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Mar 31, 2015

Engaging Students with Eggs {Who's Who and Who's New}




Did you see me featured over on the Who's Who and Who's New collaborative teaching blog yesterday? I'm sharing that post here today to make sure you all see it! But, be sure to head over to the Who's Who blog and follow that one too! There is a post from a different teacher-blogger EVERY DAY! Awesome ideas! 

Follow the blog below:











It's that time of the year where my students really need an extra boost to keep them engaged. It's also that time of year when I am starting to lose my energy on keeping them engaged! Anyone else know what I mean?

I have seen a lot of people post about using plastic Easter eggs in the past for various activities, but never tried it. I ran into The Dollar Tree a few weeks ago for something else (literally RAN in, my husband and kids were waiting in the car!).  I saw all of these adorable eggs that they had just set out on display and scooped them up without thinking. I was determined that I would find something cute to do with them! Cute patterns and adorable little yellow chicks. I also found eggs with three parts at our local grocery store Meijer (one of my very favorite stores out of Michigan and luckily we have them in Indiana, too!) Anyway, I was excited to find those three part ones too!

We are working on mastering our addition and subtraction facts in second grade, so I made a big basket of eggs for them to match up the fact with the sum or difference. The top and bottom patterns don't match, I didn't want to make it TOO easy for them! :) 


 





I also made two different sets of eggs with the chicks. One set is synonyms and one set is antonyms. I laid all of the egg halves out on the table and told my small group the one that made the most "matches" was the winner. They loved it! 







Finally, here are the three part eggs that I made into Nonsense Word Fluency practice. Luckily, not many of my kids still need this, but the ones that do are LOVING it! I honestly think I'm going to keep these around and use them at the beginning of the year next year. They love turning the parts of the eggs and making new words. The eggs do come apart when they are doing it sometimes, but they are easy to pop back together. Such an easy away to engage frustrated readers!

 










So far, we have been using these during small groups and intervention time when there are a few kids that need some extra practice.  I went to The Dollar Tree again today and got some more eggs because I'm determined to come up with some more ideas! 

Do you have any more ideas for me that I can use these eggs to engage my students?


I always love blogging here on Who's Who and Who's New! If you are looking for Spring Centers for Literacy and Math, head on over to my store for my newest product. It includes 14 centers all in color AND black/white printer friendly.

It's my favorite and best product yet!!






Mar 30, 2015

Crazy Collaborative Blog Day {Plus $1 Sale!}

I'm now officially part of not one, but TWO collaborative teaching blogs. What does that mean? They have DAILY blog posts by different teachers from all over. Each of us have a day assigned to us each month (or every couple of months) and we share something fun and exciting! Well guess what, TODAY, March 30th, 2015...I am featured on BOTH blogs. What are the chances? What are the chances that the dates would be the same!?


Well, I won't leave you waiting. First of all, over at Classroom Tested Resources, you can find this post about Planning for Butterflies!









Then, head over to the Who's Who and Who's New blog to see my post about Engaging Students with Eggs!



I've also just added four products to a dollar sale that the Indiana bloggers are putting on! Check it out!


My four items that are on sale for ONLY ONE DOLLAR EACH are listed below:


  



   


March 30th is a super busy day here!!! :) Enjoy!! For all of the other dollar deals in the DOLLAR SALE, check the linky below!





Mar 29, 2015

Counting Coins {Day Before Spring Break Version!}


The day before Spring Break is always funright!? This week, I decided that I had to come up with something creative to keep my kids' attention. Friday morning, our last day before Spring Break, was pretty rough. I knew I had to be on my toes when the kids returned from lunch if I had any chance of making it through the afternoon!!!

I had prepared a whole basket of plastic eggs filled with play coins. (Probably would have had them EVEN MORE engaged if they were they real thing, LOL!) 




When we came back up from lunch, I grabbed the basket and held it, waiting for their attention. That was quick! They were all staring at me, hands crossed. I’m sure they were thinking they were getting candy. I told them that they had to listen to my directions carefully. They had to carefully choose an egg from the basket as I walked around, BUT they could not SHAKE it or OPEN it! They had to hold it carefully. (I really stressed this and got them all excited.)
After I walked around and everyone chose their special egg, I told them that they could carefully crack their eggs open on their desks. Then, they were to count the coins inside. I walked around again and everyone that could tell me the correct amount got some candy. If they were incorrect, I showed them the correct amount. Then, I simply took their coins and gave them a different handful and had them try one more time for candy.




This kept them engaged for 10-15 minutes and I was feeling thrilled! Next, I gave prizes/candy for various things:

*The person with the most money. (Who has more than $1? Who has more than $2? Those were the questions I asked to determine who had the most, instead of asking how much everyone had!)
*The person with the least money.
*Anyone who had exactly one half-dollar.
*Anyone who had exactly 4 pennies.
*Anyone who had exactly 3 quarters.
*Anyone who had an odd number of coins.

You could come up with your own tasks. "Anyone who can show me 25 cents in two different way with the coins have", etc. 

They LOVED IT! This kept us practicing identifying and counting coins on an exciting and fidgety day before Spring Break, plus it was a “fun” activity. They thought it was part of some kind of party or something. Seriously.


We also played Money Bingo that was part of a huge money pack that was purchased from Primary Punch. 





If you aren’t on Spring Break yet and you are worried about engagement next week, this might only fill an hour or so of your time, but it’s worth a trip to The Dollar Tree for plastic eggs! Hurry! J




Mar 28, 2015

2nd Annual Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup

Well, I thought last year's Teacher Blogger Meet-up in French Lick, Indiana was a blast...but this year was even better!!! You aren't going to believe all of the fun we had!





Thank you to Teachers Pay Teachers and GoNoodle for sponsoring the Teacher PJ Party!


What an amazing INSPIRATION all of these teachers are! I was so excited to meet a few favorites! Who do you recognize?

Jessica Tobin from Second Grade Nest and Miss DeCarbo {LOVE}

Fellow Indiana blogger: Mel D. From Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations!

Fellow Indiana Bloggers: Brenda Frady, Jenny Garwood, and Hilary Gard
Primary Inspired, Luckeyfrog's Lilypad, Second Grade is Out of This World

More Indiana Bloggers--and the BRAINS and HEART behind the whole weekend.
Thank you to Brittany Banister and Holly Ehle! 

Amazing ladies!

Did I mention that we also got to meet Deanna Jump, Dee Dee Wills, and Kim Adsit!? Can't even explain how sweet and wonderful all three of these ladies are! 




Thank you to all of the companies that donated goodies and prizes to our meetup. It was amazing that these companies knew teachers were coming together and didn't think twice about sending us amazing gifts. 

THANK YOU!!!!!




















To see everyone else's posts about the weekend, see the link up below! Have fun visiting all of the other bloggers and finding some new blogs to follow!

Also, ENTER TO WIN! If you'd like to win THIS awesome giveaway, enter below! (Keep scrolling down!)

Here's what you can win!





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