Math Club for Grades 3-5 Resources

Disclosure: MindWare sent me copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

This fall I was asked if I would run an 8 week math club for grade 3 to 5. I did some research and discovered an amazing free math club program--Crazy 8s. But we couldn't get into it in time for the fall run. I am hoping to do it this winter. So I needed to pull together some ideas for the fall math club. It is a bit hard working with grades 3 to 5. The third graders have not really learned to multiply yet or what a fraction is yet whereas the fifth graders are beyond that. I turned to MindWare for some fun supplements to math club. They were kind enough to send me some perplexor books and a set of extreme dot to dot books. And guess what? The kids LOVE them. They beg me to copy more each week. I think next week's math club may really be diving into the perplexors. I try to start each week with a perplexor. I made the mistake of starting with a dot to dot and found the kids spent the entire hour on it instead of the other fun activities I had planned. Now I give the dot to dot out at the end. Some of the kids bring them back finished to show us. I love it. MindWare also gives teachers permission to photocopy their dot to dot and perplexor books for use in a classroom, so it is legal for me to copy these for the kids. It is a win-win. (Note: many of the specific products are no longer published but the links will take you to similar products)

Holiday Gift Ideas: Books to Learn & Create with a Japanese Spin

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

For those who celebrate, did you enjoy your Thanksgiving? We had a nice time with my family. Yesterday was Black Friday which is of course the kickoff to holiday shopping. Did you get any deals? Today I thought I would share some gift ideas for kids. I love gifting books especially ones they can use to create or keep themselves busy. Today I have three great books for you and all three have a Japanese spin to them. We will start with the first one that is truly one that is meant for creating. It is Hokusai Dot-to-Dot Puzzle Book from Tuttle Publishing. I would say this is for upper elementary and older. My middle school and high school students love this book!

MindWare Gifts -- Perfect Gifts to Get Them Thinking!!

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from MindWare. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

I have been sharing some of our favorite places to get gifts and tonight I am sharing a new one. MindWare has many educational and fun gifts. They are connected now with Oriental Trading. You can get your party supplies and gifts in one stop!! The first thing I knew I wanted to check out was Qwirkle. I had heard of it but never played. 

The Volume -- Picture book introducing art along with science & math concepts like dots, lines, Big Bang Theory & more!

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I get to share a book that introduces topics like art, books, as well as geometry, infinity, the big bang and more. Needless to say this book is perfect for introducing different concepts to kids. It is a picture book but has a good amount of words in it and on a page so I'm guessing it is for grades 1-3. There is no age recommendation given by the publishers. The book is The Volume by Luis Camnitzer. 

Making Learning Fun for Homeschool or the Summer Slide

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from MindWare. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. Note: Many of these products are no longer available. I am providing links for the ones that are or something similar. 

Now I have mentioned that I have not been posting since so much of my time has been going to homeschooling Hazel for the last six weeks of school. Her school year officially ends this Friday (at least at her old school). However, the items I am sharing today we will continue to use all summer because they make learning fun!! Now we needed to continue with her spelling which we had from her school, her math workbook (which is really boring) to do money and fractions plus keep her addition and subtraction facts fresh, then in science plants and space and in social studies continue with the states which has been an ongoing activity and finish up Massachusetts history. Well, MindWare came to my rescue to do some of these things and make them fun!! In fact Hazel wants to continue using these resources during the summer as well!! To start with learning about money we got the game Loose Change. Loose Change is no longer available. Amazon has some money counting games.


In this game the players take turns to add a card to get it to equal $1. If you can get it exactly to $1 you will get a point but if you have to go over you will lose a point. Once $1 is reached (or passed) you start again. Throughout the game the players are announcing the total in play.

The cards have nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollar coins as well as special cards that have multiple coin amounts. This game reinforces the coins as well as practice in adding money and finding ways to equal $1. The game could easily be changed to use subtracting or even going to higher amounts. And the best part is Hazel and I like playing it!!




To keep up with her addition I got her Double Addition Decoders: Addition by Evelyn B. Christensen. (This is no longer available.) There are three types of decoder puzzles. Each has double digit addition problems to do and then there is an activity to do with your answers. Each activity allows for learning or practicing more math skills as well. The first helps learn about directions. With the answers there are instructions to move the spaces that correspond to the letters above the tens place and ones place (N, S, E, or W).


There are also ones with pictures. The user does the problems and then finds the square that corresponds with the answer and colors the square the color written above the problem. This is a good pre-Cartesian plane activity.


The third type is to follow the row or column until you find your new answer.


Hazel likes this last one a lot. She liked that you could check your answers by finding it in your row or column.




