Math Freebies!

Wow, where has March gone?  Granted, part of it we've been buried in snow and ice!  I realized the other day we've missed more holidays this winter!  It snowed out Valentine's Day, kept moving our 100th Day, snowed out Dr. Seuss/Read Across America (we only went that Thursday!), and then St. Patrick's Day.  Okay, old man Winter, that's enough!  I won't even mention what's in the forecast for this Tuesday!

So, because we've missed, I think, 18 days since January, our time has been crunched!  As in, they wanted us to teach Regrouping with Addition and Subtraction WITH Estimation in 4 days, and then test.  Um, yeah.  It's a brand new concept for our 2nd graders, and they think we'll do that in 4 days????  I wish "they" would come in and work with my 10 kiddos that haven't gotten it after 4 days!  (Shh!  I'm adding 2 extra days next week and testing on Wednesday.)

I told some of my friends in the upper grades what they wanted us to do and they about flipped!  I have to admit, I'm glad they had the same reaction I did!

Well, several years ago, my kiddos (who are now in 6th grade) made videos explaining regrouping with subtraction.  I dug it up and showed it to my class on Friday AND I presented a poster I made to help them along.  We use base 10 blocks when regrouping so students can "physically move" the ten over to the ones place.  I also created a unit to help them as well, starting with base 10 blocks and gradually weaning away from them (although  I told students they could always draw them on a test!).


I fear some of my lowest ones still will not get this concept, even after 2 extra days of practicing, so we're using our extra 15 minutes a day they added on to our schedule to practice regrouping with white boards/markers.

After regrouping, we have fractions.  They wanted that in 4 days as well (what are these people thinking???).  We have to introduce comparing fractions, so I actually spoke up and said I needed a week and a half.

Why the rush?  They want us to post test after spring break, which is the week of April 21st.  Granted, SOL tests for our 3rd-5th graders starts May 12, so they have to pull all our computers/laptops for that.  Hmm, but if my calendar skills are correct, that is at least 2 weeks after we post test.   Oh, did I mention that our last day of school is May 30 and we won't have taught measurement by then, but we were told that wouldn't count against us!!!!! (because we'll have the rest of the year to teach that!!!!).

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now....anyone else having this problem and would like to vent?  My comments are open :)

So, where are these freebies I teased you with in the title?

First, I revamped my "Gumball Fractions" to include comparing and gave it a cute frame.  I'm all about the cute clipart and frames! :)  You can either copy the gumballs on colored paper, or have the kids color them and paste them on the gumball jar.  Since I'm already doing smarties and marshmallows for another activity, I figured this would have to be a inedible version :)

Click {here} for TpT and {here} for Teacher's Notebook.

My other freebie is my Regrouping poster.  It's part of my Regrouping Packet I mentioned above.  Our PTA bought us a poster maker that prints in color (!), but if you don't have one, the kids can always put this in their math journals.

Please click on the "free preview" to snag the poster! :)  Click {here} for TpT and {here} for TN.

Oh, and here's the video - too cute! :)  I also have it on my math wiki page as well. :)