Murder on the Orient Express Review and Thanksgiving Multiplication and Division Mystery Pics

There has been a lot going on lately, which everyone will probably be hearing about in later posts. Baby A and I got back from visiting my parents in Chicago. While we were there, I went with my mom and sister to see the new version of Murder on the Orient Express (my dad babysat).

About six months ago, my mom introduced C and me to Hercule Poirot and Murder on the Orient Express as done by David Suchet. I found it slow but intriguing. I was hooked on the character and the series. When I heard they were remaking the movie, I was ecstatic. The cast was interesting and I enjoyed the first, so why not this one?

My biggest shock was that Hercule Poirot....

is also....

Gilderoy Lockhart.

I didn't actually know until my mom and sister were talking about it afterward. He's aged pretty well!.

I should warn that I did fall asleep for a few minutes during the movie. In defense of the movie, I have not had a good night's sleep in years and it has been worse due to my anxiety with my new church calling. The theater was also switching between super hot and icy cold. I fell asleep during the warm part.

The soundtrack of the movie was well done. I feel like it fit and blended with each scene nicely. It stuck out just enough to add more to the scene, but it wasn't overbearing.

The overall cast performance was great! I should warn that you shouldn't compare this against past versions of the movie. Each edition should be enjoyed separately and on their own merits. It's like trying to compare an apple, an orange, and a banana. All 3 are great fruits, but they aren't truly the same thing and should be enjoyed for what they have.

I really liked the one David Suchet version. He is a phenomenal Poirot and does fit the image I had in my head as I read the book.

I really enjoyed Kenneth Branagh's performance too. I felt like more of Poirot's sense of humor came through. I also liked seeing Poirot's love of food come through. With Suchet's Poirot, you knew about the interest in food, but you didn't always see it. With Branagh's performance, I felt like some of the smaller things about Poirot came through nicely.

In the end, is the movie worth seeing? I'd say yes and I would definitely add this movie to our ever-growing movie collection.

Is it worth seeing in the movie theater? It's hard for me to say for sure. I do enjoy the movie theater experience, but I also like being able to watch from home. It's nice to be able to pause the movie if we need to, eat dinner while we watch, etc.

Does this movie deserve the scores it has been getting? Not at all! This is a very well done movie and worth the watch. People have become desensitized from all of the destruction and sex-laden films. This is a show great for anyone.

What are your thoughts on Murder on the Orient Express? Share them below.

Teachers Pay Teachers: Thanksgiving Edition

I've been developing more math coloring worksheets for my TPT store. I've been getting a lot of great feedback from teachers and the pages seem to be helping, which is wonderful. It's not worth it to make and post these sheets if they don't add to instruction.

Check it out here!

I am excited about my new design for my higher level math sheets. I think it makes it easier to make them and I think they are easier to solve.

What are some of your favorite things to do in class during Thanksgiving? Share below!

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 Addition and Subtraction Mystery Pictures: Facts to 10 and 20

I am so excited for fall! It has been a hot summer here in Southern California and I'm looking forward to cool weather. In honor of the next big holiday, I've finished two holiday sets.

These have been pretty popular with my mother-in-law's students. They enjoy being able to color as they solve the problems and try to find out what the pictures are. 

The Addition and Subtraction within 10 packet is aligned with CC 1.OA.6. The Addition and Subtraction within 20 packet is aligned with 1.OA.6 and 2.OA.2.

 You can find the packets here:
Halloween Addition and Subtraction Within 10 Mystery Pictures
Halloween Addition and Subtraction Within 20 Mystery Pictures

The worksheets are great for center activities, small group practice, individual practice, substitutes, and more.

What are some of your students' favorite ways to practice addition and subtraction?

If you have a moment, please share your thoughts on what kinds of products, books and teaching tips you would like to see on here below or on this survey. All survey answers are anonymous!

Practicing Multiplication and Division Facts: Dominoes Center

Recently, I finished redoing my multiplication and division dominoes bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers. When I was teaching, I was always on the lookout for different ways to help my students master their multiplication and division facts and different ways to engage them during centers. These games meet both of those desires.

There are 3 game sets in each packet. The sets cover facts 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12. This way, students can be practicing the facts that they need to practice.

I ended up printing out all of the dominoes for another mom at my church who home-schools her 4 boys. She was pretty excited to have another tool to help her boys practice their facts.

To help identify which cards belong to which set, I printed them out on different colors of card stock. This is also helpful for fast clean up! I would definitely recommend laminating these guys before using them with your class so that they last longer.

The domino games can be found in my Teachers Pay Teachers store separately and in bundle form.

Multiplication and Division Dominoes Bundle

Multiplication Dominoes Game

Division Dominoes Game

What are some other centers that you enjoy using in your classroom? Share in the comments below!

