Friday, June 1, 2012

Mental Math and other summer fun

Hello all! I hope that summer is finding you well and happy! As I am desperately trying to keep my kids in some sort of educational pursuit, I am in search of mental math games. The really good ones we will use for EEL next year. (Yes, frighteningly enough, I am going to help teach IEW/EEL!ha)

Here are a few that I have found and I would LOVE to hear some of your ideas.

Hugs to all and join us for EDGE! I miss everyone! Check out what we are up to @:

Other fun games....

Prime Number Challenge

  • Prime numbers can be divided only by one and themselves.

    Players name ascending prime numbers in turn. When a player answers incorrectly, pass the number to the following player and score one point for the improper answer. The first player to reach a score of 5 is the winner and ends the game. Adjust the final score and time limit for answering according to the age and skill level of the players. For younger players, use other math sets, such as numbers divisible by 3, even numbers, or whatever set they are studying.

Story Problems

  • Situational story problems also lie at the root of basic bath skills. Teachers can use these for mental math. Write on the board or pass out story problems on a piece of paper. Problems might be, "Julie wants to drive the 230 miles to Houston on Saturday. How long will it take her if she drives 60 miles an hour? How much gas will she use if her car gets 30 miles to the gallon?" Students can work quietly on these problems in their heads, and write down the answers for you. Multi-question mental math problems are best because they require more thought to complete, and also because they more closely mimic the way math is used in real life.

Complex Mental Math

  • Much of math as it is used in everyday life is mental math. A person at a store must figure out what 60 percent of $20 equals. A driver must figure out how many hours it will take him to travel 230 miles for a trip. Use complex mental math questions that relate to everyday use. Each morning, write a complex mental math problem on the board. It should be age appropriate: "60 percent of $230" is appropriate for seventh-graders, while "10 percent of 100" is better suited for fourth-graders. When in doubt, pull a math concept and question from that week's math lessons. As students come into the room, they should read the math problem and quietly sit at their desks to think about the answers. You can then have the students shout out answers or write down answers on paper and hand them in, depending on your teaching methods.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Week 24

OK kids, this is the final week for CC. Thank you for your interest and visiting my blog. We have had nearly 1000 visitors over the past 4 months! WOW.  I will add items now and then over the summer as I find things I want to share. Feel free to post your own ideas!  Take care and be sure to join us at EDGE group! (meeting Friday mornings 10:30 AM at Lakefront Park playground)

History-Bill of Rights (for kids)
OUR song for this week
Fun Educational Video

More Prominent Features - VERY Silly Song for download to iTunes
Mammoth Cave  +  Audio History
Mississippi Delta  +  Video (a bit dry but features true poverty in the US)
San Andreas Fault 
Gulf of Mexico
Death Valley (images)  (music video)  (VideoHistory)

What is Good Science?
Dino Buzz says....
Math Laws

Probability FUN


All History Timeline and Sentence pages will refer to the Usborne World History Encyclopedia.
All Science will be pages for the Usborne Science Encyclopedia.
Story Of The World pages come partly from volume 3 and partly from volume 4 this cycle

-NETFLIX- Journey Into Amazing Caves: IMAX (not Mammoth, but interesting and short)
Story of The World Vol.3; Pg. 219-223

Week 23


Geography-Prominent Features
Memory jog:  GOOBO    (we pretended it was another way of Good boy in another language)
OLYMPIC Rainforest  (cool videos)

Science-Natural Selection
Interesting website refuting Darwin
Finally a reasonable explanation without promoting Theory
NOTE:   The phrase "survival of the fittest" was apparently first used in 1851 by the influential British philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) as a central tenet of what later became known as "Social Darwinism."  He misapplied Darwin's idea of natural selection to justify European domination and colonization of much of the rest of the world.  Social Darwinism was also widely used to defend the unequal distribution of wealth and power in Europe and North America at the time.  Poor and politically powerless people were thought to have been failures in the natural competition for survival.  Subsequently, helping them was seen as a waste of time and counter to nature.  From this perspective, rich and powerful people did not need to feel ashamed of their advantages because their success was proof that they were the most fit in this competition.  Despite misgivings by Alfred Wallace and other naturalists, Charles Darwin began to use "survival of the fittest" as a synonym for "natural selection" in the 5th edition of Origin of Species, which was published in 1869.

Learn more details about the Presidents

Presidential Trivia Game

Just Fun Prez Trivia


All Science will be pages for the Usborne Science Encyclopedia.

-Science pg 339 Natural Selection
-Story of The World Vol.3; Pg. 219-223

Friday, March 9, 2012

Just for laughs

The MuthaHood
What mom says in a 24 hrs in 2.53 minutes
What DAD says
Tim Hawkins-just go have fun checkin him out.
Three Little Pigs in Old English

Puns for Educated Minds

11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
17. A backward poet writes inverse.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Week 21

If you haven't already, make or draw the map with all the memory locations! REALLY helps. We built a cool salt map. My kids may not know their LISTS so well, but they can find the geographical location fast!  Recipe below.

Territory RAP-Download and import into your player (itunes)

Woody in the east (eastern woodlands)
Plains in the middle
California Great Basin what do you know?
Northwest Coast and the Plateau
Down to the southwest, way down low

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water
Mix salt and flour, add water until similar to playdough. Color with food color if you like. Place on flat surface (we used an old corkboard), roll, shape and let dry.  Then paint etc.

My kids are having a tough time differentiating independent clause from a clause. We are working on the true understanding, but to help remember, we are drawing Santa living in his own house telling in a thought bubble that he doesn't need anyone! Silly, but the visual is sticking.

