Save BIG with the 6-7-8 Educents Bundle

Who doesn't like a good deal?

I am very excited to be joining up with Educents, to save teachers valuable time and money. They are currently offering a bundle for grades 6, 7 and 8, covering all the main subject areas...and the best part, you will be saving over 75%!!

 

 

I wanted to put one of my best sellers in the mix, so I decided to include my Number Centers Series!

 

 

This series includes all 3 sets of my Number Centers. Altogether you will find 33 number centers designed to help your students strengthen their number sense in a hands-on, fun, and challenging way. Seeing that these centers are focused on the broad concept of number they can be used at any time of the year, or in relation to a concept being taught in class. The great things....these activites, do not need to be used strictly as centers. They could easily be used as enrichment activities, early-finisher activities, or as a "Problem of the Week".

And that's just one product.  Check out the rest of the products below that you also get in this limited time bundle from Educents!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bundle is only available for a short time so you will want to head on over to get it before it's gone!

 

TpT's Back to School Sale

It's that time of year!

Teachers pay Teachers is having their annual Back to School Sale!!

I know I can't resist a good sale. I cringe having to pay full price for anything...so this type of thing makes me very happy.

Time to stock up on some amazing resources to make this year's planning easy and stress-free!

 

Everything in my store is 20% off, plus save an additonal 10% at check out with promo code BTS13.

 

Happy shopping!

Back to School Bonanza

I am so excited to be teaming up with a great group of middle school bloggers for a "Back to School Bonanza" blog hop.

By visiting each of our blogs we will be providing you with some back to school tips, tricks, and of course FREEBIES! Just a little gift from us to you, to help make the back to school transition a little easier.

Once you have checked out all our blogs and collected all your freebies, don't forget to enter our giveaway! You could be the lucky winner of our "Back to School Survival Pack"!

Happy Hopping!

I find the first few days of school the hardest. Here you are standing in front of a group of teenagers, they don't know you, you don't know them, but somehow by the end of the year you are going to have made a memorable connection with each one of them (hopefully).

My number one goal for the first day(s) is to get to know a bit about each student as quickly as I can, names are a great place to start, but I want to get to know them as individuals. This can be a challenge when I teach 3 different classes, with approximately 25 students in each. Here's how I do it...

When my students walk into my room, I say good morning, do a quick attendance check (first attempt to learn names), and then I inform them that in order to be the best teacher I can be I need to know a bit about them as students. Now unfortunately, I can't sit down with each student the first day and have a nice chat, so the next best thing is for them to write me a letter, telling me about themselves.

I then place a letter to my students on the overhead that tells them a bit about me. Since I expect them to tell me about them, they deserve to know a little about me. (They act like they could care less about my life...but you know they are curious)

I am always amazed at how quiet the room is once they start writing, after all what teenager doesn't like to talk about him/herself?

As they write, I walk around the room doing a 2nd attempt to learn names. Usually this activity takes the whole class.

By the end of the day I now know a little bit about each one of my students in terms of their family, interests, but most importantly I have my first informal assessment of their abilities. Now I may be a math teacher, but seeing a student's writing abilities, still tells me a lot in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.

Now that I know my students a little better, I can really start to plan out my year.

Now onto the FREEBIE!

My number two goal for the first day(s) is to get the students interacting with each other in a fun and positive way. In order to get them to put down those invisible barriers they like to put up, I put them into groups and provide them with a challenge.

Each group is given a paper bag filled with random supplies (basically whatever I could find lying around in the cupboards or recycling bins). Using only the supplies provided they are to construct the tallest free standing structure. There is a set amount of time, so students have little option but to start interacting with one another and putting their problem solving skills to work.

If you are interested in doing this challenge with your students, you can dowload the full set of instructions here.

Enjoy getting to know your students!

Kim

Special thanks to Kristy at 2 Peas and a Dog for organizing this event.

Want More Back to School Goodies?

Enter our AMAZING back to school giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School Giveaway!

