Makeover Madness with Sums of 10

About four years ago, I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers with my grade partner, Jenna. We were looking for a unit or two for Christmas Around the World. We found more than a few, and before we knew it, we were hooked on TpT.

Not long after, I stuck my toes in the water, and listed a few items for sale. One of my very first products was my "Best Friends" unit. Best Friends was a strategy I used to teach sums of 10 in my classroom for years. I hand-drew a couple of characters and buddied them up to make 10. The strategy was super succesful and my students got a kick out of their number friends, so I was determined to make a unit on it and sell it.

I was so super proud of it...but that was waaaaay back in early 2012. I'd like to think I've come a long way in terms of my units for TpT, but I still love the idea/concept of "Best Friends" and so I thought it would make the perfect candidate for the #tptsellerchallenge

Let's talk about what wasn't working, shall we?

Well, just about everything! Although I still love me some chevron, the cover on the old version was too busy and it didn't highlight what the product was all about.

I still love the Jessica Weible graphics I used but they didn't work in the product. They were too hard to cut out and because they're stick figures, it was hard to show the numbers.

I have new favorite fonts now, so I had to use those in place of the ones in the product.

Perhaps the biggest thing that wasn't working was the formatting and spacing. Fonts were too small, there was too much space between items on some pages, and not enough on others.

And, so now Best Friends is totally updated and a whole lot cuter and user-friendly!

Bigger, bolder pictures and fonts. That's important because this product functions as a classroom display. Plus, I just think bigger looks a whole lot better~

The Memory Game portion of the unit now comes with an ink saving version...important for teachers because our colored ink is so precious!

And perhaps most important? A new price! Pricing was something else I struggled with when I started on TpT. I read a VERY IMPORTANT thread on not devaluing our work and making sure we charge a fair price for our hard work and originality. And while I still think fair pricing is an invaluable took as a seller, I know now that the price I was charging wasn't fair. I've lowered the price a tad bit to reflect what I think the unit it worth, and knocked off another dollar for the remainder of Makeover Madness Week, so you can grab it for $2.00 through Sunday 6/21!!

Click the picture below to grab it.

And check out all of the other Makeover Madness products by visiting Third in Hollywood's blog:

If I Had $100 to Spend in My Own Classroom {a FREEBIE!}

Hello Friends!

Happy Monday!  I’m lounging on my couch watching live coverage of the Inauguration, drinking my 3rd cup of coffee.  What an amazing day in history.  I feel lucky to be able to see it happen live :).  We’ll definitely be busy in school tomorrow discussing Dr. King and President Obama’s inauguration.

In a completely unrelated topic, I have a FREEBIE for you today!  I discussed some of my plans for our 100th Day of School here, and I left out a really fun {and I think, unique} activity we do in our classroom every year…our 100th Day Shopping Spree!

Our shopping activity is a twist on the 100th Day Favorite, “If I Had 100 Dollars”.
See, we actually give our kiddos real, crisp, green 100 fake bucks to spend on items and experiences in our classroom!

Check it out:

Students are provided a “shopping list” with items and experiences, as well as prices to prepare for their shopping trip in our classroom on {or around} the 100th Day of School.
 


Our students complete this list for homework, and bring it in on shopping day, but you could definitely have your students complete it in class.  I also included a blank template, if you’d like to write in your own choices.

I also included a Teacher Guide page and Parent Letters in this freebie packet, so you’re all set to get this fun activity going in your classroom!  We have so much fun with it year after year in 2nd Grade.  I cannot remember if I was the one that thought of it, or if it was Jenna, or our grade partner, Erica, but at this point I guess it doesn’t matter!

What I love about this activity is that if offers younger students a glimpse at what 100 dollars can really actually buy.  We used to do the “If I had 100 Dollars”, and I was amazed at what students thought 100 dollars could get them!  Although some of the prices are a little off on this list, they do get to see that 100 dollars will not buy them a new PS3 or a trip to Disney World.  Plus, it involves real math that your students get excited about!

I hope this becomes a tradition in your classroom for years to come {or at least this year!}

Click here to grab it from TpT!

Check out more 100th Day ideas at Sunny Days!

