Category Archives: Math | Science | STEM | STEAM

Math resources and Science products for including STEM and STEAM into the classroom.

How to use addition and subtraction math task cards.

Math. I said it!

Does the word “MATH” make you giggle, or grumble???

If you teach TK – 6th grade, you teach addition and subtraction.

It’s never-ending.

Teach. Practice. Practice. Practice. Reteach. Over and over.

The numbers change. They get bigger.

But the skills and strategies don’t change.

The vocabulary changes ( occasionally), for example:

3 + 4 = 7 … Is this “all together” or “in all”?

Is this a math “sentence” or a math “equation”?

I have taught them ALL.

Our newest math program has first graders using the yellow and red foam counters on day 1.

And, they need to “discuss” with their partner HOW they got their answer.

First of all, some can’t count yet, and they won’t “discuss” their mathematical thinking

with students THEY DON’T KNOW! Not yet!

Now I get the idea. Just a little FAST!

Shouldn’t we allow them to “explore” the math counters first?

Some were poking them with pencils. flipping them in the air, and yes..one student chewed on the foam counter. Ewwwww.

And so, I am S L O W I N G things down, a bit.

To help my “littles” with addition and subtraction we are EXPLORING the math manipulatives first.

Then we will discuss routines and procedures for using them.

Last, we will use them to create math experiences.

Add some skills and strategies, and VOILA! We will have mathematicians!

To help my littles with beginning addition and subtraction to ten,

I have created some Math Task Cards using our WONDERFUL foam counters, and ten frames.

Math Task cards with ten frames

I have included Addition Task Cards,

Addition and Subtraction Task Cards with ten Frames

Subtraction Task Cards,

Addition and Subtraction Task Cards with Ten Frames

And student work pages for accountability.

Addition and Subtraction Task Cards with Ten Frames

Check out the video:

92 task cards for students to practice addition and subtraction with Ten Frames.

For the WIN! I may use this for guided math centers, interventions, and/or independent practice. We shall see!

Check out the other goodies for MATH CENTERS:

Think ADDITION to help you SUBTRACT

Halloween Math Fact Families

Pool Party Number Bonds – 232 Task Cards

Number Bonds help students work on number sense. Part Part Whole, Addition and subtraction, and mental math skills.

Math Vocabulary Tools for Success

Math Skill & Strategy Cards for Preview, Review, Minilessons. 6 Cards per Page. 36 math “tool” cards for scaffolding and support.

I hope this helps YOU with planning

Back-to-School math lessons for your students. Here’s to a great 2022! Check out all the goodies in my TPT store and here on the blog!

Lots of FREEBIES! Have a great school year!

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Wendy

WHAT TIME IS IT?

6 Replies

WHAT TIME IS IT???

How many “times” today have you been asked…

WHAT TIME IS IT???

For me…

WAY TOO MANY!

And so…

WE TEACH!

Hour hand.

Minute hand.

O’clock.

Thirty.

And OVER…And OVER…And OVER!

Big ones for WHOLE Group.

Little Ones for Small / Independent Practice.

(Practice MAKES Perfect!)

To help out…

I have created a much-NEEDED Packet…

for ME AND For YOU!

Snowmen TIME

WHAT TIME IS IT SNOWMAN?

These games will help my kiddos practice

Hour & Half-Hour

in

MULTIPLE GAME Formats!

We LOVE GAMES!

Those who like SORTING…SORT!

Those who like a MATCHING GAME…MATCH!

Those who like to write…WRITE!

And so we work..we play…we practice!

And then…

WHAT TIME IS IT??

RECESS! LUNCH! TIME TO GO HOME!

I also have a MARCH goodie to practice telling TIME!

Check out my WINTER Pinterest board!

LOTS of Winter GOODIES!

First Grade Writing – NONFICTION

As a Title 1 teacher

with half of my class CELDT Levels 1&2 ( low English),

I am ALWAYS trying to give my kids more vocabulary, visual clues, and

FRONTLOAD information

…before we WRITE!

