A wonderful STEM K-2 Conference

It is officially summer and I am off at a STEM K-2 Conference hosted by my Math Science Innovation Center (MSiC). I am still Pinning and "learning" lots of great ideas while at the conference. My hope is to write and create more this summer but we shall see. But I wanted to share insights that I have already learned at the conference and sadly today is the last day of the conference.

My Insights (Make sure to try them ALL out and share with others):
From the Technology Training with Tammy Tang (check out her website: www.tammytang.com)
From her Opening Session:
Classtools.net-- Random Name/Word Picker Add students' names or words and it will randomly pick it for you in a Fruit Machine or spell it out like a Typewriter. **Make sure to check out the other tools that you can use too.

 --Useful websites to teach your K-1 students how to use the mouse on a computer:
Baby Eyes (move the mouse)
Pop the Bubbles (move and click)-- can do pop the letters and choose 3 focus letters for students to pop
Feed the Monster (drag and drop)
Brush Teeth (click and drag)
 -- Kahoot! Visit www.kahoot.it and make sure to create yourself a FREE account. This site is a quiz generation website in which you can create quizzes to assess student's understanding. They have to look at your screen to get the answer choices and answer using the shapes on their screen (without the answer shown). Students are ranked by how fast they are able to answer the question among the other players. You can create a quiz in your account (create.kahoot.it), get the GAME CODE and share it with others. Make sure to check out the Public Library in your account to see the many that are already created. Could be used in groups if you only have a few computers in your room or in a computer lab where students are able to see what's on your screen as well.
--Draw a Stickman students use the mouse to draw a stickman and it becomes a character in a story. For K-1 students you may have to read some of the drawing prompts aloud and do as a whole group. **Pay attention to the letters that "pop" out after each drawing you complete in the story... this can be changed to say whatever you want!*
--This is Sand is just an interactive way to play with colored sand. Could be a "calming" activity for some students or something students can do if they finish early.

****** Mind you this was just in the MORNING session of Day 1!! *******
What I am excited about for my students with STEM?
1. Creating class sets of Rekenreks-- if you don't know what they look like, check out my new Pinterest board. But they are all about subitizing (quickly seeing how many) in hands-on form for students.
2. Introducing my students to love bugs and all their wonderful details by using magnifying glasses, a loupe (it was a FREEBIE in one of my sessions) and my EyeClops (hand held magnifier up to 400X; learned about this from a librarian!)

Loupe

EyeClops Bionic Eye

3. Establishing a mathematical community within my classroom where my students are able to share, work and make mistakes and all of their input is valued and respected. How do you establish your Math Talk with students in your room?

I can't wait for Day 3's sessions. On to more great learning! Enjoy :)

Creative LAST days of break, Freebies and a Giveaway!

As I try to enjoy the last few days (hours) of my break, I wanted to share some new things with you.

One: 

I am having a sale at my TPT store. Kind of like a last hurrah before break is officially over on Monday. My whole store is 20% off minus my winter stuff which they have their own special pricing... which leads me into number two.

Two: 

I have been on a creating spree. My good friend and fellow blogger Karmen from Tales from a Naturalista Teacha has been creating up a storm. She let me edit one of her products and after that night I just felt like creating... I haven't really created this much since my summer break. Do you know there are some AWESOME clipart artist out in blog land? Well my bestie CA's (Clipart Anonymnous) are Creative Clips and Ashley Hughes. I really have been using them for like ever, but just this go around I used them A LOT! If you don't know who I am talking about, feel free to check out their amazing work.

 BlogBlog

Follow their blogs too as sometimes you can catch a freebie. Plus Creative Clips is doing something each month where you can pay $10 for monthly graphics but you can get new sets each week of that month.

 

(P.S. The April Set is on sale for $8 as she has already put in TWO weekly sets)

Anywho, on to my creations. Please continue reading until you get to the bottom of this post as you won't be disappointed.

It's on sale for $1.50. And if you download the PREVIEW you can snag a freebie!

The next items are discounted in my store for $1. 

And don't forget to click the PREVIEW button as you might stumble upon a freebie!

Here's a FREEBIE just because! Keep reading though!

