Sunday Savers ~ Introduction: Oct. 26th

Are you fan of saving money?

I am!

And that's just one of the many reasons I LOVE TPT!

So in the spirit of saving bundles of cash on my classroom resources, I wanted to start a little something that I thought would help you save money too. 

My grandmother loves the Sunday paper because of those 

coupon booklets that get shoved in the middle.

Loads of savings, she says. 

Sunday Savers, she calls them. 

And to keep the tradition going of saving cash on Sunday, 

I'm creating my own Sunday Savers.

As much a possible, I'm going to slash the prices of one (...or two) of my products for 24 hours. 

I don't know which products I'll choose, but check back on Sundays (I'll do my best to do every Sunday) and see what's on SALE or better yet...FREE!

This week....

I'm cutting the price of the 

Math M&M Monsters

(Click on image to purchase)

from $3.00 

to $1.00 !

*** This product will return to original price Monday 10/27/14 @ 3pm EST***

and 

grab this FREEBIE while you're at it!

(Click on either image to download)

Sort, EAT, Count, Eat, Graph, EAT...M&M Math!

Halloween 

is just around the corner and this year, I'm SOOO happy it falls on a FRIDAY! 

Can I get an AMEN?!

The day after Halloween is always a candy-como conundrum for me.

What do I do with these sleep-deprived, sugar overdosed "zombies"?

This year, teachers around the nation WON'T have that problem!

Woot-woot!

But, let's be real, Halloween on a Friday is a recipe for craziness!

Hyped friends wanting to talk about candy and costumes. 

I've tried combating craziness with candy and it works, people!

This is my answer to the question

"How in the world am I going to get those sweeties to stay focused during math?"

{Click on image to purchase or go here}

This fun pack 

only requires candy-crazed kiddos (PreK-2nd) and a FUN size bag of M&M's. 

I always start with reading

BEFORE I pass out the chocolately goodness. 

This just helps me work in a bit of literacy to my math time, but still 

keeps the anticipation high!

For my particular class (last year), we focused on 

1.) color identification: they read color words before using crayons to color, 

2.) sorting: opened up bag and sorted M&Ms into colored circles, 

3.) counting: counted each M&M in each colored circle, 

& 

4.) graphing: using M&M Sort page, they filled in M&M Math graph 

(Color & Sort)

(Fill in graph using M&M Sort information)

(Touch counting to insure accuracy)

* Her Orange looks Brown, but it's Orange.*

(#Cameralightingstinks)

Not going to lie, we "lost" a few M&M's in the process. 

Some fell on the floor, others were eaten by inpatient pals. 

After we discussed our individual graph results, each friend went on 

to make patterns using these fun sheets. 

And then I FINALLY gave in to their requests to have "just ONE!" and let 

those lovies eat their first treats of Halloween!

And boy was it worth it...

happy kids and math instruction/time block complete!

I'll consider that a success. 

Math M&M Monster Pack includes:

(purchase here)

M&M Sort: Color and Sort

M&M Math: Graph (create and read)

 Monsters Want More: Graph analysis, Writing Numerals, Comparing Values, and Color Words

(2) Add the M&M’s: Sort, Count, Write Numerals, Color Words, and Addition

M&M’s Patterns: Create and Color Patterns (AB, AAB, AABB, and ABC)

 Monster M&M Match game: Ten frame (1-30) and Number Identification (1-30)

I would have LOVED to work in this fun game, but we ran out of time. 

Here's to a candy-crazed Halloween and restful weekend for you since those sweet babes have 2 whole days to get the candy out of their system before you have to teach/manage!

1/2 off Week : A half way through OCT sale

We're half way through October...can you believe it?

I feel like we should celebrate that fact!

So this week is 1/2 off Week at The Take Home Teacher's TPT store!

This week, I've slashed the prices of 3 BIG (lots of pages!) products.

#1

5-Alarm Fire Activities 

(normally $7) 

SALE price: $3.50

#2

The Day the Crayons Quit Response to Literature & Comprehension Game 

(normally $8) 

SALE price: $4

#3

Put Me In Coach ELA, Reading, & Math pack 

(normally $20) 

SALE price: $10

Now, go half-way celebrate with your half-priced product(s)!

