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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Classroom Themes Linky

As I have been cruising around blogland I have noticed so many people shopping and stocking up on supplies for the new year.  I think most people have settled on a theme. But others are still up in the air.
So I am having my First Linky.

 I have gone back and forth and finally decided on a simple bright Tropical Theme for my class.

It started with my Common Core Posters.  I just fell in love with the colors and they made me happy looking at them...if Common Core can make you happy, lol!

Then I made a Clip Chart to go with it and it just snowballed from there.

The past few days I made some background papers to go with my theme and created some desktags, classroom labels, a word wall and a banner to use in the class.

I bought some cute plastic buckets that I will use on my table to hold glue, pencils and crayons.

My book bags reflect the colors I will be using and I plan to add little touches everywhere to make it bright and fun.

It was easy to do since I live here and it just reflects what we are surrounded by.

I would LOVE to see what everyone else is planning to do for their theme or just some items you plan to use in your classroom.  Maybe your ideas will inspire others!!

Please link up below and share your Classroom Theme/Inspirations.

I can't wait to see all of your ideas!!

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Feeling Peaceful

Aloha everyone!  I feel the summer laziness fully setting in!! It's getting warmer here and I am spending alot more time in the water.  The surf has been perfect and one of my favorite surf buddies (FSB) just got here from Florida! 

I met her and her husband out surfing here two summers ago.  It was their 16th wedding anniversary and they were the sweetest couple.  We got to chatting in the water and I found out she was a teacher, same age as me and just as crazy about surfing:)  Well they have been coming back every summer and we had a great time out in the water today catching up:)

I hope the summer is finding you getting a bit lazier and enjoying time with friends and family.

I see alot of you busy little bees still working on some great items too.

Jen over at The Teacher's Cauldron has got some great new items out, a fun beachy theme classroom set, and a pirate theme!! I will definitely be using some of her items in my class this year!!

Erica  is revamping her polka dot classroom themes, so cute, and she's still in school!!

And Crystal over at Kreative in Kinder is blowing me away with her Classroom Sets!! I love that rainbow set!!

I don't know how you ladies do it!! Great Work.  Stop by and check out all of these hard working ladies!!

I also wanted to thank everyone for the comments on my Common Core posters!! I have gotten such a great response and requests for 1st and 3rd grade.  I even got a little nudge for Kinder!!  I am starting 1st grade soon and I will hopefully have 3rd done by the end of the summer, lol!! I just don't think I can tackle those Kinder CCS!!

I would like to leave you with a fun freebie.  I already posted for my Facebook friends.  One of the items on my bucket list was to work creating more with Photoshop.  So here you go:)

These are some fun digital backrounds with peace signs.  I love bright colors and wanted to use them for some ideas I have been toying around with.

I hope you can use them for some projects.  Let me know what you think, I am working on some others and if you like them I will keep putting them in my TpT store. 

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Common Core Posters

Aloha Everyone! I hope you are enjoying yourself on this lovely Sunday.  I had to look at the calendar to remember what day it was, lol!

Although I am on vacation I have been working on my Summer Bucket List.  I started reading 50 Shades of Grey, I am rereading The Daily 5, I am working on organizing my centers, I am finalizing my classroom theme, and I am studying up on my Common Core Standards. Phew!

Hawaii is headed into Common Core in phases. Grades K-2 began implementing this year. I believe the upper grades start next year. We have been going to workshops and working with our grade level teams all year to align our standards.  I found a really great site, that many of you probably already know about.


Mastery Connect has been very helpful in seeing what others are doing across the country.  They have a Common Core App that you can download to your phone, ipad or your website.  (Check out mine in the sidebar)

I can quickly refer to my grade level standards to help me with a lesson or planning.  However as you look closely, some of these standards are a bit wordy and what do they mean to your students?

I have taken all the grade 2 standards and reworded them into I Can statements.  I can't believe how long this took!!  I want my students to really understand what each one means and I want to make it easy on myself to refer to them. So I created some posters for my class.

I love the bright colors and I have a different color for each sub set of standards.  Now I can copy them off, place them in sheet protectors and a binder. I can quickly find each standard and just put it right up on my whiteboard for a particular lesson.

I also made this set using a Chevron pattern background.

You can pick these up in my TpT store or in my Teacher's Notebook shop.  I will send a free copy to the first three people to leave me a comment on these. I would love the feedback!! Oh, please make sure I have your email and which set you would like.

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