Choices and Consequences, Holiday Adding and Subtracting within 10, and books!

Primary: 5th Sunday Edition
Being the 5th Sunday, and our first 5th Sunday in Primary, my counselor and I decided that we would play a game that my mom has used many a time. I'm not sure where she got it from (knowing my mom, she came up with it), so if you know where please share below!

I forgot to take pictures of the board that I had made, so here is the picture of the one my mom made. For the board I made, I made 5 pockets so that we could store the choice cards.

The choice cards are just CTR shields with the choices on the back. Some choices:
1. You stole money from a friend and bought candy.
2. Your mom asked you to help her and you helped her right away.
3. Your brother was being a pest so you pushed him.
4. Your friends wanted to play on Sunday, but you didn't and told them that you can play with them a different day.

The game rules with an introduction and a conclusion. We also gave out stickers for good choices and then candy at the end in honor of Halloween.

In order to make the game a bit more engaging, we added options for doing the consequences with a friend/sibling or with your whole class. Some consequences were pages from the Friend and LDS coloring book. Others were things like do jumping jacks until the quote is ended or putting together a puzzle of a church figure (like Captain Moroni).

Overall, it seemed to be a success! We had investigator kids and they told the missionaries that they want to come back next week (win).

Here are a few of the pages that I printed out for the challenges.

What are some of your favorite 5th Sunday activities?

TPT
What's one of my posts without a section about Teachers Pay Teachers?

I am heading to Chicago with Baby A this coming weekend, so I wanted to make sure I got a few things up before leaving (in case I decide to slack). All three of them are adding and subtracting within 10. I'll just share one at a time so I can spread the love.

I tried making these Thanksgiving-themed puzzles and it was hard! I use Photoshop Elements to make most of the images that I use. Overall, I think I did a fairly decent job. I am pretty excited about them 😀

Multiplication and division are up next on the docket, get ready. It is crazy to think how fast this year has gone by. Find Adding and Subtraction within 10 here. 

"Caraval" by Stephanie Garber: 2017 Reading Challenge

From Goodreads: Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless, she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

What I Liked:

The idea of Caraval is great! It has sisterly love, romance, magic, and a mysterious game. One sister has to run after the other and win the game before time runs out. The leader of the game could have been a great villain or her father could have been great to string along through more of the story as another villain. I also liked that even though I disliked the author's writing style, characterizations, etc, I still wanted to know how it ended...mainly to know if my predictions were right.

What I Disliked:

The biggest irritation was the author's use of weird descriptions. In the story, the main character sees feelings as colors. For example, she used the term "periwinkle of curiosity." It would have been alright if it was important to the story, but it isn't. It was just odd. 

Another thing that bugged me was that the characters didn't really progress or change outside of a smidgeon at the end. Also, Scarlett claims to be searching for her sister; however, she spends a lot of time worrying about Julian and Dante. She really needed to sort out her priorities. 

In this mysterious and mystifying game, we're also supposed to believe that Scarlett has minimum interactions with the other competitors. She has almost no competition from the beginning! If this was realistic, everyone would be concocting plans and attempt to either take her down or bring her into some sort of alliance. 

The ending was just sort of an exposition dump without any explanation for the magic outside of (basically) I don't know, it just works that way. Are you kidding me?? I mean, I'm all for suspension of belief for a while, but that's too much even for me. 

Will I read the book coming out next year? Probably! I am curious where she will go with the sister's POV and if it'll be better than the first. 

What are your thoughts on the book?

I can go to the temple for my ancestors when I am older and Halloween Math

Primary
The past few weeks have been a jam-packed, busy storm of activity. I've been recalled as primary president, so I've been trying to get things in place and settled. This week's lesson is on attending the temple for our ancestors when we turn 12.

(from Melonheadz)

I printed out this picture and turned it into a puzzle. To start the lesson, the primary children will hunt down the missing pieces and build it on the board.

Next, we're going to go over some vocabulary. I pulled these terms from the Friend and turned them into posters. I feel it's a good idea to go over these words with the kids on a frequent basis (when it ties in) in order to help them learn. I'm planning on asking if they have heard the terms before, where they have heard them, and to explain them to me before revealing the posters. 

After, I'll have the kids look under their chairs for the different ordinances that can be done in the temple. We'll put them up on the board by the ordinances poster. 

I'll bring up how we can go to the temple and get these ordinances when we are older and baptism when we turn 8.

Then, I'll tell a story about a relative passing away before receiving the ordinances and ask what can be done for them. Hopefully, we'll get to the point where they know that their ancestors can still receive the ordinances, but we have to do them for them. 

We'll continue on and go over how we can prepare now to go to the temple for our ancestors. 

I am giving out laughy taffy at the end with a card that says "I can 'chews' to prepare to go to the temple for my ancestors." I haven't decided if we will do the suggested coloring activity yet or not. 

