Planning Some Holiday Fun!

The holidays are finally coming up!  I think I get more excited each time I go into a store and see more lights and decorations!

Instead of grading papers, I decided to make up a task to use as soon as we get back from Thanksgiving.  My husband got the biggest kick out of it because I can't bake a dozen cupcakes let alone 525, but that's the fun of creating things for your class.  My kiddos can think I am an amazing baker!

The TPT download includes directions to using tasks in your classroom.  You can click on either picture to download this for FREE!

I hope you can use this freebie!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

More Fun with Fractions!

What an amazing and happy Tuesday we had!  We started our morning out by working some more on fractions.  Some of us are working on comparing fractional sets.  While we are great at drawing circles and comparing the shaded fractions, we aren't as good at comparing fractional sets.  My lesson was going down in flames when I got that idea.  You all know what I mean....  the lesson is a disaster and your drowning....  all of the sudden this lightbulb goes off and you think of something else to try.  It was one of those moments....  we broke out the old colored tiles to try and get a grasp of the concept.  Next thing I knew we were creating fractional sets with the colored tiles .  The kids used their turn and talk partners and played teacher.  They love to give their partner a problem to solve.  Here are some pictures as they created their own fractional sets to compare.

Here is 1/6 red, 2/6 blue, and 3/6 yellow.

Here is the start of 2/10 blue, 3/10 red, 1/10 yellow and 4/10 green.

Of course we had to make a flipbook to show that we understood fractional sets.  I gave them the first two flaps, but on the third and fourth I only gave them part.  This way I could see if they could create the rest of the fractional set on their own.

Here is the inside of one of the books.  I stressed to the kids that fractional sets don't always look like the colored tiles we used to practice.  I told them to be creative and to not draw tiles.  I love to see smiley faces....  means they are having fun!

Of course I had to make a display to show off all the kids that have mastered fractional sets.  

I had a few kids that really struggled with fractions last week.  They just didn't have the skills on understanding fractional shading to get a firm grasp of this lesson.  Since I knew they needed a little extra help I pulled them before this lesson and used a lesson I had last year in second grade to fresh their memories.   It covers Common Core 2.G.2 and 3.G.2. 

You can click on the picture to see some activities that you can use with second graders or third graders that need to revisit fractional parts.  It has anchor charts, memory games, an adorable book about the fraction family, printables to practice, and math tasks.   Once I used this with my strugglers, they had it down pat and were ready to jump into comparing fractions. 

You can click on any of the pictures to see the full package in my TPT store. 

Happy Teaching!

We've got it! Look out area and perimeter!

By George We Got It!

We worked on area and perimeter during December and reviewed it using these fun task cards.  Before Christmas we made presents out of paper and measured the area and perimeter of our presents.  My pictures turned out terrible, but it is one activity that I want to do next Christmas.  This time I just need to check the pictures before I take them down.  I am working a creating an Easter bunny that they will create and find the area and perimeter of him!  Something fun to review!  More to come on that one.

We used these task cards to revisit the concept and everyone seems to have it!  Can I say WOO HOO!  I know that doing an area or perimeter question everyday during our early bird in December helped us a lot also!