June Currently and Freebie!

I'm excited about my new blog:  Treadwell's Teaching Adventures (changed from Treadwell's Math Adventures), so hopefully if you were a previous follower, you have found my new URL.  I will be posting more from a classroom teacher's perspective (specifically 3rd grade) rather than just Math topics like my last position, so I thought the change was necessary. 

Now, onto June's currently linky party hosted by the hilarious Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade.  Check it out if you haven't already.  Tons of great blogs!

Since I am non-stop thinking about 3rd grade activities and getting my room ready, I have been creating a few bulletin board type displays.  If you can use this...please take for FREE!!!  My new colors are going to be teal and lime green with some zebra print added in there...hints the color scheme.  If you could use these and want different colored backgrounds, drop me a comment and I'd be glad to change the colors and email them to you.  I would just ask you become a follower of mine in return.  :) 



 Have a wonderful night yall!

IMPORTANT NEWS!

Hey all!  I know it has been toooo long since I have blogged, but I have an excuse...

I am in the maddening midst of changing everything on my blog from "Math" adventures to "3rd grade" adventures and it is proving to be more difficult and time consuming than I thought.  Since I am new to this whole blogging world, I am deciding to change my URL address to a more general name to not separate me off into just a math world.  I REALLY appreciate all the love and followers I have received on my Treadwell's Math Adventures, and I sooooooo hope you will come follow me at Treadwell's Teaching Adventures as well.  I hope the transition is easy, but I did want to post here about the change just so everyone knows where to find me for now on.  Thanks again and I hope to see you at the new blog URL:  treadwellsteachingadventures.blogspot.com

Here's the SCOOP

I know it is "winding down" time at school with getting end of the year testing done, grade cards, organizing for summer, etc. but I am finding myself constantly thinking about next year (sickening, I know, right?).  I have an excuse though.  I am currently a Title 1 Math teacher and teach small group, Kindergarten through 6th grade.  That will not be the case next year.  I will be moving back to the classroom and will be teaching 3rd grade.  Although I am SUPER excited to get back in the classroom and teach reading and writing (which I love and missed), I will be sad to leave my math position and the growth I have seen in that program. 

With that being said, I am constantly looking for great 3rd grade ideas, activities, and blogs.  Please share if you have any!  Also, anyone have any tips about changing their blog title or http: without loosing everything?  Not so sure I should keep my title "Treadwell's Math Adventures" if I will soon be incorporating so much more than just math?  HELP :)

In the meantime of me over obsessing about all things 3rd grade, I just finished a math review unit geared toward 2nd grade, but can easily be adapted to 1st or 3rd graders as well.
Check it out below.

Hope your last few weeks of school run smoothly!

Freebie Math Posters!!!!

Good evening fellow bloggers!  I have enjoyed creating lots of math activities the past couple weeks to do some major review.  I am almost finished with my "2nd grade Scoop" math review kit that will be uploaded soon.  A sneak peak...

I finished these math posters tonight to review the rules of rounding and 2-digit subtraction. 
Click on the image to download for free!

Make sure to comment or become a follower if you found these useful!  Have a great week! :)

3rd Grade Activities

Tonight I just have a couple different things I've created for my third grade group to share with yall.  We have worked with graphs and measurement recently.  For the graphing page, I had my students grab a handful of assorted pasta from a bag.  Then they created their graph with actual pasta before filling in with crayons.  They illustrated the pasta at the bottom of their graph to show the different types.  Download this page for free (here).

We also worked on different measurement activities.  I was inspired from a pinterest post to use cheese-its when working with perimeter and area.  I can't find the original one I used, but here is a similar post from Adventures of Room 129.  I also created this fraction number line which you can download for free (here).

Hope you can find something useful to use here!  Have a great night.

Prime Factorization Trees

Tonight will be a quick post because I am so so tired from a very busy weekend and wonderful Easter day with the fam.  I hope you all got to spend some quality time with family and enjoy a home cooked meal!  My cheesy potatoes were a success, thank the lord!  My cooking skills leave a little to be desired, but I AM working on it! :)

Now, onto MATH!  I find that the students I work with can always use continuous work with multiples and factors to help them with upper elementary math skills.  These prime factorization "trees" are a perfect way to do some review.

