Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Tangrams

Last week my students got a chance to work with a 7 piece Chinese puzzle - the tangram.  Day 1, I began by reading the book, The Warlord's Puzzle.







Next, I challenged my kids to make their own square with a 7 piece set of puzzle pieces.  Most students were saying they would have the puzzle completed in 2-3 minutes.  It didn't take long, however, before everyone realized the puzzle was going to be a challenge.





  Eventually, some of the kids began to put the puzzle together correctly.  Then, after a couple of hints, everyone began to get the hang of it :)

After the "square" challenge, I handed out folders of tangram puzzles I had collected over the years.  I had laminated each set of puzzles and had a folder and set of tangrams for each student.  The kids spent time building tangram puzzles within an outline.





Finally, on Day 1, my students practiced making tangram puzzles without the outlines.  They looked at a smaller version of the completed version of the puzzle and put it together on their desk.


It was a fun activity and the kids really enjoyed the puzzles.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day!  It is rainy here in N.W. GA but, it has still been a good day.  I have celebrated by having all of my children clean, clean, and clean their rooms :)  I wanted to share an activity my students had fun with last Friday.  Since CRCT is over, (Yee Haw!), my students are reviewing and practicing their multiplication facts again.  Since my students love Fortune Tellers, (or Cootie Catchers), I created one last winter with random multiplication facts on it.  However, we were so busy trying to finish the standards, we never got to try it out.  Even though the pictures are winter themed my students loved the activity anyway.  (I don't even think they noticed the pictures were wintery).  I have included the link to my TPT store in case you want to check it out.  There are directions for folding the Fortune Teller, directions for the activity and a picture code included with the activity. Click here to view:  Multiplication Fortune Teller


My kiddos had a blast with these Multiplication Fortune Tellers!  They forgot they were reviewing and learning.