13 Suspicious Incidents by Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket meets Encyclopedia Brown.  While I was growing up, I enjoyed reading Encyclopedia Brown books where I could read the short mystery and try to solve it before checking the back of the book for the answer.  Lemony Snicket presents a book like this, although there were more answers in the back than there were mysteries and I had a feeling I was missing something.  I know there are multiple layers to Lemony Snicket's work.

I completely enjoyed this book and would recommend it to mystery lovers of all ages.


  
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I'm a Little Late...Currently December

 

I saw my favorite monthly link up yesterday, but I couldn't summon the energy to follow through.  If you haven't visited Oh' Boy 4th Grade around the first of each month, you are missing an opportunity to meet other teacher bloggers.

 

Currently I'm listening to the space heater.  We've had below freezing temperatures and our furnace is iffy.

 

Currently I'm loving the amount I got done last week.  We had five days off for Thanksgiving and I felt caught up at home for a change.

 

Currently I'm thinking about my husband's birthday this week.  I'm excited about the gift I bought.

 

Currently I'm wanting another long weekend.

 

Currently I'm needing to make a plan for Christmas.  I haven't even started yet.

 

Here are some Winter Freebies for your classroom:

 

 

TPT or TN

 

Students fill in a function table and use the answers to decipher a coded message.

 

Conversation with a Gingerbread House: Writing Dialogue

 TPT or TN

 

Students practice order of operations.

 

Ornament Math on Google Drive

 

What I Might Teach in December

We have three weeks until winter break.  It's time to pull out some winter time activities that are not specifically attached to a holiday.

(You know your community's culture.  We can do snowmen and gingerbread houses, but nothing that represents any one religion.)

I thought I would share with you my Pinterest board where I'm collecting teaching ideas for the month.  As of this writing all of them are free.

Follow Mary Bauer's board School Ideas: December on Pinterest.

Quote of the Week -- November 30, 2014

 

 

"The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears." - Arthur Christopher Benson

 

Have a great week,

 

Improper Fractions and Mixed Numbers

Last week I shared a short set of fraction quizzes with an answer key.  I focused on fractions of a group.  This week I am sharing a similar set of quizzes where students convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa.  I have included an answer key as I do with all my math products.

I did not write the directions on the quiz to save room.  Please tell the students (or write it on the board) that if they see an improper fraction, they convert it to a mixed number.  If they see a mixed number, they convert it to a fraction.  I know this may seem blatantly obvious, but having tried these out on actual students, I found I needed to be explicit in my directions.

Another quiz in this series is located on this post: Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Like Denominators.

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin

 Winston Breen loves solving puzzles and stumping others with them.  When his sister Katie finds some mysterious strips of wood in an old wooden box, Winston can't help himself.  He must get involved.  Soon it becomes clear that others with impure motives are interested in these wooden strips.  Will Winston solve the puzzles ahead of the villains?

I also read the second book in this series.  Winston and his friends spend a weekend at a famous piano player's mansion.  The pianist sets up puzzle weekends to entertain his friends.  Soon, Winston is faced with a real mystery when items begin to disappear.

  

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Worlds Colliding



A few weeks ago I was standing on the sidewalk outside of school monitoring the students as they get into cars, when a student asked me about my missing goldfish.  I was puzzled a moment and then realized that his teacher must have found and used The Case of the Missing Goldfish.  He told me about how he used the picture clues to solve the mystery.  His teacher, my colleague, found it on Pinterest.

When I first started blogging, I felt weird about having colleagues read my work.  I never tried to hide it, but I didn't advertise either. The longer I blog, the more people in my real life notice my online one. 

This year at an all district training several colleagues told me they had looked at my Teachers Pay Teachers store and seen my work on Pinterest.  They wondered if I was making millions of dollars yet.

Um, no...more like pizza money.

One of the first grade teachers at my school finds teaching materials from Classroom Freebies and Classroom Freebies Too and posts them on Facebook.  I don't think she realized that I contribute to Classroom Freebies Too until she had downloaded one of my products. 

I must be getting more comfortable with all of this.  This fall at Parent Night, I mentioned I had a teaching blog to share ideas and book reviews.  No one seemed surprised.