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!

A Journey to the New World: A Columbus Day Themed, Project-Based Learning Activity

Project-based learning activities are always fun ways for students to practice material that they are learning in class. The project-based learning activities have students work to accomplish a goal. In honor of Columbus Day, I created a project to go along with the day.

Students can work on their own or in teams to plan out Columbus's first voyage.

 The activity has students buy ships, hire crewmen, and ordering supplies to last for the entire voyage.

The activity also has students working to keep within the approximate budget that Columbus had to work through as well. The worksheets assist students in keeping track of what is spent in each category and the success of the journey depends on them staying within that voyage.

The activity ends with students reflecting on the activity and account for expenditures for the voyage.

I always like to have options to do more with an activity, so I included a few options at the end. The activities range from additional math practice to persuasive writing and more. 

You can check out the activity here.

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!

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?

Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Unlike Denominators Mystery Pictures

I was inspired to make this product when a friend of mine asked me to help her teach one of her sons adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.

(here)

The packet contain 5 worksheets total. Three of the worksheets have students solving a mix of addition and subtraction fraction problems. The other two worksheets have students solving either addition or subtraction fraction problems.

They are no prep worksheets that include the answer key. I think I may make more of these in the future with different problems and with different topics. I believe they added a bit more to the work instead of just using regular math problems to practice.

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. 

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?

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. 

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

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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!