Picture Book Linky Party #2

And I'm back for round 2! I am linking up with First Grade and Fabulous again for DeAnne's Picture Book Linky Party #2. This week's (day's) topic is Picture Books to Help Teach Math Concepts.

Help Me Learn Addition by Jean Marzollo

A great introduction to problem solving and addition strategies. There's cute little word problems that make students think about how to solve equations. Cute pictures as well!

Used Any Numbers Lately? by Susan Allen and Jane Lindaman

This is a good book to talk about how numbers are everywhere! From our house number to our phone number, we use numbers every day. With this book, I plan to do a Math About Me activity... Love these number people from the blog Just Add Clipart. 

Double the Ducks by Stuart J. Murphy

I love the whole MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy. I have a ton of other titles as well. If you go to the website {here}, they have tons of activities to go with the books too!

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins

This is a classic story for teaching fair shares/division. KindergartenWorks has a free retell literacy center that would be good for math as well. Check it out {here}.

...98, 99, 100! Ready or Not, Here I Come! by Teddy Slater

This is a cute book for teaching about skip counting. It shows how it's faster to count by 10's than it is to count by 1's, but you still get to the same end result!

Square Cat by Elizabeth Schoonmaker

This is a fun book to talk about shapes. The First Grade Parade has some cute ideas for math problems using the book as a spring board.

Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy

I made these adorable Penny crafts as a centre last year, which I got from Primary Junction's Second Grade Common Core Measurement Unit. They were fun to make and my students had a fun time using various non-standard units to measure Penny's head.

One Is a Snail Ten Is a Crab by April Pulley and Jeff Sayre

This is a fun book to use to show different ways to make numbers, based on the number of feet different animals have.

1 = snail

2 = human

3 = human and a snail

See all the possibilities you can do? 

5 = a dog and a snail, or it could be 5 snails, or it could be two humans and a snail! 

This book leads to some very open-ended thinking skills.

Math Fables by Greg Tang

All of Greg Tang's math books involve a lot of problem solving skills. You can view all of his books in an eBook format (with audio!) on his website. There are also some free games you can download too.

If You Were a Plus Sign and If You Were a Minus Sign by Speed Shaskan

These are great books to introduce addition and subtraction.

Do you use picture books to teach math? Link up with DeAnee over at First Grade and Fabulous to share your favourites!

K/1 Giveaway with Mrs. Kelly's Klass

I have *never* done this before!! I am breaking a bloggy rule by posting twice in one day!! But I just had to share about this amazing opportunity to win some back to school goodies! Sam over at Mrs. Kelly's Klass is making the exciting move from second grade to kindergarten! In celebration of that, she is hosting a K/1 giveaway with a kindergarten prize pack and first grade prize pack. I have donated My Calendar Journal to the first grade prize pack. Click the picture below to enter her giveaway and see all the fabulous prizes you could win! You have until July 11th toe enter. Winners will be announced on Friday. Good luck!

Picture Book Linky Party #1

I am a little late to the party, but I just found DeAnne's *adorable* blog First Grade and Fabulous. She is having a weekly linky party to link up your favourite picture books, based on various topics. She is already on week three, so I am really behind! I'm going to do one a day for the next three days though, so I can catch up on the fun. If you have been following my blog for a while (or are related to me or live with me...) you know that I have an OBSESSION with picture books. My boyfriend tells me I could start my own public library. Hehe. So here we go with Picture Book Linky Party #1. The topic: Picture Books for the First Week of School. I'm going to do a Top Ten (in no particular order) so here we go!

Back-to-School Rules by Laurie Friedman

This book is new to me... I just purchased it from Really Good Stuff. It's a cute rhyming book that goes over some basic classroom rules (raising hand, not being late, etc.) A good introduction to talk about classroom/school rules.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! by Lucille Colandro

I love reading these books each month. I think the author listened to teachers, because there is now a book for each month! I usually use some of the activities from the mini units from Castles & Crayons.

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray

This is a great story for going on a walk around the school! The gingerbread man visits different locations in the school and would make a great scavenger hunt for the first day/week. Erin Eberhart has a cute pack to go with this book.

