Finding Equivalent Fractions~UPDATE

I gave my Equivalent Fractions Task Cards a much needed, overdue face lift! 

This unit now has:

24 task cards in color and black and white

recording sheet

and an answer key

If you bought this unit from me, please go back and redownload! 

Want to win a copy?

Just leave a comment telling me your favorite unit to teach in math-with your email and I will pick a winner tomorrow 8pm Hawaii time:)

Happy Tuesday!

Hand and Heart~ a super easy 3D art project

Happy Monday friends! I wanted to stop by and share with you this fun art project I had my kids do! You see, we don't have art at my school so I try my best to teach it as much as I can. I feel it is super important to let the kids be creative! I try at least for one hour every week or every other week!

So with Valentine's Day last week I found this fun 3D Hand and Heart project. 

This is the original pin picture I found over at teachkidsart.net

I noticed this was for a 5th grade class, but I sure thought my 2nd grade kiddos could do it. 

Following her directions, step by step, I made my own first!

This is my hand and heart

So I gave my kids each a white sheet of paper

They needed

2 color markers-I would use something with a thin point. Lesson learned! 

a sharp pencil

a ruler

First you trace your hand lightly and draw a heart between your thumb and pointer finger

Then you draw super curved lines in your hand and heart with a pencil. The more lines the better

I then had the kids use their first marker to go over their pencil lines. I had then also use the second color to color in their heart. 

The next day we used the ruler to make straight lines with our pencil all over the paper. I had to teach them how to stop when they go to the hand and start again. They all got it. 

More lines together, the more 3D the paper will look.

Then they went over that with a marker. 

Here are some of the finished Hand and Heart projects!

I am SO impressed!!!

If you're looking for a fun and easy art project...this is it! The heart could be anything the kid wanted it to be!

Valentine's Day Compliment Project!

Yesterday we had my 4th annual Valentine's Day Compliment Project! And I must say, the kids LOVED it once again! I don't think I will ever go back to traditional Valentine Cards! This project is more meaningful, creative, and students will hang on to it for a very long time instead of just throwing those silly little cards away with a name on it. 

If you want to read about my blog post from last year, just click HERE!

The first thing my kids do is write compliments about each person in the classroom. I give them a good 5 weeks to do this at home. I have a simple template they use to do this on. 

I gather all the compliments from each student and we sort them. So all the compliments the kids wrote about Ben, would go in one bag! 

Then the day of the project, each student picks a bag from the bucket. It can't be their own. So let's say James picked Connie's bag. James would make a poster for Connie using her compliments!

They each get a white sheet of poster board. Their first job was to write the person's name in the middle. Next was to glue on the compliments. 

Then student's got to decorate the posters!

Parents donate fun Valentine Crafts to make this project a success! We had A LOT this year!

And at the end, we shared the posters and presented them to the person we made them for! 

This has to be one of my favorite classroom projects ever! It would even be a great end of the year project!

What did you do for VDay in your class?

In my opinion, my favorite pizza is....

Who doesn't love pizza??? 

Today my kiddos finished up their opinion papers on their favorite pizza and I just had to share!

Back this fall, I bought this fun pizza unit from the Lesson Plan Diva

We researched pizza

Read pizza stories

Described pizza

and finally picked our favorite one to write about!

I went to the local pizzeria and asked for some pizza boxes! I got 26!

The kids did their final draft, drew a slice of their pizza and added it to their box!

Today they laid out their reports on their desk and we had a walking gallery where students could read each others  papers

After 5 minutes, each student got 3 sticky notes to leave comments on ones they wanted to!

We are going to celebrate with a pizza party next week! 

If you are looking for a fun opinion unit, I highly recommend this one:)

Now...what unit should I do next???

Any suggestions?

We LOVE to turn in homework UPDATE:)

I just wanted to stop in and show you how much my kids are LOVING this! Every morning they are begging to color their heart! This will be something I do every month for sure if it keeps up like this!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I seriously can't wait to see what this door looks like at the end of the month!

I blogged about this idea yesterday! Click here to read all about this fun homework turn in incentive!

We LOVE to turn in homework~a February homework incentive

Last month was a rough month for turning in homework:( I have no idea why, but something had to change this month!

So I decided to do a February theme on my door!

Each student received one heart. I wrote their names on them. They made a promise to do their homework all month. 

Students colored them then I put them on the door with our poster.

For every day they turn in their homework they get to color a smaller heart and put it on the door!

This is the door after day 1 of turning in homework

 All but 2 turned in their homework!!!

If they turn in their homework for the whole week, they get to add a sticker to their larger heart. If they have 4 stickers by the end of the month they get a lunch party with me! The kids are SO excited!

I can't wait to see what the door looks like by the end of the week! 

Would you like this poster with the hearts included? 

Just click HERE to get it:)

I'd love to hear what you think! 

Are you ready for some football sales???

Thanks Corinna for the super cute button!

Are you ready for some football???? I am SO excited to watch the Superbowl here in Hawaii because it starts SO early! I feel like I can watch the whole thing:) Since it is Superbowl Sunday, I wanted to throw a little 20% sale! Sunday ONLY:)

What are you doing for the Superbowl?

2 February ideas

LAME-O title...can't think of anything else!

I am just dropping in to announce my winner and share some February resources I have!

I let my sister-in-law pick a number...and...the winner is...

 ANGIE!

Please check your email!

Can you believe it...it's February! This year is flying by already!

Do you need a writing calendar for the month? Check out my February Calendar Writing Prompts! My kids LOVE them! I copy them two to one page and then students glue them into their center notebook!

I have a 2014 calendar with dates and a set without dates so you can use it over and over again!

Need something to give to your kiddos for Valentine's Day treat? I made some pencil toppers last year my kids really enjoyed!

Last year, my kids and I talked about LOVE:)  and what it really means! 

grab it for FREE

I used this LOVE IS...poster on the front door and students put sticky notes to write about what love is! It turned out super cute! I wish I had a picture. 

I am marking the first two items in my shop for $1.00 for a few days!

Here's to a great February!