Category Archives: Math | Science | STEM | STEAM

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

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Using Math DATA for Guided Math Groups

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How do we use MATH data for Guided Math Groups?

I teach MATH.

I “think”

I teach math well.

BUT..

HOW DO I KNOW IF THEY “GET IT”???

How do I know if they have mastered ( or internalized )

the concept,

BEFORE THE TESTING BEGINS???

Students work with technology during Guided Math groups.

I mean…it’s NOT..

I REPEAT…NOT

always about

THE TEST!

But.. my kiddos WANT to do well!

Even in First Grade, they KNOW!

They KNOW TESTS COUNT!

Whether or not we like tests or don’t,

TESTS COUNT!

And so..

How do I know if they are ready?

How do I use Guided Math data to help students?

Students work with manipulatives during guided math .

Boy counting place value cubes during guided math.

I have a district purchased math curriculum

I am required to teach.

We use Expressions.

Math Expressions is my district curriculum.

I have a pacing guide from my district to use as a “tool”

to
Keep ME on track.

Mostly to ensure I have taught the required concepts for

THE TEST!

I am NOT a fan of WASTED WORKSHEETS!

SOME…I LIKE!

SOME…I DON’T!

So …now what?

I NEED DATA!

SHOW ME WHAT YOU KNOW!

And so..

THEY DO!

Here is my Lesson on

ADDITION using 3 digits:

Whole Class math lesson with photo

Whole class math lesson with groups.

Independent math practice during guided math groups.

Independent math becomes data for guided math groups.

Differentiated math. The data becomes our groups.

So.. NOW WHAT?

Now I have LOTS of DATA (Student information)

to put students into

guided MATH groups!

I have noted students who need scaffolding in:

number sense

subitizing

numbers beyond 10

addition

grouping numbers

writing numbers

expanding numbers

place value

shape recognition

AND ALL OF THIS..

with 2 pieces of white paper & some crayons!

But…

in the next few weeks

when we

“TEST”

My kiddos will “GET IT”!

I know they will!

If YOU need any help with

MATH PRACTICE…

Check out …

MONKEY MATH

Monkey Math

Monkey Math preview

Monkey math centers

for GRADE 1

See how I use it HERE and HERE

AND

BUGGY MATH

Buggy Math for Second Grade

For GRADE 2

See how I use it HERE

I also have MORE MATH Products…

Math Talk. Math Discussions.

Math Talk for Math Discussions

Sticks and Stones Place Value

Sticks and Stones

Thanks for following!

Here’s a FREEBIE for YOUR TIME! 🙂

ks and Stones

FREEBIE…Strategy Book for Making 10

ENJOY!

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DO you Garden? A little or a LOT?

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What does YOUR garden look like?

Do YOU garden?

My hubby is a gardener.

I mean HE LOVES TO GARDEN!

We have raised garden beds.

A few of them.

And we have PRODUCE!

One week’s harvest!

Check out these posts for more about MY

FARMER – Without – A- Farm!

Get Your Hands Dirty

It’s Garden Time

Secret of Life

Meet the “Little Ones”

I need to APOLOGIZE…

Me? Not “love” to garden.

I “like” to garden.

I love to HARVEST.

I love to eat.

I don’t like to WEED.

I don’t like to sweat.

Fingers dirty? It’s OK.

As long as I can WASH THEM…SOON!

Love my new GLOVES!

Amazon.

So we plan our garden.

We grow seeds on our kitchen table.

We start them indoors,

so we can move them

OUTDOORS!

He reads OLD FARMERS ALMANAC.

As a teacher,

I want MY students

to learn to grow their own food.

I want my students to LOVE to garden!
We planted a GARDEN!

We will plant tomatoes, pumpkins, Swiss chard,

& lettuce in our raised garden.

The garden flowers will go on either side of the planter.

Now to help you in the classroom…

Sunflower Seeds

Robby Rabbit’s Garden

Check out my

Learn All about Plants

Pinterest Board.

1stgradefireworks Robby Rabbit's Garden Orange

Robby Rabbit’s Garden. Complete CCSS Grade One unit for Reading, Writing, and Math.

More Fun ideas for

Planting and Learning About a Garden.

How do YOU garden?

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APRIL 25 is WORLD Penguin DAY!

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I know..It’s April

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!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Get YOUR Hands DIRTY in the GARDEN!