So this week…was

REINDEER WEEK!

I was going for REAL REINDEER.

We read books, watched VIDEOS, did real research ( yes, ONLINE!)

We even attempted to watch the

REINDEER.CAM

Can’t show kiddos in my district…

TOO MUCH SANTA!

I know…don’t go there!

So …I kept it real!

ONLY REAL REINDEER!

I was going for NON-FICTION!

They did great!

As an adult, I felt they had mastered

a LOT

of information!

What do reindeer LOOK like?

Where do they LIVE?

What do they EAT?

( One of our movies mentioned MUSHROOMS…

BOY did they pick up on that!)

And then…

what makes them different

(special )

from

other ANIMALS?

Here are some of our writings…

(Don’t judge….we have NOT edited for CONVENTIONS..

Just CONTENT!! 🙂

Sorry pics are turned…

Can’t get them to TURN! UGH!

No where…no how…

did I MENTION

SANTA or RUDOLPH!

99% of my students wrote

that the important thing about REINDEER is…

THEY PULL SANTA’S SLEIGH

AND

THE LEADER IS…RUDOLPH!

And THAT is NON FICTION!

HAHAHAHA

But that is their

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE!

SO CUTE!

They brought it into their writing!

Let their VOICES be heard!

And so…

ADULTS BE AWARE!

The little ones WILL be HEARD!

I LOVE TEACHING FIRST GRADE!

They make me GIGGLE!

If you need some writing help…

WRITE ON!

ENJOY!

Write On! Journal Pages with Support!

Get YOUR Hands DIRTY in the GARDEN!

1 Reply

GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY IN THE GARDEN!

The SUN is SHINING!

The birds are “chirping”.

My chickens are laying EGGS!

It’s almost SPRINGTIME folks!

It’s time to plant the garden!

We gotta get ready!

So …how?

What do I do first? Then? Next?

( Sound familiar? )

We in NORCAL are ready to…

GET OUR HANDS DIRTY!

We have 3 raised gardens…

The garden behind the white fence.

And an extra large garden.

The windmill in our garden.

Yes…We have our own windmill.

( NO..it does NOT pump water…BUT IT LOOKS SO COOL!)

A twelve-foot sunflower grew in our garden.

Our twelve-foot sunflower in the garden!

Last year… 12 ft. tall SUNFLOWERS!

Our garden has tomatoes, onions, corn, and peppers.

Corn, tomatoes, garlic, onions, tomatillos, cilantro, peppers,

green beans, squash, pumpkins, grapes

Our garden has sunflowers beginning to grow.

The sunflowers are beginning to grow in the garden.

In the beginning…(sunflowers)

Our granddaughters found worms in the garden.

And our helpers…

Our granddaughters & grandson LOVE DIRT!

Best friends with WORMS!

(Put your coffee grounds into your garden…worms LOVE THEM!)

The black chicken is in the coop.

The white chicken likes to eat the vegetables from the garden.

We also have 2 chickens…

Snow white (Black..I know…SNOW WHITE has BLACK HAIR)

and Rapunzel ( She used to have yellow feathers..)

Granddaughters named them…

Thank You, Disney!

We also live in the suburbs…NO FARM!

We just grow what we use & use what we grow!

So Valentine’s DAY is usually the “day”.

START YOUR SEEDS!

Plant your garden!

HUH?

How? Where?

HUH?

We use seed starter kits.

( Lowes, Home Depot, etc)

Seed starters help us get the plants for the garden.

We start the seeds for the garden in small starter kits.

We put one seed in each “pot”, water daily,

and keep in the sun…

INDOORS!

(Usually on MY kitchen table for a while). 🙁

As the seeds sprout…we move them into a small greenhouse outside for acclimation.

The greenhouse helps get out garden plants started.

A small hothouse helps the small plants grow.

As the seeds gain height and leaves…

We plant them in the gardens.

