Math Toolkits


DIY, Fourth Grade, Math

You know it’s a lot of cutting when you end up with blisters on your cutting hand. Hopefully, it is all worth it in the end! My fourth graders will each have their own math toolkit to start the year! Many of the manipulatives are from Brittney Hege’s Mix & Math 360 group, with a few other items thrown in from other places. Besides the items pictured, each child also has a small plastic container for dice rolling (we all know how dice end up across the room on the floor, which they won’t be able to retrieve without being […]

Mini Anchor Charts


Classroom Setup, Daily Life, DIY, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, Third Grade, TpT Store, Writing

I love anchor charts. I hate hanging anchor charts on my walls. They either take up precious bulletin board space, or they constantly fall down (or just wave at me from one droopy corner). So, a few years ago, I created a set of mini anchor charts for my tables using IKEA’s Tolsby Frames. After much frustration to get everything just the right size, I finally had a small set of charts. Multiplication chart, synonyms for overused words, math talk stems, commonly misspelled words, and more. And I also made some cute motivational cards to keep it fun and positive!

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Math Games Library


DIY, Fourth Grade, Math

I love using math games. The kids love them and they’re good practice for fact fluency. However, I wanted to have a bunch of different operations, levels of challenge, group vs. individual, etc. available whenever I needed them. I also wanted something kids could take home if they wanted to continue practicing because, let’s be honest, Xtramath is a bit dull. Therefore, the math games library was born! I pulled games from TpT, created some of my own, invested in lots of bins, bags, containers, clothespins, game pieces and colored paper. After plenty of printing, cutting, bagging, labeling etc., it’s

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Everyday Math Chapter Review Cards


Assessment, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, TpT Store

I finally finished my goal of converting all of my review cards for the chapters into digital files. I’ve been using random sized index cards with hand drawn pictures and scratched out errors for long enough, and my summer tutoring along with the TpT sale days were enough motivation to get me to finish the digital conversion! Each chapter has a set of task cards, an answer sheet (and answer key), and a set of mini-cards to send home for students to study from. You can get one chapter at a time, or buy the bundle (only chapters 1-11 though…

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Math Challenge – Presidential Math


Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Homework, Math, TpT Store

With every unit in math, I give out a math challenge that reviews some of the major concepts from the previous unit. I had a challenge for mean, median and mode, but it turned out to be far too complicated, which meant I had to create something new. I figured social studies and presidents would be a good tie-in. So here it is, the Presidential Math Challenge! You can view it on my TpT Store.

Student-Led Portfolio Conferences


Assessment, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, Reading, Science, Social Studies, TpT Store, Writing

November is a time for Parent-Teacher conferences, which I must admit are not my favorite. I spend so much time trying to think of everything I need to say to a parent, organizing my ideas, gathering work samples and finding just the right way to phrase some of those difficult messages. And inevitably, the minute a parent leaves or an hour later it hits me… the one thing I forgot to tell them! Spring is another conference, but this time around students are leading the way. Over the next few weeks I will spend time reflecting with my students, sharing

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Math Pretests… Continued


Assessment, Fourth Grade, Math, TpT Store

Well, I’m 3 for 3 now with pretests! My goal is to make one for each of the 12 units, so I’m a quarter of the way done! If you are interested in using them in your own classroom, Chapters 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 are all available. Enjoy!

The Dreaded Basic Math Facts


Assessment, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, Third Grade, TpT Store

I knew at the end of last year that there would still be some students who really struggled with basic facts.  Watching a child sit there adding 7+7+7+7+7+7 on their fingers can be almost painful, so I wanted to try doing the 1 minute timed tests this year as just another technique that might help reach some students.  I spent the summer putting together a set of multiplication/division tests, but alas, it seems that many of my students need to brush up on their addition and subtraction!  So, I put together a smaller review set of +/- timed tests and

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Everyday Math – Pretests


Assessment, Fourth Grade, Math, TpT Store

One of the goals I have for this year is to take more of a math workshop style approach to math so that I can differentiate more effectively.  That means that I need to pretest students at the beginning of each unit, and since I couldn’t find any pretests, I decided to just make them myself.  I decided to include one question from each lesson in the unit, plus additional ‘Practice’ problems, covering items that the students should be able to do independently. I rated each question as easy (one star), medium (two stars) or hard (3 stars) so that

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