Balancing Equations Interactive Math Notebook!

Understanding the equal sign is a major skill in developing young mathematicians. It helps to cement the idea of one side balancing the other side. Students need this skill in order to understand larger algebraic ideas later in education.

I always loved teaching this unit in first grade!! We used all sorts of models and props and food and fun during this time. It was especially exciting because it always fell during Fall! We used pumpkins, candy corn, leaves, pilgrim hats, feathers-anything I could find at Dollar Tree or the Target Dollar Spot.

It wasn't until I started using interactive notebooks in my classroom that engagement really went up! And I've finally gotten around to posting these in my store!

Take a look at some of the activities!

Everything is in black and white so you can save colored ink! You can also print out on BRIGHT paper!

Just look at that adorable Fall clipart!!

Subtraction fact balancing is a bit of a difficult and abstract concept to understand. I included picture models to help students to create their own facts.

Determining if facts are true or false is also very important. With this activity, students can sort the facts, and then correct the ones that are false. 

You can grab this math interactive notebook in my TpT store today!

Grab it HERE!

Happy Teaching!

Back to School Signs Tech Tutorial!

I have been making friends and family first day of school signs for years! They are actually really easy to do, and I've created a template and tutorial here for you! 

Just for fun, I made Carly one for College!!

Here is your chance to get your very own personalized sign for the first day of school!

Just click on the link below and download. Open it in PowerPoint and BAM! (There's also a Google Slides version!)

You can use any fonts you would like!

So let's get started. Here's how it works:
Open the file.

Click in a Text Box and highlight the text you want to change.

 The font will automatically adjust to fill the size of your words.

Or you can resize the text box yourself, by clicking and dragging the handles around the edge of the text box.

You can change the color, font, and style:

You can't change the font size because I've used word art boxes to automatically adjust the size of your text.

I have included a page without any clipart in case you want to add a picture of your own.
Just click on the Insert tab and choose Insert Pictures. Navigate to find your own pics. 


And that's it! My sister uploaded her signs to Walgreens and had an 8 x 10 printed for around $4 bucks I believe.

For Carly's Eighth grade year I printed the file as a poster on my home printer. Yep, a lot of ink and a lot bigger than I had intended, but hey, it worked!!

Some printers will allow for poster printing. I understand that many printers are different, but it should be something similar to the instructions below.

Go to print the file and click on Printer Properties.

You get this pop up menu. Click on the Layout tab at the top. Click enable under Poster Printing. 

You can opt to print on 4 pages or 9 pages or 16 pages. See where it says 2x2? Use drop down arrow to choose. I used 2x2 and then taped the pages together. Click the "on" box next to Add Crop Marks to make it easier to cut out and tape together. 

Your printer may say something different but a quick Google search using your printer's name and how to print a poster. 

{HERE} is the link for the signs. It's a zip file - download and extract. 

Here is a Google Drive link for the file in Slides, if you prefer to work right in your browser with all Google!

Thanks for reading!

Prepping for Back to School! {Freezer Meals}

Good evening to you!! I just wanted to share how I've been prepping for the coming year other than working in my classroom. I don't know about you, but the beginning of the school year can be super BUSY and I often forget my lunch at home and end up spending money I don't have to Waitr something. Or do the same thing when I get home because I'm too exhausted to fix dinner so I'll just grab something unhealthy like chips or brownies. Does this happen to you?? (If not, what is your secret?!?!?!?)

So I like to meal prep in advance to help me get into the swing of things. I have another meal plan on my blog {CLICK HERE} that I posted many moons ago. These are done in the same way. 

If you want to skip ahead to the meal plans, here they are: 

Freezer Meals Part 2 - Two Week Meal Plan

Freezer Meals Part 3 - Two Week Meal Plan

For those that don't know, two years ago, Carly had a troubling checkup. She has diabetes on both sides of her family, so the doctor was a bit worried about the amount of sugar she was ingesting and concerned she could develop diabetes. So we cut the carbs. And did it help!! We both found ourselves with increased energy, we were sleeping easier, hunger was less, and it wasn't hard to eat things we were supposed to be eating rather than junk. Now, there are times when we go off the low carb lifestyle (like when we go to Disney!!) or like this entire summer (oops), but we always manage to get back on track. 

But just so you know, not all of these meals are Low Carb - I've made notes on the ones on what needs to be changed to make it low carb.

And now we come to my meal prep!! I accumulated over 20 easy to put together low carb meals from the Internet and placed them in two easy to follow documents, complete with a shopping list and instructions on how to meal prep. I also have a sample menu plan for two weeks. They are in two documents, each for a two week plan. Depending on how many people you cook for, you may have to multiply or divide the number of ingredients needed. 

First, look over the shopping lists and determine what you already have and what you will need to purchase. Make sure to look over the meals, too. 

Then go shopping!! Or do what I do and Walmart Grocery Pickup everything!! 

I bought for the entire month!! So this is about $160 worth of groceries from Walmart. I also had a lot of the spices and baking supplies already. 

Then you start prepping!! 

I usually make the simple freezer meals first, such as the ones where I don't have to brown any meat, and set up the bags by writing the name of the dish and the instructions. 

I also save time by using frozen chopped veggies, such as PictSweet Seasoning Blend. I hate chopping vegetables (onions!!) so I save time and sanity by buying frozen ones. 

I also like to purchase some frozen sides, such as riced cauliflower and broccoli so that it's easier to put together a complete meal after a very tiring day at work.  

Halfway through meal prep!! Slowly running out of freezer space but that's okay. I played Tetris as a child. 

I also like to purchase some steaks that we can air fry quickly one night and serve with a side of leftovers. 

And Real Good Foods makes frozen family size pizzas!! SCORE! 

