Pom Pom Power! Having fuzzy fun in math centers! **Fun Freebie**

What math manipulative is colorful, quiet, inexpensive, easy to clean up and oodles of fun?  Pom Poms!  I love working with pom poms, whether it is for a fun craft or a quick game, they are the perfect tool.  My love of pom poms was quickly shared by my students when I introduced them to pom poms in their math centers.   This inspired me to create my 12 Pom Pom Math Centers and this FREE extra decomposing math center using those fuzzy little friends.

You can use pom poms to teach several different math topics.  My students have used them for number sense, shapes, sorting, patterns, addition and subtraction, measurement and so much more!

These centers are so easy to set up and take down that it makes prepping math centers a breeze.  And with all of the teaching options, from beginner to advanced, they come in handy throughout the school year.

This FREE decomposing with pom poms math center is not included in my original pack.  I created it for my friends here at Keeping it Cool at School so that you can see just how fun, easy and effective working with pom poms can be.

Download this FREEBIE here:  FREE Decomposing Numbers Pom Pom Math Center   and be sure to let me know how much you and your students enjoy the fun and festive feel that pom poms bring to your classroom.

I love anchor charts!

   Teachers and students love anchor charts!  I love anchor charts and use them for everything! They are amazing for reading and writing to remind students of routines, procedures, and important information they should remember. They are also great in math for helping students remember different strategies and concepts. Anchor charts are helpful in the primary grades because it can be difficult for students to remember several steps in a process. Being able to reference anchor charts around the room really helps to continuously reinforce the content that has been taught.
    I personally love making anchor charts because I like creating the pictures and attempting to write in a nice font.  I always say I have the handwriting of a 5th grade boy, so the writing part takes major focus.  Anchor charts are a wonderful interactive activity that students should be engaged in.  My students always share what pictures they want to see, or they contribute to the pictures as well.  Here are some anchor charts for reading that we have hanging from a clothesline in our classroom.

The kiddos picked their favorite storybook characters to be included on this anchor chart which helps to make it more memorable.

*Have fun with anchor charts!  They don't have to be a masterpiece, just effective.
*Add book covers, photographs and other familiar items that might spark the kids interest and help them remember the concept.

 *If you can't add all of your content onto one chart, keep adding on to one and then tape the next one to the bottom, or hang them next to each other.

I could plaster my classroom walls with anchor charts, but after awhile too many will look cluttered and lose their effectiveness.  When we move onto a new topic I like to hang smaller anchor charts, or put them in centers for students to reference.  

Do you love anchor charts as much as me?  What do you use them for?

Fiction and Nonfiction Bulletin Board!

Oh, bulletin boards...a love/hate relationship.  I love doing bulletin boards, but sometimes things get so hectic it becomes tough to change them every month.  With that being said, I am pretty lucky because I don't have an actual bulletin board, I have these metal strips that hold student work.  It's nice because when I don't have time to get real creative, I can just slip some recent student work into the strips.  The part that stinks, is that when I want to do something fun and festive I have to get out 20 pounds of sticky-tac and adhere everything to the wall.  This month we have been really focusing on identifying fiction and nonfiction.  This is a tough concept, but we have been having a lot of fun learning with songs, center activities and much more.  We decided to showcase some of this work in the hallway with the help of a few snowy friends.  Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry, but you get the idea :)

My son is obsessed with Frozen and I haven't been able to get the songs out of my head all week!  "Do you want to build a snowman?"  My students love the movie as well so I just had to find a way to get Olaf up on that wall.  I love hearing the kids freak out when they walk by him in the hallway, I even caught a little girl hugging the wall yesterday haha.  So cute!

The student work displayed consists of various pages from our nonfiction retelling books and a sorting page for pictures of books we cut out of Scholastic Book Club magazines.  You can check out these products for more fiction and nonfiction fun!