"I'd love to go to an inservice," said no teacher ever.

Hey there frugal followers, it's been a minute or two since my last blog post!  I honestly don't know where the time goes!  Melissa and I thought last year was crazy and we were both looking forward to the 2014-2015 school year for things to slow down a little bit.  Boy, were we wrong!  Things are just as crazy as ever between me trying to balance being a new mom and Melissa being a new home owner and all the fixins' in between.  Time seems to be flying by faster than ever these days!  We actually had a break from our little ones today and got to attend a day of professional development provided by our district.  As always, there are pros and cons to these in-service days... I always try to go in with an open mind and a positive attitude (which I always find once I reach the bottom of my ice coffee from Dunkin Donuts) in hopes of actually learning something that I can take back with me and implement in my classroom or some new strategies that will help me become a more effective teacher.  With that being said... I needed more coffee!  The line at the drive through should have been a dead give away at what was in store for today! 

The best part of today was getting to see some friends that I haven't seen in a while from other schools in our county... and of course being able to grub out at one of our most fav lunch spots!

Don't get me wrong, today wasn't a total waste!  We actually did get a few things from today.   We finished Ellie!!!! Check out Britt's adorable creation! You can get our new Ellie the Equal packet at our TPT store! It's on SALE until Wednesday!  Just click on the anchor chart.

Click on picture to download on Teachers Pay Teachers!

We hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Ellie the Equal is HERE!

Hi Friends!! We can't wait to introduce you to our newest addition the the Math Family...


Ellie the Equal

Click the picture above to download packet at our TPT store. 

Our first graders had some big MISCONCEPTIONS about the equal sign (It doesn't mean the answer is...) this was shocking news to our kiddos. We decided to create a new sign anchor chart to help them understand the meaning of the equal sign. They loved learning about the math brothers, Gus the Plus and Linus the Minus so we knew just what we had to do...  add a little sister to the family! Inside this packet you will find many different activities to help your students better understand the meaning of the equal sign along with a new anchor chart poem to introduce, Ellie!

We hope you will agree that---- Teaching the EQUAL sign is way more FUN with Ellie!!!

Please meet, Ellie the Equal

Hi fabulous friends! We are so excited to share with you something we've been working on!

 Meet Ellie the Equal...

We love our Math Brothers (Gus the Plus and Linus the Minus), but we realized that something was missing from this math family and it was the Equal Sign! Thus, Ellie the Equal, the little sister was born! We've been working on a new packet to go along with Ellie the Equal, to help student's understand the meaning of the equal sign! Stay tuned!!!!

We are almost done with the packet and can't wait to fully introduce our new math family member! She's already a big hit with our students! :) 

Our new math standards don't cover patterns anymore. We made this quick math foldable to see what our 1st graders already know about patterns! Feel FREE to download this FREEbie!

Students illustrate pattern to match pattern unit.

Pattern Foldable Freebie

We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Comparing Numbers... Common Core Style

Hello, Hello! Does anyone have that awful cold going around? You know, the one that never wants to go away... well the frugal girls can't seem to kick it. We're two weeks in and it's still sticking around. The worse thing about colds is that even though you're not too sick to work and do everyday things, everything is a little less fun when you're feeling under the weather. Speaking of weather, Brittany just did an adorable activity with our weather unit last week. I'll remind her to post it tomorrow! It's a group learning map about EXTREME STORMS. The kids loved it and my class couldn't wait to do it after seeing the posters her class made. She's so creative!

We're first year common core teachers and somedays we've found implementing the new standards to be very fun and exciting. However, due to our lack of resources we find most days to be challenging and we can't help but feel our students are missing big parts because we're all learning this together. One example of this struggle is our comparing numbers unit. The greater gator has always been one of the easiest concepts for our first graders. Sadly, this year they are struggling because common core asks for more (I need a shirt that says this, please)! Anyway, our county-wide assessments eww would like our students to compare equations with whole numbers. Since we were unable to find many activities that helped with this new standard online, well we did what any teacher/blogger would do and made our own! Hope all those teachers tackling the common core standards find this freebie to be helpful!


