Five for Friday: Snow Edition

Yay for Fridays!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday today!

We've had quite the winter storm over the past 24 hours!  That means we've had our first 2 snow days of the school year!  Actually when we got up yesterday, there was nothing on the ground, but they went ahead an canceled because we were supposed to get sleet and freezing rain at 10:00. The weather picked up yesterday afternoon and it hasn't stopped snowing yet!  We've gotten about 9 inches of snow and it's supposed to keep snowing most of the day!

We got into the holiday spirit in my classroom this week!  We spent Monday morning putting up my little classroom Christmas tree and Christmas lights.  We also put up a little snowman out in the hallway!  It was a great way to start back after the Thanksgiving break!

I've been working on factors with my kiddos for what seems like FOREVER!  This week, we got out the colored tiles so they could actually manipulate them to back an array for 64.  They did a great job once we had the manipulatives out!

This is a sneak peek at my Tried It Tuesday post for next week.  What do you think they are doing?

I created a new product based on my Math IS Real Life Post.  There are 6 math problems that all have to do with crocheting!  Click on the picture to take you to my TpT store!

How was your week? Anyone else get snow???  I'm off to see what everyone else was up to this week!

Math IS Real LIfe

So I've missed linking up the last couple of months with Math Is Real Life, but I actually had a reason to blog this month! I love this linky because this is exactly what I tell my parents to do when their children are struggling in math.  Math is all around us and it's awesome to see how all of my favorite math blogger friends are using math!

A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by

 4mulaFun, Fourth Grade Studio, Teaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork

I wrote about crocheting in my Tried It Tuesday post this week.  This post is an extension of that first post!  

As I said, I am working on a blanket for a friend's baby.  I'm following this pattern.  

For the baby blanket size I have to crochet 192 rows.  I am using three different colors for the blanket and I've been doing a lot of math to figure out how much yarn I will need for the blanket and how much time it will take me to finish the blanket. 

I've calculated the time to finish a few different ways.  The first way is in days based on completing 6 rows each day.  If I can finish 6 rows a day, I will finish in 32 days.  I presented this problem to my students and they came up with some great strategies for dividing 192 by 6.  We've been working on the distributive property and they also love using the "hangman" method for division. When I can get back up to school, I will add their work samples!

The second way I've calculated time to finish is in minutes. It takes me about 8 minutes to complete a row if I don't stop or get distracted by anything.  I timed it! :)

So to complete all 192 rows will take me 1,536 minutes or 25 hours and 36 minutes.  

After I presented the first problem, I took it up a notch to give my students a challenge.  I told them I wanted to have the blanket finished by Christmas day.  They had to figure out how many rows I would I have to crochet each day to be finished in time.  We worked it out on December 3rd, so that would mean I would have 22 days to complete the blanket.  This division problem was way more challenging and ended up giving them quite a large remainder.  My next step (whenever we go back to school after all of this snow) will be to have them figure out how to turn the remainder into what fraction of a row I would have to complete each day in addition to the complete rows.  

Not only have I figured out how long this lovely project will take me, I've also been working to see if 192 will allow me to end the blanket at the end of the pattern and how many rows of each color there will be.  The 6 rows actually is the end of the pattern because there are two rows of each color.  To figure out how many rows of each color there will be, I just had to get one-third of the total number of rows 192/3 or just double the number of days it will take to finish the blanket.  So there will be 64 rows of each color in the blanket!  

I've made a little product that includes 6 problems about my own crochet math experience.  You can purchase it from my TpT store {here}

Make sure to go check out the other links on the Math IS Real Life linky party!

Currently December

I absolutely, positively CANNOT believe that it is DECEMBER!!!  Where has the past year gone!  In less than three weeks, my precious baby is going to be ONE!!!!  Since it is the first of the month, or at least it was when I started this post, it's time to link with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for Currently December.

Listening/Loving: I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!  It's definitely my most favorite holiday!  I hold very true to waiting until after Thanksgiving though to Christmasfy my house.  Today I got the hubby to get all of my Christmas decorations down from the attic so I could start decorating.  He's not a fan of the Christmas music, but how can you decorate without a little "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree"?  I still have a ways to go but the tree is done, and it looks beautiful, if I do say so myself!

