February Currently

Aloha Friday!!!   I know it's a day early but I am linking up with Farley for her monthly currently.





I guess the oldies station is on Pandora right now and I am listening to the Beatles.  It is perfect after a lot of rain this week and a beautiful sun shiny day!

The last week has been crazy in the ocean with huge surf and dangerous conditions.  Today the ocean was calm and beautiful again and I got the anxious feeling I get when I need to get out in the water.  I think I will be up bright and early tomorrow to paddle around.

Honestly my To-Do List is piling up that I need to seriously just chuck a few items out the door and only take on MUST Do items.  

My new favorite drink right now is Smirnoff Ice.  These are so yummy and I can drink a few without getting a headache.  I'm such a lightweight ;)

I have been trying to find a new teacher bag for school.  I have asked many friends and fans and the biggest suggestions were to get a 31 Utility Bag or a Vera Bradley bag.  I checked them both out and they look roomy, but it's just not my style.  I am more of a Steve Madden girl.  Something a little more hip and funky.  


This is what I want, but I need it a little bigger.  So I am off to shop this weekend.  Sunday is the perfect day to head to the mall because no one will be there!  Superbowl Sunday is my favorite time to shop.  The malls, Costco, the beaches are all deserted.


I know some of you probably love football, but me, not so much.

So did you figure out my two truths and my fib?  

I honestly do not own a scale.  I had one years ago, but it broke.  I never bothered to pick one up and it is probably the best thing you can do for your self-esteem.  As long as I fit in my clothes, exercise and eat healthy and don't think weight matters one bit.

I hate going out on Fridays.  I am older now and I love going home, putting on my comfy shorts eating junk food and vegging out on the couch.  True story.

I think my body is in shock.  This is the longest I have ever gone without surfing since I started about 7 years ago.  The ocean has been terrible, but my daughters are older now and have so many afterschool activities, that surfing is not on the afternoon schedule anymore.  I plan to head out tomorrow, and I hope I can remember how to actually surf.

Wow, I have written a novel tonight!  Head on over and check out Farley's linky. 




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February Word Problems

Aloha friends!  I am enjoying a nice warm cup of coffee before I head out to another adventure in my classroom.   I know some of you are off today AGAIN due to ice and snow.  If you are, stay warm and safe.

I received a few emails and messages asking if I had finished my February Word problems.  Thank you so much for your purchasing these every month.  I love that this format is helping your kiddos understand word problems!

Here they are ready to roll for this coming month.



It includes 21 word problems with a February theme.


The answer key is included and gives a sample of how the problem could be solved.


I copy the pages front to back and use the cover sheet to make a little Word Problem book for my kids.

I have put them on sale in my TpT store today.  Just click on any of the pictures to check them out.



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Friday Fun

Aloha Friday!!  One of my favorite days of the week.  This week was a very short one for me.  No school on Monday and no school for me on Wednesday.  I decided to stay home because of this.


On Wednesday Hawaii was hit with a Super Swell! 40-50 waves were predicted to hit the North Shore where I live and work.  I have to drive along the coast to where the waves were that high, so I took the day off not only to stay safe, but also to avoid the crazy traffic from all the people who wanted to see the waves.  The last time this happened was about 5 years ago and I got stuck in traffic on the way home for 3 hours!!

So I only worked 3 days this week.  I think I need a 3 day work week every week!!

Today we finished up our matter unit.  I had the kids explore different ways that matter can be changed.
First, I gave them a piece of paper and I told them to change it.  Some cut it, ripped it, crumpled it and folded it.  We also discussed whether it was a reversible change or an irreversible change.

Then we did the old baking soda and vinegar experiment that I talked about earlier in the week.


They were so excited when they watched the balloon fill up!  One balloon didn't stay put and exploded at one of the tables.  They thought that was a hoot!  There was baking soda everywhere!

Then we mixed another liquid with a solid.


I had them mix 4 Tablespoons of Cornstarch with 2 Tablespoons of Water.


They had a lot of fun mixing it and playing around with it trying to decide if it was a liquid or a solid.

 We wrote all the ways to change matter in our Science Notebooks.


I really love some of their artwork!

I saved the last experiment as a surprise.  My good friend Sheri from Kindergarten To The Core let me borrow her Geyser Tubes that she had from Steve Spangler.  What a handy dandy tool this was!!



You put seven Mentos in the tube and it has a little peg that holds them in.  You pull the string and can get away while the mints are dropping into the soda bottle!

It was a gorgeous day and we went out to the field.  I used Diet Coke and Regular Coke.  I stood back with my camera while my volunteers pulled the strings.







They were thrilled with the results!  As soon as it had settled they ran to the bottles to check them out.  I had a few extra Mentos that we all tasted. We decided it would NOT be a good idea to eat Mentos and drink Coke at the same time!

We ended our fabulous Friday with a fun art project to get ready for Chinese New Year.  We made these cute dragons from Teach Kids Art. 


They came out really cute!  I plan to attach them to a ruler next week so we can carry them in our parade.