The "trees" are simply green construction paper cut out into big triangles (I used the Ellison die-cut for this).  Then the students choose a number to put at the top of their tree and write it in the corner of the triangle.  Their job is to think of two factors that can divide evenly into that number.  This process continues with adding on "trees" until all the factors are listed.  I then "take them to the river" on this and have them write out the equation with exponents to show the equal representation of factors. 

My example:  I started with 48, broke that down to 6 x 8, then broke 6 down to 2 x 3 and 8 down to 4 x 2. Then I added one more "tree" since 4 had to be broken down again, to 2 x 2.

Hopefully these "trees" can add just the right visual for your students to help them understand factors and prime factorization.
Have a great week yall!

**Freebie Measurement Conversion Game

Hey all! 
We've almost made it through another week.  TGIF (almost)!  Like I'm sure most of you, our school is getting ready to be knee deep in state testing, so I am busy trying to create some different partner games to use during my small group math pull out.  I can hopefully use my remedial math instruction time as a "brain break" for them to play math games.  Or at least they'll think it's a "break", right?

My fourth grade groups are finishing up working with measurement and converting measurement.  I created this conversion game to review these skills and use during those loonngg testing days.  You may download it (here) for FREE!  I hope you find this useful and your students can have some fun with it as well.

Enjoy your Friday!

Identify and Color Game

Does it seem like this week is draaaggging on or what!?  Maybe it's just me.  Possibly this dreary, nasty weather we are having in the Midwest.  I wanted to post about my “identify and color” activity I use with my kindergarteners and first graders.  My little ones love this type of activity: fun colored number mat, dice, transparent chips... they think it's a GAME and they are also doing some great MATH! :)  Working on one-to-one correspondence with counting dice, identifying numbers, and addition are all found with this type of activity.

Download it for free (here). 
Enjoy!

Addition strategy with egg cartons

I know we don't always think of egg cartons as being a math manipulative, but they actually can be a great resource (as long as they are clean and no yolks are showing evidence...eeewww)!

I got the idea at a conference I attended for first and second grade teachers in Missouri a couple years ago.  I recently used my egg cartons with my Kindergarteners for predicting where numbers were within a number line and to work with the adding on strategy. 

First, to assemble and create these egg cartons takes a little prep time.  The ones shown below are using only numbers 1-6, so I cut the second row of egg holders off and then cut them up individually to be the "lids" for the numbers.  I then wrote the numbers with a Sharpie on the bottom of the egg carton.  I also use these with the whole egg carton, using numbers 1-12.  In this case, you need another egg carton to cut the holders individually for the lids.  You would still number them the same on the bottom, just going to 12 instead of 6. 

With my Kindergarteners, we started off with finding where the 3 was. (Created discussion because some littles did not know where 3 was without turning over all the lids.)

 Don't mind this sweet littles lunch on her sleeve :)

Then I asked them to add on 1.  Students should have turned over the next lid to find the 4.



I tried to take them to the river on this and turn it back into the addition problem, (3 + 1 = 4), which some of my sweeties got and some will need to keep working.

The next example they started with finding where the 1 was located.  Then they were asked to add on 3.
This little chicka started at 1 and visually added 3 and was getting ready to turn over the 4.

While the fella next to her decided to start at 1 and turn over the 3 he added so he could see the numbers.



This activity worked great as a visual tool for adding.  You could also label the egg carton by counting by 5's and label the lids 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. to help with telling time to the five minute interval. 

Hope you can find this useful!  Start stocking up on egg cartons now :)

Currently and Awards

A little late in uploading this, but on with my 'Currently' for March.  Thanks Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for doing these fun linking parties each month!

I also wanted to thank Ms.T at Second Grade Math Maniac and Simone at Busy as a Honey Bee for nominating me for the 'Lovely Blog Award' and also to Simone for the 'Top 10 Award'.  I am so honored anytime anyone wants to take the time to recognize me for an award.  I appreciate the love and I'm grateful to be so welcomed into the "blogging world" by so many of you.  Thank you!