Oh! Don't forget to ENTER the Apple Pickin' Giveaway too.

You only have a few days left!

This girl is on FIIRREE! (you can thank Alicia Keys)

It's finally here...my favorite time of year! 

FALL

Apple pickin', cool breezes, lattes in hand, and my neglected scarves are seeing the light of day. 

I'm sooo excited for an apple orchard field trip. 

I actually get to go on my son's first field trip to Rocky Brook Orchard. 

What a wonderful experience for both of us. 

Want to know another great thing about FALL [other than apples, Halloween, and all thing associated with cooler weather]?

October is officially FIRE SAFETY month.

Ok, well actually it's Fire Prevention WEEK, but I like to make sure my kiddos spend a good bit of time on the subject since it's uber important to their well-being. 

So, here's the jist:

Fire Prevention WEEK is the 2nd week of October (Oct. 5-11 this year) and while most fire departments are VERRYY willing to host field trips and/or do classroom demonstrations, I'm a big advocate for incorporating fire safety into everything we do in the classroom (at least for the first half of October). 

In my last post, I mentioned that, in the past, I've used several fire-safety themed resources from TPT sellers which have been AMAZING! But due to my limited funds and time restrictions, I had to come up with some "rough draft" letter and sight word recognition activities as well as some math games. They were super ROUGH, ya'll. I mean, I was a bit worried that if any other teachers asked for copies of these activities, I'd have to admit that I didn't have any written instructions or aligned standards. 

Lucky for me, my kiddos LOVED the games and activities I created to supplement those awesome resources I found on TPT and I vowed to come back to them and clean them up so I could share them. 

And that's just what I did...

( Click on image to purchase from TPT)

I've gone over these ELA and Math activities with a fine-tooth comb to make sure they're as clear as water to anyone who wants to use them. 

I'll give you a brief run-down of what you'll find in this HOT (get it?) pack:

Here's a real quick independent activity for students to do individually while you get the games distributed.

Students use the word bank to cut & paste vocabulary words to the picture. (Color & B/W options)

I've always have a few artists in my ranks, so I like to give those friends the opportunity to let their inner Picasso out. Well, within reason. There are still standards to address.

Each student is responsible for giving his/her dalmatian black spots and then using 1:1 correspondence to count the dots in order to tell his/her dalmatian apart from other dalmatians in the class. 

** I do let those budding artists add flare to their puppies, because who am I to restrict their creative sides. **

Want a number recognition and 1:1 touch correspondence game?

Here it is...

Individually or in a game setting, students use 1:1 correspondence to count the number of black dots on each fire hydrant card and then determine if they have the matching number on their 9-square flame game board. If they do, the player(s) covers the number with a water chip. Covering all nine spaces wins!

8 different 9-square flame game boards

31 dotted fire hydrant game cards for 1:1 touch counting

(I do 31 to reinforce calendar numbers)

100 water chip pieces to cover up numbers on flame boards.

 You may want to make more than 1 copy depending on how many students are playing.

As we're talking about fire safety, I do use a lot of idioms with my kiddos...

"I'm on fire!" is one my friends have REAALLY loved saying in the past. 

So what do you do when your bunch of 20 lovelies won't stop saying "I'm on fire!" when you praise them? You roll with it and make it a part of their learning!!! 

Ta-da!

I present On Fire for...

3 different playing mats

Letters, Letter Sounds, and Sight Words

4 sets of cards

Capital letters, lowercase letters, DOLCH Pre-Primer sight words, and DOLCH Primer sight words

These games can be played individually, in partners, or in a group.

Students select letter or sight word cards to identify. Using 1 of the 3 playing mats (On Fire for Letters/Letter Sounds/Sight Words), correctly identified cards are placed on the left side (I’m on FIRE for…) while incorrectly identified cards are place on the right side (I need to keep up the FIGHT) for future practice.

I really like the idea of students self assessing and creating two stacks of cards: 1 stack for secured knowledge and 1 stack for areas of needed practice. 

I'm feeling much better about these activities now than I was this time last year. 

I hope you're prepared for Fire Safety Month Week too.