The One with the Snowball Fight

I have been ready for a snow day for quite a while now.   You know... a day of sleeping in and staying in PJs all day.  Plus snow is beautiful.

But it just doesn't seem to be happening around here.  It has definitely been cold enough for a snow day, but no snow.

Friday when my students walked in I shared this desire for a snow day with them.  They were quick to agree with me.  I let them know that while I couldn't make it snow outside, I could certainly make it snow in my classroom.

Their eyes lit up with excitement.

They began wondering what I was thinking.

You see I had found this fun review activity by Brooke Eagerton.

What could be better than an indoor order of operations snowball fight?

64 problems - 1 problem per page.

The problems varied in difficulty which I appreciated.

Simply print the problems, wad them up into snowballs, and let the fun begin.

I divided my students into two teams.  We pushed our six tables to the center of the room to serve as a divider.  The students were not allowed to cross the tables.

They had 60 seconds to throw snowballs.  The rules state that students cannot run and cannot aim at someone's face.

Needless to say my students LOVED this.

At the end of 60 seconds they picked up three snowballs, retreated to their corner and worked the three problems.  They had to get with a partner and check each other's work.

Then we started over with another 60 second fight.  After each round they had to work more problems.  They worked four problems after round two, five problems after round three, and so on.

I wish I had pictures for you, but I deleted them.

Ugh!

You'll just have to trust me when I say this review activity was a hit.

My 6th graders have been challenging this year and I debated letting them "play" this game.  I had to make a believer out of a few in the first round.  As soon as they realized I was serious and they wouldn't get to participate in the "fighting" they followed the rules.

The One with Bottle Caps

I have been saving the bottle caps off my water for awhile now. 

 Last week I finally sat down and created a game with them.

Thank you Pinterest!

I used these bright colored labels that I had on hand.  They fit perfectly onto the bottle caps.

I put multiplication facts on the outside.

And products on the inside.

I still need to create a cute container to put them all in.

The idea for this game is that students can practice their multiplication facts whenever they finish an assignment early or as a center. 

I'm going to put a timer in the container with the bottle caps.  The challenge will be to correctly answer as many as you can in one minute.

I also plan to make a set of addition and subtraction for a few of my lower level students.

I've seen lots of ideas on Pinterest for ways to use bottle caps for both literacy and math.  I will probably be making more games as I collect more bottle caps.

The One with the SlantBox

P.S.  I totally tore into those chocolates as soon as I finished filming.  

Sooo good!!

The One Where They Return

I survived my first day back in the classroom after a glorious two week Christmas break.

I'm not going to lie.  It was HARD to hear that alarm this morning and get out of bed.  And I mean HARD!

Once I was dressed and ready to walk out the door, I felt good to go.

Can I just say how impressed I am with all of you that posted pictures on instagram of your fabulous lesson plans and creations?

I did none of that!

I finally sat down yesterday afternoon to start thinking about today's plans only to realize I brought absolutely nothing home to plan.  

NOTHING!

I knew I wanted to ease my students back into our routine.  I wanted something hands-on that wouldn't require too much thinking, but that would get those brain waves flowing again.

I remembered something I pinned a few weeks ago that was perfect.

This fractions, decimals, and percents, packet came from Miss Giraffe.

I sat the different activities up as stations and added a review with the teacher station.  The activities were simple enough that my students didn't struggle.  They brought back some ideas that we talked about before Christmas break.

It was seriously the best way to ease back into things.

Thank you so much for creating this packet, Miss Giraffe.  

Tomorrow we dive head first into Order of Operations.  

The One in January 2015

Time for another Currently.

Join in on the fun and go link up with Farley.