Place Value, MLK, and Snowmen!

First things first…I’m a fool!  Y’all.  I’m blushing red with embarrassment.  For those of you who have purchased my Place Value Mystery Pictures…and those of you who have downloaded the free preview…I apologize.  One of my firsties pointed out a HUGE mistake on the 100’s Chart this morning.  There’s an 81 where there should be a 90!!!  Yikes-a-bee!  See…I TOLD you!  Pregnancy brain strikes again…and I’m not even preggo!  You can download the corrected 100’s chart by clicking on the pic below :)

SO sorry!!

Speaking of place value, here’s a fun little activity I made for my kids to do in their math tubs last week.  It’s a snowman place value spinner! 

Graphics courtesy of Digi Web Studio

Last week we were working on place value with teen numbers, so that’s what this particular activity reinforces.  The kids spin the spinner on the middle portion of the snowman and collect that amount of ones cubes...or whatever kind of counter you want!  Then they spin the spinner on the bottom portion of the snowman and collect the same amount of ones cubes as well.  Then they count their cubes and see if they can make a set of ten.  I always tell them, “If you can make a 10, trade it in!!!”.  Then they grab a tens rod, place their base 10 blocks on the place value workmat accordingly, and then fill out the corresponding recording sheet.  Y’all…they LOVED it!!!!

I LOVED our week of snowman fun!!  It was absolutely the PERFECT week to learn about snowmen because it snowed like crazy last week {only 1 day} and the kids were SO excited!  I took A LOT of ideas and activities from Deanna Jump’s Snowman Math & Literacy Unit.  LOVED IT!!!  It’s not too late, so if you don’t have yours yet, go grab it! 

We read one of my favorites, Snowmen at Night, and imagined what it would be like to be a snowman in that story.  I had the kids write about what they would do at night if they were a snowman and then create their DARLING snowmen with marshmallows & white paint!  LOVED that idea!! 

I originally saw these cutie snowmen on What the Teacher Wants and bookmarked it for this occasion!  Rachelle said that they used black paint & tiny marshmallows to create the buttons & the face, but I just had the kids use construction paper for everything…except the white!  They just dipped the marshmallow into the white paint and used it like a stamp.

Now…y’all PUH-leeze take a look at mister mister’s writing below.  MERCY!!  This one is a RIOT!!!  I’m nervous to send it home :)  And this just makes me wonder what the heck my boys will be writing about when they’re in school!  HA!!

I also had the kids write a 4-step how-to on building a snowman.  They had to use the words first, then, next, and last at the beginning of each of their sentences.  Then they got to create their snowmen using construction paper.  They all turned out SO different and I love that!

I had a lot of different writing activities for the kids to work on at the writing station this week.  They couldn’t wait to finish one thing so they could move on to the next.  They were really engaged and I was so proud of their writing!  No pics of samples, but you can download the pack below.

Graphics courtesy of Digi Web Studio

And here’s one of several activities my kids did at word work…build-a-blend snowmen!  Really…it was just a word to picture match, but we were working on blends this week and this just fit perfectly.

Click HERE to download your copy of the snowman blends.

And finally, I just wanted to share with you our sweet little MLK writing.  We read a few non-fiction stories about Dr. King and the kids were TRULY shocked to hear about the way things used to be.  It was really precious to hear their sweet hearts talking about how sad it must have been to live in a world where ALL people weren’t treated equally.  We brainstormed words and phrases to sum up what we learned about MLK.

I showed the kids a snippet of his famous , “I Have A Dream” speech on Montage.  Although it was hard for the kids to really hear…and understand…what he was saying, it was really powerful to show them how many people were there the day he gave his speech.  Then I told them they had to write about their dreams…the kind of dream that’s in your heart, not your head. 

I did this with my 2nd graders last year and I LOVED it.  I got the original idea from one of my favorite websites, Little Giraffes.  Here’s the LINK for the TLC directed art. 

We also did this AWESOME egg activity with the kids.  I originally found this idea on Teaching Heart.  I did this with my kids a bit differently than she did with hers, but it made the same point.  I showed them the brown egg & the white egg and we talked about the similarities and differences between the two.  The only big difference being color.  Then I went behind my easel, broke the two eggs, and brought them back out for the kids to see and asked them if they could tell which yolk was from the brown and which was from the white.  Of course, NO ONE could tell!  About that time, one of my firsties spoke up and said, “So…the eggs are like people.  Dr. King knew that everybody was really alike and the only thing that was different was the color of our skin, so that’s why he thought that things were unfair.”   Ding! Ding! Ding!  I LOVE this activity…and I love my little GT kids who help the rest of us “get it” :)

In other news, I’ll be adding a Place Value Activity Packet to TPT tomorrow…Wednesday at the latest!  It will include 15 games, workmats, printables, and ideas for you to use with your kids…and the games can be used for 2nd grade, too!!  I’m just LOVIN’ place value right now!!!