Hip Hip EYE-rays and MORE

I love math.  It's my favorite time of day and my favorite to teach.  Mostly because it seems like every year, my kids come to me and hate math.  I'm not sure why, really.  But when they leave me, Math is all they ever talk about!

This was a fun activity we did in October when teaching arrays.  There are many variations you can do with it and it will still be just as cute.

After learning about arrays from our math program, students then decided what kind of monster they wanted to create.  {beforehand, I copied a variety of monster shapes-all are in my packet-on a variety of colored cardstock, along with a variety of color cardstock copies of the body parts for the monsters}

Then, each kid chose a card at random that told them their array line up (5 rows of 3, etc).  They needed to figure out how many eyes to get {I bought a container at Michael's with my coupon for them to use.  I could not find a big set of ones to peel and stick.... so we had a lot of practice using Elmers runny glue!  Totally set apart those who have great fine motor control, and those who still need a LOT of practice!

Before the gluing, however, they had to show me how their eyes will line up.  Once they got the "go ahead" from me, the glueing commenced.

After their monster was done, they had to write information about their Monster on their cards.  {I gave them a "scrap copy" that they got checked by me first to make sure things were spelled well enough, etc.... then they got their good, cardstock copy to write on afterwards}

The bulletin board was just AMAZING!

More practice we did with our arrays is that we painted with q-tips on paper (again, we copied onto cardstock to help keeping the paint from soaking through the paper).  Kids chose cards again and had to dot the array in their choice of colors.  After dotting their arrays, they had to write the addition sentence.

I made clean up a breeze by having bulletin board paper down at each group.  They left the q-tips and I just folded it all up and put it in the trash.

If you like these activities and would want to try it out in your classroom, check out my packet in my TPT store!

Bouncy Bands for Bouncy Kids!

Do you have wiggly kids?  Who doesn't, amiright?!  I have a handful this year and coming up with ideas to use has been overwhelming.  I mean, there are SO.MANY.THINGS out there that I had no idea where to start.  Not to mention the million of "flexible seating" options out there.

So, when I got an email to try out Bouncy Bands in my classroom, I jumped on it.  {No pun intended-lol}  Well, actually, I hopped.  It was at the beginning of our school year and I forgot about that email, until we had a small talk about "learn-ature" in the classroom and bouncy bands came up.  Then I remembered and shot an email right back saying "I'm IN!"

Now, before I continue, I have to disclose that I am not allowed to take pictures of my students to share on social media.  I also received these bands to use in my classroom for an honest review.

My thoughts before trying: "I just don't see how these work.  I'd certainly want to play with them all day!"

After giving it a shot.  "AHHMAAAZING!"  I have one student in particular that has sensory issues.  I put the one on his chair and it was an almost INSTANT transformation.  He went from being a kid who constantly rocked his chair almost over all the time to one who sat still, or rather, didn't rock that chair!  He actually sat and concentrated on lessons-but instead of "bouncing" on the band, he sat his feet on top and was completely still!  When his OT came in to do her weekly evaluation of him, she was shocked at his improvement.

{This really was an accurate picture of my student!}

It's not really the only way my one particular student uses it.  When he's taking quizzes and tests, his feet are going strong-bouncing along, kicking it, instead of bouncing.  He finishes his tests and quizzes right in the mix of everyone else.  He's gone from not completing anything to completing about 90% of his work on time.  {Just keeping it real.  It may be a fantastic product, but it's not a miracle worker ;) }

I prefer the chair bands over the desk ones for the configuration of my classroom, and the kinds of kids I have this year.  The desk ones are great too, but I've found that in my group situations that kids are kicking each other or trying to put their feet on it at the same time, therefore defeating the purpose this year.  I can't say that it would be that way in all group desk situations because of the make up of my wiggly classroom.  The chair option is also great for moving around the room-whether it's to travel with a particular student or to have others use it too (if you need to share them).  I do plan on giving it another shot later in the year.

Before you run out and purchase-I want to warn you though.  There are many knock-offs on Amazon-and who wouldn't want to score a deal?!  But, those knock-offs are as good of quality as ordering directly from Bouncy Bands {or if ordering on Amazon, make sure the manufacturer is Bouncy Bands-they are prime eligible!}.  Their rubber will not hold up as well.  {and, well, after trying this out in the classroom and knowing how putting them on does take a little muscle work-I'd certainly hate for these things to break and shoot across the classroom!  Yikes!}  You are in luck though.  I have a deal for you!  If you purchase now through October 15 on Bouncy Band's website, you can get 10% off your order by entering in the code RULIN  

If you don't have cash but have a little time, many teachers are getting their bouncy bands through donor's choose!  Click HERE to get a few tips on getting funded!

These are truly a fantastic product.  I'm disappointed that I haven't tried these sooner.  Each year it seems that we have more and more students that have sensory issues as well as not being able to sit for very long without fidgeting.  Please check out Bouncy Bands site for more info and to get yourself one!  It is definitely one item to have in your classroom.