Tutoring Tuesdays - March 5th, 2019

Happy Tuesday! I didn't tutor a couple of weeks ago due to the child having cheerleading clinic at her school. So I was back to tutoring last Wednesday. Wait until you see what she was learning in the 3rd grade!

When I got there she first showed me what she was just taught and that was long division dividing 4 digits by 2 digits. Example 6045\20. I can't type the long division on here, but you get the picture. That's a 5th grade skill. 

Well, I worked with her on a 6th grade skill. She was learning the mean of 3 digit and 5 digit numbers in school. They simply call it averaging, but it is the same thing. It is amazing to me how much advanced they are in private school than in public school. She doesn't do the Common Core craziness so I think it makes it easier for her. We worked on my Finding the Mean Task Cards. In the example, you see I wrote average on each card. The same set of cards with the word mean are also included! She miss added on a couple, but her long division was fantastic!

Next we worked on equivalent fractions using my Clip It Equivalent Fractions. She struggled some on that and part of the reason is that she was never taught how to reduce fractions so I plan to keep working with her on that. There are 24 task card, a recording sheet, and answer key.

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Tutoring Tuesdays - October 16th, 2018

Happy Tuesday! Just a couple of more weeks until Halloween!!!

Last week in tutoring with the 3rd grader we spent the whole time working on dividing 2 digits divided by 1 digit with remainders (dividing by 2, 3, and 4) and then checking the answer using my Long Division with Remainders Pumpkins Task Cards. I had her check it using the white board, but I wrote small enough on the cards in the example to do both. I put it with a game board to make it more fun in tutoring, but these are just traditional task cards that don't come with a game board. There are 24 in all in both color and black and white. There is a recording sheet and answer key. The students will need to write small to fit the answer in the recording sheet or use lined paper!

We also did a couple with 3 digits, but didn't have much time for that. She was starting in class with 4 digits last week with remainders. Yes, in 3rd grade!

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Tutoring Tuesdays - August 15th, 2017

Tutoring Tuesdays is back! The little one was on vacation for a couple of weeks and I was busy setting up a brand new store so I did not write any post on Tuesdays.

We first reviewed 2 digit by 2 digit subtraction regrouping using my 2 Digit Subtraction Regrouping Apple Task Cards. I have her write on the cards as I laminated them. Otherwise you can give them scrap paper. I use the game board that came with it but you are welcome to use it for Scoot or any other cooperative group activity. If a student lands on an apple with a worm they get chased back to start. She decided to put the worms in jail so it was a safe spot. She drew jail bars over the worm. She has an awesome imagination that many kids don't have anymore. I let her as to me it's all about the child learning the skill and she did terrific!

Next we worked more on the 9's addition trick that I mentioned before using this game board that I will be adding to the Primary Reading and Math Bundle. They simple roll one die (dice) and move that many spaces on the game board.

Last we worked a little bit on 3 digit addition regrouping with my 3 Digit Addition 4 In A Row game. There are 4 different game boards. Children can either share a game board like I did with her and spin two spinners and adding them together. Then they find it on the board and put a counter on it. Get 4 in a row they win! This way they can wind up blocking each other. Or you can give each student a game board and they just try to get 4 in a row with no chance of anyone blocking them.

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Featured Freebie Fridays - July 21st, 2017

Happy Friday! Keep enjoying every day of your summer as I know many of you head back in a week or two. Enjoy every minute you have left!!!

This week's Featured Friday Freebie is my Apple Au and Aw Word Sorts. Children sort the apples by the spellings of the au/aw sound into the correct basket. Please show your kindness by leaving positive feedback if you download it. Click on any of the pictures to grab it free and follow my store so you don't miss any more!

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Featured Freebie Fridays - June 9th, 2017

Happy Friday! I hope that you are on summer vacation now. You teachers deserve the break!!!


In case you aren't on break yet for next year try out my new freebie Write The Room Multiplication Facts 0's and 1's. I love write the room activities because children get to get up and move around the room. Then you can use the recording sheet as a grade if you want. There are 8 total cards. They are in color only, but the recording sheet and answer keys are in b/w. My students favorite center the last year I taught was write the room and I bet your students will love it as well! This is school themed so would also work as a review for back to school. Please show your kindness by leaving positive feedback and a perfect rating. Thank you!

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Featured Freebie Fridays - April 14th, 2017

There hasn't been as many linking up lately so for awhile I will be showcasing a freebie each Friday. Feel free to hop through my blog to check out all the freebies or check out the more than 75 in my store that are free!

Today's freebie is a sample from my Spring Subtraction Regrouping No Prep Printables Packet. The same includes 1 that is 2 digit by 1 digit subtraction and 1 that is 2 digit by 2 digit. These are perfect for a quick assessment or even to place in plastic sleeves and let your students write on them with dry erase markers. There are 9 per page which is enough to assess if your students comprehend the skill. Each one has a spring boarder like flowers, butterflies, etc. Click the pictures to grab it for free and please leave positive feedback. Remember it cost me money to buy the clip art and fonts to create them free for you! Follow the store to never miss a freebie!