Our final math item is Grid Perplexors: Level A. (They have some Perplexors still available here.) These are beginning logic puzzles. I LOVE logic puzzles and thought Hazel might like them as well. This book is written for ages 8 to 9 which is perfect for Hazel. She loves them as well and has done quite a few on her own. I did the first one with her, but she has done seven more by herself and often just does them without being asked. She just likes them like I do. And personally, I think it is great to start kids learning about deductive reasoning at a young age. It will get them far to understand it.


Now we will look at some of the fun activities to learn more about the states. The first thing to share is actually a bit of math (counting) as well as learning about the states. It is Extreme Dot-to-Dot: Around the USA.

Hazel former second grade teacher gave the kids these puzzles all the time. Hazel asked for this one. She loves doing them and of course counting over 1000 for some of the puzzles helps her learn her higher numbers. Since we just went to the Statue of Liberty during her April vacation we started with that dot-to-dot.


I had her start on the USS Constitution since it is part of the Freedom Trail in Boston which we started visiting recently, but haven't gotten to the USS Constitution (which is drydocked until 2018). She unfortunately hasn't finished it yet, so I took a picture of some of the solutions so you could see the completed puzzles.


You can see there are puzzles from all over the country. This is perfect for studying the states and the special places in them. Plus it helps them with their visual skills and counting skills.

To learn about the states, it is also important to learn where the states are. To help with this geography lesson we got Color Chart: United States. (Note: This product is no longer available, but you can see similar ones here.) It is a large map (40" by 28") of the United States to color in. It comes with markers and a picture hunt.


Hazel colored in a few of her favorite states as well as the ones we have been focusing on. Each state has pictures to show different things about the state from animals, nature and more! Once we are done coloring them in she is going to hang it in her bedroom!




Another fun way to learn about where the states are and something special in each state is DestiNation USA. (This amazing game is no longer available.) This gameboard is a map of the United States. The players have car game pieces and start on different states. The goal is to get to the special destination which is picked by a card and to visit the most states. To travel one has to be next to the state and have the right cards. We really LOVE this game and played it with one of my co-workers who also really liked it.



I had trouble getting a picture since we got so involved in the game. There are little disks for each state and before playing they have to be put on the board in the correct place. There are different driving cards to move around the board and then the destination cards which tells where the specified destination is. The game instructions say to play for five destination cards or when the 48 state disks have been collected. We often play more than five destination cards because we do not want to stop. We have never gotten all the state disks off. This is a new favorite game here and we will continue to play it. I love how it helps Hazel learn the location of the states as well as the special points of interest in each one (the destination cards). Talk about learning that is fun!! Some other great resources we have for the studying the states are these books.



 

Our final item is Extreme Mazes: Book 5. (Note: Extreme Mazes are no longer available. Amazon has these extreme maze books.) I will admit I got this one because Hazel really wanted it. She wanted this book the last time we got things from MindWare and I had gotten a different one instead. Oops!! Of course, these mazes teach problem solving, fine motor control, and visual motor skills. These are pretty extreme mazes. She however seems to love doing them!!




She has done quite a few of them but I will just share one. The details in the pictures and mazes are quite amazing. I think my eyes would go a bit batty doing them!!


This week we will be sharing many of the resources I have gotten to help with our homeschooling month and that help bring some learning to home and summertime. One project I hope to do is put together a United States postcard exchange. Would you be interested in sending 49 postcards from your state and getting one from each of the other 49 states? If you are, drop me a note and tell me what state you can do. I have Massachusetts covered!! It will be first come first served for states!!

Decorations and Gift Crafts & More from Oriental Trading -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these items in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.

Are you getting ready for Thanksgiving this week? Have you started to look towards Christmas? We have gone a bit Christmas crazy here and have been loving it. Today we are going to share some crafts and other things that are great for gifts and Christmas decor. All of it came from Oriental Trading and their amazing Christmas items. Earlier this month we shared crafts and items that focus on the nativity. Today's are more non-secular. Hazel LOVES Peanuts right now so several of them will be Peanuts themed including this fun Peanuts® Christmas Wreath Craft Kit.


These foam wreaths are adorable and easy to put together. The pieces are self-adhesive for ease of creating. Hazel is going to give them to friends and teachers. Aren't they adorable?



Our next craft kit is actually for Hazel's class. I asked her teacher to peruse the Christmas crafts and pick something that would work in her classroom. She picked these Peace, Hope and Joy Foam Ornaments. I opened one of each and laid them out without sticking the self-adhesive backs to get photographs. I wanted to make sure her class will have all the ornaments to make. Aren't they adorable? They are perfect for a class. They are individually packaged and all the pieces are self-adhesive.



Hazel fell in love with painting ceramic objects when we got the Paint Your Own Pumpkin Banks this fall. She really wanted these DIY Ceramic Ornaments to paint for gifts for teachers and family members. They are fun and easy for her to do. I helped her paint a couple so far, but she still has many to do!! The nice thing is that the back are white so you could write on them and use them as gift tags. They are sold by the dozen with two of each ornament.



