It's springtime!

So, in the spirit of spring I have been busy renewing this product:

This is the "before" picture.  It has had a facelift & augmentation.(he-he)  

Here's the "after" product:

It now provides materials for 4 centers that can be used in a variety of ways, yielding at least 18 different centers. CCSS alignment has been added.  Here's what is included:

Picture Sorts

• 27 colorful, picture cards

• 5 suggested sorts with sorting headers

• number sequencing

• addition and subtraction within 10

• picture story

M-egging (Making) Words

• 25 alphabet cards in color and black line

• 3 suggested letter sorts with sorting headers

• making words

• recording sheet master

Egg Patterns

• worksheet to color

• describe pattern using letters (A-B-A-C)

Counting Carrots

• 40 colorful cards

• subitizing within 20

• number sequencing

• addition and subtraction within 40

• even / odd sort with sorting headers 

• skip counting

• WAR card game to compare quantities

Labels for your center folder are provided.

If you have downloaded this product in the past, I urge you to download it again for the new and improved version.  (It's free to download anything you already own.)

You may also like:

HOTS for Hats

It's about time, teachers, ... for Hat HOTS.

While this volcano hat is very nice, it's not exactly what I had in mind for HOTS - Higher Order Thinking Skills.

It is so fun and rewarding to challenge your children to use HOTS when studying hats.  I'm referring, of course, to Bloom's Taxonomy. Following are a few of the ways I exercise their brain power.

Analysis

Using my hat cards, I challenge the students to sort them in various ways:

• men's hats/women's hats/unisex
• safety/decorative/job identification
• historic/modern day
• similarities
• baseball cap, baby's bonnet, & cowboy hat = protection from the sun
• wizard's hat, witch's hat, & magician's hat = magic makers
• Pilgrim's hat & Santa's hat = holiday head gear
• jester's hat, crown, & knight's helmet = medieval hat wear

My enrichment students are asked to create their own sorts.    Then I require them to write about their thinking.  I up the ante for G/T students by asking them to create 3 to 5 different sorts with descriptions of their sorting properties.

Evaluation

Again using the hat cards, I challenge my students to make lists of hat opposites. Examples:

• astronaut's helmet and diving helmet
• mortar board and dunce's cap
• bridal veil and top hat

Students pick 2 cards and tell why the hats may go together. Examples:

• Top hat and fancy lady's hat - they might go to the symphony together
• football hat and stocking cap - you could find them both at a football game in November

Creation

Make "Hat Words."  We start by generating a list of -at words.  Then we turn them into 'Hat Words" and write clues to their meaning.  Examples:

• Hatmosphere - What do you call the blanket of air surrounding a hat?
• Hatlas - What do you call a book of maps that show you where head coverings may be found?
• Hattack - What do you call it when a hat tackles you?
• Hattic - What is the room at the very top of a hat building?

As you can tell, my students and I really get into hats.  So throw your hat in the ring and join me in teaching a hats unit.  My unit, Hats!  Hats!  Hooray for Hats!, is available on TpT and TN.  There are 55 pages to this unit, which includes printables, manipulatives, centers, and activities.  It even contains my original poem.  Be sure to get it's companion product, Hat Idioms Book.  Check it out because it is FREE and is being used by upper elementary and even middle school teachers.

  

Until next time,...

Hat Day Math

It's time to wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's also time to share more Hat Day ideas.

As promised, this post is focused on hat math.  Math topics in Hats!  Hats!  Hooray for Hats! include:

·  Counting                                

·  Computation

·  Graphing

·  Patterns

·  Venn Diagrams

·  Math Journal prompts

·  Sorting

·  Measurement

·  Money

This unit includes several printables that range from simple patterning

to higher order thinking skills.

This range in difficulty provides instant differentiation for your class.  Also included are math center activities and prompts for your students' math journals.

27 hat cards are included in both color and black & white.

The hat cards may be used in graphing and as the elements for Venn diagrams. 

Next time, I'll explore HOTS activities you could do with your class.  They are sure to put a feather in your cap with your students, parents, and administrators!

Sneak into a New School Year - Pt. 3 Math Centers

It's about time, teachers, ... to talk about math centers and math activities on Sneaker Day.

No Sneaker Day would be complete without including a graphing activity. Whole class graphs are fun and easy. Line your students' sneakers up in front of the class and ask them to name some attributes they notice.  Use those suggestions or one of these:

• brand
• color (all 1 color, 2 colors, 3...)
• size
• closure (laces, Velcro, slip-ons, ...)
• high tops/low tops
• special features (lights, sequins, pumps, ...)

After you complete 1 or more whole class graphs, you can easily make this activity a math center. Small groups will graph their sneakers, only.

Have each child measure his sneaker using unifix cubes. Ask the children to take their tower of cubes around the room in search of another child with the same number of cubes in his stack.  You have the opportunity to observe and note how children determine if their towers are the same length (counting, comparing side by side, 1-to-1 matching, …). If the activity is going well, extend the assignment to find someone whose sneaker is longer, shorter, 3 cubes longer, 2 cubes shorter, etc. Again, after teaching the task, this activity can be extended by making it a math center activity.

Another math activity for Sneaker Day is patterning. Have your students make crayon rubbings of the soles of their sneakers.  Use the rubbings for creating patterns of footsteps. The rubbings can also be placed in a math center. There, students can sort them according to various attributes you specify. Older or more advanced students could use the rubbings to create categories of their own making.  

Venn Diagrams are another activity that could be modeled to the whole group and subsequently placed in a math center.  

There are more activities for Sneaker Day to come, so sneak back soon.

Sports Sorts

It's about time . . . for the Olympics.  

And, just in time for the Olympics, I am offering Sports Sorts.

Through simple sorts, children learn to recognize similarities and differences.  That, in turn, allows them to develop organized thinking.  Thus, they begin to make order out of chaos.  Sorts for early childhood classrooms lay down the foundations for sets & groups, attributes, and logical thinking.  Thus, CCSS now include standards for sorting in math.

Most early sorting tasks are directed, giving the children the parameters for the sorts.  With time, sorts become open ended.  At that point, children begin categorizing.  They are given a set of objects and challenged to construct their own, independent conditions and attributes.

When they begin categorizing, children are engaging in the upper levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  They ANALYZE the elements and their relationships.  By combining the elements in new ways, the children are SYNTHESIZING.  When judging the elements according to their own parameters, they are EVALUATING.  I submit, then, that sorting and categorizing activities are HOTS activities.  As such, teachers of older children should include them in their math centers and explorations frequently.  In doing so, they are providing differentiated instruction to G/T students and promoting critical thinking in all of their students.

Following is a preview of Sports Sorts:

There are 20 picture cards in color.  There is also a black & white set.  This unit includes task cards for patterning, a work mat, and a recording sheet.  

Sports Sorts are available on TpT or TN for $2.50.

Easter/Spring Freebie

It's about time, teachers, ... for Easter.  To celebrate the arrival of spring and the Easter bunny, I'm filling your basket with Easter/Spring Patterns & Sorts.  

This unit is best suited for Pre-K -- 2nd grade.  However, the letter cards can be used as a fluency exercise for older students.  Challenge them to make as many words as they can using the letters in Happy Easter, Happy Spring, April and/or egg.  A recording sheet for this is included.

The letter cards could also be used by pre-readers to do letter sorts; sorting by color, upper case/lower case, short/tall letters, and vowels/consonants.

Easter/Spring Patterns & Sorts includes a printable page that combines color word review with identifying patterns.

There are 18 color picture cards that can provide patterning practice and/or sorting practice.

You can find this FREEBIE unit at either my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  So hop on over and scoop it into your basket.