Friday Freebie: Spider Web Counting

Here in South Africa, Halloween is not really celebrated. In my neighbourhood, and amongst some of my friends, we get the kids dressed up and go trick-or-treating to the homes of neighbours who are willing participants and at the ready with candy! Despite the low key nature of the event here, my 4 year old daughter remembers it with high anticipation each year and has already planned this year's outfit - a fairy, the same as last year...and the year before!!! No surprises there! :)

It also amuses me that some of our supermarkets get in on the "low key" action and try to turn some trade by filling the check out aisles with Halloween themed candy!! With Halloween drawing nigh, and many teachers already planning their Halloween activities, it seems appropriate to offer up a little 'Spider-themed' freebie.

The first worksheet in this file has numbers entered into the webs for your students to find the patterns and continue counting. The second is blank so that you can programme it with your own numbers, thus making this worksheet adaptable for any age and ability of student! 

Wishing you lots of spidery fun!!

Back to School SALE and FREEBIE!

Sitting here in South Africa in the midst of a rather chilly winter and just a few weeks into a new school term it is hard to believe that Summer is at an end for those of you in warmer climes....and the end of Summer, of course, means that it is time to go BACK TO SCHOOL!! Oh no, you might cry, in astonishment (at time flying by so quickly) or bewilderment (at the thought of all the work yet to be done)!

Never fear TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS is coming to your rescue. We are going to help save you a little time for more summer fun and lessen your B2S workload. How will we achieve this wondrous feat??? With the Back to School SALE, of course!

Many of your favorite sellers on TPT will have sales running on 12 and 13 August....on top of the savings from these teachers TPT is offering an extra 10% off your total purchase. A total saving of up to 28%! To make the most of this wonderful offer use the promotion code BTS12 when you check out.

Please remember to pop over to my store and fill your cart to the brim...I am offering 20% off everything in my store for not just 2 days, but 4! Visit any time from 11-14 August to save yourself time, effort and money!!

...and just to whet your appetite, here a a B2S freebie just for you! Have your students practice their graphing skills using their own names!

Here's to a wonderful 2012/13 school year to all my terrific followers!

Lesson Cloud Dollar Days SALE!!

Here is a fantastic first from The Lesson Cloud authors....for two days only a number of teachers are selling products for just $1 and $2 on Teachers Pay Teachers. Visit The Lesson Cloud on Sunday, 29 July to see if your favorite teacher-authors are linked up to the Dollar Days Sale! You could also stand a chance of winning a $75 gift certificate to Really Good Stuff! 

Pop along to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and you can grab any of the products in my $3-5 category for just $1 or $2! That's 50% or more saving on each of these products!! Happy shopping!

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Okay, so I have once again been a little scarce for the longest time!
I hope all my Northern Hemisphere followers are having a wonderful summer vacation.
We are a little chilly here in South Africa, but nothing that a snuggly blanket and a roaring fire can't sort out!

I was so excited to discover Bloglovin' and am already following some of my favorite blogs with it...I hope you will choose to follow me through Bloglovin' and keep spreading the "blog love" around!

Give me another few weeks to get up to date with some of my work and I promise I will be back to blogging a little more regularly!

Math on the Run

If you are not yet on Summer break, you are no doubt counting the days until the end of the year...and wondering what to do with your kiddos each day to keep them busy in a meaningful, but fun way... If this sounds like you, read on! A very dear friend, and long time colleague of mine, came up with a brilliant Math game a good few years back. This game requires virtually no preparation, can be done on the spur of the moment, keeps kids actively busy and thinking and is the perfect activity for those days when you you're feeling in a slump. We named it "Running Math" and here's how it works...

You will need a set of flashcards/equation cards for whatever concept you want to consolidate (e.g. number facts, tables, addition of 10's, doubling, etc), paper and pencil or dry erase board and pen and a calculator for each student. Lay all the flashcards out on the floor in a central place in your classroom. Give each child a paper and pencil or dry erase board and pen. Here's the part the kids really like....have them remove their shoes and socks! Now explain the rules:

• NO running (I know, I know...why is it called running maths then?!!?!)
• NO pushing
• NO talking

The object is for each student to collect, write down and complete as many sums as they can within the time you allocate. The children walk (quickly) to the flashcards take one, return to their table, write the sum and the answer, return to the pile of flashcards to swop the card...and repeat....until you say stop. You can time them for however long you feel that they can manage...2mins...5mins...its up to you! When you call 'STOP!' they put their pens down and swop papers/dry erase boards with a friend.