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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

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How many times do YOU ask..WHAT TIME IS IT?

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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!

WHAT TIME IS IT SNOWMAN?

These games will help my kiddos practice

Hour & Half-Hour

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!

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WINTER IS WONDERFUL

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Winter.

Snow.

Jackets, mittens, scarves, & snowboots.

I am NOT an expert on SNOW!

I live in NORCAL.

Wine country.

Not a lot of snow here.

My students LOVE to learn about WINTER!

Our favorite theme.

WINTER IS WONDERFUL!

ELA AND MATH CENTERS

English Language Arts

Contractions

VERBS

MIXED UP SENTENCES

WRITING…MAIN IDEA & DETAILS

MATH

Math Mountains

Missing Addends

MAKING 10 STRATEGY

PLACE VALUE

WINTER IS WONDERFUL

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Guided Math..MAKES MY DAY!

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Guided Math.

YES..I have said the words.

GUIDED MATH.

GUIDED MATH MAKES MY DAY!

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Why? Why you ask…

I love the small group engagement that comes from grouping students into “teams”. I can reach them at their level. I can group them with others who have “like” needs.

THEY feel so empowered. They feel so GOOD!

BUT..another small group.
MANAGEMENT can be “terrifying”!

I have found the “TRICK” that makes MY life
SO MUCH EASIER!!!

I use magnetic paper to print my posters and pdf's for calendar time.

MAGNETIC PRINTER PAPER

Yes…it came from AMAZON…But I have NO AFFILIATION..just like their stuff!

HOW DO I USE IT?
I made a MATH FOCAL WALL
(Thank You Keri Brown & Brenda Frady)

and printed them on MAGNETIC PAPER..
yes, in my REGULAR Printer (toner not ink).

NOW…YOU CANNOT use a whiteboard marker on
magnetic paper.
YOU MUST COVER IT.

So HOW DO I “COVER” IT???

REPORT SLEEVES…to the rescue!

Cut them apart into rectangles.

Tape on top!
VOILA!

Eraseable …MAGNETIC..FOCUS WALL

I put it on my side whiteboard.

I LOVE IT!

Here’s the final result(s)…

SO HAPPY!

This helps me get the CALENDAR PORTION of my
Guided Math started.

Then..my kiddos begin
MATH MUST DO’s.

Then, I can pull small groups of kids for
MATH!

Using magentic paper when printing, allows you to instantly change content on math walls!

Clear REPORT SLEEVES

taped at the top! 🙂

Be still my heart..

MATH FOCAL WALL

with

MATH MUST DO’s!!

I am LOVIN’..Magnetic Printer Paper!

Next…I am printing my

MONKEY MATH.

First grade math concepts for whole group, small group, and independent practice.

Independent MATH center

MAGNETIC!

🙂

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Happy Fall…Bring it ON!

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September is almost GONE!

October will be here soon.

And then…NOVEMBER!

Then comes SANTA!

Ok…I regress…

I like FALL.

But…I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

So to get ready for FALL…

Think leaves, scarecrows, pumpkins, LATTES!

Sweaters, boots, scarves, mittens!

Soft, fluffy blankets.

Fires in the fireplace.

Hot cocoa by the fire, READING A BOOK!

HURRY! HURRY!

I AM READY!

Here are some fun ideas to help YOU (& ME)

If YOU need anymore FALL ideas…

Stop by

1stgradefireworks

Are YOU ready?

(And then…BRING ON SANTA!)

🙂

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Have YOU Heard? REALLY??? AM I the LAST to know???

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I feel left out!

HOW did I not know…???

via GIPHY

I just found out that

ORIENTAL TRADING

has a
WEB SITE

JUST FOR TEACHERS!

OMG!

LIFE CHANGING!

The “go to” website for class sets of

ANYTHING…

pencils, erasers, crafts, party supplies, etc

NOW…has

TEACHER SUPPLIES!

Bulletin board materials, pencils, book marks,STEM activities, etc..etc..etc…

Learn365 is AMAZING!

The WONDERFUL people at ORIENTAL TRADING
sent my students SOME GOODIES!

*disclaimer…I was compensated in classroom materials for this blogpost.
BUT…In my opinion,
I believe this is a wonderful site
for teachers when purchasing classroom materials.

My students have
3 new STEM tubs
for Problem Solving!