One of the happiest sights to see in the Springtime is a big, beautiful butterfly. These fluttery, flying “flowers” are so popular with kids, they can actually be a useful tool in the classroom. Whether you are an elementary school teacher or a parent in a homeschool, there are so many ways to incorporate butterflies into your lesson plans.

Oh the joys of the end of the year, and for many of us state testing. For our students, this time can be stressful and even defeating if they are not ready. While I see the benefit of having students practice their stamina and working silently. I have also found ways to get students motivated to not only work hard on math, but they will also be begging for more practice.  

​I think most of us can agree that the days of teaching a math lesson to a whole group are gone. However, making our groups can seem like a daunting task. When I first started teaching I was given scripted lessons that I had to teach directly from. This definitely left many students out, since we were not able to full differentiate like we do now.

Throughout the years I was able to grow as an educator and math teacher. Through a lot of trial and error I was able to come up with a math block that not only allowed me to keep up with my district pacing, but also allowed for me to 100% meet the needs of my students.

Ask just about any teacher and they will tell you the most important math skill is place value. I know that in my classroom we spend more time on place value than anything else for most of the year. If a student doesn’t understand it, then almost everything else in math will fall apart. With that, I continue to have my students practice their skills throughout the year. Below is a round up of the winter activities I like to use. The great thing about these activities are that they can be used with 2, 3 or 4 digit numbers so it is super easy to differentiate for your individual students.