Multiplication for Young Children and Fourth of July Happiness

Mark and I just got back from taking our youngest daughter to her college orientation. It was wonderful but overwhelming. I went between wanting to cry and wanting to cheer. Our daughter had a blast and has determined that she made the absolute right choice. Thank goodness because I don't think I could make it through all that stuff again!! I have been working with some tutoring students this summer. I want to share a video with you all that I took of a child working on multiplication. My student is sweet little fellow. He is heading to third grade in the fall. Please note that I gave him a lot of processing time. Even though you don't see it in this video I gave him a lot of praise afterwards. I was focusing on the way he solved the problems. I found the manipulatives we are using at the Dollar Spot in Target. I just love that place. I have to check it out whenever I go to Target!



This is his first lesson with multiplication while he has been working with me. We skip counted prior to starting and talked about grouping in skip counting. The cards I used are from Math-Aids.com. There are a ton of materials on this website! I snipped a couple of examples of the many flash cards they offer. Best of all their resources are FREE!

We all know students need the foundational skills to be successful in multiplication. Do you have any ideas or activities you would like to share? Please leave them in the comment section below. We can all benefit from shared ideas! Teachers are just so smart! Don't you agree!

I'm putting my first Farley's Currently in this post. Below the Currently is a fun link for 4th of July Subway Art from FiveArtHome.com. Samantha gave me permission to share it with my friends. I have already printed mine and put it in a frame. Enjoy!

Click here for your downloadable copy of Samantha's Subway Art.

Happy Fourth of July!

President's Day and How to Draw a Portrait Freebie

We have had a lot of fun with social studies centers this week. The honeys really enjoyed them each day. Here are some of the activities that we did in a simple rotation that involved moving activities from table to table rather than moving children. We did a simple comprehension President's Day booklet from The Education Center that had fact paragraphs for the job of the president, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and then a spot to write and draw about our president. The photograph shows what one of my sweeties wrote about Barack Obama. I love the drawing! The next activity was writing about what made us proud to be Americans. We created a word wall and each child focused on what he or she wanted to say. I loved reading their stars. Today we will decorate the back of the star. I got this from another teacher and when I find the link I will link it up. The last photographs show the presidential portraits they drew. These are just a hoot!! Everyone in the school has been commenting on them and complimenting them. This is my freebie this week. You can teach young children to draw portraits with an easy oval method. I have drawn a quick sketch to show you how I teach the children. They draw everything on their own and then color the portrait. Similar portraits would be wonderful gifts for Mother's Day, Father's Day or you could have the kids draw any other historical or modern figures. I just love these and the children loved creating them. I hope you can make some with the children you love!

Heart Month Art

We are lucky to have a set of stethoscopes in our school. The children enjoyed listening to each others heartbeat. They listened to the resting heart and then to the heart after some activity. They were amazed. "I can I hear my heart beep!" said some with a fascinated look on their faces. I gently reminded them that it was their heart beat but they were too cute!! In an earlier post I had shown a simple art activity that goes along with Valentine's Day and Heart Month. We created this bulletin board using this sheet. It is a lovely board. Soon I will add a template to do this with Shamrocks. If you need a display board this is absolutely beautiful and it was totally created by the children.

Let the Sun Shine In!! Art meets Science

I love to take any opportunity I can to blend art and science together! We have been studying the solar system for a couple of months. We have focused a lot on the phases of the moon. I wanted to work in some lessons about the sun since we depend on it for life..an important detail for us all! This is a lovely simple activity that uses coffee filters, water and washable markers. We used warm colors like yellow, orange, red and I threw in some pink for extra brightness. The children color the coffee filter with the markers. This is one of those activities where more is better!! They rarely hear more, more. Coloring the coffee filter. Coffee filter after it was sprayed with water. We sprayed them at our tables and then went out to play. The filters dry very quickly provided they are not absolutely soaked. You may want to write the children's names with permanent marker if you are planning on leaving them somewhere else to dry. These photos are after the filters dried. We glued them to dark blue paper for contrast and then each child wrote some facts about the sun. We talked about absorption as they watched the colors move with the water. They were fascinated and many of them just sat quietly and watched the colors blend on their coffee filter. This activity also makes a nice display for a bulletin board if you need one! Enjoy this version of Mr. Sun, Mr. Sun, Mister Golden Sun from The Giggle Bellies. I love it!

Peace Love and Learning Martin Luther King and Anti Bullying Unit

I have posted my first large unit on Teachers Pay Teachers. It is called Peace, Love and Learning. I'm really excited about it! It includes anti bullying resources, Martin Luther King Jr. Day Activities, Friendship Activities, math centers, technology resources and more!! I have put a lot of effort into this unit and I am planning on adding more to it. There are 61 pages of resources for you to use. The first ten people who comment will have their names entered into a drawing for a free copy of the unit. Peace, Love and Learning to you all!

Solar System Art The Sun and the Moon

We have been learning about the solar system, the phases of the moon and the sun in my class. Our art teacher collaborated with us to help our children create some wonderful art using the moon and the sun. The children used white crayons and blue water color paint to create a crayon resist background. They each had a white circle for their moon that they of course wanted to cover with craters!

The suns were created in a similar fashion using a circle for the sun but the children colored the sun with yellow crayon. They outlined the rays with a black crayon and then used orange and yellow water color paint.

Our art teacher also used the lessons to teach the children about warm and cool colors. These are easy to make and they look great. I hope you can use this idea in your classroom. Enjoy,

Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace, Love and Learning and Common Core

I am creating a new fully integrated unit that can be used year round but I am including ideas for math, literacy, social studies, technology, Martin Luther King, Jr , peace in the classroom and love for friends. Please become a follower at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store so you will know when it is ready. It is over 50 pages now and will be a great value. It will have something for all areas of your curriculum. Peace, love and learning!

Stellaluna 3-D Art I Love a Good Rectangle

There have been years when I really didn't want to read the book Stellaluna near Halloween. I'm a science freak and I really felt all of the great learning about bats was being drowned out by Halloween craziness. I really don't know why this year was different except that it seemed the perfect time to compare fiction and informational texts using the common core standards. Well I couldn't be happier with the little honeys and what they have learned. It is music to the teacher's soul to hear the kids using the language they have learned in school about comparing texts. I always have to have some kind of art activity and I wanted it to be "Science Art" as it is called in my class. That is real representations with an artistic twist. I used the trusty rectangle to help the children make their own original art. I have a lot of pictures so bear with me as I share. This project took about 4 days in 20-30 blocks. I have to show this picture first in case you don't look any further. This is one of the finished pieces and one of the little girls nestled a baby bat inside the Mom just like Stellaluna. Need I say more...

This shows one of the children cutting a bat from a brown rectangle of folded paper. I showed them an example of how to draw the half bat but they all drew their own and they are amazing.

Tearing light brown long rectangles to make the branches. It is important for me to show you these photos. I so believe in nurturing the creative spirit of children.

Almost finished piece without the leaves. We used the Stellaluna book for reference in making the art. We used brown instead of black since we were learning about fruit bats. Everything was made out of a series of rectangles. These kids are amazing!