Groundhog's Day - A Poem

If you are looking for a Groundhog Day poem to share with your class, I have a free download I am offering at my TearchersPayTeachers store.  If you are interested, I have a link to the right of my blog.  A picture is posted below!  Happy Groundhog's Day (early!)

 

Paperclip Parties!

 

If you are looking for a new way for students to earn positive points for making good choices, try making a paperclip chain.  I draw a student's name from my class cup of popsicle sticks.  The student's name that is drawn gets to be the student who's height we must reach in order to have a class party!  My students are always excited to see who gets to be the next student to determine the length of the paperclip chain.  When the class transitions quietly, demonstrates responsibility, or stays focused beyond expectation, they earn a paperclip!  It is also a great year long review of measurement.  Students can predict how many paperclips it will take to reach their classmates height.  Once you get close to the goal length, you can use the paperclip chain to see how many more paperclips you need to reach "PARTY TIME!"  Doing this has prompted great conversation as students have asked me, "how do you know how many more paperclips we need?"  I demonstrate how our paperclip chain becomes a tool to see how many more we need!  This is a fun and practical measurement experience students can really relate to!  Let me know how it works for you!

Place Value Practice: Get Your Peanuts Here!

Real world application practice in place value!  

In this activity students used 10 cards with pails and 10 cards with individual peanuts.  Students were told the pails have 10 peanuts a piece in them.  First I had students just practice representing different numbers with their picture cards.  Next, I became the customer and told them I was going to their peanut factory and was ordering a specific number of peanuts.  We did this several times before I had them work with a partner to do the same activity.  It is a teachers dream come true when students beg to do the same practice activity because they enjoyed it so much.  Who would have thought they would have so much fun pretending to sell peanuts!  This Peanut Place Value activity is part of my First Grade Math Circus Activity Pack found on TeachersPayTeachers store.  The free download for this pack is the Fact Family Act.  This activity has students matching 3 juggling pins to create fact families.  Thanks for visiting my blog today and feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think!

 

This activity also allows for differentiation as well as peer to peer support.