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For TEK 3.4 (c): TSW Determine the value of collection of coins and bills.

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TSW represent comparisons using the symbols >,<,=.

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Number Gators (Greater Than, Less Than Symbols Song)

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TSW explain the unit fraction 1/b represents the quantity formed by one part of a whole that has been partitioned into b equal parts where b is a non-zero whole number

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It's Spring! So it's time for a fun Spring learning idea. I created a printable set of Fraction Flowers that includes fractions through 1/10. This can now be purchased in my shop.

Fraction Flowers are a fun way to learn about and to practice fractions. They are also great for learning fraction equivalents. To make them, print out the fraction pies from my printable. Then cut them out and glue them into the center of some paper plates.

Once the glue is dry, cut the plates apart. The printable set also includes a flower stem to attach if you want to make them into flowers. My daughter loved turning them into flowers!

They can also be built and also you can substitute parts of different flowers to make a complete circle in different ways!

Grab this printable in my shop- or add it to your cart now!

Want more fraction ideas? See my Hershey Fractions post! I also have a post on Fun Ways to Teach Fractions to Kids.

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It's Spring! So it's time for a fun Spring learning idea. I created a printable set of Fraction Flowers that includes fractions through 1/10. This can now be purchased in my shop. Fraction Flowers are a fun way to learn about and to practice fractions. They are also great for learning fraction equivalents.

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TSW apply mathematics to problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace.
(Would make it grade appropriate)

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By Donna Boucher

I'll admit it-I am a teensy bit HGTV obsessed. And it's not just the dreaminess of the Property Brothers that gets my heart racing. Gorgeous granite counters and backsplashes, richly colored hardwood floors, warm neutral tones with a pop of color...sigh. I could go on and on. Really.

So earlier this year I decided to live out my remodeling fantasy and give my 12-year-old home a makeover. Talk about math!

Financing

The first major decision to be made was how I planned to pay for my remodeling project and how much I could afford in my budget. After doing a little research, I decided on a home equity line of credit, and I shopped around for the best rates. The lending company uses a series of formulas, to determine how much they will qualify you for. Here's an example of what the calculation might look like:

After closing on the loan, I received my little checkbook! With a HELOC, you don't pay anything until you actually use the money. I just wrote my first check last week as the down payment for my project, so I'm sure I'll be getting my first bill soon. Advantages of a HELOC include a low interest rate and the ability to spread payments over a long period of time.

The Built-in Entertainment Center

My house has a cut-in in the den (I don't know what else to call it), and when I moved in I was very excited because I had an entertainment armoire that fit perfectly in the space. Twelve years later, the bottom part of the armoire, which contains storage for...wait for it...VHS tapes, is empty and I'm maxed out on the size TV I can have because of the constraints of the space. Who'd have thunk I'd ever need a TV bigger than 35″? So I found a picture on the Internet of what I'd like the space to look like and drew up my own plans.

Paint

I am having my entire interior repainted. It was an agonizing process choosing colors! I'm so NOT good at making design choices. The hot tip is that Sherwin Williams sells little sample containers for about $5, so I bought some colors I liked and tried them out. I selected Bracing Blue for my dining room-it's the blue in the middle. Do you know how they make different paint colors? It's done using a formula! To make the blue I want, they start with a base and add in specific percentages of four different colors. Math!

Flooring

The tile on the floor of my downstairs has served me well, but I have my heart set on hardwood flooring. I'm also replacing the carpeting upstairs. The flooring guy came out and drew detailed sketches of the upstairs and downstairs layouts with measurements of all the rooms and spaces. To determine how much flooring to purchase for the project, he'll need to find the total area. Check out this post over at All Things Elementary for a Dream House project featuring additive area.

Granite Counters and Backsplash

I love, LOVE my granite! I got to go the tile yard to pick out my very own slabs. The fabricators will be coming tomorrow to make a template of my countertops, and they will use the template to cut the granite to size. More measuring! They actually make a paper template they can move around and lay on the slab to maximize the space.

I looked through a pattern book to choose a design for my backsplash. The herringbone pattern I chose is a tessellation! Wouldn't that be another great project for students? Designing their own backsplash patterns?

There is so much math involved with my remodeling project! No wonder I love HGTV. Ha ha. 🙂

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Filed Under: area, geometry, measurement, patterns

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By Donna Boucher I'll admit it-I am a teensy bit HGTV obsessed. And it's not just the dreaminess of the Property Brothers that gets my heart racing. Gorgeous granite counters and backsplashes, richly colored hardwood floors, warm neutral tones with a pop of color...sigh. I could go on and on.

