Friday, January 29, 2016

Valentine's Day Fun

Kids LOVE Valentine's Day.  They get so excited as  Valentine's Day grows closer and closer.  Here are some cute ideas for before Valentine's Day activities.

Tissue Paper Flowers

This would work well for a rainy day recess idea.
Flowers may be overpriced on Valentine's Day, but these easy to make tissue paper ones won't be -and they never die either.Take green pipe cleaners and some sheets of tissue paper in different colors. Cut the tissue paper into squares.  Layer the different colored pieces of tissue paper so that the corners all point in different directions.  Then insert a green pipe cleaner through the center and carefull scrunch the paper to make a flower.  Bend the top of the pipe cleaner in the center of the flower to hold it in place. I would send the tissue paper home with studens and have parent volunteers cut the tissue paper into squares.

Valentine Mailboxes

Your kids need a place to keep all those valentines from friends and family, and a unique valentine mailbox is the perfect choice.  Ask parents to send in  a shoebox-the smaller ones that kids' shoes come in are a great size.  Pick up a couple of rolls of wrapping paper in Valentine's Day themed colors like pink and red, or anything featuring hearts or flowers.  Cover the exterior of the box in wrapping paper.  Then let the kids decorate the exterior with stickers, glitter etc. Finish it off by adding their name so their valentines will be delivered to the right place.

Lollipop Bouquets

Create a tasty bouquet that's as pretty to look at as flowers but tastes a lot better! Turn a Styrofoam cup upside down and let your kids decorate it with Valentine's colors, hear stickers and anything else you can think of.  Them help them to carefully insert the sticks of a variety of colored lollipops into the base for the cup creating a beautiful bouquet.

Check out these links for Valentine's Day themed math activities!

Valentine's Day Math Find the Number that Comes Between the Given Numbers
Number Bonds and Missing Addends
Math Word Problem for Valentine's Day PowerPoint

Thursday, January 7, 2016


Check out this article about having recess four times a day. It is a very interesting read.
Click Here What are your thoughts about this? Comment below!


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

A Freebie for Fact Families, Related Facts, or Number Bonds

Happy New Year!
Fact Fluency is the ability to automatically recall math facts. In other words, the child needs to know the answer to the math fact without counting on fingers or drawing drawing sticks for example.
Math fact fluency is the foundation for solving math problems and for mental math.  Fluency is developed through practice. Here is a FREEBIE for practicing the fact families of 5 and 6.  Enjoy!

Click Here For The Freebie