Winter Apple Snowflake Turkey Craft | Christmas Gift Ideas for the Classroom

Your class will show gratitude during the holiday season through this hands on Winter apple turkey or Christmas craft. It would make a perfect holiday gift for students to make for their families.

A turkey head and snowflake feathers will be decorated and hot glued to wooden skewers with the help of an adult. On each "snowflake" feather students will write about "Gifts in their life". The finished product is an adorable apple turkey which can be a table centerpiece for December holiday dinner tables.

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Winter Math Craft for Multiplication and Division Fact Families

Help your students master related multiplication and division facts with a winter holiday fact family math craft. Students will create a Fact Family snowman to show the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. These turn out so adorable on a bulletin board titled “Math is Snow Much Fun”.

I am giving away 2 free copies of this newest product over in my Facebook Teacher Group. Come join us!

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Activities

 If you want a fun celebration for Thanksgiving, do a Charlie Brown theme. Show the video A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and treat your students with the same meal- popcorn, pretzels, jelly beans, and toast. For toast I use cereal pieces from Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Simply put small handfuls of each item into clear plastic cups and let students have a festive feast.

My students love readers theatre, so using this script is a sure hit!

After viewing the video, you can use this Charlie Brown coloring page for some extra fun.

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Thanksgiving Apple Turkey Craft

Are you looking for cute Thanksgiving craft? Your students will show gratitude and thankfulness with this hands on Apple Turkey project. A turkey head and feathers will be decorated and hot glued to wooden skewers with the help of an adult. On each feather students will write what they are thankful for in their life. The finished product is an adorable apple turkey which can be a table centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner tables. 

Turkey, Turkey

Gobble, Gobble

Eat too much

Wobble, Wobble

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Distributive Property of Multiplication Hands on Bakery Activity

Help reinforce the difficult skill of distributive property of multiplication in a hands on way with the Distributive Property Bakery. By using cereal pieces or counters on the bakery recording sheet mats, students will build and form a variety of arrays shown via the powerpoint presentation. You can use any type of cereal. For instance I’ve used both Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Froot Loops.

After building the array students will use the distributive property to break apart the cereal or counters into two separate arrays. Finally students record their multiplication equations on the mats.

Included in the powerpoint slides are real photos of several possible ways to solve each problem. I display the photo array samples and have a class discussion about the many ways to solve the same equation. My students always have a blast baking up their break apart arrays to show the distributive property. Give it a try!

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Exit Ticket Assessment Activity: Grade the Teacher

Are you looking for a creative way to assess students or provide test prep? This "Grade the Teacher" exit ticket task is a perfect way to have your students show mastery and understanding of any skill by grading work done by you, the teacher. It provides valuable error analysis, critical thinking and reasoning opportunities. An added plus is that students love playing school and being the teacher. High engagement is always seen when I pull out this lesson. Try it with your class! You can grab it in my TPT store.

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Map Landforms Project: Create an Initial Island

My students love this culminated project for our map unit. After a study of maps and common landforms I assign students the task of creating an island out of the initial letter of their first name. Then, they are challenged to add a certain number of characteristics like landforms, bodies of water, animal species, human made features (bridges, houses, roads) and more. In addition they need to create an accurate map key and name their island. Finally, they complete the writing task where they are to write a persuasive commercial to entice others to vacation on their unique island. It is a BIG hit and is a great way to assess students' understanding of maps and geography. I hope your class will enjoy it as much as mine do. You can find it in my TPT store. 

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Rounding to Nearest Place Value with Vertical Number Lines

Are your students on the struggle bus when it comes to rounding? By far, every year, my students need extra reinforcement to help them with this difficult concept. I've tried every trick in the book...all the cute rhymes, place value and more. Then I tried the visual concept of a ladder as a vertical number line to help solidify the number sense needed when rounding. I reinforced the idea of climbing up the ladder to the higher number or stepping down the ladder to the lower number once the mid point number was identified. It clicked with my students. My Rounding Ladder templates are my "Go To" tool now when I teach rounding. I can easily project the template I need to guide and model problems. In addition, I copy a blank template on cardstock and laminate as a resuable mat for each student to use as a learning tool.

Give it a try and see if it helps your class! You can get a copy from my TPT store.  

I also have a Rounding Bundle available too.

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Fraction Activities Fun

One of my favorite units in my math curriculum to teach is fractions.

It's easy to apply the concepts to the real world and show students it is a important life long skill.

Students come into 3rd grade with a basic understanding of what a fraction is: part of a whole.

From there I can jump right into teaching fraction equivalency.

With spring in the air, I have the perfect project to drive home fraction equivalency in a concrete, visual way. Equivalent Fraction Kites , as seen below, model fractions that equal the same: 4/16 is equivalent to 1/4 and 8/16 is equivalent to 1/2. Students have so much fun designing them and in the process own the meaning of equivalency. This project is available in my TPT store.

I also have some other valuable resources to share with you that I incorporate into my fraction unit study.

This video helps build background needed on equivalent fractions.

Another handy tool is this manipulative fraction bar number line model from the site Math is Fun
It visually shows fractions with the same value.

I have a set of fraction task cards that my class uses with the fraction bar interactive model.

You can get them in my TPT store

In addition, I have my class do a creative fraction writing project titled, Fractions of Me,  to show the parts of themselves that make up the whole of them.

 

I do have a Fraction Bundle with all three products together, at a discount, if that interests you.

The Illuminations site has an interactive tool that allows students to create equivalent fractions by dividing and shading either squares or circles and to see the position on a number line.

Happy teaching ~Denise

 

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Classroom Resources for Martin Luther King

My class is focusing on biographies right now and I've compiled resources over the years on my blog for Martin Luther King. I hope you find something useful to use in your own classroom.

My newest find is an online MLK reader.

The following links are from my past blog posts

MLK Birthplace Virtual Tour

MLK Timeline and Famous Quotes

The King and His Dream Video and Song

National Geographic Kids Video on MLK

Stay in touch

~Denise

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