I wanted to recognize a couple blogs that I have been enjoying reading lately with the "Lovely Blog Award" (which may have already been recognized because they're so wonderful).  Check them out! :)
          Monica @ The Schroeder Page
          Lauren @ The Weekly Hive

Have a wonderful week yall!  Hope you're enjoying a spring break soon in your future.  So happy to not have a 'bedtime' tonight and get to sleep in tomorrow! Hallelujah!

         

Fact Family Work with Dominoes

I can't believe another weekend has already come and gone.  How does that happen so quickly?  At least I got to enjoy a little Lifetime movie Sunday :)  Love those! 

Throughout the year, I am constantly working on fact families with my small groups to help them with basic facts as well as the connections between addition/subtraction and multiplication/division.  I like to use dominoes with fact family practice.  This week, my 1st grade groups drew 3 dominoes from a pile and wrote out their fact families on a recording sheet.  Then they created their own dominoe and its fact family.  Check out our final product and download the fact family sheet (here).

Enjoy your week!  Hopefully your spring break is around the corner.  Only 1 more week for me. YEA!

Award and Freebie

Hey all!
It feels like forever since I have blogged or even been able to enjoy "blogland".  I enjoyed my vacation with my husband but then returned to get the case of the flu... not fun!  It has been a long time since I have had a fever and boy did it take it out of me.  On the plus side.... the Bahamas was oh so nice and I love having a tan in February ;)
Anyway, I was so excited to find that Ms. T at Second Grade Math Maniac nominated me for the Liebster Award.  I am so honored and grateful! 

Upon reading about this award, I found it is given to blogs with 200 followers or less to who someone believes deserves some love and recognition. So thank you Ms. T!  And in the spirit of love, I'd like to nominate:
         Sarah @ A KinderGarden in Bloom
         Kirsten @ Third Grade Treasures
Both of these ladies have great ideas and are just starting out their blogs... so check them out and show them some love! :)

Now onto the freebie....
My sixth grade group is working with algebra properties, so I created this matching game for them to add a little excitement to this sometimes boring topic. Download it by clicking the image below.

Have a wonderful week all!

Bringing ocean life to math for kinders and firsties

Hey all!
     Hope you have had a restful weekend and are enjoying your Sunday.  My husband and I are actually leaving for our cruise to the Bahamas at 6:10am tomorrow so I am frantically organizing, packing, and checking my list off but I am excited about the unit I just finished so I have to blog about it before we leave.  Crazy how blogging is always in the forefront of our minds :)
     I still need to post pictures of these games in action, so that will be updated soon.  My Ocean Life Math Actitivites pack includes lots of fun games/center ideas for preK-1st graders that include a variety of review skills (odd/even numbers, comparing numbers, identifying numbers and working with addition are a few).  Click on the image below to check it out further.

Have a wonderful week!

February Currently Linky and FREE money unit

I've always wanted to join one of Farley's Currently linky parties, so this is my first.  YEA!  If you haven't done so yet, link up at Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

Also, don't forget to check out my previous post to get my FREE money math unit.
Have an awesome week yall!!!

Money Games

Good evening yall!
Before the big game starts for us in the midwest (MU vs KU game), I thought I'd post real quick about my Money Games I've created when working with change up to $5.00.  I played these games with my 3rd graders and they LOVED it (especially the Winter Shop).  Two of the games incorporate students counting sets of change and then completing a corresponding place value type of recording sheet. 
(sorry I couldn't get the one photo to load horizontally instead of vertically.  Anyone have a fix for this?)

 One of my students decided to record them out to the side and THEN put them in order from least to greatest on the lines.  So organized :)  Students could record on a dry erase board to collect their data as well before writing their answers on the page.  The other change card activity had students play in partners and compare totals in a more or less type of game.
The final activity was their favorite!  Even littles like to spend money!  Students took turns being the banker and the buyer.  When they were the "banker" their job was to give the change when an item was purchased and the "buyer" got the chance to purchase something that they had enough money for. 
Here is their money tray organized for easy use.

