Hands-on Division {with freebies to share!}

Whew - thank goodness Monday is coming to an end! Today was a true Monday, in every sense of the word.
I wanted to stop in and share a lesson that I did with my students last week on division. I just introduced division at the beginning of the week, so we were working on multiplication and division fact families.

I found these amazing fact family cards on Teachers Pay Teachers here. The best part? They are FREE! I placed them in different areas around the room, and the students walked around the room filling out this fact family sheet. My students love moving around the room, and this was a great way to see who was "getting" the concept of multiplication and division fact families :)

After completing this activity, it was time for some hands-on division practice. I found some mini Halloween buckets at the dollar store, and knew they would be perfect for this activity :) I REEEEALLY wanted to buy candy corn to use, but I have some students in my room with allergies, so I went with Skittles. I gave each pair of students 3 mini buckets and a pile of Skittles. Then, I wrote one problem at a time on the board, and students would model the problem with their buckets and Skittles. After they figured out their answer, they would write the set of 4 fact families that went with their problem.

The students LOVED this activity, and it really helped some of them to model the division facts. At the end, I told the students to count the total number of Skittles. Then, I told them to divide that number into 2 of their buckets. Once they divided them evenly (I was able to insert a quick mini lesson on remainders), they were allowed to eat their share.
I was so happy with how this lesson went...all of the students were engaged, and since they were working with a partner, they were able to help each other.
Since we did this activity last week, I put the buckets into a math center for this week, along with a set of division flash cards. To their dismay, the students are dividing Unifix cubes instead of Skittles :) 

{{My friend Jennifer over at Teaching to Inspire in 5th has a brand new blog design that is GORGEOUS! To celebrate the new design, she is giving away a $50 TPT gift card! Head over to her blog for a chance to win!}}

Do you have any creative ideas for introducing and teaching division? Share them below - I'd love to hear your ideas!

Have a wonderful week! :)

XOXO

Trick or Treat Blog Hop!

Trick or treat! This is Randi from Teaches Third in Georgia taking over this blog today as my trick, but keep reading to get your treat!

Several bloggers at The Teaching Tribune have joined together for this Trick or Treat Blog Hop. You will find more tricks as well as plenty of treats as you hop from door to door.

My treat for you all is a brand new set of Place Value Puzzlers that I created for my class to use in the upcoming month. Since we don't "do" Halloween, you will find them to be just a bit creepy without being too seasonal. I am sure you will find a fun use for them! Click the picture below to grab them while you can!

Now it's time to go "next door" to discover the next trickster and collect another treat. Click on the picture below to take you there!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have a great time Trick or Treating with us!

Randi

You don't wanna miss this!!

Hi everyone!
Just dropping in to let you know that you DO NOT want to miss this awesome blog hop that will be going on this weekend! You will be able to pick up so many goodies, and enter to win an amazing pack at the end of the hop!
Be sure to check back on Saturday to get started on the fun. I know that I can't wait to snatch up some FREE GOODIES!!

Have a wonderful Friday!
xoxo

HUGE TpT sale!!

Happy Saturday, everyone!
I just wanted to let all of my fabulous followers know that there is a HUGE sale going on over at TpT today! My entire store is on sale for 20%, so combined with the sale, you can get everything in my store on sale for 28% off :) That means it's time to clear off that wish list!
Make sure that you use code FB100K when you check out.

Here are some of my best selling products that you may want to purchase...Just click on each picture to go directly to that product :)

Happy shopping!!!

XOXO,

Best.Sharpener.Ever + New Products!

Happy Thursday, everyone!
I just wanted to stop in quickly to let you in on a {little} secret..ok, so maybe it's not so secret. Have you seen this amazing little creation floating around the Pinterest and bloggy world?

I have to admit..I had seen reviews of this pencil sharpener before, but I honestly thought to myself, "How good can it be?" Well, let me tell you..this here sharpener is UH-MAY-ZING. I have been through endless electric sharpeners in my 6 years of teaching, and had countless blisters from the crank wall sharpeners. As soon as I pulled this baby out of the box, I immediately got to work setting it up. Want to see what happened next?

