Hump Day Highlight

Guess what day it is….Guess what day it is…Mike, Mike, Mike….It’s HUMP DAY! Woot! Woot!  Oh, I crack myself up  Seriously though…ready for Friday!

Happy Wednesday, friends!  Today, I am doing my FIRST EVER link up with one of my all time favorite teacher blogs Mrs. Stanford’s Class.  Before I even tell you about my Hump Day Highlight, I just have to say that if you ever need any techy help, you should check out her blog and YouTube channel.  I found her blog over the summer and she has truly helped me on my TPT Journey 

Moving right along, to what’s happening in my 4th Grade Classroom. Do you ever feel like you have to move on with curriculum whether your kiddos are ready to or not?  I can sense the nodding of heads.  Do you feel like it’s your fault because there are more who haven’t mastered a concept than have?

That’s exactly how I feel this year.  I have felt so much pressure for my kids to do things and be somewhere they are not.  Especially in Math.  The concept I am talking about in this situation would be two and three digit division.  A difficult concept if you have not mastered:  1)basic multiplication facts 2)the concept of basic division.  I feel like I overused “concept”…You get the idea.

Well, Math is not my strength and I have worked REALLY , REALLY hard this year to create materials and lessons that engage my students, make sense to me, and most importantly-make sense to them. 

We worked on the 4th Grade Division standards in the Fall.  Even though I had to move on after Thanksgiving Break, it is so apparent my students have not mastered this.  During December and continuing through January, our focus will be Fractions.  However, my students still NEED Division practice & to master their basic Multiplication Facts. 

So, that’s the story behind my product Division is SNOW much fun!  I needed a fun way for my students to continue working on Division.   These are Winter-Themed Division Task Cards and Printables. 

On Monday, we were very fortunate to have a Pro-Ed Day, so I could get these laminated and ready to go for this week.  There are 36 Task Cards that look like this:

This is the recording sheet they will use for the problems:

There are 4 of these numbered up to 36.   I also included this sheet, which I planned on using at first. 

The reason I am not using this sheet in my classroom is because my students tend to NOT show their work. (I’m sure my students are the only ones who do this…) So, I needed to provide an answer sheet with enough workspace.  And of course, remind them to use it!

How am I using these in my classroom?

We have a 30 minute Math Intervention, which in real time ends up being 10 minutes.  15 if I am lucky.  So each of my kids will do one problem per day.  We will rotate through all of the problems.  I will work with small groups on one problem, while others work with a partner and/or independently.  By using only 9 problems per sheet, I will know how they are doing BEFORE completing 36 division problems WRONG. Waste of time. 

Also, to keep myself and my students organized I will only start with the first 18 so they only have 1 page to keep track of- front and back.  I have 21 students in my class.  Four will be on the computer and Four will work with me.  So, I have options for students to work with a partner or individually.

This product also includes the problems in a worksheet format if anyone wanted to go that route

Other highlights of the week which are NOT school related, but made me very happy are:

• More Living Room Yoga with this guy:

• Titan’s First Birthday! On January 3rd, he turned a year old! He is a spoiled little puppy!

• And…Titan enamored by the Cricut

It was pretty entertaining to watch Please ignore the background mess.  The office/craft room/crap room/guest bedroom is still under construction! We just moved in October.  I was supposed to be cleaning and got sidetracked by the Cricut on Saturday night.  So it is STILL under construction!

I can’t wait to link up with all of the other wonderful bloggers for their Hump Day Highlight! I will be sure to get my glass of wine and enjoy some good reads!

Happy Hump Day!  Friday just got a little bit closer