Have some time? I'd love it if you could complete a survey for me on future topics you would like me to post about here.

Special Blog Only Freebie: Long A and Short A Color & Sort

I've been working the last month or so on Long A activities for my mother-in-law and to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Since it has been a while, I thought I would share a sample of the activities that are included in the bundles. The two activities are for sorting long A and short A words.

Download it here!

The answer keys are available in the preview as well. If you have any trouble downloading the product, let me know and I can send it directly.

The full products can be found on TPT:
Long A Activities Bundle
Long E Activities Bundle
Long I Activities Bundle
Long U Activities Bundle

I'm pretty excited for the long O activities bundle that I am currently working on. Once I am finished, I will combine the products into one mega, growing bundle as well as sell them separately.

More Reviews and More Mystery Pictures

Adding Two Digit by One Digit Whole Numbers Puzzle 

I liked doing the adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators so much that I decided to create a similar set for adding two digit by one digit whole numbers. Pretty similar, however, I decided to have a few different levels for some of the worksheets. This way, students at different levels can still enjoy completing the picture. 

Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles

So I stayed up late the other night to finish this book in the series. Fairest is just a novella and so far you don't need to read it to understand Winter, but it is definitely an interesting read. Disturbing, but it was interesting to read Levana's background. I did think that I would get some understanding of the character and maybe sympathy, but nope. She is just as vile as they make her seem in the main series. This book isn't too dirty, but the dirtiest of the books so far with a lot of detailed "slut shaming." Overall, interesting for people who like learning about villains' backstories, but otherwise a book worth skipping.  

2017 Reading Challenge, The Lunar Chronicles Review, and Adding Multi-digit Whole Numbers Oh My!

2017 Reading Challenge
I have made some headway into my 2017 Reading Challenge! Previously, I said I would start out on the walking level and then progress throughout the three levels (hopefully) by the end of the year. However, I have yet to stay faithful to a reading challenge because I get way too excited about other books that may or may not fit the guides of the challenge. I've checked off a bestseller and a recommendation through The Lunar Chronicles.

The Lunar Chronicles...so far
I finished Scarlet and Cress in the past week and a half. I am happy to say that I am still hooked and excited to continue reading the series.

The series takes place after a 4th world war. Cinder takes place mainly in Asia, Scarlet is mostly in Europe, and Cress was in Africa, space, and Asia. I found the main story lines engaging, but I did get frustrated when the author switched to other characters because I wanted the main story to keep going without interruption. 

The switches in focus makes sense and each switch is easy to follow, which is pretty hard to do in my opinion. Marissa Meyer does an excellent job with her characterizations and both female and male characters are equally interesting. 

I really appreciate that these books are pretty clean. I don't recall any swearing so far and the dirtiest it has gotten was when they described a ship that has the silhouette of a naked lady on it (no description beyond that). I would recommend these books to higher level middle school students and high school students as well. Definitely worth multiple reads as well. 

Adding Multi-Digit Whole Numbers

(find it here)

I took a break from fractions and completed another set of task cards. Once I built a template, it became easier to edit the product. It's a lot of fun to create these products and I have a lot more in store. I've even started making a few sales! I'm excited to see where this will take me. 

Has anyone else made any headway on their reading challenges?

August Writing Journal Bundle

(find it here)

"This easy to use writing set will help students practice their writing throughout the month of August. The student journals allow for daily independent practice and the task cards work well for center activities. 

This packet includes:
+one printable student journal containing 30 journal prompts as well as extra writing paper for students that need extra space
+32 task card prompts (same as the journal prompts plus two bonus prompts) that can be used for center activities"

I've finished another product! When I was teaching, I loved having a list of prompts that I could use in class since I had trouble coming up with my own sometimes. This can be used for individual practice, center work, and more!

Three Things Thursday-New Products!

This year, we went to Illinois to visit my parents for Christmas. Since we were on vacation, I took a break from actively keeping up with Teachers Pay Teachers products and blogging. Now that we're back, I have some more products to introduce. 

(store)

 There were times where prepping for guided reading was a real pain. During my first year of teaching, I would be up until 2:00 am several nights in a row trying to get the lessons done for each of my groups. I created this product to save myself and other teachers the headache of working on guided reading plans for The Sign of the Beaver. Just print the packet and you can be on your way. Each chapter has comprehension questions for students to answer, chapter summaries for teacher use, end of book activities, plus more! This product can be used for individual student study, small group instruction, or even whole class instruction.

 (store)

This next product is a continuation of my math task card series. The task cards here are specifically for 4th grade, but can be used as a review for upper grades. There are 28 task cards that have problems that help students practice reading, writing, rounding, and comparing multi-digit numbers. Perfect for fast finishers, centers, or games!

