New Hard Drive...the Good and the Bad!

Oh. my. goodness! Last week, my computer was going a little nutty. I couldn't print. I couldn't blog. I couldn't save anything. Really, it was pointless for me to have the dumb thing! The sweetest tech-lady came from the district office and installed a new hard drive in my laptop. Awesome! It's so fast, and it prints, and I can save files, and all sorts of crazy regular things! I love, love, love having a new hard drive, but, and mine's pretty big (HA!), 

I am such a doofus and cannot, for the life of me, remember any of my passwords for anything! You know, you get used to Google Chrome saving your passwords for your e-mail, your blog, your Pinterest account, even your TPT account. Great - now mine doesn't know. I've reset all kinds of passwords, but now I can't remember the new ones. And for some, I can't remember the old ones to be able to change them to new ones! Oh my! What's a girl to do???

This is not to mention, although I am, right here and now, the 1,265 fonts I had installed that were gone into the stratosphere, somewhere (I've re-installed most)! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! I am so super grateful for the new hard drive, the faster speed, the fact that my computer actually works, and all the rest. I'm just sayin', what do you do when you have no idea what your usernames and passwords were? Any ideas out there would be great... After that, I plan on using this from www.hellocuteness.com:

Isn't that just so cute??? Honestly, I can't wait to remember them all, so I can start using the cuteness!

XOXO,

Brooke

Mentor Text...A Fair Bear Share

I'm linking up tonight with Collaboration Cuties for their weekly Mentor Text Memo. I love this linky party, because I never fail to learn about lots of great books that can help me make my teaching better! I've always thought the best way to start a math lesson was with reading, and when Stuart Murphy came on the scene a few years, okay, a lot of years back, I was in heart with him. One of the hardest skills for my second graders to understand is addition with regrouping. Now, don't be confused. They can do addition with regrouping, but they rarely understand why the algorithm works. And that really bothers me. Really bothers. So, I stopped teaching the algorithm altogether. So, I wouldn't necessarily introduce addition with regrouping with the book I'm going to show you tonight, but I love to use it after kids figure out that regrouping makes sense, on their own.

According to Stuart Murphy's website, this book is for kids aged six and older, but isn't in the seven and older category. I'm not sure I understand that, because this book is pretty tough and goes through a tough concept, but, hey, who am I to judge? Maybe it's the bears...too cute? I can't even guess, so I'll quit trying. Let me tell you about the book and give you a great link to check it out. Then you can decide.

Mother bear wants to make her famous pie, and needs several ingredients to be gathered from the forest and meadows. She sends her cubs out to get enough ingredients, but one cub is, shall we say, a little lazy? She'd rather eat and play than work to get what they need. For each ingredient, the other cubs' findings are added up. The pictures are a great representation of using expanded form to regroup, which is why I save it for later in my teaching. I do not give away that little gem of information! Trust me. The kids always get there, as long as they have a firm foundation in place value and truly understand the value of each digit.

Here's the link to the book's own page. For each of Stuart Murphy's books, there is a webpage, which always includes several activities for further exploring the concept taught within the pages. I love that, and often share them with parents. There are also usually printable PDFs for teachers, and they are perfect for us to use to follow up on the books. Love that, too!

Thanks for hosting, Amanda! Y'all have a great week this week...it's our last one before the long-awaited Spring Break!!!

XOXO,

Brooke

Currently Helping Neighbors in Need

Good...ness! It's been for.ev.er. since I blogged, y'all! Well, I'm back, with a fun and philanthropic Easter Math Centers Bundle and a link-up to Currently.

Check that last one...thank you, snow. You were pretty, but not worth a Saturday workday at the end of the year!

Check out my new addition (with addition included) to my TPT store:

This super-easy and cute bundle comes with six math stations. All proceeds now through Easter 2014 will go to the Berthrong family, who lost all their belongings in a fire last night. This precious family made it out, pets and all, but have absolutely nothing, except the clothes they had on. My sweet former student didn't even have on a pair of shoes. Thanks for helping them by counting your blessings, and your eggs!

XOXO,