Now it's time to check the answers. I always liked my students to become au fait with the mechanics of a calculator from early on - not to do calculations but as a skill in and of itself. (I know this is a "hot topic" so if you don't like to use calculators then you can check the work yourself.) I had the children use their calculators to check their friends answers. They then counted how many correct answers they had, wrote the total at the top of the page and returned the pages to the owner.

I always liked to "reward" the "Running Math" champ with a round of applause or a few house points. To find out the champ I had all the students stand and then had them sit down if they did not fit the number I called. E.g. 'Keep standing if you got more than 10 correct',  'Remain standing if you got more than 20 correct', etc. (You can go up in whatever interval you feel is appropriate for your students achievements.) Keep going until you have only the champion standing. All the students can give the child a clap (or you could award a small prize).

Once you have played this once you will have your students begging to play it again and again! It became a good old standby activity in my classroom...and the kids LOVED it!

If you are looking for other "active" Math activities you are sure to like my 'STOMP' games (Stomp subtraction facts and Stomp addition facts) available in my TpT store.

A boost of positive energy for your classroom for the end of year!

SUNFLOWER JOURNALS END OF YEAR FREEBIE!

It's almost Summer and the countdown for the end of the year has begun! Are you thinking about the last few days with a little bit of a sense of trepidation....How to keep the kids busy without them getting too excitable? How to maintain a happy air in the classroom when everyone is getting a little tired and all to ready for a holiday?!

You could end your year with a burst of positive energy, joyfulness and gratitude. 'Sunflower Journal' pages are a great way for your students to record their happy memories of the year gone by, to express gratitude for special people and moments during the year and share their happy thoughts and wishes for the upcoming vacation. By focusing their "Summer's coming!" energy towards finding "gratitude moments" you will reap the rewards of a happy, peaceful, positive end of the year. Visit my TpT store to download this freebie!

Wishing you an end of year and Summer filled with your own "gratitude moments" and happy memories!

Sunflower Journals: Finding Gratitude Moments, Joyfulness and Positivity Everyday!

It was many years ago, after hearing about Gratitude Journals on Oprah, that I introduced this idea to my second grade students. The idea was an instant hit in my classroom and my students were eager to write as often as possible (especially as no editing was ever required in these journals!). I provided them with writing prompts 2-3 times a week to keep them thinking positively about different things and I was amazed at how soon they began to find "gratitude moments" in everyday occurrences and situations. Occasionally students even asked to take their journals home so that they could add a little more writing or jazz up their entry with a cute illustration.

I soon discovered that the positive energy from these journals was overflowing into my classroom. Sure, the kids still rankled each other - kids will be kids, you know! But they were beginning to focus more on the positive. Little things, like saying nice things about each other and noticing when someone said or did something nice to or for them. And they were happy. And you know what they say "Happy kids = Happy teacher"!

I was recently reminded of these journals by a thread on Facebook and mentioned to some fellow bloggers that I had once used them in my classroom and would they be something other teachers could use. Fellow blogger, Laura Candler, quickly responded to my mention and told me about her 'Happy Thoughts Journals' (read her blog post by clicking on this text). Thanks to her encouragement and support I dug out my old hand drawn worksheets and quickly got to tackling a digital unit for my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

I discovered a cute image of a sunflower I had used for these journals so long ago amongst these papers and I immediately knew that the seed had been planted for something great! 'Sunflower Journals' were germinated and grew...and grew... The sunflower is a symbol of such positivity, joyfulness, warmth and energy, exactly what we want our young students to be and become. By creating their own Sunflower Journal covers (craft included in the unit) students will be engaged from the start with this yearlong activity. The pack includes over 120 writing prompts (which can be used in Literacy Centers or as independent work) to keep directing your students thoughts to happy, positive places, times, memories and ideas. All the time learning to show gratitude for the everyday, small things in life. The unit would not have been complete without an activity to germinate sunflower seeds so that each student has their own sunflower plant to remind them of the idea of looking for "gratitude moments".

With the end of the school year drawing near and students looking back at the time that has passed and forward to a fun-filled Summer vacation, I thought it would be great to have a few journal pages that focus on the "gratitude moments" of the year gone by and of thoughts for the vacation ahead. I have compiled these journal pages into a FREEBIE for you to use right away in your classroom. Visit my TpT store to download a copy...  My little way of showing gratitude for and appreciation of YOU!

And now, why not spend a few moments jotting down some things you are grateful for in YOUR life... You will be amazed at how uplifting the positive energy is!