Division Dollar Deal

Happy Friday Eve! I am so happy that this week is almost over, I love my new kiddos but shew they wear me out! This week we have been practicing loooong division. We spent the first two weeks or so of school working on multi-digit multiplication and my kids flew through that, but man they have been struggling through division. 
Some of my students are flying through and then we have some who are struggling. The 5th grade standard for division says "Find whole-nunber quotients of whole numbers up to four-digit dividends and two-digit divisors" which is just a step further than what 4th grade students are required to do. One strategy that I have found that works well in my room is allowing students who've got it to go a little further and one way I do this is with my Roll a Division Problem activity. 

This activity allows students to roll up to 7 dice to create their very own division problem. I find this helpful because no matter the students ability level, they are able to create a problem that is challenging enough for them. 

Some of my students are working on 3 digit dividends and 1 digit divisors while others are working on 4 digit dividends and 3 digit divisors. I also love it because its an quick and easy activity to prep for. All you need is to print the recording sheet and activity sheet to fit your students needs and you are ready to go. You can even print on colored yardstick and laminate for centers or to keep from year to year. 

My students love this activity because it is fun! Some of them have even added their own spin to the game to see who can solve the biggest problem or a problem the quickest. If you are interested in trying out this activity click here! Even better, its a dollar deal!  

Erin Condren Teacher Planner

I'm probably the 123,433,284th person to blog about their Erin Condren teacher planner, but I must say that this is the first one I've had and I LOVE it. I've always just typed up my plans from week to week so this year I decided to try something new. I am loving just being able to jot down what I am doing each day and then referring back to my more detailed typed plans if I need to. This year I'm not required to turn in any lesson plans, but my principal sits in with our team planning once a week.  When I first began researching EC teacher planners I immediately found 3rd Grade Thoughts and her awesome planner hacks. I fell in love with her editable headers and knew I had to have the immediately.  My first week of school plans looked like this, my handwriting is awful and it just isn't as cute as I was wanting it to be.

 So I decided to add the beautiful headers from 3rd Grade Thoughts, but it wasn't enough either. I hate my handwriting so I wanted to create some side labels too and that is exactly what I did. It took me about 10 million tries, but I finally got it to work and look how much better my planner looks...even though my handwriting isn't the best.

 Here is a shot of a blank week, I just love how nice and neat everything looks! I also love how I can change up the colors and fonts if I want so I will never get bored with the possibilities!

If you are like me and want to cover up the side of your ECTP then you can grab my freebie here!  Everything is completely editable to fit your own personal style and can me made to match the freebie you got from 3rd Grade Thoughts. 

If you haven't purchased your ECTP yet click here to get $10 off of your first purchase! 

First Week of School & a Freebie

The frist week of the 2015 - 2016 school year is over and let me tell you I am one tired teacher! We had a super busy week in 5th grade and one of the highlights was getting to spend some extra time outside learning about relative and absolute location.  We started off by spending a day talking about relative location and giving directions to places from our school. Students were responsible for written down directions to their house, and then sharing them with a partner. They all loved getting to share where their house was, and especially getting to hear about where my house is. We spent time discussing the cardinal directions and how we can use maps for relative location. At the end of the first day students worked to give relative locations from places in the United States. If you want this freebie, just click the picture below. 

On the second day of this lesson we reviewed relative location and then I chose several students to pick random items from our classroom to take outside. When we first got outside I had the students lay down their items wherever they wanted on our basketball court. Then we had blindfolded volunteers listen to directions to the random objects. We discussed how helpful the directions where and what made good directions to the objects. The kids really loved this part, especially those who got to be blindfolded. 

After this review of relative location, I had several students work together to create a grid. Once the grid was made, we placed the objects in the squares and students then gave directions to each objects. They determined that using the grid helped them give more exact locations for the objects. We then worked to make a definition of absolute location. 

After we spent our time outside, we went back to the classroom and focused on lines of latitude. Its pretty confusing for 5th graders to understand that even though the lines run east and west, they are labeled and read north and south. I have found that by teaching them the saying "latitude is flatiude" it really helps them remember the difference. 

Next week we are going to put latitude and longitude together and head back out side to our parking lot that has the United States painted on it!

{Week 3} BTS in a flash

Hello all! I cannot believe that I have been back in school for 5 days already! Its been super hard to get up in the morning, but I'm loving getting to know my kiddos. 