Thanks to my 3 day week I have a lot more energy than I usually do on Fridays! I hope your week was a fun one and that you are  enjoying your well deserved weekend.





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Regrouping With Zeros

Aloha friends! I am so happy it is Thursday evening!!!  Tomorrow is Friday already and I am looking forward to some fun activities I have planned for my class.  I promise I will share all the fun this weekend.

Today is just a quick post to share what we did today in math.  Our school is using the Go Math series and it is Common Core aligned.  This is the third year using it and I finally feel like I have  grasp on some of the alternative methods they use to teach students addition and subtraction.

Today we were working on triple digit subtraction with zeros.


This is the standard method that the series shows and how we all learned 
growing up. This way however is so confusing for many of my students!
They always make the same mistake.



Here's an example.  
They know if they don't have enough ones to borrow a ten.


They don't have any tens so they borrow a hundred.  
They regroup in the tens place,


but they always forget to take from the ten BEFORE 
they add a ten to the ones place!

So I changed it up today and decided to show them
a way that might make more sense.




We reviewed that 400 is the same as 40 tens.


So we took away one ten and gave it to the ones.





They caught on so quick and made very few mistakes!!


Even my strugglers were very successful with this method.  
I hope it really sticks with them and makes subtracting 
zeros a much easier process.

Do you teach this method or other ways besides the standard algorithm?  I know Common Core is pushing others to find new strategies.  I hope you can add this one to your list.



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Science and Social Studies Notebooks Part 2

Aloha friends!  I hope your Monday was a good one and you are enjoying a little down time reading this.

In my last post I shared how I was using notebooks to keep track of all my Social Studies and Science activities.  You can read it here if you missed it. {Click Here}

I received lots of positive feedback and some requests to share what kinds of activities I would be using them for.

Lets start with science.  We have been working on Matter.  We went over Properties of Matter and States of Matter.  Now we are headed into how to change matter-The FUN stuff!  I have some experiments planned this week to help them see how matter can be changed.

Here are my supplies that I picked up for some of the fun.

I plan on starting off with the old baking soda and and vinegar trick.  If you can set up ahead of time it is so much fun for them to make predictions and see what happens.  Place a tablespoon of baking soda in a balloon using a funnel.  Then take an empty bottle and add in some vinegar on the bottom.
Wrap the balloon around the mouth of the bottle without putting the baking soda in.


If you use a Sharpie to draw a face, it makes it even more fun.

Pour in the baking soda and watch their faces light up!


The next experiment is the Coke and Mentos experiment found here. {Click Here}



We are going to have to head outside for this one!  And finally, we will be mixing cornstarch with water to make a liquid and a solid.  I think my kids are going to have a blast this week! {wink, wink}

We will be recording all of this in our notebooks and I made some templates to help us out.  {Click Here} to get them from Google Docs.

For social studies we are continuing with our study of Economics.  We started last week with "What We Want to Be When We Grow Up" and talked about Occupations and Income.


This week we will be moving into Needs and Wants.




If you are interested in the other activities I will be using for Economics I just finished my first interactive notebook unit!




I have included a variety of economic topics and activities.  All in an easy to print format.  I have also included an answer key and pictures of what each of the activities will look like in the notebook.

This unit is intended to supplement your current curriculum.  I am really looking forward to using this with the kids, and since I made it, I know it's exactly what I want to cover. Click on the pictures above to take you to my TpT store.

Once we have all these skills down we will be ready to use our Beach Bucks for the last quarter of the school.


I hope you gained at least a few ideas from my week ahead.  What fun social studies and science activities do you have planned?  I'd love to hear about any other interesting matter experiments that kids love.




3

Science and Social Studies Journals

Aloha friends! I hope this week is more in synch and flowing smoothly.  We had a slow start, but I feel like we are off and running into the 3rd quarter.

This year it seems like everyone got on the interactive notebook bandwagon.  I was honestly so busy that I didn't really look into it until the end of last quarter.

I have always had a science journal, but it never really got used enough.  We maybe recorded a few experiments and basically just sat collecting dust.

I decided to look into some interactive notebook posts and got a few ideas.  This is what I came up with to work for my class.



I decided to use one notebook for both subjects.  I divided it right down the middle and I put tabs on the pages to separate the sections.


I also made a standards page for each subject.


What I have included are any worksheets or activities that we do for each topic.  We started with maps and globes.
Now were moving onto Economics.


I am using a variety of activities that I have collected over the years and have now compiled them into my different interactive notebook units.  {Click Here}

For science we just started with matter.


I found some fun poems from various resources and just retyped them.





We discussed properties of matter and I had them do some writing.


I plan to continue with some experiments and predictions for next week.

I am no expert on interactive journals, but I like that I can use a variety of activities and include them in here along with note taking.  At the end of the year everything is all in one place.

I made a few printables to help get my journals organized.  The standards are for 2nd grade here in Hawaii, but there may be a few other things you would like to use.  

Just click on the picture to grab the file in Google Docs.


Do you use interactive journals in your class and what kinds of activities do you include?  How long have you been using them?  I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.



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