QR Code Math and Mother's Day Fun!

Hey Ya’ll! 

After spending my weekend at a bachelorette party in Nashville, I think a “ya’ll” is the only appropriate way to greet all of you who happen to stumble upon this little blog post.  My new blogging hobby got benched this past week because it has been crazy busy with the end of the school year RAPIDLY approaching!  I only have 9 days left with my first graders....what?!  WHERE has the time gone?

But don’t you worry…just because we only have 9 days left doesn’t mean we haven’t been working our little tails off getting ready for 2^nd grade!  We’ve been working hard learning all about double-digit addition and subtraction without regrouping and making special gifts for Mother’s Day! 

After introducing my kids to double-digit addition/subtraction and reviewing the tens and ones place, I wanted to make a practice activity for them to work on in small-groups and in math stations.  Have you caught on to the QR code trend yet?  I sure have and my kids LOVE them!  I am extremely fortunate to work at an awesome school that provides our students with tons of technology to support learning.  I have 5 iPads in my classroom, and really wanted to try utilizing QR codes to motivate my kiddos with this math skill.  Which brings me to…DRUM ROLL….my first-ever freebie for you!  WOOHOO!!!  To use this freebie in your own classroom, all you have to do is download the QRReader app on your iPads/iPods and you’re ready to rock n’ roll!  The kids can practice solving the problems, scanning the code, and coloring the box  a color depending on if the code matches their answer or not.  If you're interested in downloading this file, you can click here OR just click on the picture below! :)

I also created an extension pack if you just LOVE the freebie as much as I do.  The pack includes one more double digit addition scan activity as well as 2 subtraction scan pages.  My kids have loved working on these in math stations and I'm just so sure yours will too!  If you're interested in taking a looksie at the entire pack you can click here or on the picture below!

The last thing I'm going to share is our Mother's Day projects this year.  In the past, I have had my kids paint their hands to make flowers into magnets.  Long story short, it turned into WAY too much work on my part and I was spending hours upon hours laminating, cutting, hot gluing, etc.  And, well, as much as I love spending my minimal free time hovered over a hot glue gun, this year I decided that I needed a totally new project and I think it turned out super cute!  We colored coffee filters with bright colored washable markers....

Then, we sprayed them with water (until the spray bottle broke, which resulted in my fantastic aide and I having to hold them under running water). We poked pipe cleaners through, twisted them, and put them into old coke bottles and...VOILA!  Are they adorable or what??  Love them!

(You may be wondering where I possibly managed to scrounge up 24 old-fashioned coke bottles.  My boyfriend's aunt is amazing and sends my class care packages and always gives me things she thinks I can use in my classroom.  In this case, she happened to have an old coke bottle machine and sent over all the extra bottles.  How perfect for our crafty little project!)

Welp, it's about time I hit the hay after a long, super fun weekend and with an even longer and super busy week coming up. Until next time, blog people!  Have a fantastic Monday!