to develop this foundational skill.

So I spent the better part of this week, creating a hands on activity to apply these word problems.  You can play it as a matching game in small groups and independent math time.  

It allows your students to practice and apply the skill of word problems.  It's perfectly suited for application of Common Core Operations & Algebraic Thinking in small groups or independent work and applies to these CCSS:
~1.OA.1
~ 2.OA.1
~ 3.OA.8
~ 4.OA.3

Includes word problems for all types of problems:
~ putting together
~ adding to
~ taking apart
~ taking from
~ comparing

The activity also uses unknown amounts in all positions using an unknown amount with a question mark (?).
Includes a recording sheet to check for accuracy!  So hop on over to my TPT store and get your copy today!  As always, our first comment will get it free!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Word Problems!