Where's Spring?

My county is once again closed for winter weather... I think that makes day 7... or 8... All I know if that I might be teaching my little first graders well into the summer. It is March right? Well my pain is your gain! I have had some time on my hands, so I took the plunge and created a Teachers Pay Teachers store. Don't worry! You still won't be paying me. Everything I post is free. I just wasn't getting my creations out to enough people through this little blog and Pinterest. In less that 12 hours, I have 4 items posted and nearly 200 downloads! Yeah! Check out my store and follow me if you like! Now for some more freebies for you!

I have a confession...

I am a tad obsessed with Legos. I know I am a grown adult and I probably shouldn't be playing with toys, but sometimes I need a break from real life. Putting together Legos is my stress relief. I will actually buy Lego sets and wait for a really bad day to put them together... Everyone has their thing right? I might have a problem though.

My Lego collection!

Enough about my love of Legos. 1st graders love them too! I have a bunch at school for indoor recess and wanted to incorporate them into math too. I have a bunch of students still working on their near doubles (or using doubles) facts. They can be tricky, so I thought Legos might be a motivating thing to get my students excited about practicing more. I created this independent fact game for my kids to play during our 5 minutes of fact time each day. Students pick a card and solve the fact. They use counters (or Legos) to cover the Lego minifigure with the correct sum.

Let me tell you, I felt like a rock star the day I introduced this game and more of my students are finally moving on past adding near doubles. Win, win!

Now if you will excuse me. I am going to continue spending my snow day snuggling with this guy!

Marty