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Favorite Christmas Videos

Christmas or winter break will be here before you know it.  Children are getting anxious and need a brain break. I have shared all of these wonderful Christmas videos from The Learning Station on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc., but you may have missed them so I thought I would share several of my favorites!

Clip Art Credit: Whimsy Workshop Teaching

First up is my favorite song as a child called Up On The Housetop. The Learning Station actually has 3 different versions of the song. My favorite is the brain break version featuring Don and an adorable little one.


Another favorite of mine is 12 Days Of Christmas. The Learning Station has two versions of this classic an animation and a live version.  I actually performed this with Don on stage a couple of years ago, but I'm not in this video.


Me and Santa's Elves is a clever song with animation that your children or students will enjoy singing!



 Other favorites include:
"Dancing Around The Christmas Tree" is a wonderful brain break song.  It is beautifully animated.
"Has Anybody Seen Santa?" has lead vocals from The Learning Station's daughter Kali. This popular song is performed in many school assemblies.  The adorably animated song is loved by children and adults.
"Jingle Bells" a classic song that is a favorite among children and adults all over the world.  This one is an animated video.
They have so many other great Christmas songs.  You can check them all out individually on the playlist I created HERE or play all the videos in a row with an ad free version (other than right at the beginning) that would be perfect for your parties by clicking HERE.

Which of these Christmas songs is your favorite?  Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

Phonics Clip It!

One of my most popular sets of products this year has been my Clip Its.  This is a fun hands on center where children find the vowel sound (word for CVC) that matches the picture.  By using a clothespin students are working on fine motor skills.  Other teachers put these into plastic sleeves or laminate and use a dry erase marker to circle the answer.  Another alternative is to play the popular game "Scoot" with them.A recording sheet and answer key are also included.  Click on the pictures or links to check them out.

This is the bundle, which will save you the most money if you are interested in each of the sets.  Perfect for 1st and 2nd grade teachers who go through all of the basic phonics sounds.

 Beginning Sounds Clip It

CVCe Clip It

Vowel Pairs/Teams Clip It

Silent Letter Clip It

R-Controlled Vowel Clip It

I also have CVC, Digraph, L Blends, R Blends, S Blends, and Dipthongs available!

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Favorite Thanksgiving Songs for Children

Goodbye October, Hello November!  I hope those who celebrate had a great Halloween.  I was ready to hand out candy and not a single child stopped by my house.  I usually only get one or two groups so it wasn't that big of a surprise.  I miss seeing them all dressed up though!

As a teacher, I have always noticed as holidays approach children get a bit restless.  I try my best to make learning fun to keep them engaged and one of the best ways to do so is through music!  Here are my favorite Thanksgiving songs from The Learning Station.

My favorite has to be the song "A Turkey Dance".  This fun song will have your children dancing and giggling!


"Albuquerque Turkey" is a fun song about a turkey that doesn't that doesn't want to be eaten on Thanksgiving dinner.  Listen to the song to hear what the family ate for Thanksgiving instead of turkey.  This song would also make for an excellent writing assignment where the children decide what they should eat for Thanksgiving dinner instead of turkey!



"Little Pilgrim" is the perfect song to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving Day.


Other favorites include:
 "5 Little Turkeys", which is a great counting song using ordinal numbers.
"10 Little Turkeys", which works on the skill of counting backwards from 10.
"Thanksgiving Feast" is a great song about all the yummy food we eat for Thanksgiving!

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Favorite Halloween Songs

Halloween will be here soon.  I know many of you have fall themed parties, have storybook parades, and learn about pumpkins, bats, spiders, etc.  You also have to keep the academics moving along.  Children often though need a brain break of some sort.  My favorite kind of brain break in the classroom has always been music.  Check out these great songs from The Learning Station.

Frame from Ashley Hughes, Clip Art from Whimsy Teaching Resources

"Monster Shuffle" is perfect to get your students wiggles out!


"Five Little Pumpkins" is a short animated song that the little ones will be sure to love!


"Stirring Our Brew" is a song that will stir your students imagination. I could see this song leading to a writing assignment where children write about what they would put in their brew.

Other favorites include:
10 Little Monsters a fun counting song to 10 and back to 1.
Pumpkins, Witches, and Ghosts, which is another fun counting song to 10.
Scary Song that has fun young children friendly graphics.  It's a fun song perfect for a party or to play on repeat as children come to your house trick or treating!

Which Halloween song is your favorite?

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Throw Out The Worksheets and Engage Students!

That's right, throw out those worksheets and engage your students as the end of the year comes to a close.  I am seeing all kinds of quotes being passed around on social media that make me quite sad that talk about recycling worksheets.

