Holiday Math Centers - Math Facts

Happy Wednesday!

I hope you are having a great week! My mother-in-law is in town this week and Mary Claire is loving having Grandma here in person and not just on FaceTime! ;)

My product I am featuring this week is for you season/holiday lovers like myself! I am going to add to this in the next month or so (for the Spring) but here they are...
Counting Candy Corns: A math center to practice math facts such as +1, +2, +10, doubles for addition and multiplication, x1, x2, and x10.

 I love these centers because you can determine how challenging it is going to be for your students. You can separate the candy corns by set of facts (+1, +2, doubles, etc.) or you can simply separate them by operation. You can differentiate this center when changing groups very simply. 

 First: Cut out the candy corns and cut them into three pieces.

 (I always laminate my centers to extend the life of the activity)

 The students make the candy corns by creating a complete math sentence.

 A sample of complete candy corns.

Sorry about the shadows- I had to take the pictures after Mary Claire went to bed :) 

 I have two assessment sheets with each activity, one for addition and one for multiplication. The students can either fill it in as they make math sentences or you can use it to create a quiz/test.


My second holiday math sentence product is:
Counting Turkeys: A math center to practice math facts while building colorful turkeys!

 Just like the Candy Corns- laminate and cut out! With this product I provided pages with three blank turkeys and you can print out as many as you want to have for your classroom. 

 To differentiate this center activity for the more advanced students, you can challenge them to create addition sentences with more than two addends and record their sentences. 

This activity also has two assessment sheets- one for addition and one for multiplication. 

Third Product: Counting Christmas Trees: A math center to practice addition and multiplication facts while building Christmas trees! 

I had the most fun making this because I love all things Christmas and I love getting to share that with my students! ( Perks of a Catholic school ;) ) 

 Just as the turkeys and candy corns came with assessment sheets, so does the Christmas tree product. 

All three of these products practice the same facts. I am working on adding to this seasonal bundle with hearts for Valentine's Day, Easter Eggs, and Shamrocks. 

Once I have those uploaded, I am considering adding to these facts including doubles +1 and subtraction facts. I would love to hear what you think.

Have a great day and I'll see you back here on Friday when I link up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci for Friday Favorites!

Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola

Happy Wednesday!

My ideal plan is to have a post once a week on a product from my TeachersPayTeachers store.

A little background on my teaching career first...
I taught First grade at a private school in Houston for three years before I was a substitute teacher while I was pregnant. Now I spend my days with this little girl who is a little miracle.

This was taken on Friday at our first music class- she LOVED it! #tinytotsandtunes

She is mad I won't let her eat the paper #meanmommy #notreallythough

During those three years I developed quite the classroom library (this is when my husband starts rolling his eyes ;) ) I loved getting some of my favorite books and favorite authors to share with my kiddos.

The school I taught at used Journeys for its Language Arts and Literature curriculum and while it was clear in its objectives, it was also a bit dull for the kids. I would follow the Journeys curriculum (so I could keep my job ;) ) but I would apply the strategies learned each week to a more exciting book. This is where my expansive classroom library comes in handy :) 


Tomie de Paola was one of my very favorite children's book authors that I constantly bombarded the kids with. His books include Strega Nona, The Knight and the Dragon, The Legend of the Bluebonnet, The Legend of the Poinsettia - just to name a few of my favorites.

Strega Nona quickly became a favorite in my classroom. It is such a fun storing with a great message for the kids. We not only read Strega Nona but we also read the Strega Nona spin offs- Strega Nona Takes a Vacation, Strega Nona Meets Her Match and Big Anthony and the Magic Ring. 


You can find my Strega Nona unit in my store at TeachersPayTeachers. 

The first thing I did with my kids after reading a book was go over the story elements. We did so often that after the first couple months of school they required very little prompting ;) Strega Nona is a great book for teaching problem and solution!

This story map is great for individual classwork or can also be used in groups during center activities. I loved listening to the students work together on this in groups.

Along the same lines of story elements- I regularly have the students work on retelling the story. Sometimes I will put this page up on the SMARTboard and we will complete it as a whole class, other times I will put it in my dry-erase pockets and have the students work on it at a center [I have noticed that when they don't have to turn in the assignment, they are less concerned with making it perfect and write a little more freely- but they still bring the dry-erase pocket to me and I read over it before they erase it, so I can still assess their work] or they will complete it in small groups.

I always try to incorporate a few FUN activities into our books we are reading while still meeting standards- this is when my spelling and map activities come in!

 I have the students cut out the letters and rearrange them to spell new words. They record it on the same sheet.

 I will also make the assignment a little more challenging by having the students organize the words the built by the number of letters- this is also great for those early finishers! :) 

Incorporating a little geography for the day- have the students locate Italy on the map and draw a line from Strega Nona to Italy and have them do the same- from the child to the country they live in!

Speaking of early finishers...I think it is nice to have a few extra activities that aren't always "more work" for them- so I created a word search and an ABC order activity. I don't know about your kids, but mine have always loved an ABC order page, so I try to always have one on hand. 

**My daughter grabbed the marker while I was holding and drew on the page so I covered it up with a blank paper**

I also have a little language activity to help the students learn a few Italian phrases

And last but not least...comprehension questions! This can be used as a quiz for a grade or just for you to know what the students retained :)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this little unit!!

Friday Favorites!

Here goes nothing! I started this blog (apparently two years ago! *monkey covering his eyes emoji*) and never got back to it! 

My first favorite today is always this angel!

I sent this to my sister the other day and said "What is there something on my face?"
She is such a happy baby and I am so blessed to be her Mama. 


My second favorite this week is that I am getting back to my TeachersPayTeacher store and creating fun exciting resources for teachers and students again! I started this store my first year of teaching and would occasionally add products I developed to use in my classroom but never gave it quite the attention I want to now. 

Third:
I love college football Notre Dame football!! My husband and I were both equipment managers for the team and loved every minute we got to spend on that field. We bleed Blue and Gold in this house. ;) But... even more than I love Notre Dame football, I love my alma mater, Saint Mary's College, and my new SMC Mug.

My last favorite this week is that tomorrow my baby (who isn't a baby anymore!0 is getting her 6 month photos taken! (Thank you Sara!) Here is a little throw back to her newborn photos at 9 days old.



Thanks for stopping by!