Enjoy!

Click HERE to download freebie!

Double up!!!

Hi sweet friends! We wanted to give you a quick little freebie that might help your students master doubles +1. We made this little activity to help our first graders understand the concept of "doubles plus one" by first figuring out the answer to the doubles fact and then adding one more to find out the doubles +1 answer.  Hope you find this helpful!

Doubles +1 Activity 

Tic-tac-toe addition

Let's be honest... math can be a real doozie sometimes! Brittany and I were no math maniacs growing up. Britt still thinks math is probably the most boring part of the day. However, I find math to be pretty GOSH DARN AMAZING!  I mean, it's so hands-on and just plain BETTER than it was when I was growing up! LOVE IT! Brittany loves reading and writing. I can totally understand why. She's an incredible teacher and her writing and reading instruction is life-changing! I just love watching her in action! She's taught me so much and it's made me a much better teacher. I guess that's why we make such a great team! Math is totally my thing! I just love the path that math instruction has taken over the last few years. My first graders love it too! Here is a math activity we did together with partners.  A little old fashioned tic-tac-toe "addition style"!! Enjoy!!
                  Tic-Tac-Toe Addition

Missing addend freebie

The frugal girls are busy setting up Brittany's Smart board so we only have time for a quick freebie tonight. Hope everyone has an easier time with missing addends. That is one hard concept for little ones to understand.

Missing Addend Freebie

Linus and Gus Sign Sort

Hi Friends! Just wanted to share another fun freebie to use when teaching your student's about Linus and Gus the math brother signs! Click on the link below to download for free!

Linus and Gus Math Sort

Gus and Linus Freebie

We hope your little mathematicians enjoy these "math brothers" as much as ours did. Please feel free to download these anchor charts for FREE!

So sorry for the error! It's been fixed! 

Linus the Minus

Gus the Plus Anchor Chart

We love teaching with anchor charts, but we're sure you'd agree that having it pre-made is ideal! Teachers are busy people! We'll have some activities to use in math centers using our favorite "math brothers" very soon!






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The Brothers Are Back!

Yes! You've heard us right! The brothers are back in action. Linus the Minus and Gus the Plus are our favorite math brothers. They have worked wonders with helping our students remember and understand  the symbols for addition and subtraction!

Hope you enjoy our newest Anchor Charts! 

Gingerbread Math Freebie!

Gingerbread Math day is on Friday (which is also a half day of school... WOOHOO!) We have already received quite a few donations and plan to pick up a few last minute things tomorrow afternoon. Please feel free to grab our freebie pack for Gingerbread Math! Hope your class has a great time participating!

Gingerbread Math Pack

Who knew math could be so much fun?!?! Not to mention, DELICIOUS!

Trouble with Doubles!

Is it just us or does Doubles and Doubles +1 end up being one of the most difficult concepts for first graders? We do this whole brain song to help us memorize doubles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZQFErJn-Eg

Our students love it! It's definitely one of their favorite math songs!

          Once they learn the motions we add the music!

                                                                                                       
Sadly, when they get past 5 + 5 and they run out of fingers they have a very difficult time memorizing their doubles. We made two different foldables to add to their math notebook. Hopefully these will help! They are similar to flashcards and students can illustrate the addition sentence on one side and write the answer on the other! Like the song says, "it's no trouble for me to add doubles"




Doubles Foldable                                     Doubles +1 Foldable

Our class doing the doubles rap!

Linus the Minus and Gus the Plus

Introducing.... our two favorite math brothers--- Linus the Minus and Gus the Plus!!! Our firsties have been having a little more trouble with understanding math symbols this year so we decided to bring in some backup! Today we learned all about two math brothers who are total opposites!!!

                     A little family history:

The little brother, Linus the MINUS- is the *not so nice* brother, who steals, borrows and takes from others! How rude! 

Then there is his sweet big brother, Gus the PLUS+, who is always sharing and giving to others! 

Even though Linus is totally = negative - and Gus is totally = positive +. It's important that we get to know both of our Math Brothers!

Stay tuned: Anchor charts, games and short stories about these math bros coming soon!