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Number Name Sorting Cards

My third post on sorting cards! I love sorting cards! I think they should be used much more often in schools for so many reasons. You can read about some of them in one of my two previous posts on sorting cards:

Biomes Sorting Cards

Idioms Sorting Cards

Math is a place where sorting cards can be especially helpful. In fact, sorting is a part of math. One reason I think sorting is so powerful in math is that some kids have a lot of math anxiety. Sorting takes away a lot of that anxiety because all of the answers are on the table. Kids can also work with a partner which takes away some stress as well.

In second grade, students are expected to name numbers using numerals, number names, and expanded form. These sorting cards have all three of these forms. These would actually be a great way to introduce these number forms because kids will be able to sort even if they don't know the term "expanded form". Once they have some experience, later lessons will make more sense.

Here is a video of the sort in action.

You can see how much fun these girls are having. Sorting numbers! It is crazy!

You can purchase the cards at Teachers pay Teachers.

Idioms Sorting Cards

Sorting is such a valuable tool in education. I have many thoughts on it. You can read some of them in my first sorting card post here:

Biomes Sorting Cards

Idioms are one of those things that I struggled to find a place for in my classroom. I always had a large cohort of ELL students in my room, and English language learners do not understand idioms. I don't think I would get them in another language either!

Adding the difficulty reading in English that a lot of these kids had, most of the idioms resources I had in my room just didn't cut it. Ha! An idiom!

This summer I started collecting pictures of idioms from Shutterstock to make into sorting cards. The cards have a cartoon of an idiom or a picture that shows what the idiom means. 

There are so many ways to use these cards. You could have an idiom of the week and put both cards up on a board. You could could laminate matching cards back to back so kids can flip back and forth to learn the meaning of cards. You could sort them yourself and have kids come up with idiom definitions. Kids could match the cards themselves. You could use a matching game as an assessment. Really, your options are endless.

Making these cards makes me so happy because they are a tool that will make life easier for teachers and give students a positive experience mastering a standard. Teaching and learning are both so hard, I want to support everyone any way I can.

There are 21 idioms in the set. If you would like to purchase the cards, you can do so at Teachers pay Teachers. I will list it on Teacher's Notebook soon.

If printing all this color is a challenge, I can also mail you the pictures printed on cardstock if you order it as a hard good. It is only $1 more plus shipping.

Biomes Sorting Cards

Sorting is such a valuable educational tool that (I believe) isn't used enough in schools today. Kids naturally start sorting at a young age because humans have an innate need to bring order to our world. Sorting is a way to make sense out of chaos.

Sorting also allows us to examine relationships between objects and ideas. It allows us to dig deeper into our understanding of a topic. Plus, sorting is actually really fun - especially when you get to do it with a friend.

With all of these benefits, why wouldn't we use sorting in school?

I realize that not every is familiar with the power of sorting, so I decided to make a few videos to show how the sorting works. I grabbed one of my daughters and her friend to help me. I am not kidding you, they loved it. They loved it so much they wouldn't stop sorting when I needed to end the video. 

This is not promotional talk here. They were having so much fun. It made me think of amazing it would be to have an entire classroom of kids this engaged with their work. 

I think one part of sorting that is important for kids, especially kids who typically struggle in school, is that it doesn't require them to write. You can write to record your thinking, but you don't have to. This takes away a huge barrier for a lot of kids. It creates a level playing field where everyone can have fun and feel successful.

Can you tell I love sorting?

Anyway, the video below is all about biomes. I have taught biomes for so many years! I have reading passages in my stores which I love, but nothing has been as fun for kids as these sorting cards.

So, the girls only sorted two biomes, but there are actually 7 biomes in the sorting set. You get cards for:

1. Freshwater Aquatic

2. Marine

3. Desert

4. Grasslands

5. Rainforest

6. Tundra

7. Taiga

Each biome has two environment pictures, a description of the biome, 3 animal cards, and 3 plant cards. You also get pictures of my sorts as an "answer key", but of course, there are different sorts that could still make sense. 