This week on BTS in a Flash with Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher, Fancy Free in Fourth and Ramona Recommends the theme is Decor and More. Let me tell you, getting to decorate every years is one of the things I love about being a teacher, plus you know, teaching the kids and all. :) 

One of my favorite bulletin boards this year is my new helpers board. I purchases this from Amy Groesbeck (I love her stuff) and it was perfect for me. First of all, is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen? I also love that there are so many job options to choose from and I can change them around throughout the year to fit our needs. Its also great because she includes a description for each job and a job application sheet. 

This year at my school had some teachers move around, which means I stole snagged this great kidney table. This will be my 4th year teaching and I've never had one so I figured why not strike while the iron is hot? I cut out some vinyl circles on my circuit and it was ready to roll! I love how the bright colors on the table make it pop, and the $5 Family Dollar tables stools don't look bad either! 

Finally, I have these ugly brick walls that NOTHING will stick to without hot glue and the remains are left behind from year to year. So, this year I decided I was going to do something to hide as much of it as I could. I hot glued black bulletin board paper underneath my whiteboard, added some chevron boarder and this awesome grammar pack from Learning in Wonderland. Hopefully the hot glue will hold throughout the year! 

Be sure to link up for BTS Decor and More! I love looking and and getting ideas from all of you fancy people out there! 

{Week 2} BTS in a FLASH

This week the theme for BTS in a flash with Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher, Fancy Free in 4th and Ramona Recommends is curriculum must haves! 

When I was thinking of my curriculum must haves, it was really hard to narrow it down to just three! There are so many wonderful and useful products on TPT that I use every year, and with this week being the BTS sale, my wish list was loaded down with products. 

My must have products are some of my go to's and one go to that I would love to have! 

Frist, is a product that I made specifically because I couldn't find any products like it on TPT. One of the 5th grade math standards is that students must interpret a fraction as division of the numerator by the denominator. My first year of teaching, while I was building all of my must have curriculum this was one of the standard that I was difficult for me to find resources for. So I took the situation into my own hands and made something up. I a responsible for learning my on RTI group, so while I am working with a small group my other kiddos are working on centers. I typically use this resource for one of those RTI centers, but at times I pull it in for a walk-the-room type of thing. This product is on sale for $2.00 until tomorrow, click the picture to purchase. 

In 5th grade Social Studies is HUGE and one of our biggest, and most difficult, units is American Government. My students have a wide range of schema about this topic, and a wide range of reading abilities, so this product from The Sweetest Thing was a life saver. This product has a variety of passages about American Government in a variety of reading levels. All of my students can read at their own level and we can still have class discussions because all of the passages are very similar. I use these passages in reading to practice a skill, and then carry over their knowledge into my Social Studies lessons. If you teach government, I would HIGHLY recommend this product. 

Last but not least a product on my wish list. Jennifer Findley from Teaching to Inspire Fifth has been one of my favorite TPTers and bloggers since I started teaching. I am always so excited too see one of her new products. I've had my eye on this decimal differentiated constructed response back for a while now and I do believe that this TPT sale is going to be the extra motivation I need to purchase this product. If you haven't checked out Jennifer Findley on TPT you should go there now! 

With school starting back I can't wait to read everyone's must have curriculum! 

August Curently

I cannot explain how excited I am to link up for August Currently, even though I am three days late. Before I started my blog, this was my FAVORITE link up to read! 

My husband is in the living room watching T.V. with our dog while I am working away in the office. If I can hear currently, I think he is watching Reba the T.V. show. I don't have anything on the tube tonight, but Wednesday I will be all about Big Brother.  I am LOVING the TPT back to school sale, even though I can't believe it is time to start back to school. There are so many wonderful things that I am eyeballing in the sale! Head on over to my TPT store to check it out, everything is 28% off! Don't forget to leave feedback of all of the purchases, TPT credits are FREE money.  I am thinking that I need to get some of my grad school work done, but it can wait until tomorrow. Online classes are amazing in many ways but sometimes it is so hard to stay motivated! I can't believe that in October I will be a Literacy Specialists!  In Kentucky the weather has been wonderful the past few days. This is making me want another week, or two, of summer. The pool will still be calling my name on Wednesday when school starts! I am needing sleep. Today was opening day for my district which meant a early wake  up call, not exactly what I wanted. Tomorrow we actually have the day off before school begins on Wednesday. It's going take some time to get back into the grove of things.  Finally, my B2S RAK. I am thinking that I will get my teacher friends some chocolate goodies for Wednesday. We all know what a long, hard day the first day back is and I know some chlorate will be a great pick me up!