If you are a teacher, you probably are addicted to the Target Dollar Spot like I am!!  So many great things in one spot and I typically *need* all of it!!  Right now Target has a lot of patriotic themed items in the Dollar Spot.  As soon as I saw the red, white and blue star erasers they had, I knew that I needed them and could use them for math manipulatives!  

  Now you just need to run to Target (as if you needed an excuse to go shopping!) and grab up these erasers!  

  I came up with three different "Stars and Spinners Math" activities that you could use with your students to go along with the red, white, and blue star erasers.  One is a graphing activity, one is an addition activity, and one is a subtraction activity.  The subtraction activity is like the Superhero Math activity I recently shared about.  You can grab that FREE download here.   For the graphing mat, students spin the star spinner ten times.  After each spin, they lay that color star on the graph.  After they have spun the spinner ten times, they count how many red, white, and blue stars are on the graph and record the number in that color star under the "My Data" spot on the mat.  If they are working with a partner, they can share which was greater, less, and if any were equal.  You could also have your students write about their data from the graph. 

  For the addition mat, students spin the 1-5 spinner and then spin the red, white, and blue star spinner.  The 1-5 spinner tells how many stars to put on the ten frame and the star spinner tells the color star to put on the ten frame.  For example, if students spins the number 2 and the blue star, they would put 2 blue star erasers on the ten frame.  Students repeat that step and then lay those stars on the ten frame.  Then students record the addition equation.

  For the subtraction mat, students spin the 6-10 spinner and lay out that many stars on the ten frame.  Then they spin the 1-5 spinner and take away that many stars from the ten frame.  Students then record the subtraction equation.  

  These activities would be perfect to use around Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Election Day, or Presidents Day.  They would make great activities for math stations once your students are familiar with them and can do them independently.     To grab your FREE download of the Stars and Spinners Math activities, just click the image below! 

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Recipe for Teaching

I love holidays!  I am ready for St. Patrick's Day with my shamrock earrings, shamrock scarf, and shamrock headband!  I especially love finding ways to create activities in my classroom with a little holiday theme!  

We have been having tons of fun in kindergarten using this Pot of Gold Addition mat during math.  I have my students work in partners to do this activity and my students love it!  I'm pretty sure using gold coins is the best thing ever in kindergarten!   All your students will need is the Pot of Gold Addition mat, gold coins or yellow counters, 2 dot cubes, and a dry eraser marker and eraser.  I put the mat in a page protector, but you could also laminate them for durability. 

  Have your students roll the dot cubes.  The dot cubes tell the students how many to put on each pot of gold.  Then, they record the equation.   *You could have your students write a story problem as an extension to the activity about a leprechaun and his gold coins!

I even used the mat as an exit ticket with my students!  They got to pick how many pieces of gold to put in each pot of gold and then wrote the equation.  Such a fun and easy way of assessing my students!

This Pot of Gold Addition is actually part of my St. Patrick's Day Activities in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, but I'm putting it as a FREE download for my fabulous blog readers!  Just click the image below to download your freebie!

And if you want to check out the full St. Patrick's Day Activities pack, just click the image below to head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Hope you have a super St. Patrick's Day!  Don't forget your green!

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Recipe for Teaching

Hi blogging friends!  We are doing an ABC countdown just like many of you are doing as well.  Today was the letter Q day so what do we do...paint with Q-tips!!!     I have done this in different ways in past years.  Last year we painted pictures with Q-tips.  Check out the Raven logo that I did last year.  I have serious Q-tip painting skills, right?!?!

Today we used Q-tips to paint the dots from dot cubes and then recorded the addition equations.  Can I just tell you how wonderful this was...seriously...so.much.fun!  They were engaged, excited, and LEARNING!!  We have been working a lot on addition and subtraction and my teacher heart was so happy when they did an awesome job with this!     Here are some pictures of their work!

Want to try this with your students?!?!  Click the image to grab the FREEBIE!!

Have a super rest of the week!  

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Recipe for Teaching

Happy SPRING!!  Are you enjoying warm weather where you are??  We keep going back and forth between warm and cool days! I wanted to share a few of the fun spring themed activities we have been doing!

Warning - You are about to see a lot of FREEBIES!!!!!!    Spring Math Chat

 If you missed my "You Oughta Know" blog post about math chats, you can find it here.  I explained why I LOVE math chats and gave you some simple directions for doing a math chat in your classroom within that post!  I shared the math chat as a freebie in that post and I am sharing it with you here too.  Just click the picture to download!

Jellybean Math

My students really enjoyed this activity!  

Jellybeans + Math = FUN!

 You can find this in my Teachers Pay Teachers store for FREE!!  Just click the picture to go to my TpT store and download!

"Crack the Egg" Word Work 

So do you own Miss Kindergarten's "Read and Reveal" CVC words activity?!?!  If not, it is AMAZING!!  My kiddos love doing this activity!  Click the picture to buy it!!

I have been using her cards with my students during small groups.  I also have it at a letter magnet center to tap out words and spell with letter magnets.  The idea came to me to print the cards smaller and put them in eggs and the "crack the egg" activity was born!!

I shared this idea on Instagram and had some interest from some of you to get a copy of the recording sheet.  So...just click the picture to download!  Enjoy!

Hope you enjoy these spring freebies!!  Have a great rest of the week!!

 

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Recipe for Teaching

So we did one of my all time favorite math lessons in kindergarten yesterday!!  We made EDIBLE DOMINOES!!  I have done this lesson in the past and it is always one of my favorites!

  We have been using dominoes to add so the kids were thrilled to make a domino they could eat!   Last week in math, I gave my students a math talk for them to record about the dots on their domino.  We also looked at the book Domino Addition.

This group decided they wanted to hold the math talk up like a speech bubble!!  So cute!

Making an Edible Domino

To make an edible domino you just need Graham crackers (one full cracker for each student), icing, a pretzel stick, and candy pieces (I used m&m's).  I have my students use a popsicle stick to spread the icing and it works really well.  You will also need real dominoes.  I had my students pick their favorite domino and then show that on their edible domino. 

Have your students put the Graham cracker on a plate.  Let them spread icing on the cracker using a popsicle stick.  Have your students put a pretzel stick in the middle of the cracker.  This way they can put some of their candy pieces on one side and some on the other.  Once your students have made their domino, have them record what it looks like on their recording sheet and complete the addition sentence/number sentence.  And finally...<insert drum roll here>...they get to eat their math!!  The best part!

 Here are some pictures of the work my students did! 

I am including the recording sheet as a FREEBIE for you!!  If you use it, I would love to hear what your students thought of the lesson!  To grab the freebie, click the image below!

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Recipe for Teaching