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TSW create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas

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TSW round to the nearest 10 or 100 or use compatible numbers to estimate solutions to addition and subtraction problems.
(Activity can be modified and could be fore small group or whole class)

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Pumpkin activities for kids USED TO only mean simple math activities such as estimating and counting seeds. While that may be great for the preschool and kindergarten crowd, there are so many learning lessons and hands-on activities that can be used with upper elementary students in third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade as well. Older learners will be motivated and engaged by STEM challenges, science experiments, fun math practice, and descriptive writing projects based on a pumpkin. This blog post is full of ideas that can be used on their own or as part of a pumpkin unit of study and even includes a wonderful, FREE resource teachers can print and use in their classrooms.

As the month of October moves on, the kids become more and more excited about Halloween. I've worked in schools where all learning came to a halt and the entire building focused on costume parades and sugar-packed parties. I also taught in a school where we were not allowed to mention the word Halloween. I am not saying one of those is right and one of those is wrong, but somewhere in between those two ends of the spectrum you will find some amazing learning opportunities.

October has always been one of my favorite months to teach because the students are so incredibly motivated by the enthusiasm they feel that month. It is so easy to engage them in academic activities just by putting a thematic spin on things.

In my classroom, we always did each of the lessons and activities below. I encourage you to click on each and see how you can enjoy them with your students too.

When I taught first grade and second grade, we always carved a pumpkin to practice estimating, grouping, and counting. I don't know why it took so long for me to think about all the ways we could use pumpkins in upper elementary classrooms as well. The first time I brought pumpkins into third grade was one of my all-time favorite teaching days. The kids were so excited to literally roll up their sleeves and get to work!

I created a packet of printables to use and am happy to share it with you all for FREE. We had been working on rounding, so I was sure to incorporate practice with that skill. I also added in a subtraction activity for them to work on independently while I assisted with the pumpkin dissection. Since we had been working on strengthening our descriptive writing skills with the Haunted House for Sale project, I tweaked the template we use for that and included it, so they could reinforce their understanding of nouns and adjectives using the pumpkin.

Knowing my class would go five kinds of crazy upon entering the classroom and seeing a large pumpkin, I kept it hidden. I placed it into a crate, placed a black cloth over it, and taped a giant question mark onto the front. The kids came in that morning and went ten kinds of crazy. But the excited buzz was the perfect activator and tied in very well to the learning we had been doing about inference skills (through the super engaging Mystery Mail activities).

We talked about using what we know to infer what was hidden. Each student made a guess. I began giving them bits of information and they continued to infer and predict what was under the sheet.

Once the pumpkin was revealed, we started talking about estimation and about how many seeds we thought might be inside. I took the top off (which I highly recommend cutting at home) and they looked inside and made new estimates. While they worked on the pumpkin-themed rounding and subtraction activity pages, I invited a few students at a time to come to the table and remove and count a handful of seeds. I had them generate descriptive words about how it looked, smelled, and felt while they were doing so. This became the base of their descriptive writing. We added up all the individual student seed amounts to find the sum of all the seeds inside. This was great review of our prior work with place value and addition strategies. The students used that info to complete the math page. Students who were finished early had the choice between rounding their classmates estimates to the nearest 10 and 100 or finding the difference between estimates and the actual sum. I leave these charts posted throughout the week as easy extension activities for early finishers.

During our language arts time, they began their work on the descriptive writing pieces by talking with their peers and brainstorming lots of adjectives. I guided them through a graphic organizer to plan ideas and then they worked independently on a draft. In third grade, we do a comprehensive science unit each spring that focuses on the life cycle of plants. This year, I did a mini-unit on the life cycle of an apple and will spend some time this week learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin. I am excited to see how that schema will enhance their understanding during our spring unit. I love when everything comes together neatly. Are you looking for a way to entertain your students' Halloween giddiness without losing time on learning? I highly suggest simply bringing in a pumpkin.

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FREE Printable PUMPKIN ACTIVTIES for Math and Writing

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Pumpkin activities for kids USED TO only mean simple math activities such as estimating and counting seeds. While that may be great for the preschool and kindergarten crowd, there are so many learning lessons and hands-on activities that can be used with upper elementary students in third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade as well.

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TSW represent multiplication facts by using a variety of approaches, such as repeated addition, equal-sized groups, arrays, area models etc.

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The Teaching Thief - multiplication strategies ... maybe i should be teaching elementary math ...