I get and understand that you are very busy with all of the end of the year requirements, but I don't believe in giving busy work.  It IS busy work if you give children worksheets (includes homework) and you never look at it and just toss it.  Yes, I have given worksheets and most of homework is worksheets, but ALL of them are checked and returned to students or put in a portfolio.  Busy work is NOT okay, NEVER!

So what can you do if you don't have the time to check and hand back worksheets?  At this time of the year most skills have been taught so let your students play learning games.  There are many learning games out there that require NO prep other than a dice or spinner.  I have created No Prep Board Games for all of Fry's sight words 1 to 400!  Each 100 word set includes 4 different board games with words and 2 blank games that can be used with any set of cards even math!

What do you do to avoid giving busy work during this time of year or any time of the year?

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Teacher Appreciation Sale!

I personally appreciate each and everyone of you teacher out there.  Thank you for all you do for the children.  Having taught 9 years myself I know what all goes into teaching.  It sure isn't a 40 hour job.  It's far more than that, but we do it because we love kids and want to make a difference in their lives.

With that said I am participating in TWO Teacher Appreciation events.  One is Teachers Pay Teachers.  Their sale is going on May 5th and 6th.  Everything is 20% off in my store and if you use code ThankYou at checkout you get another 10% off what is in your cart for a total savings of 28% off.  Great chance to stock up on some bundles!  Click the button below to check out what I have in my store for sale!  I'd appreciate it if you would follow me while you are there!  Nearly 1,000 followers!

The other event is Teacher's Notebook.  Their sale started on the 2nd of May and is going all the way through May 8th!  Using code Teachersrule at checkout you can save up to 55% in my store and other stores.  Click the button below to check out my store! I'd appreciate it if you'd follow me while you are there!

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MobyMax Giveaway

MobyMax has generously given me a full 1 year personalized learning curriculum to give away to one lucky blog reader.  I have received a free subscription as well to this incredible online program in exchange for a review.

MobyMax is perfect for students in Kindergarten through 8th grade.  It uses the Common Core Standards for Reading and Math.  It pretty much has all the standards except for phonics and sight words.  They are working on adding Science and Social Studies to it!  What I love about it most is it individualizes the curriculum for students so they can go as fast or as slow as they need to go.  You may have a 2nd grader who is working on a 1st grade level or maybe the 2nd grader is working on a 2nd grade or higher level.  MobyMax has placement tests in reading and math that will put the students exactly where they should be!

It also includes a Fact Master where students can practice learning their math facts, numbers to practice number sense, vocabulary, literature, and informational passages and more!  Once they answer so many questions correct they earn time to play games.  They earn a few seconds at a time per section so they aren't playing games all day long.  I tried out a neat Pac Man style game that had some math thrown in!

The teacher section let's you assign specific assignments to students, homework, tests, and even shows you how much time the student spent on MobyMax at home and at school.  You can monitor how many questions they get right in each section and what grade level they are working on.  This program is perfect whether you are homeschooling your child, extra practice at home, or for your own class when you go to the computer lab, have a class set of laptops, or for center rotations.  This is a program I would certainly love to use as a teacher.

Now here's your chance to win a subscription to MobyMax.  Enter on Rafflecopter by doing as many of the things you would like.  If you comment on the blog as an entry please realize that it won't show up right away until I approve it.  If you don't see it within 24 hours, it must not have gone through as I do check my e-mail frequently.  You can share this Giveaway every 24 hours, which gives you more entries!  Contest ends on 2/11/15 at midnight.  You will have 48 hours if you are the winner to return the e-mail or a new winner will be chosen.  MobyMax also has a free version you can check out on their website by clicking HERE.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Fun With Penguins

One of my favorite topics to teach about each year is penguins.

Graphics above from Ashley Hughes.

I always read a lot of fun books on penguins both fiction and nonfiction.  The Tacky The Penguin series of books was a huge favorite among my past 2nd graders. For nonfiction Penguins by Gail Gibbons has always been a huge favorite among both my 2nd graders and Kindergarten students  Her books are also excellent to teach labeling and nonfiction text features.

I also am a big fan of using music in the classroom.  The Learning Station just released two versions of Penguin song.  One is animated and the other one is a live version.  Both have the motions to go with the songs making them excellent brain breaks! Let us know in the comments, which penguin video is your favorite!




For some reason the 2nd video won't show up so click HERE to see the animation video for The Penguin Song.

I also love taking them on a virtual field trip to Sea World to see the penguins live!  Check it out by clicking HERE.  Your students will love it as well so I hope you take the time to watch both of them!

I also have some fun new Penguin products that can be placed at a centers.  Check out my Penguin Multiplication Blast game that has a fun addition twist to it by clicking on any of the pictures and my fun Penguin Missing Number Equations Task Cards!  The cute graphics are from Mel at Graphics From The Pond.

Also, if you look to the left of the page you'll see new Social Media buttons that my friend Carly made for me.  You can visit her incredible blog by clicking HERE. 

Thanks for hoppin' by!  Keep on smiling!