Did you see our doll Christmas tree yet? I fell in love with these Christmas Light Bracelet Kits. I knew they would be the perfect size "light bulbs" for our doll tree. Instead of making the bracelets (besides one for each of us) I strung them on a long string and put them on the doll's tree. They are the perfect size for it!!


Our final craft item for tonight is Peanuts® Color Your Own Christmas Snow Globes. Hazel is loving these. She colored one so far for herself and one to give the office manager at her school who loves Snoopy!


Aren't they fun? I love how they turned out. I can't wait to see what she does with the other four. Six come in a package.

I also got a few stocking stuffers to review. Oriental Trading is a great place to get them!


Hazel and Steve love puzzles. I figured these Plastic Puzzle Balls will be perfect surprises in their stockings. They are inexpensive and thus a bit cheaply made, but I imagine they will still enjoy them!


Now Hazel loves her Extreme Dot to Dot book that I got for her earlier this year. So I got her this great Extreme Dot to Dot US History book. I know she is going to love it and it will give her something to do in the car while we travel Christmas day to my parents. I love that the pictures relate to US history including parts that she is studying this year!



 

Donald Crews Part 2: Ten Black Dots

We have a winner!! Congratulations to Doreen W. for winning the Room on the Broom DVD!

Today I am going to share our second book for this month's author in the Virtual Book Club for Kids. This month's author is Donald Crews. Last week we shared Carousel. This week we are going to share Ten Black Dots. If you do not know anything about the Virtual Book Club for Kids, you can check out my post last week or click the button on the left which will take you to the Book Club's Facebook page.

Outdoor School Series Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am going to continue sharing books to get your kids learning while having fun this summer. Today we are going to look at a series of books that no only is fun and educational but also gets your kids outside and enjoying nature! The Outdoor School series features three interactive nature guides as well as three sticker books, and two essentials guides. Whether your family is interested in animals, hiking, camping, rock collecting and more there is something for everyone and these books all start by saying step outside no matter where you live there is nature out there. 

Avoiding the Summer Math Slide with Roundup of Ideas for Different Ages (PreK - grade 11)

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Independence Day is past. Summer is quickly passing. Kids are enjoying their break from school as are teachers. But what is happening to your kids' math ability this summer? According to Learner.com, 70-78% of elementary students experience a decline in math skills over the summer. (Source) Most schools now assign summer reading to prevent the summer slide in literary skills, but does your child's school assign summer math? Most high schools do these days. Now I am a huge advocate for a break! I love summer! It is my favorite season, and I remember the days of having nothing to do and being able to hang out with friends and relax. However, summer slide is real. (There is a slide after any vacation and the longer the vacation the more skills lost.) There are things to do to help with the math summer slide even if your child does not have math summer work. Today I am going to review two great resources for different ages to help with the summer slide or just give extra practice to two ages groups: middle grades (8+) and high school. These books are amazing resources to help with math skills and also can give students extra practice or a leg up on the upcoming math year. At the end of the post, I have a roundup for different ages math products and activities to try this summer to keep your child's brain thinking mathematically.

Exploring Australian Animals with Books

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

We have been exploring the Australian Outback with two great books from Candlewick Press. The first book is Bilby: Secrets of an Australian Marsupial by Edel Wignell and illustrated by Mark Jackson. 

Easter Bunny Crafts & More from Oriental Trading Company -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

Easter is only three weeks away!! It is early this year. I have been seeing so many cute bunny things this year and I wanted to jump on the band wagon. I asked Oriental Trading Company to help me make some fun bunny crafts and a few other Easter things. I fell in love with the bunny tote bag at work, but didn't want to spend the money on it since it looked easy enough to do a DIY if I had the canvas bags. So I asked for the DIY White Bags and got to work.  On one of them I hand stitched the eyes, whiskers and mouth and sewed on a pink pom pom (from Hazel's collection) for the nose. On the other I used fabric paint and glued on the pink pom pom.

Fairy & Ice Cream Party Updates

Disclosure:  Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

I am finally stopping to catch up after the holidays and Hazel's birthday. Today I am going to share some of the details of her two birthday parties. First we always have a family and adult and younger kid party for her birthday. This year we decided on an ice cream theme. I made invitations with My Memories Suite.

Bible Fun -- Summertime Fun!

Disclosure: I was given copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Yesterday I shared a book about the importance of adding fun to our lives and the start of my new series--Summertime Fun. For our first Summertime Fun I thought I would share some fun resources for fun with the Bible. Since Hazel goes to a Christian school, I know during the summer there will be less church and Bible time for her, so I wanted to make sure to give her some resources to keep up with her Bible time. To start we are sharing two of Marcia Goldlist's The Bible in Rhyme. Marcia emailed me e-copies of Enjoying the Book of Esther and Enjoying the Book of Ruth. 