With my 3rd graders, we didn't use the negative cards because it was too difficult, but with 4th and 5th graders you could introduce the idea if a student purchases something they don't have enough money for, they would record it on the negative slip.

Here is their game mat.  They decided the amount they landed on was their "paycheck" before they could go to buy something.  I let my kids choose from the pile for what they wanted to "buy", they didn't have to take the top card.  This did take some guidance the first couple times we played it.  But, they kept asking DAYS later if they could play the money shop game again.  It would definitely be a game you could keep playing all year long to practice those money skills! 
Since I haven't given anything away since starting my new math blog I figured today should be THE DAY! :)  At the end of the school week, Friday Feb 10, I will choose 3 people to give this unit to FREE (using random # generator). 
Enter to win, by:
      1.  Become a follower of mine at Treadwell's Math Adventures and leave a comment telling me so
      2.  Become a follower of mine on Teachers Pay Teachers and leave a comment telling me so
      3.  Leave a comment telling me one way you teach money to "spice things up".
Also, please leave your email with each comment so I can easily send you your FREEBIE if you win!
Thanks for the support and I'm super excited to be doing my first "give away".
Have a wonderful evening.... GO TIGERS!

-Kara Treadwell

Bloggy Tag!!!!

I'm so excited to be joining the "bloggy tag" to highlight some favorite blogs of mine and have a little Q and A time.  Thank you DeAnne at First Grade and Fabulous for inviting me to play tag :)
Here are the rules:
1.  Post the rules
2.  Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3.  Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
4.  Tag 12 people and link them in your post.
5.  Let them know that they have been tagged.

Let's get started.... (I am not THAT interesting :)
1.  I have a very small family, all of which live in the same city I've grown up in my whole life.  We get together for everyones birthdays and are a STRONG family of 12 :)
2.  I went to highschool with my hubby but didn't actually start dating him until college.  We've been together 8 years (married for 4).
3.  I secretly love playing Super Mario Brothers on the wii with my hubby.
4.  I am a huge MU TIGERS fan!
5.  My parents got me involved with everything growing up, trying to get me more social. (I'm on the tad "shy" side.)  I played softball, volleyball, basketball, golf, and swim team.
6.  I teach in the same school I attended Kindergarten.
7.  I'm going to Jamaica in 2 weeks with my hubby!!!  YEA!
8.  This is our vacation before we start thinking about starting a family! YIKES!
9.  I love laying out and being at the pool all summer long.
10.  My house is way cleaner during the school year when I'm on a routine and clean every Saturday compared to the summer.  Crazy how that works!
11.  I'm learning to cook.   My roommate in college had to teach me to boil water and fry an egg (sad- but true)
12.  Also, my first load of laundry in college turned out pink! (I was a tad sheltered, can ya tell? :)

Now, onto answering DeAnne's questions...
1) What is your favorite recipe? (Would you like to share?)--oops that's 2 questions. 
Recently found a recipe on pinterest for Cajun Chicken Pasta and it is the bomb!  My hubby can't get enough of it. 
2) If you could have a profession besides teaching, what would it be?
Marine Biologist.  I LOVE dolphins and swimming :)
3) Are you a sports fan?
YES!  Love college basketball and March Madness.  Go MIZZOU TIGERS!
4) Do you have any hobbies outside of blogging and school related things?
I love all things beauty and trying new hair and makeup techniques, love watching movies, reading, and walking my dog.
5) What is something you won't leave home without?
chapstick!
6) Where do you like to vacation?
anywhere with the sun, beach, and my hubby
7) What is your favorite movie?
oooooo, so many! Recently fell in LOVE with The Help
8) Do you have a special talent?
uuuuuh talent, not so sure about that.  But I have been known to win a free throw contest or two.
9) Who is your favorite CHILDREN'S author?
David Shannon
10) Do you think technology makes things easier?
I think technology makes things more engaging and interesting (not always easier)
11) Would you ever participate in extreme sports?
Absolutely!  My husband and I's list before we die is to skydive!
12) What do you like most about teaching?
Building a classroom community and family with my students.  It is OUR classroom and OUR goals, not just mine.

