Monday, January 25, 2016

Adding Fractions Games

Adding Fractions BUMP Games

This is a set of 4 different BUMP games for the addition of basic fractions. Student directions, answer keys, and place markers are included for each game. Each game focuses on adding fractions, and each game requires different skills to add fractions. With these 4 different games, you can differentiate for students who are at different readiness levels. The skills increase in difficulty from Games 1-4. The game details, including specific skills and objectives are below:

Game 1- Players add basic fractions without reducing by looking at pictures of fractional parts . This game would be great for students who are just starting to learn about the meaning of fractions, how to represent them as pictures, and how to add them without reducing. The answers are also in picture form.

Game 2-Players add basic fractions without reducing, using written fractions. This game would be great for students who are just starting to learn about adding basic fractions using the number form of fractions.

Game 3-Players add basic fractions with reducing, using written fractions. This game would be great for students who are just starting to learn about adding basic fractions and reducing fractions, using the number form of fractions.

Game 4– Players find the addends that make up sums of fractions. This game requires to break down a fractions into its parts and to understand that a fraction is a smaller set of fractions that add up to make its sum. 
These games can be used the following situations: 
Whole Group Instruction
Guided Math
Math Centers
Partner Work
Home Activity

I also have BUMP Games for Subtracting Basic Fractions and Adding and Subtracting Fractions and Mixed Numbers. 

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Colonial America and American Revolution Resources

One of the things that I LOVE the most about teaching 5th grade social studies is when we get to the lessons for Colonial America (the Original Thirteen Colonies) and The Revolutionary War.  As a student, I loathed social studies because it was soooooo boring.  We'd read out of the book and answer the questions at the end of the chapter on a sheet of paper.  Then, we'd move on.  I never remembered anything.  Of course, I don't blame my teachers.  This is what they were supposed to do.

When I started teaching, I realized that I was doing the same thing to my students.  They were responding the same way that I did when I was in their shoes.  I needed to change some things up! After many years of creating, researching, and tweaking, I rarely use the text as more than a curriculum mapping tool.  I do use the pictures and some of the activities, but I usually throw in my own spin with an interactive project or a graphic novel- something to really get the kids interested.  This has transformed my teaching and the kids' interest in some really great lessons from American history.  Here are some of my resources that you can get to use in your own classroom.  Click on any of the links (titles) or images to get them.  You can also visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store here for lots of FREE and for-sale items.

This kicks off our U.S. History studies.  We learn about the most famous people to explore the Americas, which leads into the European Colonization of North America.


This is always a big hit with my students and is one of my best-sellers.  Students learn about the missing colonists of Roanoke (Island) and use the clues that they write in their casebooks to create their own version of what really happened to the colonists.  It comes with a casebook, rubric, and more.




This is another writing project that describes important from the Jamestown Settlement, as the first successful English Settlement in America. 




This is based on the book "If I Lived in Colonial Times," but it's not necessary to use that book to complete this activity.  Students learn about life in Colonial America.  Then, they write a letter to their parents from the perspective of a Colonial child. They explain how different their life is as a Colonial kid compared to their real life.



This is what I use to introduce students to some of them most important vocabulary they will need to understand when learning About the American Revolutionary War.  The terms are general and are used across all of the resources we use for studying the revolutionary War.



This is a set of vocabulary activities and games for the novel My Brother Sam is Dead.  All 11 activities focus on the same 10 words.


Thanks so much for stopping by.  You can visit me at my Teachers Pay Teachers store to see all of my Elementary and Middle School resources.