From Here to There, a place value freebie

One of the first games I teach my kids during the year is from our Partner Games book called From Here to There. Students will roll 2 or more dice depending on what place you are working to and then make a number with the rolled dice. For example, if I rolled a 6 and a 3 I could either make the number 63 or 36. It is important they understand they have a choice in making their number. Here is where the strategy comes into play. After you make a number. you choose which space to write it into. The object of the game is to make the game board go in order from smallest to largest number. If the number you roll can not be added to the board, you lose your turn!

There are tons of ways to differentiate this game! You can roll more or less dice for larger or smaller numbers ( I even play this game with my kindergartner with one die so she gets practice ordering numbers) My third graders learn how to play with 2 dice but quickly move to using 3, 4, 5, or even 6 dice. You could also have students make fractions or use decimals to make it more challenging for older grades!

I have this game in my TpT store for free! I also have a Christmas version!

What is your favorite place value game?

Who Loves A Good Sale??

Look at this adorable button Michelle from The 3AM Teacher created for the cyber Monday sale over at TpT!

Most sellers will be having a 20% off sale and then you can use the code below to get an extra 10% off your total purchase! That means you are getting 28% off. Whoo hoo, I love a sale! I have a 68 item wish list and it is growing!! Here are some of the things I am planning to purchase

This adorable pack from Bunting, Books and Bainbridge. I am looking forward to using this during our partner reading time!

 How cute is this? We start teaching about forces on Monday and I have been drooling over this pack since Nicole from Teaching with Blonde Ambition released it! 

Lastly, I seriously would be happy to put ANYTHING Ashleigh creates into my cart. I have my sights set on her homophone of the week pack though... 

Of course I would also love to have you check out my Traveling Scientist pack - all my teammates use it and we have had great success.. the kids and parents love it too!

If you are interested in linking up with The 3AM Teacher to share about your sale, come on, join the party!

Sight Words for 3rd grade??

I am excited to be linking up with Katie from Teacher to the Core.

As a third grade teacher, I haven't really done much with sight words. However, it seems every year I have some students who are coming to be well below grade level and they are missing many sight words. So as I was surfing pinterest (follow me here if you'd like!) I found the most amazing idea from Teach 123... Sight word homework! Think about it. It can be completely differentiated for each students and their needs, plus it requires little class time. I don't know about you, but I feel like I can't fit one.more.thing into our schedule! Kids would be given a list of sight words. We would practice them really quickly at the beginning of our guided reading group and they would be expected to practice the words at home each night. Then, on Friday, I would time each student reading their words and they would graph their time into our data folders (perfect data for RTI). Click the first picture below to read Teach 123's blog post and click the second picture to see the product in her TpT store. 

Please follow the link to Teach 123 and pin her idea from the actual source!

Head on over to TpT to see this product from Teach 123

The other idea I have been in love with since the beginning of summer came from Sarah over at First Grader at Last. Sight word sticker books! Now, I know what you are thinking... sticker books for third graders? Well, probably not although they do LOVE stickers. I am using this idea for my own kindergarten-aged daughter! She has to know 40 sight words by the end of the school year and I thought this would be a fun way to motivate and keep track of her progress! Click on the picture below to see it in her TpT store.

This is why I love stalking reading teacher blogs and obsessing over viewing Pinterest... the ideas are amazing...

Currently and rounding

Linking up a few days late with Farley for this month's currently - I love these!

My son adores MMCH (that is cool mom shorthand for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)

I am so lucky that my parents will come visit us for Thanksgiving. I love that we can still have some family traditions even when family lives so far away. They come every year at this time!

We really want to take the kids to disney over spring break so I need to get on it. Trouble is, there are SO many decisions to make and I am decision challenged :)

I am about 15 pounds heavier that I was last year at this time and I need to change that. But, I like candy.... sigh

I had to change classrooms this year and was told that 3 days before school started. Needless to say, set up was rushed and I still don't like the way my space is set up... I constantly feel like I don't know where to put stuff and there seems to be paper EVERYwhere. Drives me nutssssssssss.

I love my bedtime Mozart Cd. it is super long and so calming. However, I saw someone else mention that they played jazz because the upbeat tempo kept the kids just busy enough to keep them focused on toe tapping instead of talking. I am going to try it next week... it couldn't hurt with my ridiculously talkative high spirited group!

In other news.....

I have been very busy teaching rounding and we needed some games to practice with. I have been loving all the cute bump games around Pinterest and we played scoot last week. So.Much.Fun. Have you played with your class? 

Any who, I created some rounding bump games and a rounding / estimating sums and differences scoot game. The mini Thanksgiving themed pack is only $2 at my store but I included rounding to the nearest 10 bump game for free in the preview file! Click the picture below to get your copy. 

Happy Rounding,