My questions for those tagged are:
1.  If you're a "pinner", what's your favorite item you've pinned?
2.  Who is your favorite children's author or book in general?
3.  What is your favorite dessert?
4.  What is your most memorable school moment?
5.  Any advice you would give to a new blogger (like myself)?
6.  What's your favorite TV show?
7.  How did you learn the tricks of blogging?
8.  What is your favorite math game?
9.  What is your guilty pleasure?
10.  What is your favorite band/song right now?
11.  Do you sew?  Would you recommend buying a sewing machine?
12.  Favorite place to buy teacher things?

TAG.... YOU'RE IT!
1.  Mrs. K at Primarily Yours
2.  Kayla at Primary Junction
3.  Rebecca at The Teacher's Chatterbox
4.  Amy at Step into Second Grade
5.  Kirsten at Third Grade Treasures
6.  First Grade Learning Stars
7.  Fern at Simply Centers
8.  Caitlin at Ms. Preppy
9.  Amanda at First Grade Garden
10.  Reagan at Tunstall Teaching Tidbits
11.  Monica at Schroederpage
12.  Sarah at A KinderGarden In Bloom

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully you enjoyed it and can link onto some other great teachers blogs.
Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful week!

-Kara Treadwell

Place Value Game

Have you ever gone to a conference and couldn't wait to get back to your classroom to try all your new ideas!?  Aren't those the best?  I attended a BER conference this week that was just that for me!  It was about  Response to Intervention (RTI) with a focus on mathematics.  I got so many ideas for math strategies to use for grades K-3.  I plan to try a lot of them throughout the coming weeks and post about my favorites.

I tried a quick place value game with my first graders this past week.  It involved students drawing a card (only A-1 through 9) and placing it on a place value mat in order to create the largest number possible.  Player 1 drew a card and had to decide if it was a smart decision to put that card in the ones or tens place value position.  Then player 2 did the same.  This was repeated again so students had created a two-digit number. (Could challenge some students to create a 3-digit number.)  We were able to discuss strategies they used and they got better as the game was played.  You could also roll a die and only use numbers 1-6 to simplify the game.  I created a similar recording sheet as the one in our conference binder.  You can download here.  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back for some more ideas soon! :)

Enjoy your weekend!
-Kara Treadwell

Multiplication Houses

Hey all!  The hubby and I just returned home from a movie (Contraband) *side note: it was a pretty good movie, if you like Mark Wahlberg like me, you'll enjoy it even more! Anyway, I wanted to post about a multiplication actitivity I did with my 3rd graders this week.  We made multiplication houses to focus on different facts which they are in the stages of reviewing and memorizing.

First, they chose two different colors of construction paper for their house. (One is the cover of the house, the second is the color displayed in the windows.)
Then, the students chose the number they wanted to focus on with their house.  They labeled thier number on the door of their house with "The house of ___'s"
They numbered each window 0-12 on the outside and cut 3 sides of the window so it created a flap. (You could have a parent volunteer do this before hand to save time since this can be tricky.  I used an exacto knife and it worked great.)
The second color of construction paper was then glued to the back of the house and the students filled in their multiplication products on the inside of the windows.
Check out our finished product!

  Then I displayed my groups work in a Multiplication Town.  If your students had more time, they could spice up their houses with more decoration or even glue to a bigger piece of construction paper and create a landscape.

If you want a house template to start with click here.
Hope your students can have fun with this activity reviewing their multiplication facts.
Enjoy!
-Kara Treadwell

First Blog Ever! Excited!

Hey everyone! I'm excited to start my own teaching blog after months of following some other favorite teachers.  I hope to share some math centered ideas here as well as gain ideas from you!  For my first post, I want to highlight my FREE coin flash card activity I have posted on Teachers Pay Teachers. 



Enjoy!

Kara Treadwell