There's a lot of people jumping on the low carb train lately, so there are more and more things out there calling themselves "keto" or "low carb" but make sure to check the label for any sneaky sugar. Just because the carbs are low doesn't mean "sugar free". 

For lunch, I like to pre-pack some tupperware dishes for the week with protein packs and a few hot lunches. I use Oh My Keto's sausage dip stuffed peppers and some frozen broccoli (heated, of course) as some delicious, easy to pack and travel, hot lunch at school. 

The protein packs I like to place some pickles, almonds, cheese, and pepperoni. Sometimes I'll throw in some olives or deli meat. I also love Shrewd Food Protein Croutons*. They are delicious as a crunchy snack and a topping for salads. 

These sausage dip stuffed peppers are SUPER EASY to make and they freeze beautifully. 

A side of broccoli is so simple to add to your meals, and there's a ton of fiber. Topping with some Everything But the Bagel seasoning adds huge layers of flavor to the dish. 

Take out the freezer meals the night before and defrost in the fridge. The next morning, line your slow cooker with a Reynold's Slow Cooker Liner* Dump the meal and set the cooker to the time and setting according to the instructions. 

When you get home at the end of a long day, you'll have dinner all ready!! And clean up will be a breeze since you've used a liner! 

Here is the Cheeseburger Meatloaf with a side of Caulimash and broccoli.  

And who can forget dessert?!?!!? These peanut butter chocolate chip bars from Keto Is Life are divine and super easy to make. 

Okay so here you go! 

Click the titles to be taken to the Google Doc. 

Freezer Meals Part 2 - Two Week Meal Plan

Meals include: 

Low Carb Blueberry Muffins

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Cream Cheese Pancakes

Sausage and Cheese quiche

Low Carb Waffles

Low Carb Chili with cheese, sour cream, and pork rinds

Slow Cooker Shrimp Chowder

Butter Ranch Pork Chops with caulimash

Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken Parm Meatballs

Slow Cooker Melt in your Mouth Chicken

Cheeseburger Meatloaf with caulimash

Slow Cooker Steak Fajitas 

Crab shrimp and artichoke casserole

Cheesy Keto Bread

Creamy Broccoli Bake

Freezer Meals Part 3 - Two Week Meal Plan

Meals include: 

Keto Stuffed Breakfast Biscuits

Low Carb Breakfast casserole with sausage and cheese

Sausage Cream Cheese Pinwheels

Keto Sheet Pan Pancakes

Sausage Dip Stuffed Peppers

Cheeseburger Meatloaf with caulimash

Slow Cooker Steak Fajitas

Keto Meatballs alla Parmigiana

Mississippi Roast

Crack Chicken on Keto Okie Eggos

Keto Okie Eggos 

Make Ahead Freezer Burgers

Protein Snack Pack

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Cheesy Keto Bread

Spanish Caulirice

I made both of these together for a full month. Though to be honest, we will have plenty more leftovers than the two week daily meals provide for, so it's more like five weeks. Once I get into ketosis I find myself less hungry and more easily satiated, so the meals go further. 

I've included ideas for sides and desserts, and sometimes we like to have the same meal (such as cheeseburger meatloaf) multiple times and it's easy so I prepare it double. 

I hope this can help some of you out! Enjoy!

*Tech and Teachability is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Spring Themed No Prep Activity Packet!

I cannot believe how quickly the end of the year has come!!! It's crazy - we've got 18 days left, and three of those are half days, one is field day, there's three field trips coming up, plus finals and awards. May is SUPER busy!!

Which is why I've spent some time updating my Spring No Prep Review Packet.

Sub Tickets FREEBIE! {Tutorial plus Template}

Hi guys! I know it's been forever and a day since I've posted but I'm going to try to be better at that. Posting at least once a month is my goal with freebies at each one!!

Today I'm talking about Sub Tickets.

Classroom Reveal 2018! Fun and Freebies!

Wow this year has come upon us so quickly!! It seems like just yesterday I was waving goodbye to the kiddos and telling them to have a happy summer. And here we are now-year 13. Without further ado, I give you my Pina Colada Pineapple Classroom!

Hallway Announcements Bulletin Board FREEBIE!!!

Can you believe it's almost August? It's crazy how fast this summer went. I kept super busy during the month of June, but it seemed that July slipped by no matter how lazy I tried to be!!

I'm working hard on getting my classroom ready for the new year. Kids start August 9th! But today I wanted to share with you the hallway bulletin board I've been working on for our middle school.

I love how it turned out! It's so bright and fun. I used black bulletin board paper. I found this bright rainbow border at a local school supply store. It's from Carson Dellosa as is the bright pink scalloped border. . The Chevron border is from Creative Teaching Press. I created the letters using circles and white fonts in PowerPoint.

Since this board is for the kids, I've got areas for everything the kids will need to know.

The different schedules are listed there. I used command hooks and then small binder clips to hold the 6 schedules together. When we switch to a different schedule, we can flip to that schedule and hang it up.

I did the same thing for A/B Day. 

I posted the fall Club Days, because the kiddos look forward to these days and so teachers can plan accordingly. I also put up an area to hang the monthly PBIS signs that our school office sends us. Student Shoutouts area is for teachers to take a sticky note, write a quick jot, and stick to the shoutout area of the board. 

I just used tape to stick a Post It pad on the board, and a command hook with a pencil tied to it. I'm thinking of switching out the pencil for a Flair pen though. 

And my favorite part to the board is the Growth Mindset! We like to work towards positive thinking at our school, and I want the kids to start thinking about how some things we say can be changed to a more positive state of mind.

I've put all of this in a FREE file just for you! 

You can download it HERE!

I've also included some quotes that I enlarged and hung up and down the hallway. 

Hope you can use this!