Happy Spring!

Hey everyone! We've spent the last 24 hours being pounded by rain, thunder, and lightning. But, hey..it's the first day of Spring! We just came back from Spring Break Monday and it's already been a whirlwind of a week. Now that break is over, we have 9 more weeks of school and a state test to prepare for. It'll be busy, busy, busy! I'm hoping to post a couple of times each week over the next few weeks...sorry I haven't been so great with posting lately! Life has been a bit crazy here at my house. We found out my husband's job is being transferred to Arizona. So, believe it or not, in three months this Texas girl is packing up and moving closer to the west coast. It's going to be quite a change! I can't even begin to think about the realtor, packing, a new job, new school, and everything else! So, for today, I just thought about my favorite season, Spring!

We are preparing for our state assessment at the end of April and no matter how many things I try to do to get my kids to learn their multiplication facts, it's just not working. So today, I started something new in my room with a spring twist. I introduced "Buzzing Through Multiplication". As you can see in the pictures below, students each have a bee with their number on it. We started at our 3s because I'm pretty sure we all know our 1s and 2s by now! Each day, we are taking a timed multiplication test based on what fact we are still working on. I'm hoping they will feel like "buzzing" through the flowers as quickly as they can for the "SECRET" prize they get at the end! (It's only secret because I have no idea what the prize will be just yet ...)

      

I am still creating the tests right now but they consist of 35 problems for each level. For example, the threes test is all problems that are multiplying by three (up to 12). I'm posting the flowers and bees on my TPT store for free so stop on by and download it if you feel like adding some spring to your classroom! (I'll post the tests once I'm finished with them.) I also included some bees without numbers in case you want to write student names or use them for something else.  You could even use this with lower grades for memorizing addition and subtraction facts or in a fourth grade classroom for division facts! Have fun multiplying and Happy Spring!