Hi everyone,
I've wanted to make my math mysteries digital for a long time and with almost everyone trying to teach their classes remotely, I thought I better get to it. Hopefully, this will provide a fun activity for your little learners to enjoy at home and practice reading comprehension and math with story problems! The nice thing about math mysteries is they are self-checking. Kids start reading at the beginning of the story and answer math problems along the way. It's important for them to read carefully because some of the questions can be a little tricky. Check out this video to see how I made them on a Google form so you can assign them quickly and easily to your students.







I do also have some of my math mysteries as BOOM Learning digital cards as well. Click here to see all the choices of math mystery. I mostly have 2nd and 3rd grade available, but I do have some 1st, 4th, and K as well.

I hope you are well and are practicing your social distancing! It isn't easy, that's for sure.

Hi everyone. Isn't this just crazy? Who would have thought we would be scrambling to find and create lessons for our students to learn from home with little to no time to plan? Unbelievable!
A couple of weeks ago I got an escape room lesson from TpT and it was housed on Google Sites. That got me thinking about creating a Google Site for classroom assignments when schools began closing. So, I got busy making a bunch of headers and starting building a site to share with teachers. However, I found that there isn't a way to share the site so that you can copy it and use it. Everything you put on would be on the original site. So, I thought I would make a video to help you get your site set up and give you some headers to get you started.








If you are interested in setting up a Google Site for your students and would like to use the headers you can get them FREE here. If there are other words you would like put on the headers, just shoot me an email at hilary35t@gmail.com and I will try to get that added to the folder.







I did make some 3rd-grade activities for reading, writing, and grammar if you would like some content to get you started. There is also a Check-In page and Assignment checklist also included. Click here.

Well, I finally made one. I made a digital escape room and it came out great! I think it was really worth the time it took me to learn how to make it because the kids went bonkers for it. I flat out asked them if they liked it and they shouted 'YES' with enthusiasm. LOL That's what I like to hear!

Escape Rooms or some call them breakouts are usually made for small groups of students to work together to solve the mystery. The kids worked together at their tables, but they wanted to each have their own computer to work on. I don't have a problem with that!

I gave each student a planning sheet to use to write their codes on. I would say about half the kids used the planning page, but the other kids just went back to the main page on Google Sites and recorded their answers.







For the early finishers, I made sure they knew what they could work on while the rest of the students finished their adventure. Once everyone had a chance to find their way to Lucky the Leprechaun's party, we celebrated with little lucky lollies! (suckers)



This first digital escape room is called The Case of the St. Patrick's Day Party just in time for St. Patrick's Day. I hope you decide to check it out!

AND, if you are a math mystery fan, I've begun making my math mysteries digital! Fun, right?! Since it is March, I started with The Case of the Mixed-Up March Madness for Third Grade.



Thanks for stopping by!

My kids love using 'French fry' words to make their writing better. When I first made my bulletin board, this is what it looked like. 

Eventually, I used a pocket chart to store the packets. I liked using the pocket chart much better because the fries didn't go spilling everywhere. The 'French Fry' board is a board for overused words. The French fries are words to use instead of boring words. I think it came out pretty darn good. It really helps the kids get rid of some of those old, tired words. Watch the video to see how my friend Jenny has them in her room. 

So, how was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was wonderful with all your family and friends. We are officially in the winter holidays! I can't believe how fast this year has gone!
A few years ago, I helped compile teaching products to give teachers a little gift for this time of year. Since there are so many new teachers out there, I thought it might be a good idea to dust off these FREE valuable resources that never go out of style!



   


Each book has approximately 50 FREE holiday resources for 1st and 2nd grades, as well as helpful hints to help you through the holiday hilarity that tends to accompany December and the winter holidays.

When I was teaching 2nd grade, I made copies of many of the activities and put them in stations. Then, on the 2 days before winter break, we had a massive center time. We had one for math and one for language arts. It was a lot of fun and it kept the kids active and engaged.
Have fun loading up on a ton of awesome holiday resources!
Happy Holidays!

Wow, Thanksgiving is late this year! What are you doing for the next 2 or 3 days before Thanksgiving? Well, I have an idea for you. Why not let the kids do a short math mystery.

I have always liked this math mystery because it is short but a lot of fun. Math Mysteries are a fun way for kids to practice math skills and do a little reading as well. They are able to practice math standards in a 'story problem' type format. The mysteries are set up in a 'choose your own adventure' type of theme.
There are a couple of different ways I've used math mysteries in my room.

1. I print out a copy or two in color and put the pages in plastic page protectors and then place them in a 3-ring binder. Then, the kids can use a dry erase marker to work out the problems. You can see how I did this in this video.
2. Or, I print out the sheets that have 4 pages to a sheet and make individual booklets for each child.
3. Or, I print the books in color and spiral bound them so I have enough for 1/2 the class. Then, the kids buddy up to solve the mystery.

Do you teach about the short vowel sounds? I'm a big proponent of hands-on activities, but sometimes it's just nice to have a workbook to give kids the practice they need. In this sample pack, you will get workbook pages to use with your kids for the short 'a' vowel sound.
The packet includes these activities:


Answer keys are also included. So, if you would rather use the pages at a learning station, they can be self-checking. I like to put pages like this into a page protector. One side has the work to be completed with a dry erase marker. The other side is the answer key.

Get your free sample here.




If you like what you see, you can get the full version here.


Thanks for stopping by!

Kids love to make new words, especially in a hands-on way. Making new words with word families is a very important skill and one that is extremely satisfying to the little learner. After introducing word families, I love using this hands-on, simple activity in my classroom because it can be used so many different ways. Fun ways to use this activity are:

• enlarge the pages, place the page on a cookie sheet, and then give the kids magnets.
• give the kids rubber stamps with letters on them.
• place the pages into plastic page protectors and have the kids write the letters with dry erase markers.

You can't believe all the words they come up with. Sometimes, they make words that aren't really words or aren't spelled correctly. Then, that will give you a chance to teach about some of the crazy rules we have in the English language.
After using all the word families with my kids, they were well on their way to becoming word masters.

If you would like to try out one of these pages to let your kids make new words with word families, just click here.










Then, if you like, you can buy the:

• short vowel pack
• long vowel pack
• special vowel pack
• complete bundle of all 3 packs

Thanks for stopping by!