And since I LOVE Giveaways I thought about doing a giveaway here. Just enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win one of my new products! Yup, you can choose from any of my new creations that are listed above if you win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Professional Development

Our district had make-up professional development yesterday and on Thursday. I say make-up because we were supposed to have professional development at the end of August but it was cancelled due to the hurricane. So we had to give up our Thursday evening (4:15-7:15) and our half day (1:00-4:00) to go to professional development workshops. I didn't so much mind the time on Friday but having to go in on a Thursday just after you finished getting the kids on the bus you have to go learn some more. Ugh!!

Well of course our team got there late, I directed them to the wrong school (my bad!) and we needed to get directions to the school. Luckily my teammate had a gps in her car... genius! So when we go there, the high school wasn't in the best of neighborhoods and we were really not feeling parking the car in the neighborhood. But I kept saying to myself this is what my students have to live everyday and it wouldn't kill us for 2 days to be there too. When we got inside the school we got our schedule of classes and rooms but the way the high school was laid out, we got so lost and confused we wondered how the new 9th graders ever figured it out on their first week of school. But we ended up splitting off so we could learn. My 2 teammates and I stopped in one that was given by our other colleagues so we knew they wouldn't mind if we came in late. It didn't apply to us, kindergartners, but like all workshops kindergarten teachers can ALWAYS figure out a way to dial the upper grades information down to our level. Plus we just wanted to get credit (sign in sheet) for being there during that session.

So 2nd session is really the reason I am writing this post. I went to a workshop called Developing Number Sense. I wanted to attend because I am doing the math lesson plan for my team this year and I want all the ideas I can get my hands on. By the way... if you have any good kindergarten ideas for math, please send them my way. Okay so the two presenters showed us the books by Kathy Richardson which most of the teachers in there said they had not seen those books, even though they are in our school library. Isn't it weird how teacher resources are never shared with the teachers?! We got a HUGE stack of blackline masters to use with the books and got hands-on experience with some of the games in one of the books. But one part of the presentation that stuck with me was called Funny Numbers. We were told to repeat each word after one of the presenters: Seize (seize), nudge (nudge), jingle (jingle), drift (drift), ramp (ramp), groan (groan), spruce (spruce). She asked us to repeat them back to our partners. Well of course we could not because we learned them pretty fast. So then she put the words into perspective. She told us to think about the words as numbers that a new kindergartener or ESL student would have to learn. Then she repeated the words using her fingers and having us repeat the words only 3 at a time and we repeated them back to our partners better because we understood what the words meant and we learned them slower. So throughout the whole presentation we had to use these "numbers" to explain our selves. So if we were counting cubes and we had only 3 cubes. She would ask us how many we had and we would have to say "jingle".
I was so floored when we had to count that way because it does make sense when we ask students to repeat after us when we are doing calendar but they really have no earthly idea how much 28 is on the calendar. They are just rote counting then we wind up frustrated when we realize that are students can't count a group of objects... well that is because we don't give them enough hands-on activities with them. I can't wait to go to my school on Monday (yes we have school unfortunately) and find these books. I even offered up one of the activities I remembered to my teammates for this week's lesson plan on sorting.

                     It's called shake and sort. 

 The gist of it is, that you have a various amount of cubes (unfix or snapping) of different colors put into a bucket, bag and they shake them up, then pour them onto the table. Students then sort out their cubes by color. Then they have to say how many they have the least of (a question we don't often ask them first) and what color has the most? which ones have the same? Then they can put their cubes back and get more cubes to sort out. But it is a good activity to get them to sort and count. 

The object is to give students the hands-on experience with objects that help them associate them with numbers not just with rote counting as we do in calendar. Tactile experiences that they can use to develop number sense. We were shown a video where 3 students were given a pile of x amount of unfix cubes and asked to count the objects, they were kindergartners. But 2 of the students would touch each object but then touch and count them over and over again. One student would touch and push out the objects once she counted them. With the two who counted over and over again, the teacher would take away some and ask how many which they would show that same strategy again. The teacher would take away more to make it less than 10 and have the students say how many there were then have them count out the cubes. If they got it wrong, she asked them to count it again. Eventually they got the number right but phew they had a lot of tries. Like some kids could look at a group of numbers and tell exactly how many there are, they of course are further along in number sense than the students who need to forever recount the objects when asked the question how many are there? We learned that was when students had difficulty remembering the number so would have to count again... we were given a term but I can't quite remember it now... haha!

But overall, I now have a new drive for math and making sure my students work in small groups rather than whole groups. I feel as if my students might actually get to do stations this year... I wasn't feeling it when I saw my group of kids but now I know that they NEED it.