Wanting: The next big Christmas item is to get the lights up outside, but with the week the hubby has ahead of him, I'm not quite sure when that will happen!

Thinking: Not only did the Christmas decorating get started today, but I organized the pantry, got laundry done, unpacked from our mini vacation, did the dishes, and got a major load of old items ready to donate to a local charity!  Hubby and I said we were more productive today than we had been all week!  I'm still a little fuzzy on lesson plans, but that's what the morning is for!

Needing:  I'm so excited for the Cyber Monday sale going on tomorrow!  My wish list is huge and I need to actually put my cart together!  I even have a PO from school to use!  Doesn't get much better than that!  I do actually have my little store on sale for the next two days as well! Make sure to fill your cart full!

Favorite Tradition:  Our church started an outreach event 4 years ago for Christmas Eve.  It started off as a desire of one woman to help those who wouldn't have a hot meal for Christmas and it has turned into a huge event!  For the past two years our church has fed around 1200 people on Christmas Eve.  We also have coats and toys to donate to the families in need.  The hubby and I didn't get to volunteer last year because we had a 4 day old (they understood :D).  I love getting to volunteer at this event and I hope that it is a great way to model for my daughter what Christmas is really about!

Monday Made It: Reward Passes and More Owls

I can't believe it's Monday again, already! I had a slightly stressful weekend; I took my Middle Level Praxis to add grades 5-8 to my teaching license.  I may or may not have forgotten about the test until Thursday night.  OOPS!!!!  I did some studying but probably not as much as I should have over the next two days and drove 30 minutes away on Saturday to take my test.  It wasn't too bad.  I only didn't have enough time on the math section of the test - ironic huh?  It was a computer based test so I got my scores as soon as I finished and guess what?  I PASSED ALL 4 PARTS!!!!  I was overjoyed!  I didn't want to spend another $250 on the test if I didn't pass.  Now I've got some professional development to do before I can get the middle school certification added to my license but the test was a huge hurdle!

Now, on to my Monday Made It's!!!!

First, here are my Classroom Reward Coupons!  I'm just loving all of the chevron backgrounds!  We give out tickets for positive behavior at our school and we draw each week for prizes. We were tired of having to buy stuff for our treasure boxes, so we decided to move to reward coupons.  The kids love them and work hard to get tickets.  You can buy these at my TpT store here.

The second thing I was worked on was a paint chip owl project!  I found this little gem on Pinterest a while ago and fell in love! 

 I knew I wanted to make one for my classroom, but I just hadn't found the time yet.  I got my paint chips a couple of weeks ago and also used some of my chevron scrapbook paper to make this little beauty.  I followed to tutorial here at The Homes I Have Made.  I used a canvas for my project that was 8 x 10 instead 12 x12.  I covered the whole thing with a thin layer of Mod Podge after cutting the edges off.

Here is my finished project!

Now I just have to figure out where it's going to go in my classroom!

Don't forget to go check out all of the other awesome projects at 4th Grade Frolics!

New Products and Print Center

I'm not only trying to be a real blogger, but I'm also trying my hand at creating and selling products on Teachers pay Teachers.  I created two new products that I am actually using in my classroom.

Owl/Chevron Clock Labels

Owl/Chevron Word Wall Labels

Click on the pictures to take you to my TpT store.

The second part of this post is about my district's print center.  We have copiers in our buildings, but we are only allowed 100 copies a month!  Not enough by any means to have a functioning classroom.  We have a center at the high school whose sole purpose is to print copies for teachers.  You send them what you want copied, they copy it, and bring back it to you.  No more standing in line waiting for the copier.  Sometimes it is a pain; there is a 3 day turn around for orders.  Most of the time it's awesome!  Today is was super awesome, because they not only do regular copies, but color and cardstock copies (THAT I DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR)!  I spent quite a while there today, but I got a bunch of stuff printed for my classroom in color and on cardstock!!! I actually got my new products printed today!  I am now at home laminating EVERYTHING on my wonderful new laminator!  I can't wait to share my review later this week!