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

A classic story to ease those nerves of the first day. So many cute crafts to go with this book. Just Pinterest it! {Is that a verb now? Like Google? hehe}

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneburg

Such a cute story with a surprise ending! ;) Tells the students that *everybody* is a little bit nervous on the first day of school.

Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

I love Splat and this book is another great read aloud to talk about our nerves. 

First Grade Jitters by Robert Quackenbush

This has become a yearly staple, especially is you use The Inspired Apple's recipe and poem for Jitter Juice!! It is something they will always remember from that first day.

David Goes to School by David Shannon

Another great book to discuss classic rules. Plus students just *love* the David books. They were a very popular choice during read to self time. We used The First Grade Parade's peacemaker/peacebreaker activity.

Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin

I love Pete. I think every K-2 teacher does by now. I always do the Pete books for my first author study. I am so excited about all the new books coming out! I already have Pete's Big Lunch, Pete at the Beach, Play Ball, and The Wheels on the Bus. Coming soon are Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses (Oct. 1), Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving (Oct. 1), Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day Is Cool (Nov. 26), Pete the Cat: Big Easter Adventure (Jan. 28), Pete the Cat: Old MacDonald Had a Farm (Feb. 18), and Pete the Cat: Cool for School (Feb. 25). Woo hoo! 

The Night Before First Grade by Natasha Wing

I think I have all of Natasha Wing's "The Night Before" books. There's one for every holiday! I love that! This is a great one to talk about what students did to get ready for school! 

Did I miss any of your back to school favourites? Go link up with First Grade and Fabulous so I can check them out!

I will leave you with a fun little activity I plan to do on the first day of school. I came across a cute Finding Nemo snippet on YouTube. I am going to show the video and talk about how Nemo felt on his first day of school and compare it to how we feel on our first day. I made this cute recording sheet for my students to draw pictures of how Nemo felt and how they feel on their first day of school. We will keep this in our portoflios (my new school does these... not quite sure how I am going to work them this year, but we will see!). Click the picture to download your copy. I made a vertical version and a horizontal version. 

Techy Updates!

Alright, I'm back from camping and feeling quite a bit more relaxed! I finally feel like summer has started. I have a blank week ahead of me... meaning no renos, no work, and nothing on the schedule! So excited! Here's how much fun the puppies had swimming and camping this weekend.... they were exhausted on the ride home! :) A tired puppy is a happy puppy!

So I've been playing around with some of new bloggy technology that has been floating around. First up, Blog Lovin'! When I first heard that Google Reader was going down, I signed up for Blog Lovin' and immediately became a fan! I don't know how you like to read your favourite blogs, but I love the Blog Lovin' toolbar. I just open up Blog Lovin'... see how many unread posts I have, then open them up in the toolbar. This way I get to see the full layout of each blog. I love seeing all the different blog templates out there... (I'm thinking I might be in need of a makeover one day!)

I find it's so simple to use. Just click the <newer or older> button to see all of your unread posts from all the blogs you follow! You can also "like" posts to remember them for later. Do you follow your favourite blogs with Blog Lovin' like I do? Would you like to follow me? It's easy. Just click the picture below and click the blue follow button! 

Next, I've been playing around with my Facebook page. I've uploaded some new pictures of my new classroom! All I have done so far is move in tons and tons of boxes, so there's not much to see. But it gives you a before picture when I show you my absolutely finished classroom! We aren't allowed back into the school until August 19th... and then I only have 4 days to unpack, organize, and decorate my classroom before I am off to Vegas for a week! Woot woot! I'm not complaining though. It's going to be a very busy, exciting summer!

Click here to see pictures of my new classroom!

Here is a new freebie for you--a math game that practices addition to 20, using manipulatives. It is called "Add Them Bones". Students take turns spinning the two number spinners, putting doggy bones on the dog houses, and writing an addition sentence to go with it! A fun math station that can be played alone, in partners, or in small groups. (Note: The game board comes in full colour like picture, without the background colour, or in black & white.) Click the picture below to get your own copy!

And the last bit of techy adventure... I finally joined the Instragram craze. I'm not sure who is interested in following me, but I do take lots of iPhone pictures! Sometimes those pictures don't make it to my blog, so Instagram will be a fun way to share those extra pics! Just click the picture below and click the blue follow button!

Well, that's it for now! Have a relaxing Sunday!