Pocoyo's Circus DVD Review & Giveaway!

Has your child discovered the adorable little boy in blue named Pocoyo yet? Our first experience with Pocoyo was at the end of the Peep and the Big Wide World episodes on PBS, there is a short Pocoyo cartoon. Apparently it is also on Nick Jr, but we don't watch it there. When NCircle Entertainment offered to send me a copy of Pocoyo's Circus DVD and offer one as a giveaway to one of my lucky winners, I jumped at the chance. Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD for review purposes and the offer to give another one away. All opinions are my own.

Dot-to-Dot available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

Now if you have not seen Pocoyo, it is an adorable show with an adult narrator who interacts with the characters. There is the little boy named Pocoyo and his animal friends. Each episode has a cute story and usually there is a life lesson in it. Pocoyo is orignally a Spanish cartoon.

We were sent the latest Pocoyo DVD which is Pocoyo's Circus. This DVD became available in stores on August 27th for $12.99. It has eight episodes of Pocoyo available in both English or Spanish. In the first episode an alien circus comes for a visit and after some mischievous playing with their tools, the circus has to regroup, but now an angry group of aliens have come expecting to see the circus, so Pocoyo and his friends put it on. In another episode, Pocoyo and his friends are figuring out who left footprints. Once they are able to match each set to the owner, they are fine, but there are some twists and turns in the story.

Match Sheet available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

The other episodes are Pocoyo's Balloon, Who's Calling Me Now, Vamoosh on the Loosh, New to the Planet, Mad Mix Machine, and Remember When. Each has a lesson about listening to others, respecting others, being kind, not taking others things, and such. I also need to add that my mother-in-law absolutely loves Pocoyo. She actually bought one of the other Pocoyo DVDs right after we had gotten ours not knowing we had one. She bought it because she loves watching the show with Hazel.

Printable available at Earth Hour in Pocoyo Activity Book

So now is your chance to win this wonderful Pocoyo's Circus DVD. It is an adorable show that children love and I know once Hazel and I get a bit better at our Spanish we will be watching it in Spanish as well. To enter please follow my Giveaway Rules and do what the Rafflecopter asks. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How I'm Using Ish by Peter H. Reynolds in My High School Math Classroom

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I don't ever remember being so excited to get back to school as I am this year. Today is the first official day back for teachers at my school. I am excited to get back in the classroom and make many changes. When I taught before I got married, I did a lot with group work. Since I returned three years ago, I have not. However, this summer I read Math-ish by Jo Boaler and everything has changed. I saw a recommendation to read it for math teachers on a post of one of the math influencers I follow. I don't remember which one. I got the books out of the library that were recommended and checked them out. I realized very quickly that I wanted to read this book and wanted to own it. Then it was on sale during Amazon Prime Days, so I got myself a copy. I have sticky notes marking pages all over it. 

Shindigz Party Supplies & DYI Ideas Review

Disclosure: I was given a gift certificate to purchase the items I share here. All opinions are my own.

Now those of you who have been following know how excited I get for Hazel's birthday. I tend to go overboard with the party. I jumped at the opportunity from Shindigz Party Supplies to be given a gift certificate to review some of their DIY Supplies. Now Hazel's birthday is not until December and we often have the party in January--well New Year's Day. This year we are planning on the big family and family friend party then and doing a half birthday party for her school friends (and friends her own age). 

Delving into Bullet Journaling with Paper Mate and Sharpie -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these pens to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Have you discovered bullet journaling yet? My first introduction to it was someone coming into work and asking for a bullet journal. Now Paper Source sells many journals, but we did not have the official bullet journal nor had I even heard of it. I did some research on-line. For those who are like me and don't know, Bullet Journal or BuJo, was created by Ryder Carroll. He is a digital product designer in Brooklyn, New York. Through trial and error he came up with a system that worked for him. People say a bullet journal is like a planner, an organizer and a diary all in one. It is hard to understand this until you try it. (Source) The instructions for bullet journal says you can use any notebook, but they do sell an official BuJo Notebook. I decided to just us a journal I had at home. Mine has lines unlike the ones on bullet journal site which has a dot grid. From what I can tell bullet journaling is about finding a system that works for you. It is meant to be a quick way to organize yourself and be flexible to help each person. When I searched Pinterest I found ones that are used by students, teachers, and even for planning weddings. You can check out my Journals Board to see what I found. 

Hello Fall & Sunday School Crafts

Fall began and I started thinking of some fall crafts. I had those frames I bought ages ago on clearance and had made some spring themed décor. To make a fall one I pulled out my Cuttlebug. I have an apple embossing folder and used it for the background paper. Then I used the die to cut out "Hello". I found an apple shaped Post-It Note pad and traced it to cut out an large apple and wrote fall on it. Then I used some leaf punches for the small leaves. I love how it all came out.