No matter how much we love our jobs, it is always bitter sweet to see the end of another summer and the beginning of another school year. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I am just as nervous as the kids on those first few days of school. It's always like walking into the unknown, you don't know them, they don't know you...

 

Of course, once you get into a routine, and learn all their names it feels as if you never left!

Fortunately, I have a couple of weeks left to bask in the glory that is summer vacation, but I know some of my fellow teachers are already full swing into a new school year and I wish you all the best this year!

To celebrate a brand new school year, with all its new challenges, surprises, and rewarding moments, I joined up with a great group of talented teacher bloggers for a fantastic giveaway that Krystal, at Lessons From The Middle, is hosting to celebrate Back to School.

 There are over $400 worth of prizes to be won including:

~ Multiple TPT shopping sprees in sellers' stores to help you get all stocked up for a new school year

~ $10 Starbucks gift certificate to get the year started on the right foot

~ $75 gift certificate at WiseDecor to make your classroom even more inviting for your students with beautiful wall decals

~$25 gift certificate at Black Rafter Soap Works to pamper yourself a little bit after the first big week back

~Cool Duo Binders to get you organized easily

~An awesome tote from Thirty-One - who doesn't love a new bag?

There are FOUR Prize Packages to be won! Make sure to enter to win each of the prize packages - they're all fantastic and you don't want to miss out!

 

This giveaway runs August 10th-14th.

 

Good luck!

Prize Package #1 a Rafflecopter giveaway Prize Package #2 a Rafflecopter giveaway Prize Package #3 a Rafflecopter giveaway Prize Package #4 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Math is Real Life - August Edition

When are we EVER going to use THIS?!” This statement… this one little statement has caused fear and panic to run through MANY a math teacher’s veins! It’s not like you won’t use math in the real world… but sometimes as soon as that question is uttered we have a mind-melting-moment and cannot come up with just the right words to say. Many times, I have thought of something perfect to respond with, but hours after the class has left the room.

So to help give you some real world examples, I am excited to join in on this terrific linky hosted by Miss Math Dork, 4mulafun, Fourth Grade Studio, and Teaching to Inspire in 5th!

So, once a month, I will be picking one way that I have used math to help me solve a particular problem. Here we go...

The Problem:
We recently built our dream home (or at least the one we could afford). In order for us to build our house we first needed to acquire a piece of land. We waited 4 long years until the perfect piece of land came up for sale. My husband's criteria - it need to be at least 2 acres and have a lot of trees. Well we got just that, 4 acres of land with about 85% of it treed. Needless to say, I barely saw my husband last summer because he was in his glory using a chainsaw to clear enough trees to build our house.

Fast forward to this summer, we are all settled into our new house in the country and loving it, but we have very quickly discovered that the to do list of a new house never ends!

So, what did my husband do with all the trees he chopped down, you ask. Well, currently they are stacked in our back bush, which is not an ideal location with winter coming in a few months and our plan to install a wood stove in the living room. So....he decided to build a woodshed close to the house where we can store the wood to dry once it is all chopped (did I mention I got him an axe for Father's day).

Now, building a woodshed, that wouldn't require any kind of Math would it? Why yes, yes it does!

The Solution:
Now technically, I am not the one performing any real manual labour here, but I did oversee the construction, much to my husband's chagrin.

So before beginning anything, we needed a plan. Thank you Pinterest!

Now, I am very fortunate to have a husband that is very handy, so he simply used this as a starting point, and altered it to fit our needs.

So where does the math come in? Well there was quite a lot involved, but the most predominant was the measuring required. One must always remember, "measure twice, cut once". There were quite a few basic straight cuts (I did a few of those), but it was when he was constructing the roof that we needed to put our thinking caps on. We needed to use Trigonometry! Now, I will openly admit, neither myself, nor my husband use trig on a regular basis, so we needed a little refresher! But once all the calculations were done, and despite our 2 year old son wanting to help, we ended up with something I think resembles a pretty decent woodshed. All thanks to a little MATH!

Get your students thinking about math in real life. Have students complete a journal entry like the ones below. I promise these will get them thinking.

More journal starters can be found here.

Keep it real,

Kim