And I have to mention my Winter Comprehension Passages really quick!  They’re selling really well in my TpT shop, and I am so, so, so proud of them!  They address all the comprehension skills my students need practice with in 2nd grade.  They’re great for small group or whole group.  Classwork or Homework!  Tomorrow, I will be giving the MLK Jr. {Non-Fiction} passage for homework!  If you’re already a fan, be on the look-out for the Spring Edition :)  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check them out here.



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Have a great week!

Halle

Winter Math Freebie

Well hello.

Happy {the school week is now more than halfway over} day!

I’m popping in really quick to offer up a freebie from my “Snow Many Math Centers”.

As I said here, my favorite thing about my centers this time around is that I made an extension sheet that correlates perfectly with the center itself, but is also great as a stand alone sheet for classwork, homework, or assessments!

I uploaded one of the extension sheets to Google Docs.  It’s a number story sheet that covers a few different common core topics.   Please check it out, by clicking here.  If you like what you see, you can check out “Snow Many Math Centers” over at TpT. 



Have a good night friends!

{Tomorrow is Thursday already!}

~Halle

Winners, Clip Art Linky, and New Math Centers!!!!

Phew…are you still with me after reading that title!?!

First things first, we have winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ladies, check your email within the next few days…I’ll be emailing you the product you won, as well as asking for your mailing address to send you the perfect pair book! 

I think I have a few repeat winners from my last big giveaway!  If I ever go back to Vegas, you’re coming with!

Thank you to everyone for entering my giveaway!  I had so much fun reading your "perfect pair" suggestions, and I even got a few ideas of some new perfect pairs to try!

Lindsay, over at Primary Polka-Dots is having a super fun linky all about clip art.

My name is Halle and I am a clip art addict. {The first step is admitting your problem, you know}.

I hope you were able to discover some new artists or clip art sets!  Hop on over to Lindsay’s blog to link up yourself, or check out some favorites of other bloggers!



Also…

I just finished up my Winter Math Centers.

I wasn’t gonna make any.  I wasn’t.  Then I found some really, really cute clip art. {Because I’m addicted, remember}?

I present to you “Snow Many Math Centers”



Five centers aligned to the Common Core.

Each center comes with a Center Sign/Label, Student Directions Sheet, Recording Sheet, Center Materials, and my favorite…and extension sheet that you can use as a follow up with your whole class, in small groups, or as homework!

I love that I can do center rotations in my room, then give homework or classwork that mimics what they did during centers.  It’ll help me see who really “gets” it!
Here are a few close-ups of the centers:

“Snow Much Fun Subtraction”:

“Snow Much Fun Subtraction” Extension Sheet:



From “Hot Cocoa Café”:



From “Addition Mittens”:



From “Penguin Problem Solving”:



I am really excited to use them in my room, and to share them with you.  These centers took a lot of hard work, but I think they were worth it!

I hope you love them too!  If you do, leave a comment below.  I will pick a winner before bed!

Bedtime for Me!  Tomorrow's a Monday!  Congrats Luck Number 7, Amanda! {Picked randomly by none other than my hubby! I hope you love these centers!!!}

Click below to head over to TpT and read more about them if you'd like:

Have a good night friends!  Good Luck to all of you returning after 2 or more weeks away from your little cuties!

Halle

Halloween Math Freebie and a BIG Giveaway News

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!  We had off yesterday for Columbus Day, so today was our first day back, and I didn’t mind the extra day one bit!

We’re focusing on addition strategies and adding 3 numbers this week, so I made up a little Halloween Math Game for my kiddos.

I was inspired by this pin:

 Click the picture for the original idea that inspired me

I wanted a Halloween twist for mine, plus I desperately wanted another reason to use my adorable Melonheadz doodles, so I whipped a new one up yesterday. 

*Looks like I’m low on ink….again!!!

I hope you can use it in your room!  If you do, please leave a note letting me know!

Click the picture to grab it from TpT!

Before I go, I wanted to announce our 200 followers giveaway!!!!! We hit a milestone in blog land, and we can’t NOT celebrate it!  We’ve reached out to some of our biggest inspirations and they’re on board {I know, I still can't believe it!!}.  