Associative Law for addition  Khan Academy Video (2 minutes)
Associative Law of Multiplication Khan Academy Video

MORE History
Phases of the Moon- this is a really cool website that gives a visual to explain the phases of the moon (thanks to Adventures of the Kotlii)
When We Left Earth- this is a great series, we watched them a year or so ago...I'm not sure if they are all here on youtube or not.

Great Basin National Park Pics

President learning games for kids
President Coloring Pages
Animaniacs Presidents Song

THIS IS SO NEAT!! Fibinacci numbers (sp?)

Have fun!


All Science will be pages for the Usborne Science Encyclopedia.

-History Sentence pgs380-381 Moon Landing
-Science pg 179 Shapes of the Earth- Geological changes
-Story of The World Vol. 4; Pg. 385-389
-Netflix- America The Story Of Us- Episode 11 
-Netflix- The Wonder of It All- Connects with History Sentence

Reagan: American Experience
American Experience: Nixon
Jimmy Carter: American Experience
LBJ: American Experience
Truman: American Experience

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Week 22

Image Detail

History- from our history snippet, links beneath to other options/info

 On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center in New York City was destroyed by Muslim fundamentalists, beginning America’s War on Terrorism. 

What are Muslim fundamentalists? 

Muslims, or Islamists, are followers of the faith of Islam. Islam was founded by Muhammad (ca. 570-632), who wrote the Qu’ran, claiming that he had been given revelation of its contents directly from Allah, the Islamic god. 

Some Muslims adhere to a strictly orthodox interpretation of the Qu’ran and seek to impose this practice on the rest of the world. They are Islamic extremists, or Muslim fundamentalists. 
Extremist Islam groups hate the U.S., both for its Judeo-Christian heritage and for America’s advocacy of the nation of Israel. Furthermore, they advocate terrorism as a means to impose Islamic political law upon the rest of the world. 
What is al-Qaeda? Who are the Taliban? 
Al-Qaeda means “the base” in the Arabic language. Al-Qaeda is an international terrorist group founded by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1988. Al-Qaeda gave financial support to the Taliban, a group which took over the government of Afghanistan, and forced their citizens to follow very strict and harsh rules. Both of these groups are considered Muslim fundamentalists. 
What was the impact of the terrorists’ attacks on the American people? 
The attacks on September 11, 2001 were the most devastating terrorist acts in American history, killing nearly 3,000 people, destroying four commercial airliners, leveling the World Trade Center towers, and damaging the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. In September 2004, the U.S. government commission established to investigate the attacks officially concluded that the attacks were conceived and implemented by al-Qaeda operatives. In October 2004, Osama bin Laden appeared to claim responsibility for the attacks in a videotape release through Al Jazeera, saying he was inspired by Israeli attacks on high-rises in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Bin Laden legitimized the attacks by identifying grievances felt by both mainstream and extremist Muslims, such as the general perception that the U.S. was actively oppressing Muslims. 
  In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the U.S. government decided to respond militarily, and began to prepare its armed forces to overthrow the Taliban regime it believed was harboring al-Qaeda. Before the U.S. attacked, it offered Taliban leader Mullah Omar a chance to surrender bin Laden and his top associates. The Taliban offered to turn over bin Laden to a neutral country for trial if the U.S. would provide evidence of his complicity in the attacks. U.S. President George W. Bush responded by saying: “We know he’s guilty. Turn him over,” and British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned the Taliban regime: “Surrender bin Laden, or surrender power.” Soon thereafter, the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan, and together with the Northern Alliance (various Afghan tribes united to fight the Taliban), removed the Taliban government in the war in Afghanistan. As a result of the U.S. special forces, which provided air support for the Northern Alliance ground forces, both Taliban and al-Qaeda training camps were destroyed, and much of the operating structure of al-Qaeda is believed to have been disrupted. By the end of 2004, the U.S. government claimed that two-thirds of the top leaders of al-Qaeda accused of responsibility for the 9/11 attacks were in custody. Despite the capture or death of many senior al-Qaeda operatives, the U.S. government continues to warn that the organization is not yet defeated, and battles between U.S. forces and al-Qaeda-related groups continue. Additionally, independent regional branches of al-Qaeda continue to emerge around the world. 

Mo-Co-So Paint the Lake
From left to right, Mohave, Colorado (just above the water) Sonoran, southern CA/AZ, Painted-NorthEast AZ and NW New Mexico, Great Salt Lake


Catastrophism is the belief that the earth’s past geological changes

were caused by sudden, violent changes in the earth’s surface.

Catastrophism proposes that the earth’s geological changes were a result

of catastrophes in the past of a much greater scale than those we see today.
As evidence, supporters of catastrophism point to fossils that exist in
multiple geological layers (polystrate fossils), fossils that show signs of
rapid formation, and experiments demonstrating that sedimentary material
forms similar layers regardless of the speed at which it settles.
Catastrophism was the accepted geological doctrine until the mid-
1800s. Scientific support for the theory re-emerged in the late twentieth
century through studies of modern catastrophes like the 1980 eruption of
Mount St. Helens in Washington State.

Subordinate/Dependent Clause
HUH? Wha?    Cannot stand alone, doesn't make sense or express a complete thought.

We do this with either stuffed animals or kids. Have them face each other and say HI, have them put backs to one another and say HI,or have them switch places and say HI
However you do it, they still SAY THE SAME THING  
a+b = b+a      axb = bxa
Also so a cute thing with m&ms: layout 3 m&ms as "A" and 5 m&ms as "B"
Do the addition, works either way.

Have fun!


All Science will be pages for the Usborne Science Encyclopedia.

-Science pg 179 Shapes of the Earth- Geological changes
-Story of The World Vol. 4; Pg. 477
-Netflix- America The Story Of Us- Episode 12