St. Paddy's Day & March Linky

First off, let the countdown begin- Nine days until spring!  THANK GOODNESS! It sure has been one loooooooooooong winter, and temperatures are still so cold and below average for this time of year. Here's to hoping things will WARM UP soon!

Frame & Clip Art by Creative Clips

On another note, to get in the mood for March and SPRING, I thought I'd throw a little linky party, and I would LOVE for you to join in on the action. For this linky party you may post a link to your blog or TpT store, highlighting a St. Paddy's Day or March themed freebie, idea, or paid product.  If you choose to link-up a blog post, don't forget to copy and paste the above graphic into your post and link it back to the party! 

I am going to be linking up my newest product, Luck of the Irish, which includes a deck of St. Patrick’s Day Multiplication Cards that can be used for a variety of matching games.

It includes Student Instructions for 4 different card games that are new twists on old favorites.

The first is 'Lucky Pot of Gold Multiplication', a variation of “Old Maid” in which 1 player is left with the “Lucky Pot of Gold” card and WINS the game. 

The second is 'Mischievous Leprechaun Multiplication', which is played the same way, but 1 player is left with the “Mischievous Leprechaun” card and loses the game. 

'St. Patrick’s Day Search' is a version of “Go Fish”. In this activity, the player who receives “The Mischievous Leprechaun” card, gives 1 pair of matching cards away to the player to their left at the end of the game. The player who receives “The Lucky Pot of Gold” card, collects 2 pairs of matching cards from the player to their right at the end of the game. 

The 4th game, 'Celtic Concentration', is played like “Concentration” or “Memory”. In this version, if a player flips over the “Mischievous Leprechaun” card, they must flip their cards back over and skip their turn. The player to flip over “The Lucky Pot of Gold” card collects 2 pairs of matching cards from the player to their right at the end of the game.

Check out Luck of the Irish on TpT for more information and/or to download a preview. I hope it can add a "taste of" the Irish to your classroom!

Now onto the linky...Thank you to anyone who joins! :)

XO <3, C

An InLinkz Link-up

FALLing into Autumn

Happy Fall everyone!  I can't believe tomorrow is my two month wedding anniversary!  Time has been flying, which is crazy because I haven't exactly been very busy.  Hopefully subbing will speed up soon, and I think it just might because I have 4 different dates lined up at local elementary schools.  Hooray!

Onto talking about fall / Halloween.  The past two Octobers, Sam and I have visited a corn maze at a nearby farm with some of our best friends, K & J.  Unfortunately, almost all of our weekends are booked in October this year, so we had to visit the maze a little early and went last weekend, this time going with a larger group.  As always, we had the best time, and it was still WARM out. It was gorgeous! I absolutely love visiting this corn maze at night, trying to navigate the paths in the dark underneath a starry sky.  Every now and then someone from the farm pops out from behind a corner, or the boys drift off and reappear in the cornstalks, trying to scare us.  Afterwards, the farm hosts a large bonfire and hands out free apple cider and apple cider donuts.  This may be my very favorite fall activity!

 

Our traditional "Entering the Maze" photo!

 We found an eye...

 and a foot of the salamander shaped maze!

My favorite part of the corn maze is getting lost, of course!  I'm always excited to see this sign, even though I look completely panicked in the photo.  Haha!

On another note, I created another Halloween product for TPT today, Halloween Multiplication "I Have ... Who Has?".  This version of "I Have ... Who Has?" is parfait for the month of October (duhhh), and can be used as multiplication fact and word problem practice or review during Morning Meeting, math time, or a Halloween party. 

(Pictures updated as of October 19, 2014).

As I suggest on TPT and in the Teacher Directions, depending on your students’ level of expertise with multiplication facts, you might stop after every card is read and determine the matching number sentence for each word problem as a whole class.
For example, a child reads, “There are 5 witches and each casts 3 spells. How many spells did they cast together?”, so the class determines the appropriate sentence is “5x3”. At this point, all students may use a strategy or a multiplication chart to find the correct product together. Playing the game this way, is perfect for those kiddos who are just learning the concept of multiplication number sentences, equal groups, and/or are rusty on fact fluency. 

Hop on over to the activity here. 

I've gotta run so I can continue chowing down on more candy pumpkins!  I may or may not have eaten about 2/3 of a bag since yesterday.  Until next time, friends!

XO <3, C