We try to plant/ sprout / acclimate/ plant in the gardens

at different times.

That way we always have produce ripening.

I also have herbs:

cilantro, parsley, basil, rosemary, chives, mint

growing year round.

This year we are trying something new.

( In addition to what we already have..)

We can plant our vegetables in the straw bales.

Straw bales for the new garden.

Straw Bale Gardening!

Researching it now.

Looks promising!

(I think I may propose this one at school too).

Great for growing plants in a small space!

A NEW garden!

OK..then what?

We have ALL of this summer produce!

What do we do with it?

(You can only eat so much…so fast!)

Well…

Hubby cans!

(Yes…HE CANS!)

* This year SANTA brought him a new pressure canner!

Happy hubby…Happy wife! 🙂

After we harvest, we can to preserve our produce.

Peaches…yummy!

We made sauce from the garden tomatoes.

Salsa, spaghetti sauce, tomatoes.

ALL kept in storage for WINTER!

And me?

I dehydrate…I dehydrate WELL!

We dehydrate the garden vegetables.

Preserving fruits and vegetables.

I Love my dehydrator!

My new LOVE is

PERSIMMONS!

Persimmons can be preserved.

I can’t wait to dehydrate them this fall.

Persimmons to snack on…ALL YEAR LONG!

YUMMY!

And ALL from the gardens!

According to 2018

Farmer’s Almanac

The 2018 US Farmer’s Almanac

IT’S TIME TO PLANT!

According to FARMER folklore,

The farmer’s timetable for planting is:

“When you can put your bare behind on the soil

& it is WARM…

time to plant!”

I haven’t actually tried that…

I think I will wait for a little more SUN and make a good GUESS!

It’s almost time!

Get your gardens ready..it’s time to

GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY! 🙂

The farmer and his wife.

If you are looking for a fun gardening unit for your CLASSROOM…

*click on the FREE PREVIEW..:)

Robby Rabbit’s Garden

Click HERE to see the new packet.

Check out some more GARDEN fun from 1stgradefireworks:

Spring is in the Air!

To see the SUNFLOWER UNIT

click HERE

Teach your students about seeds with SUNFLOWER SEEDS A Plant Unit

Sunflower Seeds plant unit

APRIL 25 is WORLD Penguin DAY!

6 Replies

How can it be WORLD PENGUIN DAY?

via GIPHY

I don’t make these up… 🙂

To celebrate

WORLD Penguin Day (APRIL 25)

some bloggy friends and I have “LINKED” up to

give YOU some FUN and exciting ways to celebrate with your

students and your families!

Here are just a few penguin resources to get you started!

Thank You PINTEREST!

PENGUIN PALS

What do Penguins do in the Winter? DANCE!

Winter Vocabulary Banners BUNDLED

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Earth Day & A FREEBIE!

1 Reply

Earth Day is EVERY DAY!

New packet to help our kiddos understand that

Earth DAY is NOT a holiday!

It is a “lifestyle”.

We take care of “MOTHER EARTH” and

she will take care of US!

This packet helps young kids understand the “value”

…in coins… of RECYCLING!

They read story problems and count coins! ( 2 FUN things !)

EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY

Here’s your FREEBIE!

EARTH DAY IS EVERY DAY…Math Story Problems

Spring gardening 101 and a FREE CHICKEN DANCE!

3 Replies

I love SPRING!

DID I MENTION…

I LOVE SPRING!

And I Love to GARDEN!

This Spring I taught my students how to recycle water bottles into seed germinators!

I Love Spring!

I am an AVID Gardener!

LOVE to get my fingers in the dirt.

We call my hubby “FARMER WITHOUT A FARM!”

We are “suburbanites” with a backyard farm.

Chickens included!

Black Chicken

Sunshine – white chicken

This year we installed

PALLET GARDENS!

Grow plants in a PALLET GARDEN!

So easy!

Lay down wooden pallet.

Fill with potting soil & steer manure.

Plant!

