2018 LDS Primary Planning Pages, Christmas Multiplication and Division , and Reading Challenge Update

Primary Presidency Planner
Life has been a bit of a kick in the pants lately. I was called as primary president about 2 months ago and we are still getting things in order. I think once the program is out of the way, I'll be able to rest a bit easier.

I've been on the hunt for a primary planning binder for my presidency and me to use, but I haven't found any that I particularly love. There are some super cute ones on Etsy, but they just don't seem like ones I'd really use. So, I've taken bits and pieces from free planners that I liked and have been working on building my own.

I want to be sure that we keep the scripture for the month in mind, so I made sure to include it a few times throughout the pages.

I found a pretty similar idea here at Little LDS Ideas and modified it a bit so that it is more my style.

I also have a basic notes page with spaces to track presidency goals, important dates, and other things that you may want to keep track of.

This is still a work in progress. I am hoping to have it ready for our kick off in January. I'm pretty excited to use it.

What are some of your favorite ways to stay organized as a presidency? If you are interested in having the binder pages, email me at ashtonsmith026@gmail.com and I'll happily send what I've got!

A TPT Christmas

I've been getting a lot of great feedback from teachers that have purchased my mystery picture activities. Seeing the feedback is pretty encouraging and I'm glad to be providing something that is useful to teachers that students enjoy.

When I've taught in the past, I always had a handful of students that struggled with mastering their multiplication and division facts. The only way I could get them to learn them was to have some sort of practice every day in a variety of ways. For the holidays, I have put together a pack of Christmas sheets for multiplication and division practice, plus two sheets that combine both multiplication and division.

What are other ways you incorporate multiplication and division into your classroom?

2017 Reading Challenge: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
I really wish I liked this book more. I've seen Fangirl recommended on a bunch of Pinterest boards and finally gave in to picking it. Full disclosure, I listened to the audiobook since I haven't been able to hit the library. Also, I'm not going to hide any spoilers so if you continue, you've been warned.

What I liked:
I liked the overall premise of the book. Cath is a fanfiction writer about to start college. She is introverted and deals with anxiety. The story is about her navigating college, family, and friends. I've been reading a lot of dystopian fantasy lately, so this was a nice change.

The characters and their relationships were interesting for the most part. Cath and Wren's complicated relationship kept me hoping that they would patch things up. Reagan's and Levi's interactions with Cath were also fun to read. Both are nice to Cath and help her to open up more. Cath's and Wren's relationship with their father was also a draw for me.

The scenes with the fiction professor were also enjoyable. I like that she didn't just favor Cath, but made her work for her grades. I also appreciated that she gives Cath a second chance with the final project when Cath doesn't turn it in during finals week.

What I hated:
I absolutely hated the descriptions of Levi and Nick. Nick sounded like he needed a good pluck job on his eyebrows. Levi's description made me think of this:

but with a badly receding hairline. Whenever their looks were brought up, I wasn't convinced that Cath liked either of them.

Simon Snow was dumb and did nothing for the plot. The sections of fan fiction that we got were pointless. Also, if it was supposed to be the book version of Harry Potter, why does Harry Potter exist in that universe too? Makes no sense.

This book had absolutely no plot. It was just Cath being thrown into situations and having her react to those situations.

This book doesn't really show what it means to be part of a fandom. It was just Cath and her fans. The book doesn't show the community behind it. I had trouble believing the series was as big as the book made it seem. All we see is Cath.

I also couldn't stand Cath's character development. She is a bit winy at different parts of the book and she was too stuck on fanfiction. Seriously, if your professor gives you a second chance on a project, you take it. Who would be like, no way I am meant to write fanfiction and I do it better than the actual author, anyway? You can't make money off fan fiction. You can't have a real career out of fanfiction.

In the end, this book deserved 2 1/2 stars from me.

2018 Reading Challenge
In the next several weeks, I'll be posting a 2018 Reading Challenge and an overall review of the books I've read this past year. Keep an eye out!

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.

Array of the Day Morning Math

I finished putting this product together yesterday and you can find it here. When I was teaching 5th grade, I needed a way to help my students practice their multiplication facts. Another teacher had used this in the past and it worked great. It has students practice with arrays, factors, and prime and composite numbers. 

The Littlest Reader

This happened yesterday. It was story time before bed and she was grabbing for the book. I handed it to her on the page we were on and she held it perfectly. We started her pretty early and now she gets excited at the mention of stories and going to the library. 

Multi-Digit Multiplication Unit for 5th Grade

Multi-digit Multiplication
I just finished my biggest project yet: Multi-digit Multiplication Unit.

I haven't decided if this will be a growing bundle or not, but I'm pretty happy with it at this point. I included task cards....

a project based learning activity....

vocabulary posters....

and more!

I'm really excited about the Excel book that I included. You can input students' names and their pre and post test scores and then it will tell you the percent change in the score as well as a chart showing the change in student scores. When teachers have to report student progress, it will make it much easier. 

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!