At the beginning of the school year, there is a lot of hype decorating classroom. After the new borders are up, teachers begin thinking about the students on their class list. (If they're lucky enough to have it!) There will be different levels of math understanding in the classroom, especially number sense. Pre-assessment in math is tricky. But… why is that? Teachers want to see where mathematicians are in their understanding WITHOUT having to print and pass out a daunting paper test. Listen, I get it. No one gets excited about math when a thick packet of white copy paper is placed in front o ..read more

Have you noticed that learning teen numbers is difficult for students? There are good reasons teen numbers are so difficult! Teen numbers do not follow the typical number naming system in English. As a result, teen numbers have been dubbed "tricky teens" by teachers of yesteryear. Eleven, twelve, and thirteen are, by far, the most difficult teen numbers to master. Find out the reasons why teen numbers are tricky and read about how you can help your young mathematicians learn teen numbers with ease. Tricky Teens are Hard for Kindergarten and First Grade Students Here's just a few reasons wh ..read more

Texas symbols, Texas Independence Day, Texas Week, and Texas-themed picture books! Texas history is not second nature to me, since I moved to the Lone Star state from New Mexico. One thing I quickly learned is that Texas people are proud, y'all. I can't complain about that. We do live in a pretty amazing state! The second thing I learned is that Texans are called to celebrate our state during the week that March Second falls in. Why March Second ? It's Texas Independence Day! <waving the Texas flag> Grab your favorite Texas-themed picture book to celebrate Texas Week!  Celebrat ..read more

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in the classroom. It is such a happy time to celebrate friendship. While I do enjoy celebrating holidays, there are a few things I do NOT like about celebrating the holidays: crafts are often messy, expensive, or too complicated. After my first couple of years of teaching, I hated celebrating the holidays. I bit off more than I could chew in the name of the celebration. I took a step back and decided to make things simple. I don't do glitter, paint, or more than six-step crafts! If the craft is simple and meaningful, I'm here for it ..read more

Ready or not? The 100th Day of School is coming. I have quite an unpopular opinion about celebrating the 100th Day of School. It has been a tradition in schools to dress up and bring things into the classroom. Here's a few ways that the 100th Day has traditionally been celebrated: dress up as a 100-year-old, decorate a shirt with 100 objects, gathering a collection of 100. All of these ideas are surely fun, but they do place a burden on families, both with time and financially. Another common practice is teachers purchasing 10 different snacks and giving each student 10 pieces of each of the 1 ..read more

Your young mathematicians and engineers will LOVE designing and constructing fun robots composed of two-dimensional shapes, or 2-D shapes! Depending on the grade level, your mathematicians and engineers can use their shape robots to show how many circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, rhombuses, and hexagons, and how many sides and vertices they used! This activity is bound to get your mathematicians and engineers critically thinking about the role robots play in our society.  Top Way to Excite Young Students with Geometry and Engineering Using Robots Students love ending a unit ..read more

Paper folding provides elementary mathematicians with the opportunity to visualize fractional size, and once stacked, allows students to see equivalency as a way of naming the same size area using a different number of units. There are several ways to use paper folding to visualize concepts that lead to fractional understanding including: comparing halves and fourths, generating equivalent fractions, adding fractions with unlike denominators, and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Here are my favorite ways to use paper folding to teach fractions conceptually: The Best Ways to T ..read more

Reading or writing numerals has nothing to do with number concepts. Helping young mathematicians read and write the 10 single-digit numerals is similar to teaching them to read and write letters of the alphabet. Young mathematicians may be able to read and write some numerals more easily than others. For example, the numerals 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are often mastered before 2, 6, 8, and 9. These challenges to numeral formation, also called numeral writing or number writing, doesn’t have to be repetitious practice; it can be engaging! Here's how: 8 WAYS TO PRACTICE NUMBER WRITING: 1. Trace over ..read more

WHEW! You made it to December and students and teachers alike are exhausted! Let me help you plan a socially-distanced party for your classroom, a Zoom party, or a Google Meet party! No matter if you are celebrating the end of 2020 virtually or in-person, you can have a memorable day with your beloved students. You can also snag printable lists of ideas to share with your co-workers! The Top Ways to Celebrate Classroom Parties You have had a hard year. Your students have too!  Celebrate the end of 2020 in style with these fun classroom party ideas. Zoom Party Ideas for the Classro ..read more

Josh's Funk's How to Code a Rollercoaster is the best book to celebrate Multicultural Children's Book Day that inspires the newest generation of young female mathematicians and scientists. Sarah Palacios provides beautiful illustrations that combined with Funk's tale give a duo of kids the rollercoaster ride of their dreams.  Who doesn't love a rollercoaster?! Well, the idea of one is pretty cool when you're a kid! This is a great read aloud for elementary math and science classrooms that will get your eager mathematicians and scientists, ages 4 through 12, into coding!  Use How to Code ..read more