(store)

Finally, I created another Spanish product. This product is based off of the popular card game, Spoons. During play, students are looking for an AR verb, its correct definition, the correct conjugation, as well as a picture that matches the definition of the verb. Great for beginning students or those that just need a review!

Adding Decimals Task Cards and A Sale

I have a new product up in time for the cyber sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. Help your 5th graders practice and review adding decimals with these task cards.

There is a sale going on at Teachers Pay Teachers, so be sure to hit it up!

Thanksgiving
We went up to Idaho for Thanksgiving and my grandpa's birthday. We had a great time! I'd post pictures, but my family may one day see this blog and it will be a nightmare if I post a picture that one of my siblings doesn't like.
At Thanksgiving, we mainly just ate a bunch and then hung out at grandpa's. One of the cousins brought the best yams I've ever had. It tasted like I was eating candy.
My mom set up an activity where the great-grand-kids learned more about grandpa and the time when he was growing up. She even had a snippet from an old radio show called The Shadow. When she has a project, she really throws herself into it and comes up with some pretty cool things.

What's your favorite way to celebrate Thanksgiving?

Adding Within 100-First Grade Task Cards

New Product!
I've developed two more sets of task cards, this time focusing on 1.NBT4&5.  One set focuses on adding within 100 and mental math, while the other is just adding within 100.

                                

You can find them here and here.

Coming Soon!
Teachers Pay Teachers is going to have a site wide sale from the 28th-29th, but I'm starting mine 2 days earlier for the holidays. It will be 20% off of all products in my store!

Thanksgiving
We are heading to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year. What is your favorite part of the holiday?

Multiplication and Division Dominoes

Finally finished!
I've been working on a dominoes game that incorporates all of the multiplication and division fact families and I finally posted it last night. To balance out my product availability, I removed a freebie and I'm going to share it here! That way, I don't have too much of the same thing on Teachers Pay Teachers and I can keep a freebie I like available for people to use.

If I goofed up, please leave a comment so that I can fix it. The link is to the dominoes bundle, however, there are separate files for facts 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12. I also have a game up that has a mix of multiplication and division problems. 

More to come....

I wanted to a complete set of multiplication and division dominoes out before I set out on my next project. I'm hoping to get out my Christmas Spanish Vocabulary set out in the next few days. I've done a bit of research and this edition will have more than my Halloween things. 

Meetings

(source)

(source)

I have to go to a meeting. on. a. Saturday. Too many meetings could have just been an email. It's not a school/work meeting either.

Reading, Writing, Comparing, and Rounding Decimals Task Cards

New Product!

A few days ago, I added this product to my store. When it comes to math, as well as many other things in life, practice makes perfect. These are similar to the addition and subtraction task cards I made a few weeks ago here. My students liked using these cards before a test to practice. Another good game to use these for is SCOOT.
To play:
1. Place a task card on each student's desk. Have everyone solve the problem on their desk.
2. When the teacher says "scoot," all students move to the next desk and solve the next problem.
3. Repeat until everyone makes it back to their desks.

Teething
Poor Baby A is teething like crazy! Her bottom teeth are still working their way through, but now the top teeth are starting to work their way through. Any recommendations? We're going through teething rings, Orajel, cold wash clothes, and more.

(source)

Coming Soon

I've been slacking on this blog, so there is a lot more coming up. Look for Halloween Spanish vocabulary activities, multiplication and division dominoes, and more!

Addition and Subtraction Dominoes

Another Teachers Pay Teachers Update
I finally posted my last stock item: Addition and Subtraction Fact Family Dominoes

I made the game for facts 0-10, 11-15, and 16-20 as well as a bundle selling all of the games together. This would be great for centers or fast finishers!

Before starting on Teachers Pay Teachers, I spent several weeks making the products to start off and now I can go back to my ideas for posts. The trouble is, where to start now?

Baby A
I'll have to see if I can find a picture later, but my little girl just turned 8 months and is teething up a storm! Hopefully soon she will be a bit more mobile.

Multiplication and Division Dominoes

Dominoes!
I used to love this game growing up. We would play for Family Home Evening a lot. It got pretty competitive. I saw a version of this for homophones and got the idea to make them for math facts.

The Fact Family Dominoes are my free sample with just a few of the multiplication facts. The Multiplication and Division Fact Family Dominoes include both multiplication and division facts for students to practice. These games would be great for centers, fast finishers, or anything else you may think of!

Coming Soon:

I have three sets of these coming: Facts 1-10, Facts 11-15, and Facts 16-20. I have some editing to finish and then over to my husband for the quality review!