Number Buddies {Lessons to Teach Number Pairs}

As my students are starting to explore the numbers to 10, I have found many students have had difficulty understanding the concepts of number pairs. It is something that we have been working on daily. We do a variety of activities on a daily basis but I felt like my students needed a little extra practice. So I created a few resources to help us out.

I am embarrassed to admit that it took me several years to see the importance and the benefit of using a ten frame in teaching many concepts in math. I know...shame on me! My students really utilize ten frames to help them stay organized in their thinking of numbers. I think this center activity will stretch them to think of numbers and number pairs in a new way.

We will be creating an interactive anchor chart in class.  I look forward to having a quick mini-assessment of understanding at the end of the lesson and creating an anchor chart at the same time! Win!!!

My kids this year are active and love to get up and move! Like ALL.THE.TIME! Why fight it!?!?! We will be doing this fun little "Scoot" game to get some extra independent practice.

We have been practicing subitizing daily during our Math Talks. {Math Talks are one of my most favorite times of the day...my kids thinking blows me away EVERY DAY!} We will be using these printables to tie subitizing together with number pairs.

My students will work on number pair fluency with this little review activity. I think this will be the most difficult task for them to complete. I look forward to see them problem solving and am interested to see what strategies and manipulatives they will use.

My kids are going to LOVE creating these Number Buddies. This year's group loves partner and group work, so this little mathtivity will be perfect for them! The kids will work together as partners to create number pairs and solve to find out what number is created. 

You can find all these activities in this unit!

If your students are anything like mine then they love a song to sing and bop along with. Here are some of YouTube videos that my class likes to watch on Number Pairs...

Of course while working on number pairs we use number bonds quite a bit...along with snacks of course! Here is a little FREEBIE for you to use in your own classroom. Just click on the picture below.

Classroom Decor Tip

Today I just wanted to share a quick classroom decor tip with you! I know, I'm a little late...I've already been back to school a whole month! :/

To start here are a few pictures of my classroom...

Now here is a little tip for ya...

If you are like me, you like to use your whiteboard for many purposes. In the past it was really easy for my whiteboard to become cluttered and unorganized, looking just like a big hodge podge at the front of my classroom. I started to use borders a few years ago to create separate areas on the board. It would take lots of time to cut the border and add tape or hot glue magnets to make it stick. I really wanted to purchase the magnetic border that you can find at many teacher stores and websites, but when I calculated how much magnetic border I would need I couldn't fathom spending that much money! One day while I was at the Dollar Tree I discovered these little cling borders. 

I bought one pack and thought I would give it a try! I am so glad I did. I took the border to school, cleaned the white board with a damp cloth and stuck the border on. This is the third year I am using the border and it works perfect. 

The best part was that to create the border for my entire white board it only cost me $10.00!!! In a close second place, it is also sooooo amazing to come in on Monday morning and not have any of the border on the floor as a result of the a/c being off all weekend {which is what used to happen when I tried to put the border up with tape or magnets}.

Happy Decorating! :)

Eric Carle {Author Study}

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this week we have started an author study on Eric Carle...another one of my favorite authors and illustrators! Here are some pics of our week so far!

We started the week off learning about who Eric Carle is. My kids are already referring to him as if he is a close personal friend. We read Today is Monday, and sang the song. During math we used the book The Tiny Seed as a springboard for some "seedy" addition practice. I let me kids paint a flower. I was using this craft as a "test run" to see how this group of kids would do painting in an "unsupervised" setting. I'll admit that although painting is something that my students absolutely LOVE...it is not something that we do too often...and if we are being really honest, painting usually means me dipping their hand in some paint and stamping it onto a paper. However, when it comes to learning about Eric Carle I feel like painting is NECESSARY. Since my day doesn't allow tons of extra time for painting, this was an activity that I expected my students to do independently. I went to Michael's and got some supplies which have turned out to be very helpful. The sponges are really easy to paint with and give great texture! The flowers came out so great, I decided that we had to keep them as part of our Mother's Day gifts.

On Tuesday we read Little Cloud. After we did a sorting activity, we did word work with clouds {shaving cream}. The kids also drew what they would be if they were a cloud. We did a little Water Cycle investigation and even did some cloudy addition!  

Today we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It is a favorite FOR SURE! We did a little butterfly research and created our own beautiful butterflies.

{From Spring into Nonfiction}

The kids wrote about a time they were very hungry. One of my favorites included cereal and throw up. :/ {Due to the graphic nature of the illustrations I didn't post that one! ;)}

{One day I was very hungry. I ate pizza and sour patch kid extremes. But I was still hungry.}

In math we worked with making numbers using the food from the story. A few months ago I found these stickers at Dollar Tree, and bought a bunch! I let the kids use them to create math problems.

At the end of the day we created some window art using coffee filters. SO much fun!

I hope you enjoy Eric Carle's books as much as my students and I do! Here's a little freebie for you to get started! {Click pic below!}

If you are looking for more Eric Carle activities, make sure you check out this unit!

Mo Willems {Author Study}

On of my favorite things to hear is children giggling. Even thinking about kids laughing and chuckling makes you smile, no?!

An author study that I love to do in my classroom, that ALWAYS brings lots of giggles, is Mo Willems. Reading one of Mo Willems' books is entertaining no matter how old you are. {Sometimes I probably think the books are even more funny than my students do!}

A few weeks ago I posted this picture on instagram. My class was having a little BIG issue with using the restroom correctly {YUCK}, so I went to the library and checked out this book. Who knew a book with the word "pee" in the title could work "Bathroom Miracles"!? :) Thank you  Mr. Willems.

Time to Pee!

After reading the "Pee Book" {as it was referred to by my students} my kids were so excited to start our Mo Willems Author Study. We mastered many of our ELA standards, just by focusing on this one author. Mo Willems makes reading fun!

Here are some of the activities that we did...

We learned all about Mo Willems and examined what he does as an author and illustrator. As we worked through this unit we tried to be an author and illustrator just like him.

We examined characters in Mo Willems' books and compared their adventures and problems in the stories. Of course one of our favorite characters was Knuffle Bunny!

Pigeon was a big hit too! The kids loved changing their voices while they were reading to sound just like Pigeon.

Probably one of the favorite characters that my students got to know was Wilbur from the book Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. They were so creative when they got to dress their own Naked Mole Rat! 

Piggie and Elephant {my personal favorite Mo Willems' characters} were a huge hit! The students are still selecting these books for in their independent reading book baskets! If you don't have Mo Willems books in your classroom library...they are a MUST! I recommend purchasing hardcover ones, they will be read over and over again--getting lots of wear and tear! 

As we read Mo Willems books we discovered that as an author he uses his characters to teach us lessons. Even though we are done with this unit, my students still refer to books and characters that we read during our author study. I will randomly hear, "You should share like Piggie." or "I am a leader like Wilbur." Melts my heart! :)

If you are interested in doing a Mo Willems Author Study, I recommend this unit to you...

Included in the unit is all the chart parts, printables and crafts shown in this post! Click on the picture or HERE to go check it out!

The best part of Mo Willems' books are the joy and fun that he brings to reading...something that is so important as we develop our students as "Reading Lovers"! Here is a little FREEBIE to help you celebrate this amazing author!