We did seeds.

And more seeds. (Rotate your crops)

Pick your seeds carefully.

We didn’t have a lot of room for “vines”.. so we did NOT grow pumpkins.

We did grow some BEAUTIFUL SUNFLOWERS in the back.

They need A LOT OF room. They got 10-12 feet TALL!

Check out my Sunflower Seeds Plant Unit. AWESOME!

Grow vegetables that you eat.

I wanted to show the kids

ROOTS, STEMS, LEAVES, FLOWERS, etc.

Choose plants that will help with that!

It’s SPRING!

Time for new growth!

We also made individual planters for the kids to take home.

As we had been studying EARTH DAY…

We RECYCLED

water bottles as seed planters!

Recycled Water bottles for planting.

Start with water bottles.

Cut them in half.

Poke a hole in the lid.

Tie a knot in string & thread through the hole.

When lid is ON…string hangs DOWN.

Flip the TOP of bottle..into the bottom.

The bottom will hold the water.

Cut bottles in half. Add soil.

Add soil.

And seeds to top.

Fill the bottom with water.

The string acts like a wick…to water itself!

Recycled water bottles with seeds.

We have sprouts!

Soon… sprouts!

We took them HOME at OPEN HOUSE!

The kids were SO excited to show off their garden.

Maybe THEY will become MASTER GARDENERS some day!

Happy Dance!

In honor of my

CHICKENS…

Chicken Dance is FREE!

Chicken Dance Word Game from 1stgradefireworks

Happy Spring to all!

Wendy

The “WEE” Little Ones are a’WATCHIN … What time is it?

1 Reply

What TIME is it?

It’s McBLARNEY TIME!

‘Tis the month of MARCH!

The “WEE LITTLE ONES”..

are a’watchin..

(Like my Gealic?) HAHA

What TIME is it?

MARCH?

ALREADY?

BTW…

There are 294 days
…until CHRISTMAS!

Just wanted to FREAK YOU OUT!!!!!

What TIME is it?

It’s ONLY MARCH!

Whew!

As an “official” IRISH LASS.

Well… kinda…married a McCarty…

IRISH TO THE MAX!

And…I carry Scottish/Irish genes.

So I AM an “IRISH LASS” !

One of my fav. poems..I know it’s a song!

I love the lyrics!

“When Irish Eyes are Smiling“

The chorus…

When Irish eyes are smiling, 
Sure, 'tis like the morn in Spring. 
In the lilt of Irish laughter 
You can hear the angels sing. 
When Irish hearts are happy, 
All the world seems bright and gay. 
And when Irish eyes are smiling, 
Sure, they steal your heart away.

Awwww…

Makes me heart HAPPY!

I have been to the “EMERALD ISLE”.

I have “KISSED THE BLARNEY STONE”
…kinda gross.

( Story another time )

What TIME is it?

It’s McBlarney TIME!

I want to share some “Blarney” with YOU!

McBlarney Time on TPT

And

Making Ten with an IRISH JIG! on TPT

Celebrate the WEARIN OF THE GREEN

on St.Paddy’s DAY!

Go n-éirí an bothar leat

(May your journey be successful)

* Don’t forget to wear YOUR GREEN on St. Patrick’s Day

…don’t want to get PINCHED!

Informational Writing

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This week we did some EXCELLENT WRITING!

I have to be honest…I have not taught ALL of my SCIENCE standards. And yes, animal classification is a standard.

Somewhere, I have a new Science series, but my new ELA series takes up most ALL of our day…& Math… so, as any good teacher ( who LOVES science & writing) would do INTEGRATE!

We wrote informational writing about animal classifications!

And then we PAINTED them!

Living things…yaadaa. yaadaa. yaadaa…NO!

WE WROTE ABOUT REAL ANIMALS!

My EL’s had a hard time with the new vocabulary, (Thank You Project GLAD), we did new academic language, made charts, filled out graphic organizers, did shared writing, sloppy copies, and a final draft!