Properties of Addition Activity

We worked on properties of addition last week. We talked about the three properties and to help them remember, I taught the kids that the Commutative property could also be called the flip flop rule because the numbers just flip around and you still get the same sum. 

To help them remember Associative, we talked about the word "associate" and how it can mean partner or buddy. We called this rule the buddy rule because the parentheses make the numbers have a partner or buddy. 

For the Identity rule, we called it the Me rule because these numbers don't like change! They like being themselves. So, when you add zero to a number, this is exactly what happens. The number doesn't change, it stays the same! 

To to help my students practice, I made this little game/activity. All that is required is a set of three dice per child and copies of this sheet! 

I am currently working on our next science unit on Animal and Plant Adaptations. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the finished product! 

Parent Conference Pack!

I have been meaning to post the parent conference resources that I use in my classroom all week, but just haven't had time due to other posting! 

The pack includes a parent conference guide to fill out during the conference, a parent conference reminder slip in English and in Spanish, and a missed conference slip in English and in Spanish. Click the first image to download the entire pack!

Important Note: You will need to have the following fonts on your computer in order for it to look this way:

Pea Shelley Belley
CK Higgins Handprint
CK Fill In
Kindergarten
Jokerman
ABC Print

Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement or what ideas for things you do for fall conferences! I would love to hear them!

Some Halloween Cuteness!

So, Halloween is around the corner and I'm being inspired by other teachers and their Halloween-y cuteness! I went to Family Dollar after school today and picked up some goodies! 

Hope over at Second Grade Shenanigans had this super awesome idea about having a dead word funeral to kick off her descriptive writing unit. This idea is simply genius! I mean, come on...that is just cool!  

I don't have the time to decorate my wall as insanely wonderful as she did, but my idea was to use the window cling on in the picture below to display dead words on. Each day of the week starting Monday, I will display a new word on the ghost. We will brainstorm synonyms for the word and add to a chart. I will hang each poster in the room and they will be required to use those words from now on. =)

The bulletin board you see below is from a second grade teacher at our school. Her class was learning about similes so to end the unit, she had her students write down a simile on a pumpkin and color them. She added the pumpkins to a pumpkin patch and called it "A pumpkin patch of similes." What a cute idea! 

My other Halloween inspired idea came to as I was browsing the Halloween shelves at the family dollar and I laid eyes upon this plastic jar with pumpkins on it. I thought it would be fun to fill the jar each week with a different Halloween themed candy or trinket. 

Before students begin making their guesses, we will talk about what estimating is and isn't and add it to an anchor chart. The first week, students will estimate how many candy corns are in the jar and then the week after, we will estimate how many eyeballs there are. Another item you could fill the jar with are this little plastic spiders you always see for sale during Halloween! I plan on revealing the winner on Friday afternoons. The winner each week will win the contents of the jar, the title of Ultimate Estimator, and another fun little Halloween prize!

I also created a little estimation sheet to go along with the activity! Click the image to download!

Happy estimating!


I was also thinking today as I was trying to find cute Halloween fonts that it would be so much easier if there was a file with the names of all the fonts, so I went ahead and created this to help you find fonts when you are creating documents.

And don't forget to link up to my Halloween-spiration Linky and add your Halloween cuteness! 

Math Project!

One of the girls on my grade level had this fabulous idea for a math project to review Place Value and Addition Properties and I wanted to share with you all!

Click image to download.

Also, if you have any Halloween ideas or activities for October, please add it to my linky party! Click the image below to go to the post and link up.

Ai and Ay Activities

Hilary over at Rockin' Teacher Materials is having a Word Work Linky Party! I thought I would share my AI and AY activities since that's what we are going to be doing next week!

Click the image to download the activities!

Don't forget to head over and Link Up for my Halloween-spiration Linky Party!