HOP ON OVER...

To Math Coach's Corner for the HUGE blog hop!

I am so excited to have so many new blogs to explore!  Being very new to blogging myself I absolutely love to surf other teachers' blogs.  I truly find it so inspiring, and I have found so many new and refreshing ideas to try in my own classroom.
     This week we spent doing a ton of math review as our state test is coming up this week.  I have to say this year I feel much less stressed than I have in past years.  I feel we did a good job of covering the curriculum, and I definitely felt like my review was more purposeful and relaxed than in years before.  Some of the great ideas that we used in class this week came from the amazing Teacher Appreciation Giveaway that was going on last weekend.  My students absolutely loved "hunting for treasure" when we used Katie Smith's Story Problem Treasure Hunt.  Check out her awesome blog I Want to be a Super Teacher if you get a chance, she always shares such great ideas!  This week in fact I plan on trying out one of her recently shared ideas where students created math mosaics of themselves using small squares of colored paper, and then found the fractional parts of their mosaics, as well as finding the area and perimeter.  What a creative way to practice these important skills.
     Friday afternoon we finished up our day reviewing symmetrical patterns while creating Mother's Day cards:

They really enjoyed figuring out how they wanted to set up their symmetrical patterns, and they wrote such sweet messages to their moms inside. <3  They even insisted that I needed to work on one for my own mom saying "Mrs. M, you want to make sure that your mom knows you appreciate everything she does right?"  Holy cuteness!  I hope that all of the mothers out there have a wonderful day with their families.  Being a mother is one of the most difficult and most rewarding jobs a woman can have.  Happy Mother's Day!
~Heather~