Decimal Activity

Happy Veteran's Day! We have the day off, and I've used my long weekend to recover from a cold. I had to use my first sick day this year on Friday, but I'm glad I did because Friday was the worst day of it and I was able to just sit in the bath tub and watch TV all day. Hehe, but some good news came to me Thursday night. I applied for Teach For America and was notified that I was invited to a final interview! I was just hoping to have a phone interview, but to find out that I can skip that step was so nice! So I have a final interview in December and will know the first week of January if I'm accepted. It would be really nice to know where I'm going by January- we'll just have to wait and see.

Eeeeeek! haha

Now that I'm starting to feel better, I thought I'd share a little activity I did with my kids last week. We're learning about decimals and they're expected to know through the thousandths place and how to pronounce them properly (which is something I have to be careful about, myself!) They really like using their dry-erase markers on white boards, so we came up with this:

So simple, but so much potential

Did you know you could put any worksheet in one of those protective sleeves and kids can write on them using dry-erase markers?! This changes everything. We did some practice like "Write the number one and three tenths" or "Write a number with a '4' in the hundredths place", etc.

Then we did a fun activity where everyone writes a number on their sheet, then passes it to their right. The next step is to write the number in word form, then pass to the right. The next step is to write in expanded form, then pass to the right. The fourth person has to check that everything is correct. Then you start over!

I have such great handwriting

You can mix this up in a bunch of ways. Sometimes we had the fourth step be "write an equivalent decimal", sometimes we made them stop at hundredths, sometimes they could go through thousandths. You could do this with normal place value, too! So many options. And when they're done, just erase!

Maaaaaaagic

I'm definitely going to be using these protective sheets for more activities. Hope you are enjoying your Veteran's Day weekend. We have four days this week and then two days next week before Thanksgiving break. Time is absolutely FLYING by!

Immune System Failure

Ok so who predicted that after a mere 9 days of exposure to the kiddies I would come down with a head cold? We should really have made bets on this because it is so inevitable. I love those kids but they're like walking bacteria and I can feel my immune system screaming at me to just run away and never look back. But alas, I did not listen. I wasn't always so quick to fail, though, and I didn't miss a single day of my pre-internship last semester. Not a single day. Here's how and what I need to remember to do now:

1) Eat right and take a daily vitamin
You know the whole "apple a day" thing? It's real. Maybe that's why you're supposed to give teacher's apples? IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER. That and a daily multi-vitamin. I started taking these this year and I swear it boosts my immune system. Do it. They're cheap and can only help.

So excited for those apples!

2) Hand sanitize so much your hands crack and bleed
Kidding about making your hands crack and bleed, but I am not kidding about hand sanitizer. I never kid about hand sanitizer. I am so careful about using it after I touch anything and definitely before I eat or touch my face at all. We have a giant hand sanitizer pump and I use it pretty much anytime I walk by it. Kill those germs.

Don't do this though. Seriously. Don't.

3) SLEEP
According to my mother, lack of sleep is responsible for all the evil in the world. Like, if only the terrorists got more sleep, they'd be more level headed, and if all the politicians slept better, we would have a nice, clean campaign. So obviously, whenever I'm feeling run down, sleep is to blame. The most annoying part of this is how right she is. If I don't get a solid 8 hours each night, my immune system gets all sassy and defiant and is all "Whatever, I told you to run. You're on your own. Peace."

That middle picture? See it? It's important.

That's what happened this weekend. Long weekend = hanging out without a bedtime = feeling like death on labor day. At least I had some yoga pants, hot tea, and the entire first season of Gossip Girl. Stay well everybody! And get some sleep!