Snowman Math Races


I posted about our snowman math races two years ago, but I think this is one of those posts that should be recycled! These races are easy and quick and don't cost you a penny!

December means it's time for snowman math races! Snowman math races are a big hit in my classroom. We use addition wheels to practice our facts and turn it into a race. If you aren't familiar with them Here's how they work:  Draw a donut shape and place numbers around the inside. Then place another number in the center. Students line up and take turn adding the number inside the donut hole with the center number. They place their answer outside the circle.
 After a student writes down an answer they pass their expo marker to the person behind them and go to the end of the line. Now, if I have a student writes down an incorrect answer someone else in the line has to fix it. They simply cross off the wrong answer and write the correct answer next to it. When we race I usually have just three or four students in a line. Students are NOT allowed to whisper or call out an answer OR let another student know their answer was wrong. As soon as all of the answers are written down and correct that group wins. I don't write the same numbers in each wheel when we race because I don't want anyone sneaking a peek at the other team's answers. It's a great way to get students to practice addition facts.

Snowman math races are easy and quick and great for indoor recess, end of the day, brain break, or as a competition with other classes. (OH YEAH!) I've also used them for finding the missing addend. If you're an upper grade you could do multiplication wheels. 

Here are some pictures from my snowman addition wheels from a couple of years ago.


*notice the wrong answer!

*If you don't have a whiteboard you can laminate some butcher paper or poster paper and cut out your wheel and use dry erase markers to write. 

To help my kiddos understand how to do addition math wheels I use wheels from this product. Students quickly understand and your students who are still struggling with their facts get some extra practice. I usually incorporate some of these into our math stations too. My struggling students will take wheels home for homework all month.


This pack as well as everything else in my store will be on sale for Cyber Monday!

(Totes adorbs button created by Creative Clips)

I hope you all had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wow- it's almost December!

Can you believe how quickly November has flown by?! I was just going through my files and taking a peek at my upcoming activities. I'm really excited to use my Gingerbread Pirates literacy companion pack. Some of you may have used my Room on the Broom literacy companion pack and this pack it loaded with activities to go along with the story as well. We'll start this as soon as we get back on Monday. Click on the image below to see it in my TPT store. 


I started thinking about how excited my little first graders will be to see each other after a week of vacation. They always have more stories to tell than I can possibly hear. So I put together a little morning activity that would give them the opportunity to chat with each other. If you grab the freebie I would love for you to leave me a comment! 

Click on the image above to download your freebie!

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!

More poetry at last!

I did it! I have poems for the rest of November and December! I heard from many of you that you liked my poetry freebies so I set my mind to creating a whole set. I made poems for all of November and December and I just listed them on TPT!


Each of the poems has comprehension questions and sight word searches as well as a fill in the missing word activity.

I introduced the Turkey Shoes poem today in class and my kiddos loved it! These poems have been a great way for me to finally incorporate poetry on a regular basis. You can grab a free preview from my Facebook page.

****
Tomorrow we have a field trip! It's been rescheduled twice already due to rain so I'm really excited that tomorrow we actually get to go. We're heading the Wildflower Center here in Austin and it's wonderful for a field trip. Students are given a scavenger hunt and they have so much fun searching for a plant that  grows in water or a bug with four wings. 

We only work through this Friday then I'm off to Seattle for some cold weather! How many more days do you have before break?



Follow the Turkey Tracks

Follow the turkey tracks!
Ok, so I MAY have gotten a little carried away with Jessica Weible's turkey track clip art.... there was a sale... I have a weakness for clip art.

My kiddos love QR codes and I wanted an activity that was easy to incorporate into small groups so I could supervise, if needed, or put into a math center. I put together two QR code place value activities that have a self checking element. I also have a sight word center and an ordinal numbers activity. They would make a great addition to your stations over the next couple of weeks!
You can get them from my TPT store!

Add caption

Everything Antonyms!

This week we began learning about ANTONYMS in my class. I don't know why I'm on a poetry kick lately but while watching the CMA's I created this poem. (Click on the pic to download) 


I used this poem to create an anchor chart. Then I asked  my students for other examples of antonyms. I listed them around the edge of the poem in different colored markers. "Mrs. Tice, bust out the orange!" HA! 
(We have collectively agreed that the light blue Mr. Sketch marker stinks. Pretty color, but pretty stinky.)

My class did this cute Antsy Antonym activity from Oceans of First Grade Fun on Friday. I was out on Friday so I'm excited to see how their books turned out.

This week I'll add my Antonym Task Cards to their reading stations. You can find my task cards in my TPT store. It's one of my featured items and it's only $2!


Pink Cat Studio has a cute file folder game for antonyms that I've purchased and need to laminate. It will be great as an RTI tool for my struggling students.



Autumn Poem

Last week I shared a couple of poems with you with a pumpkin and spider theme. I used them in my small group instruction and I loved the results! I'm working on putting together a whole packet of poetry activities. 

Well it feels like it took forever but I finally have a FB freebie tab set up. (Big thanks to Nicole, Ashley, and Valerie for their help with that!) If you swing by my FB page you can grab this freebie! 


There are three pages and I'll be putting the poem on sentence strips to place in my pocket chart. 
Happy Wednesday y'all! 
Send me some cold weather!

All things Fall

I love Fall! Don't y'all? Send some Fall weather my way people! I need to wear boots and long sleeves!

This week I'll be putting out some of my Thanksgiving Friends Math Centers. My kiddos had a great time with my spider math stations so they will be super excited for these. They too are now addicted to cute clip art. Ha!


This packet includes ten different centers. We'll be tackling more greatest to least this week and I have a great activity that I do with my kids in small group. 

I'll also be putting my November Vocabulary Board out in the writing station. 
In October my class used a vocabulary board and wrote some great stories!


I'm ready to do a Fall art activity too. Have you ever visited the site http://www.artprojectsforkids.org?
There are tons of great projects. There is a how-to-draw-a-turkey project that my class would love. We are expecting more rain this week so this might be one of my indoor recess projects.

There will also be a surprise on Facebook tonight beginning at 6 pm! Be sure to hop onto my FB page and become a fan!