Blizzard....really?? And some fraction fun!

For those of you not familiar with Texas weather...let me give you a quick run-down.  We have days of 70 degree heaven followed immediately by days of below freezing, wind-blowing madness.  It's ri-di-cu-lous...and it causes a wardrobe nightmare.  You can't pack up your winter clothes in the spring because it may snow at any given moment...and you can't pack up your flip-flops in the winter because it may be 75 degrees and sunny....uugggHHH!! We are 2 weeks away from Spring Break in our district and are under a blizzard warning in the Texas panhandle.  FUN!  I'm half hoping for a snow day tomorrow, but I also know that when that day comes in the spring where we have to go to school to make up for the snow day....I will be very, very sad :(

Moving on to more school related fun....

My kids are busy wrapping up our fraction unit.  We have done the heavy lifting and are finishing up with fractions on a number line this next week.  My kiddos really seem to get fractions...which was surpring to me.  I thought they would have more trouble...but they are breezing through it :)

We used a foldable for comparing fractions from Abby Sandlin.  It's a quick and easy way to assess the kids on what they know...and they had fun doing it! You can get it at her TpT store for {FREE}!!

In my plans to use fractions on a number line, I noticed that Abby has some great stuff to use with that also.  It's way cute....and I'm gonna go buy it...NOW!

I hope you all had a great weekend! 



Fractions and Photoshop

As some of you may or may not know, I only teach math.  Well, math and science....but waaaayyyyy more math than science.  I try to weave in science wherever I can, but since our state standardized test (called STAAR in Texas) is in math and reading for 3rd graders, we focus much more on the math!!  I have a great team teacher who teaches the reading/writing/social studies part.  We both have a homeroom, but we each teach 41 kiddos in all.  That's....a lot.....of kids!! 

We have been studying fractions.....all of last week, and I have been pleasantly surprised with how well my kids are doing.  They seem to understand the concept of parts/whole and we played and practiced a lot last week.  Of course, I used many resources that I have found here in blogland.  Some of the awesome things I found were some fraction strips from Math Minds, a few journal pages for a good intro to fractions by Frogs and Cupcakes and a multitude of stuff from this awesome lady Donna Boucher over at Math Coach's Corner.

 

I am going to be using alot of her fraction stuff this coming week for comparing fractions and equivalent fractions.  If you don't follow her blog, you totally should!!!  I follow her on facebook as well and she is always looking for new and exciting ways to teach math.  Follow her....do it....do it now!

 

I am still learning so much about blogging.  I am crying over playing with a trial verson of Adobe Photoshop right now and I am completely, 100% lost.  There are far too many buttons and toolbars.  Is there a manual I can download to figure it out?  I just have the trial version right now, but it came with full access to the whole shebang!  L.O.S.T.!!!!!  I still can't figure out how to add a picture to my blog and make the picture the hyperlink.  I wanted to share some of the pictures of the cool stuff I used this past week, but all I could do was put the hyperlink in the text, not the image.  Lots to still figure out.  I don't consider myself to be completely ignorant when it comes to technology, but this blog experience has been humbling. 

 

Hopefully, by the end of this week, I will have some classroom pics to show you and I will have figured out how to....do more.  Wish me luck!

 

~Mandi