The Declaration of Independence

Our TPT store offers a FREE Declaration of Independence Flip Book. It's great! It is very easy to use and is a great activity for the kids.

You can see it here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Declaration-of-Independence-Flip-Book-1575270

We offer a few other freebies, as well! Check us out!

Teachers Pay Teachers

I'm sure you've heard of TeachersPayTeachers... and if you haven't then you need to hop on over to that site! It is amazing!

After a lot of thought and some talks, my partner teacher and I decided to open up our own TeachersPayTeachers shop. It's called Teacher Tandem. We are excited to be able to share the things we use in our shop.
Please check it out! You can just click here and shop away! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teacher-Tandem

We have some great things there. Many of our items are things that encourage movement in the classroom, which all teachers know is truly important in the elementary classroom.

QR Codes- Trying It Out

The kids used the QR Code activity I found online last week. It was rough! As a teacher, I know that not everything will be successful and I truly try to push my kids to be self-directed and everything, but this activity blew up in my face. The QR Code part worked wonderfully and the kids really enjoyed using the codes and even mentioned to me that it was like a scavenger hunt. The content was the difficult part. I didn't review lines, line segments, rays, and angles before they did the activity because I just taught it 2 units ago... That was the big mistake. They were getting confused and frustrated- and I don't blame them! So, I learned two things: 1. Next time this activity will be during or right after the unit that teaches the material. 2. I need to review those concepts. 

Learning isn't just for children! I learn every day. I'm not afraid to admit that it didn't go well. Next time will be better. :) 

Fraction Comparisons

Using the fraction strips I mentioned in the last post, we compared fractions. It's easy to see which is larger when they have the strips to use. The kids loved this activity and it was easy for me to see who got it and who needed more help. 

Fractions

Not too long ago I found these fraction strips on Teachers Pay Teachers (I think). They were a freebie. I know that's right because I only do freebies right now.

Anyhow, I laminated them, cut them out, and numbered each individual piece with the student's class number so they are easy to organize. I won't lie- about half way through that process I was so tired of doing it that I couldn't decide whether to laugh at myself or cry out of self-pity. I finally finished! We were able to use them Friday. 

I started out having them identify fractions and then moved on to finding equivalent fractions. 

It was really neat and the kids enjoyed it. They actually said, "aw man" when we had to clean up to go home. You know you're doing something right when that is the reaction you get on a Friday afternoon. Love my kids! 

Bottle caps and QR Codes

Let's talk about how excited I am about THIS! I'm so working on this over the summer. Apparently you just print and stick the Avery labels on the caps and voila, you've got a game using technology. I am thrilled!

ELA QR Codes

I'm trying something new. So excited! I have created QR codes using Qrafter and then put them into Publisher to create a fun activity for my kids. You can get this here. (You won't be able to preview it because it is a Publisher document, but you can download it just fine!) I used the "Word Detective" task cards activity that I found here to make this.  Should be fun! I'll update on how it went later. We most likely won't get to this until after Spring Break.