Summer Take-Home Math Booklets

Well I can't believe that it is almost summertime! I haven't started the exact countdown, and it's not as close as some other bloggers I've seen (in the single digits!) but I am definitely excited.

How do you pass the last few weeks (or days) in the classroom? How do you prepare your students for the summer? I'm always interested in how the transition back to school happens in other schools. Do you get your new kids or do you see your previous students for the first few days?

If you do see your previous students, it's a perfect opportunity to give them some things to over the summer to keep their brains working. I think by seeing them again at the beginning of the next year, hopefully you can keep students and parents accountable for some summertime learning. You can provide them with Summer reading lists or Summer reading logs - ooh that's the perfect idea for a freebie - or some math to keep them up-to-date and prevent the Summer slide.

Enter my Daily Math Summer Take-Home Booklets. I've got half-page booklets for 2nd, 3rd & 4th grades that follow the pattern of my Daily Math series and review the Common Core Standards for each grade. Click on the pictures if you're interested:

           

Each of these booklets is also included in my Daily Math packs. Click on the pictures to check out these if you're interested in a full year of Daily Math:

             

 And now I am exhausted, I can't believe it's only Tuesday!

Teacher Appreciation Sale - Will You Be Shopping?

Button via Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs

Well it's that time again - the best time of the year to be a teacher . . . well maybe except for Spring Break . . .  or Summer vacation . . .  but it's still a great week to be a teacher - Teacher Appreciation Week!

To celebrate this oh so special week, most sellers (including myself) on Teachers Pay Teachers are having a huge sale!

Some of my favourite units that will be on sale . . .

- My Pigeon Pack of Plenty - who doesn't love the Pigeon books?

- My Daily Math bundle packs - perfect for review:

And my newest units, my classroom decors packs in Rainbow Chevron:

If you're shopping, make sure to use the Promo Code: TAD13 for up to 28% off your purchases!

And now for a little freebie for Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies. Click on the picture to check it out:

Make sure to check out the Manic Monday link-up for more great freebies!

Currently for May

Well I'm going to make this short because I am tiiirrreeeeed (that really needed to be stretched out) and it is only Wednesday. Or should I be thankful that it's already Wednesday . . .  not sure. I missed last month but here I am linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the May currently so without further ado . . .

Well I think it is all very self-explanatory. I should have really changed the loving to "loving that it's May" but oh well, I'll just add that here as an afterthought. Is anyone else as surprised as me at how fast this year is going! I've still got quite a few weeks (months!) left, but I still cannot believe that it is already May!

Here's to a great rest of the week!

What I've learned about Technology lately!

I don't know if the "technology" in my title needed to be capitalized, but I'll just go with it - completely ignoring all title capitalization rules.

So let me say that when it comes to technology, I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm definitely not great with it, but I can function on a computer. I also have to admit that I don't particularly go out of my way to find out new tech things and tips. Well that is until I absolutely must learn them for whatever (in which case I google) or I happen to learn something by coincidence and just remember it.

Lately I've learnt a few new things that are probably not new to anyone, but I just felt like sharing.

1) The Magic Pen on SMARTBoards - Umm, I don't know if this is the technical name but there is a magic pen/ink on SMARTBoards that seems really cool. The ink fades, you can enlarge part of the board by drawing a square around the section and when you draw a circle around part of the board  . . . I think it highlights it or something but I actually can remember. Oh well, remembering two out of the three tips isn't bad! If you have a SMARTBoard you should try this, at least for the fact that it will get the students excited when they see the writing disappearing and we all know that in these last few months (or weeks for some lucky people) we need all the tricks we can to keep the students engaged.

2) Videos in Blog Posts - Who knew that it was so easy to put (I don't think that's the proper word . . .  maybe embed?) a video in a blog post. Uhhh, as easy as putting a picture in a blog post. Well I finally realized that and successfully did so in this post (click {HERE}) where I added not one but two videos. I may be an expert now!

3) If you use TumbleBooks in the class, students suddenly think books are movies - This one is kind of off topic, but kind of on topic as well. Does anyone else find this? We can read a Robert Munsch book, the students fully realize it's a book but if we see the same one on TumbleBooks, suddenly it's a movie. Not sure why.

4) I am the WORST Googler ever! - So this is more of a personal thing and it's definitely getting off track, and well, unfortunately, it's true. For some reason whatever I search for I can never find. I was googling something the other day that I can't remember, it was only three words (all spelt correctly) and I got no hits! Ummm, is that even possible? In fact, I just googled "How do you spell cat?" (no offence to anyone but I thought that was a ridiculous search that no one would ever do and I wanted to see how many hits it got) and I got OVER 40 million results!  If anyone has any videos/tips they can link me to on how to properly Google search, I would appreciate it. I would Google search for my own tips, but chances are I wouldn't find anything!

5) My computer can show the time in either analog or digital form - This is really nothing special, I just didn't want to end my list on number 4!

So any tech tips you can share, I would love to hear them, as I'm sure they would be new to me!

Class Decor and a Freebie

Well I don't know about you but I love a bright, fun, cheerful classroom. That was the thinking when I started making my own classroom decor pack (way too long ago). Well this weekend I finished it up and wanted to share it here. So far I've gotten four packs finished. I just have to finish up a Calendar Pack and then I will bundle the whole thing. Click on the pictures to check out the individual packs:

Alphabet Posters

0-20 Number Posters

Shape & Color Posters

Word Wall

And now for the freebie. I don't know if this is wishful thinking or what but today I'm going to share an old Summer freebie. Based on my similar Spring Break Mini Pack (found {HERE}) I've got a Summer Mini Pack. Click on the picture to check it out.

Check out Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies for more great freebies!

Mother's Day Freebie

Well it's that time of the week again - freebie time! This is an old freebie but it's the appropriate time of year to share it so here it is - Sunflower Mother's Day card template:

I'm not very crafty, but this is fairly easy to make. The freebie comes with the template to make the card as well as writing paper options for the inside. Click the picture or {HERE} to get the freebie from TPT and {HERE} for non-TPT users.

Check out Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies for more fantastic freebies

In other news, I finally finished my Daily Math Bundle Pack for Second Grade. That took way too long!

Here's to a good week!

Earth Day Again & a Song . . . or 2

Well before Earth Day comes on Monday I wanted to share a few more things. Is it bad that I've been thinking of Earth Day things non-stop but didn't realize until today that Earth Day was Monday? I guess I was so busy that I didn't realize it was coming up so fast.

Are you looking for a cute song for Earth Day? I just heard about Jack Johnson's 3 R's Songs - an absolutely perfect fit for Earth Day. Jack Johnson has been one of my favorite artists for the past couple of years so I have no idea how I completely missed this song.

How about Lights Out Canada? If you live in Canada will you be participating by having an electricity-free day at school? It may be tough will all our computers and SMART Boards, but it's definitely do-able. If you live outside Canada, do you have any similar initiatives going on, I would love to hear about them.

Finally, another Canadian-wide thing. Have you heard of Music Monday? If you haven't you should check it out {HERE}.  On Monday, May 6th, schools across Canada will participate in singing "ISS - Is Somebody Singing" with Commander Hadfield at the International Space Station - so cool! If you haven't heard of this, check out the video below of  Commander Hadfield recording with the Barenaked Ladies. Students love the magic guitar pick and spinning guitar!

Have great plans for Monday, leave a comment, I would love to hear them!