Using Touch Dots to Count Money

Have you ever had a student that just STRUGGLED with counting money and you couldn't figure out what to do in order to help them?

Well, I have this child EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR. and I find that using Touch Dots to count money has helped my students every time (maybe I'm just lucky???). I truly believe in touch dots for counting money and for learning to add.

In my money unit, I have posters for using touch dots and a few practice sheets to get students used to counting and seeing the touch dots. My students love doing them!

When I first start teaching money, I always teach this Coins Poem first (you could use this video to teach your students the words and have a visual of each coin at the same time):

After teaching my students the coins (even though they should already know their coins), I then move on to teaching them how to add the coins up and use touch dots to count money.

In this short video below, you can learn how to use touch dots with your students to count money.

Now, for my students that already know how to count money by adding the coins together, I do not MAKE them use the touch dots. I usually do a little pre-assessment and a lot of informal observations on my students while teaching money the first few days to see which students I will MAKE use the dots.

I hope you enjoy this alternative way of counting money as much as I do!!!

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The Pencil Grip Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

This month, I decided to try out these amazing Pencil Grips to see if they would help my students correct their grips and improve their handwriting. I knew right away which students I wanted to test these on.

Here is a picture of one of my student's grips before using the pencil grip and with the pencil grip. Doesn't it look so much more comfortable with the grip???

Before using the grip.

While using the grip.

What I love most about the pencil grip, is that my students were SO excited to use them. Most of my students that HATE writing are the ones that I noticed could use some help with their grip. I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence or what, but my thought is maybe their grip is causing them to be uncomfortable when writing. But as soon as I let them start using the pencil grip, they wanted to write and write.

I think this would be an ideal product to have in any PreK-2 classroom and for older grades to even have a few on hand to help students that are still struggling with their grips.

If I taught PreK or Kindergarten, I would use a whole class set of these things!!! For grades 1 and 2, I would definitely use these with my students still struggling with grips and even in a Word Work Center or Handwriting Center. The kids would be excited to just be able to write with these fun grips!!! They have lots of different colors too! EVEN GLITTER!!! eeek :)

You can find The Pencil Grips on Amazon or over at their website as well.

Now for a GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Pencil Grip Inc. has decided that they would like to give away TWO sets of their 3 Grip Training Kit to TWO lucky winners!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and you will be entered into the Rafflecopter below. The last day to enter will be February 26th. Please don't forget to leave your email address in your comment so that I can contact you for your prize. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Groundhog Day Snack

This February, my class is using my February Yummy Snacks pack to make fun snacks while sequencing our recipes. It has been a lot of fun so far!

We started out by making our little Groundhog Day snack and it was so much fun! It's definitely one of the easiest (not to mention the cutest) snacks I've ever made with my class. 

Check out the video below (I made it with my kiddos at home too) for making your Groundhog Day snack. You could even use this video to guide your students in class!

Click on the picture below to download the February Yummy Snacks:

I hope you enjoy this snack idea!!!

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Sweet Treats at Primary Peach

Head over to The Primary Peach blog to download some funny goodies! Today I shared my February Yummy Snacks packet for FREE!

There are LOTS of other fun freebies posted and there will be LOTS more to come all month long!!!

I hope you enjoy! :)

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5 Regions of GA

Every year, 2nd grade teachers in GA have to teach the 5 regions of GA. We do lots of fun activities while learning about the 5 regions.

The first thing I teach, is the 5 Regions Song that my class made up years ago. This helps them to remember the names of the 5 regions and their locations.

Use the video below to teach your students the song if you like.

After teaching the song, we then start to dig a little deeper into each region. We usually create a flip book for each region that tells about the habitat, the animals, the weather, and the type of landforms in that region.

This is a yearlong standard that we teach and the kids love learning about the 5 regions.

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Minute To Win It Reward Party

Earlier in the year I showed you my "Addition Facts Hall of Fame" and "Subtraction Facts Hall of Fame".

By middle of the year of 2nd grade, I expect my students to master their addition facts (20 facts correct in 1 minute). For those that have mastered their facts, we do a special party. I decided to do the party during recess this year because I didn't want my other students to feel like they were being punished for not mastering their facts (every child is different and their circumstances are different as well). But I did want to reward the ones that did master their facts because they worked very hard and deserved it.

So I decided to do a "Minute to Win It War" party for the kids that made it at least on the Addition Facts Hall of Fame. I only had about 4 students out of 24 that did not master their facts.

Here is a video of the Minute to Win It Games that we played…

They had a blast playing these games! And A BONUS was that it was EASY to set up!!! I'm not gonna lie, I forgot to go to the store the day before the party to get cookies and marshmallows, so I substituted for things I already had in my room (crackers and gummy bears leftover from another activity that we did).

I would highly recommend doing a "Minute to Win It" Reward party! And I told them it only made since to do this type of party because they had a "Minute to finish their math facts after all". haha!

I hope you enjoy! I would love to hear of other "Minute to Win It" games that you've loved playing with your students.

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Matter Experiments

We had fun with our matter experiments!

First we made ice cream using rock salt, sugar, vanilla flavoring, and ice! So fun!

 Then we made butter using heavy whipping cream and shaking it like crazy!

Last, we took a mixture of snacks and SEPARATED them to show that the mixture could be completely separated. 

Science is probably my kids' most favorite subject!!! They absolutely LOVE it!

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