While doing research for this lesson, I really liked the suggestions from Life's Journey to Perfection. There are also some good ideas on Sugar Doodle as well. 

Organization

I haven't been able to find binder covers and organizers that I like online so I may develop ones that work for me. Here's the cover that I have been working on:

I slightly modified one design that I saw online to make this one, but I'm not sure if this will be the final design. 

Teachers Pay Teachers

I am surprised how much TPT took off this month so far. I am glad others are finding the things I develop are helpful in the classroom. 

The adding and subtracting decimals worksheet will probably be the final Halloween-themed item that I put together this year.  I am preparing to move on to Thanksgiving in the next few days! You can find the product here.

I can't believe that it has been about a year since I began Teachers Pay Teachers. I have done much better than I thought, gotten better at developing products, and learned a ton. It will be exciting to see what the next year brings.

Tips for TPT:

1. Make sure you have something for holidays. 

I missed out on a lot of sales the first 6+ months because I didn't have holiday items. If you are starting a TPT account, definitely start making things for the next holiday coming up first. 

2. Pinterest helps A LOT

I never thought much about how Pinterest could help with advertising products, but it helps drive a lot of traffic to the store. 

I debated a lot about getting one of those services that pin for you, because the higher your activity on Pinterest, the more your pins pop up for people. It took a web seminary from Create and Go to make the final decision. They said that they do not use a service because they studied it and you get more exposure when you pin things yourself. 

3. If it's not fun, take a break or change

It's important to keep this fun in the long run. If you aren't having any fun making products, you probably won't keep with it very long. Take a break or try something new if you are feeling overwhelmed or anxious by it. Stop looking at other people's products and success, because that will get you down too. Success will come for you. I'm starting to have success, so it is DEFINITELY possible!

Reading

With everything going on, it is hard to find time to sit down and read for long spaces of time. I am now switching between The Way of Kings and Caravel. I'm not sure when I'll finish, but when I do I'll report. I am excited to give my reviews of the books!

Halloween Multi-Digit Multiplication and Division and More on Terrific Tuesday

Teachers Pay Teachers
I've been trying to crank out more mystery pictures for Halloween. It is really encouraging to see the feedback from other teachers that say how the pictures were helpful and that their students liked them.

I just finished a set of multi-digit multiplication and division worksheets for the upcoming holiday. These are great for centers, individual practice, and more. Each worksheet also has an answer key to help when it comes time to correct the worksheets.

The larger the math problem, the trickier it gets to make the worksheets. I need to figure out an easier way to have the worksheets cover more difficult concepts. 

They are pretty fun to make! After I put the worksheet together, I duplicate the slide so that I can color the image in Photoshop.

You can find the Halloween Multi-Digit Multiplication and Division Mystery Pictures packet on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I am split on what to create next. I've been thinking about translating the worksheets into Spanish for dual-immersion classrooms or Spanish classrooms to use. I've also considered doing Halloween sight words and decimals too. If you have an opinion, comment below!

Currently Reading
It's been a while since I have shared what I am reading and here's why:

This book weighs in at just over 1,000 pages. I haven't read a book this long before and it is smaller print than I am used to. From Goodreads:

"Speak again the ancient oaths,
Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.
And return to men the Shards they once bore.
The Knights Radiant must stand again.

Roshar is a world of stone swept by tempests that shape ecology and civilization. Animals and plants retract; cities are built in shelter. In centuries since ten orders of Knights fell, their Shardblade swords and Shardplate armor still transform men into near-invincible warriors. Wars are fought for them, and won by them."

This isn't my first Brandon Sanderson, which is good because I think I would have abandoned this story or not even tried. My current thoughts:
-The characters are interesting so far. Kaladin and Shallan are interesting.
-The style is pretty similar to the first few Mistborn books
-I don't know if I can finish 1,000 pages

Before you read this book, read some others by Brandon Sanderson so you can keep the faith that this book will be good. Book 3 is coming out next month so it would be nice to be done with the first 2 books by then; however, life is crazy and I am easily distracted. haha. We will have to see.

LDS General Conference
We had General Conference September 30th and October 1st. The church leaders speak to all of us on various topics that they want us to hear. You can find them here.

In order to re-listen and try to learn from them (because I am horrible at remembering to set aside time for Gospel study), I have been downloading different audio files of the talks onto my cell phone and then playing them when we go for morning walks. 

This is one of my favorite talks from Conference. You can also find it here.

Being a Mom Update
Naptimes have been rough. Baby A is 1 1/2 years old. She sleeps great at night, but right now naptime is a pain. We are trying to figure out a new naptime because she would only sleep in the morning and then be super crabby by dinner or she would just be on a sleep strike. Any tips out there? Please share below!