Techie Turtle Teacher

Last week I showed you some place value manipulatives that you just have to have for your classroom. Remember these? Have your students get in groups of 3.  Assign a place value to each person - hundreds, tens, and ones.  That person is in charge of rolling that place value dice.  Groups can practice making numbers using standard form, word form, and expanded form.  If you want them to write down their numbers, they can use this chart .  It's free! Do you have dry erase boards for your students to use?  Like this? Give each student a partner.  Have partners sit back to back.  Partner A gets to use the dry erase board, so make sure they also have a dry erase marker and an eraser.  Partner B gets to hold on to the place value dice.  Partner B will roll the dice and use clues to tell Partner A what number was rolled.   If Partner B rolled the dice that are pictured above, he or she would say something like, "My number has 4 hundreds, 2 tens, an

When teaching math, you should always have a supply of manipulatives to use.  Students have a hard time visualizing, so you have to help them by showing them. I keep these base 10 blocks in my room all year.  I pull them out for many lessons.  So far, I've used them in all the standards we've taught so far - NBT1, NBT2, NBT3, and NBT4. I keep them in baggies, so I can easily pass out blocks to the students when needed.  Each baggie has hundreds, tens, and ones.  The students can just use whatever ones they need and keep the rest in the bag. Another thing I love is these foam place value dice.  They are quiet when rolled across a desk.  Every teacher loves that, right?  I use these when practicing expanded form.  The students can easily see the different place values.  Our school has 2 sets of these.  I would love to have more so partner groups could use them at the same time, but I'll take what I can get.  These are definitely better for whole group instruction

Do you have a problem encouraging ALL your students to participate in class?  Do you want to make sure you are calling on everyone and not letting a few students do all the talking? You're in luck!  I have the perfect tip for you today! Buy some popsicle sticks.  Write each child's name on a stick.  Keep all sticks in a cup or basket. When you're ready for a discussion, start pulling sticks and calling on those students.  Don't put their name back in until every child has had a chance to participate. It definitely encourages students to pay attention because they never know when they're going to be called on. It also helps me make sure students are participating and understanding the lesson. How do you make sure you are not calling on the same students all the time?

Do you read Chrysanthemum with your students?  I read it with my students this year and they loved it!  If you haven't read it, you need to.  It has a very important message to share. Basically, Chrysanthemum is being bullied because of her long name and it teaches students to think about how to make people feel like they are blooming, not wilting. I had a long conversation with my students about what it means to feel like you are blooming and what it means to feel like you are wilting. I have these posters displayed in my classroom as a reminder and I have individual reminders on each desk. You can get these posters and more for free by clicking on the picture below.