Teachers are HEROES Sale @ TPT

The Teachers Are Heroes Sale runs February 25th 12:01 a.m. (ET) through 11:59 p.m. (ET).

My store discount will be 20%!!!
Please visit my store for more activities: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kelly-Mccown

Happy Teaching!
~Kelly

FREE Bulletin Board Ideas

 One of my favorite things as an undergraduate studying Education was making Bulletin Boards. It slowly became one of my least favorite things over the years of teaching. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE BEAUTIFUL BULLETIN BOARDS. I appreciate a well accomplished board, but the time it takes to make one can sometimes consume me! So I have taken the approach after many years of "coming to terms" with what I can and cannot do. I can make a bulletin board pretty and it doesn't have a to take a lot of time. What's my secret? Well...it's simple. Student work. Yes that's right! Student work. If you showcase their work that is actually DONE and GREAT, then the students have done the work for you!

I have many FREE sources on my TPT page that you can use when making your Student Work Bulletin Board. I love these and use these every month! I have Bulletin Board themes for months and seasons. When I have a student assistant it is definitely easier to do month by month, but when I don't have that luxury I just change my board from season to season. It's still RELEVENT and the students always LOVE showing off THEIR work. It doesn't matter your age, you always like to be appreciated and honored with a job well done! This is one of my favorite teaching tips. User beware though, if a student NEVER has his/her work shown this may not work to your advantage. Make sure you are in tune to who you PRAISE and look for new opportunities to PRAISE students.

Click HERE to check out my MARCH bulletin board ideas.




For ALL Bulletin Board Ideas CLICK HERE!

Happy Teaching!
~Kelly

Circles: Circumference & Area

I LOVE CIRCLES. Circles are always fun to teach. A circle is one of the basic shapes. My almost seven month old son prefers circles to almost any other shape. They are round and easy to hold. We use circles so much in our everyday lives. We use circles on our cars, for our food containers, with our candles and we drink from circular objects. So circles hit home with every student I have ever taught and this activity is very easy for them to grasp. I love using this card sort activity with low level math students as well as all others, for the fact that it makes them double check their work. And in the end doesn't every math teacher love saying that..."DID YOU CHECK YOUR WORK?" "ARE YOU SURE THAT'S THE RIGHT ANSWER?" This activity helps them to see the difference between what numbers "they choose" to multiply and how the outcome can be very different. Also included is an extension about doubling diameter (which is ALWAYS a test question) and how that affects the outcome of circumference and area of a circle.

This lesson unit is intended to help you assess how well students are able to restate the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and use them to solve problems; give an informal derivation of the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle.

Included in this lesson are:

-one formative assessment (pre-test) task

-card sort activity with concept development of circles (circumference and area)

-one extension activity for students to deepen their conception of circles (circumference and area)

-one summative assessment (post-test) task

-answer keys for all the assessments and activities

-how the lesson is tied to common core and mathematical practices 

For THIS ACTIVITY Click HERE!

For more activities visit: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kelly-Mccown

Happy Teaching!
~Kelly