March FREEBIE! Clip-Cards Math Center

Just finished up this great set of St. Patrick's Day themed clip-cards for my own classroom and wanted to share them with you for FREE! This simple math center goes great with the St. Patrick's Day Number Sort, the Roll, Count & Graph Activities, the Letters & Sounds Sort and the Play Dough Mats. 



The set includes cards for numbers 1-20 and are designed to be printed double-sided making them self-checking! I LOVE centers that my students can be independent with - and I know that they love the ability to check their own work...

See the dots for self-checking?!
All you need are some clips - I used these great little ones from the craft store!


I set them out on a little tray with the clips so that my students can carry the whole work to their workspace without trouble.


You can download these cute clip-cards for free HERE!

March Math Centers: Number Sense Sort

(affiliate links included for your convenience!)

With spring just around the corner, the time to pack away the snowflakes and penguins has finally arrived! Just a few days ago, I switched out one of our math centers for this standards-based St. Patrick’s Themed number sort.


I love that it has so many different representations of each number and includes numbers 0-20! Right now, I just have 0-10 out and have the other numbers in a ziplock bag on the shelf until I see that my students are ready for them. I also love that it includes an extra page of coins with Montessori colored beads! 
Number Sense Math Center

These centers are also self-checking (if you can print double-sided)! I absolutely love that my students can check and correct their own work which frees my time up for individual and small group instruction during our work block. 


When it comes to cutting out tons of laminated centers (which most of us have conquered from time to time), cutting out circles is simply the worst! I invested in this 2" circle punch from the craft store and couldn't be happier! It has saved me so much time and painful blisters on my fingers.... It was worth the $15 I spent ... and more! 


You can find this printable center HERE! 



Anchor Words in the Midst of Chaos...




A few months ago, in the midst of life chaos, I began a series of posts on my Instagram feed called #anchorwords. The concepts of an 'anchor word' began during a very stressful time in my life where I found myself faced with many upcoming transitions -- packing a household, preparing our home to sell, moving to a new state, starting a new job and then the daily challenges of balancing work and family. I felt overwhelmed with my life and needed something to focus my mind on to keep me steady and 'anchored' to my changing world; I needed to find my zen and cultivate my own mindfulness practice... that's when #anchorwords was born!


Each week, I picked a word to center my thoughts around and look for inspiration and steadiness across all of the different aspects of my life. I sought out related quotes and Bible verses that connected to my #anchorword and looked for ways that I could apply my meditations to my work in the classroom. Anytime I started to feel especially overwhelmed with life, I'd pull out my phone and take a look at my word on my Instagram feed - almost immediately I'd feel more grounded amongst the chaos.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be sharing some of my #anchorwords.  I encourage you to pause for a moment in the middle of your own chaos to see how it might be helpful in your own life. My hope is that these thoughts on teaching, mothering and wife-ing might bring peace, focus and grounding to some aspect of your own life.

Enjoy.



More March Math Centers: Roll, Count & Graph

My students love playing games with dice of all sorts and I LOVE dice games because they're learning while having fun! Roll, Count & Graph activities are a favorite in my classroom so I usually keep a seasonally themed activity available as a choice on my Math shelves. I recently put out a couple of activities from this Rainbow Shamrock Roll, Count & Graph pack.

Roll, Count & Graph Activities
On one tray, I put a color dice and a coloring worksheet along with a rainbow of colored pencils. Students roll the dice, identify the color, match a colored pencil and color one shamrock that color. They continue rolling and coloring until all of the shamrocks are colored in. For my youngest students, the activity ends here -- but for my older students, they might count and graph the shamrocks from their coloring page onto one of the graphing worksheets.





On another tray, I have the graphing activity set up with a color die and colored pencils. Students roll the dice and then color the corresponding box on their worksheet. Sometimes I introduce dot markers or manipulatives to cover the spaces on the graph. With older students, we discuss most/least, more/less etc.



I love that this pack is low-prep! The worksheets come in color and black and white versions, so I can print and go OR I can laminate for repeated use. The worksheets can be easily differentiated for students on different levels and the dice are easy to assemble.




You can find this activity HERE.



Learning the Alphabet with Mini-Books...

I recently spent some time working on letters with my very favorite preschooler.... My son! We worked on making a letter A Little Letter Book.


First he cut the page in half, folded the book and I helped him to staple it all together.


Then he got to work! First he colored the letters....


Then he traced the letters... 


Then dotted....



Find the letter in words & mark...



Sticker the letter....



Make the letter... (we made ours out of toothpicks!)



Last, was find, cut & paste...



He was pretty excited to be mommy's product tester!


I'd say it was a huge success... he's even asked when we'll make another letter book! You can find these letter books HERE.