That is another part of sorting that I love. There are so many correct answers that require kids to explain their thinking.

Can you tell that I love sorting?! Oh, and I love biomes!

Five for Friday (September 30, 2016)

ONE

I am taking some time away from teaching this year, but I still wanted to help out at my daughters' school. Luckily, a second grade teacher needed some help with a couple of girls who were behind in math.

Both girls had a lot of anxiety about math and did not enjoy learning at all. So, I had a big task in front of me, but luckily I had the time to come up with some ideas to help them L-O-V-E math.

I assembled my tutoring basket with lots of treats to make math super fun. First, I made a sticker book for each girl. I took colorful paper, laminated it, punched a hole and connected the pages with a circle closure. In theory, the girls should be able to move their stickers on and off the pages. They haven't tried moving them yet, and I am a little worried that it won't work. 

The girls collect stickers in their sticker books by buying stickers from me. I give them Monopoly dollars for each problem they complete. Then, they can spend those dollars to buy stickers. Each sticker page has a different price. So far their favorites are princess stickers for $5 each. Since we are working on number sense, buying stickers and counting dollars is just more practice. Bonus!

Funny thing though - the girls are having so much fun doing the math that they forget to ask for dollars! 

I also have colorful pencils and markers. The girls have always chosen to work with markers because their work looks prettier. I know they can't erase their mistakes, but if they are happy, then I am happy. 

I knew we would need some counters since the girls aren't super confident about their numbers. I decided to get my daughter's little My Little Ponies - she has a ton of the ones that come in the blind bags. The two girls both love them. Best of all, after just a couple of weeks of working with them, they don't even need the ponies very much anymore.

In the back you can see one of the first pages we worked on together. The girls didn't understand number bonds, so we started looking at ways to break apart numbers and using number bonds to show our work. I made this set specifically for them, but it was so fun that I decided to list it on TpT.

There are 10 pages double-sided. One side deals with showing the numbers 1-10 using several different models, and the other side shows all of the number bonds for that number. The girls got so much practice with numbers and number bonds!

TWO

Speaking of staying home this year. This is my studio for shooting my products. I just wanted to share what a mess it is while I am working. 

I feel like my pictures are looking better and better, and they give the impression that everything is perfect at my house. Ummm... not so much!

THREE

One product I have been working on this week is an idioms matching activity. I feel like idioms are crazy! I have always had a large group of ELL students, and they really don't get idioms. I built on an activity I used to do in class to make this activity. It isn't up on TpT yet, but it is coming soon!

You can already get my idioms picture matching game. I love using pictures to introduce kids to new topics. They can really dig into it because they aren't limited by their reading abilities. I already tried this one out on my third grader, and she loved it!

FOUR

I tried to make some memes this week too. I have been reading all about how the brain learns, and I wanted to find a fun way to share what I am learning. I love them! That baby is so cute!

FIVE

Once Upon a Time is finally back! I am so excited to watch the first episode of the season! I am crazy about this show, but I am waiting to watch the first episode with my girls. We are going to record a podcast after we watch because that is super fun!

Well, that is some of my week. Thanks for making it this far. I hope you had an awesome week yourself! 

Memes for Today

I thought it would be fun to try out making some memes. Here is the first meme I made.

This is 100% true, and I didn't have room to add this, but of the two questions, the second is by far the most important. We can remember nonsense if it is meaningful to us.

I thought this was a great meme to start with because, as a teacher, I spent so much time trying to make concepts make sense and not enough time at all focusing on making things meaningful for my kiddos. I think it is just a good reminder for all of us - parents and teachers alike.

Also, isn't that boy adorable?! I don't know him, it is just a stock photo, but I love him!

Freebies

I learned how to make a new permanent page! You can see all of my freebies by clicking the "Freebie" link at the top of the page. I am super excited about making those links work! Enjoy!