Do you see the point on that pencil?! I will say that I was a little confused about setting the sharpener up, but luckily, the creator (who is also an elementary teacher) already thought of that! You can visit http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/pages/photos-videos for step-by-step photos and videos. As soon as I watched the video, I got to work sharpening every pencil in sight!
First thing the next morning, my 3rd graders were commenting on how sharp the pencils were! It made my heart smile a little bit :)
Not long after I received my sharpener in the mail, Classroom Friendly Supplies came out with a HOT PINK one!! I'm going to have to have it.

The last electric pencil sharpener that I purchased cost me around $60, and didn't even last an entire school year. This pencil sharpener is just $24.99 with FREE SHIPPING! I promise, you won't be disappointed with your purchase! I'm already planning on purchasing the pink one, so I'll have 2 in my classroom. My students think it is so much fun using this funky sharpener :)

When I hit 200 blog followers, I'll be doing an awesome giveaway - how would you like to see one of these sharpeners included?

Go to www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com to purchase yours!

I also wanted to show you a couple of new products that I just uploaded to my TpT store. The first is a set of interactive notebook resources to go with the 3rd grade series of Harcourt Trophies. We use this reading series at my school, and I wanted to come up with something that students could use to study their vocabulary in a fun way! There are flapbooks for each vocabulary word, as well as a set of vocabulary puzzle matching pieces for each story. I have these for sale by individual theme, or you can purchase the bundled set with a savings of $3.

Click to go to the product in my store! :)

 

 

 

 Here is a preview of the bundled set :) Just click the picture to go to the product in my TpT store!

I also just added this fun Halloween-themed rounding activity. I don't know how your kiddos are doing with rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, but mine definitely need the extra practice!  This task card set has 30 cards, along with a student response sheet and answer key. My students LOOOOVE to play Scoot - they literally beg me to play it. I will be using these task cards to play Scoot to review before we take our benchmark tests. Do you teach rounding during the first 8 weeks of school?

I hope that you all have a FABULOUS Friday and a wonderful weekend! I have a math training to attend tomorrow, so I'm hoping to learn a lot of new information to take back to my classroom. 

Also - something I'm super excited about - I am now a contributor on The Teaching Tribune blog! I will be doing my first post this month, and am honored to be a part of such an AMAZING group of teachers. Go check it out for some great ideas, and be looking for my post in the next couple of weeks! :)

 

XOXO,

Welcome to My Classroom!!!

Hi everyone! I know that I've been promising a classroom tour for several weeks now. Well, I finally snapped some pictures for y'all today! So let's get right to it :)

The outside of our classroom door

I had someone make me my PRECIOUS owl door hanger. She is someone local, but she can ship anywhere in the U.S.! Check her out on Facebook - she's very reasonably priced!

My desk

Behind my desk

How cute is this little stand? I'm using it to hold my weekly lesson plans.

I love all of my storage! I have 2 cabinets this size :)

Our classroom library

Our communication/sink area

Our data wall & Show What You Know chart

Our job chart that I made with paper plates from WalMart! (As you can see, I've already had to adjust some of our jobs) :)

Small group area - love my Ikea stools!

The 2 bottom drawers hold crayons in specific colors

You can get the "STAR WORK" headers plus many more phrases here

Lunch count and attendance in one!

You can find the clip chart that I use here. Using a clip chart is the BEST classroom management technique that I use. The kids love it, and so do the parents!

Another reading area - I think it's important for students to have cozy places to read!

I love my document camera..our principal purchased them for every teacher. I use it every.single.day. I'll post more about the Interactive Notebook in the picture in the next few days. Can't wait to share!

Our hallway display. Can you tell I was SUPER excited to find the chevron plates at Walmart? :)

Well, I am sorry for the picture overload!! I have been excited to share my classroom with you, so I'm glad that my camera finally decided to cooperate :) Please comment below if you have any questions, or would like to know more about something you see.
I will be back in the next few days to share some EXCELLENT interactive notebook resources with you. Thank you for stopping by!!

xoxo,