This is gonna be a pretty amazing giveaway if I say so myself!

Look for it sometime this week, and tell all your friends :)

Have a good night,
Halle

PS: I’ve emailed the winners of my Halloween Products giveaway.  Thank you to everyone who participated!

Have You Heard About These Amazing Giveaways? Plus, My Number of the Day Freebie for You!

I could've sworn today was Thursday.  So much so, that even though my iPhone said Friday, I turned on the TV just to make sure.  And it's not Thursday, it's Friday. Shucks.  I feel like I lost a day somehow.


Thanks to Casey's giveaway over at Second Grade Math Maniac, we went from less than 100 followers to over 100 followers pretty quickly!!!  {Thanks Casey!!}  And since we didn't have the chance to put together a big giveaway for you, I decided to whip a freebie up for you instead!


It's my Number & Word of the Day sheets.  I plan on printing them on cardstock back to back and laminating them, then using them as morning work weekly.

Have any of you done something similar before?  For example: Monday: Journal Writing, Tuesday: Number of the Day, Wednesday: Word of the Day, etc?  I never have, but I thought I might give it a go this year.  If you have an opinion about it, I'd love to hear it!


Anyways, you can grab the sheets at our TpT shop.  I made 2 different leveled math sheets, thinking I'll use one for the first half of the year, and switch over to the second one the second half of the year.


You know I love feedback, so please leave it here or at our TpT shop if you find yourself downloading the sheets!


And now for 2 giveaways that put my freebie to shame.  Seriously.

Amanda Madden over at Teaching Maddeness is having a 500 Followers Giveaway, and you can win a $50 Amazon giftcard!! Yes!! How cool, I know, and she's made it so easy to enter!  Head on over.

Courtney over at Swimming into Second is offering 10 days of giveaways to celebrate 1,000 followers. Wow!  Congrats Courtney.  She is giving away some amazing prizes, so make sure to enter each day!


Have a good one!


Halle

Teacher Appreciation Sale & Arrays!!!

Happy Saturday!

We thought we'd jump on the Teacher Appreciation Sale with a little sale of our own in our {very} little TpT Shop.  The official sale starts tomorrow, and lasts through Tuesday.  Hopefully, you'll clear your wishlist...I know we're excited to clear ours!  There really are so many great items out there!




We're linking up with A Cupcake for the Teacher to let you know JUST HOW MANY teachers are participating. There are A LOT!  I know I'm purchasing the "Donut for Dad" for Cupcake tomorrow morning for sure!


Our newest unit is our Array unit!  This is the first unit Jenna and I have worked on together, so it's extra special for us!  We've had a riot this past week putting it together and introducing it to our classes.  They really loved the cookie array activity, and the garden monster.  Seriously, this unit is so fun and educational {toot! toot!}

Check it out, as well as a few other of our items by clicking on the banner below.  And be sure to stop by A Cupcake for the Teacher to explore all the other items out there!!

Halle :)

Getting Some Skip Counting In

We're just entering our 4^th Marking Period. {So jealous of all of you who are done in May} And well, we realized we have more skills to cram in teach during the last quarter than we thought we did.

One of those skills is skip counting to 1,000 per the new Common Core Standards. Since we are doing Terra Nova testing during the morning all week, we decided to devote our math block this week to a few of those 4^th Quarter skills we don't anticipate taking a long time. Notice we said anticipate…who knows what tomorrow will bring!

I whipped up a *few* skip counting worksheets for counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s up to 1,000. {Actually, I went over 1,000 a few times…hey, you never know!}

We'll work on these tomorrow after skip counting as a whole class, in small groups, and in pairs. We even play "Skip Count Around the World", which they LOOOOOOVE, but I think is only okay because once one of my little guys is out, they're not paying much attention to the rest of the group. But we'll play a round, or two.

Here are the sheets. I hope you can use them, share them, whatever! And if you do, please leave us a note letting us know.

-Halle

PS: We're linkin' up with Donna at Math Coach's Corner for her grade-level linky party.  We've already found so many great new blogs!  Love these kind of linkies!  And if you found us through the linky, welcome! It's nice to see you here :)