Don't forget about my giveaway! It's a great way to start the school!

If you'd like this necklace to hold your badge check out my first giveaway HERE!

Dice, Dice, Dice

I am blogging today as a part of Little Miss Kindergarten "It's getting dicey" linky party.

First of all... have you seen these dice.  There is a dice inside of a dice.  It helps cut down on students loosing dice.  I think they are great!!! You can buy them at Amazon.com. You can also get tiny little Tupperware containers from the dollar store and put your dice in them.  Then students can shake the container. This also helps with noise as well as keeping the dice in one spot for easy play, and clean up.

Another great thing I found was printable dice.  This would be good if you don't have any dice, or can't afford them, but more importantly it gives you the ability to type or write what you want on the dice.  This site also has pre-made dice.  Check out these Printable Dice!

How do I use dice in my classroom?  On my TpT account you can find the dice game that I use in my classroom.

The other great resource I found was Marilyn Burns.  This was posted on Scholastic.com.  Check it out!



Images from https://openclipart.org/

Linking Party

This is from the blog Yearn to Learn. It is a chance for others to link up and spotlight other bloggers.  I like it, especially since I am new to the game.

Here is who I am spotlighting:
1. A blogger who is a "New Kid on the Blog" is Wild About Teaching She is the one who told me about her blog and made me want to do one.
(Let's say someone who has blogged 2 months or less and has less than 200 followers)

2. Post a blogger in your same grade level - okay this is REALLY hard.  It seems to be that most of the blogs on here are K-2.  I have found some great fourth grade blogs so I am posting 4th Grade Frolics.


3. Post a blogger in a different grade level - this is easy.  This is a cute blog and I love the name: One Extra Degree



4. It's all about the button. Find a cute blog button and post it.  - Loved this button and this site.  It has helped me so much with my graduate program.  I have the book coming in the mail!   - I am not sure how this button get attached in my post so you'll have to check it out on the right! 

Good Luck with your linking!
 

Giveaway

Okay... So this seems to be the way to get followers.  I finally have my blog just the way I want it.  Pretty background, buttons, content, etc... it is ready!  So to celebrate I would like to do a giveaway.  I am going to post this on Facebook for my teacher friends.  I also have "linked" up on a few other blogs.  I'm still learning the lingo and figuring out all the details.  Thank goodness I am good with technology or I would be lost!

Okay, so here is the giveaway:

This is a necklace that you wear to hold your badge, it goes right on that clip.  I make them and sell them at school for $10.00.  These colors; black, brown, gold and silver, seem to be the most popular. You can slide it over your head and your badge hangs right above your belly button.   

In order to enter my giveaway you have to do the following:

1. Grab my button and put it on your page.

2. Follow me on your blog roll

3. Leave a comment to let me know you've grabbed my button and are following me.  In the comment tell me what you are most looking forward to about the beginning of the year.

4. Post this giveaway on your blog with a link to this page.

The winner will be announced on Friday, July 5th, 2011 - so you have until midnight the night before.  I'll contact the winner and send it out ASAP!

Okay here is one more picture.  You can see the beads a little closer:

My first try at entering a giveaway!

After having some trouble with leaving comments on blogs I finally got it!
Check out this giveaway on Precious Perks.  Then cross your fingers and hope I win.  Haha, it would be a nice gift.  Sunday is my one year anniversary and my husband is all the way in Maine. 
Good Luck everyone!

Games, Games, Games

I have been busy, busy, busy, creating games.  I wish that I could take credit for all these wonderful games, but I found many of them from a variety of websites.  These games go along with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NCSCOS) Goal 1.  This goal focuses on numeracy. 

One of my favorite games that I discovered last year is Crazy Card.  I created cards for this - check it out for free on my TpT site: Crazy Card

Here are a few links to some of the games I found:
Addition and Subtraction games - this site was also worth viewing for other resources!
Math Tool Kit and Games

Contig - This is a great game.  There is also a junior version!

Many games at this site! - Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division!

My favorite math games/centers resource is Evan Moor.
Click on the link to amazon to buy this book.
Amazon

Hope this helps with your quest to differentiate!

Nicole

Welcome to Colorful Teaching

I started teaching six short years ago in a school in North Carolina.  My grade level uses differentiated instruction and flexible grouping to teach math and reading.  In our grade level we have two math teachers and two reading teachers.  I am one of the math teachers and I teach two of the math classes; the students who are above grade level and the student who are below grade level. The "differentiation" that I've used over the last few years included varied pace and length of assignments.  As I started my masters program and had to come up with a research project, I decided I wanted to look at differentiation.  I found out there was a lot more to differentiation than varied pace and length of assignments.  My goal is to help students, who are below grade level, show growth on benchmark tests and the end of grade test (EOG) through differentiated instruction and small group stations.  In my classroom I will be discovering the ups and downs of this process.  I will be using this blog to share those adventures and hopefully help others differentiate in their classrooms.