10K, Weather Craziness, and New Math Games!

10K Race
This weekend was a 10K race for my training, and it worked out perfectly.  If you remember, I changed districts this year, and my old school had a 10K fundraiser this weekend!  Perfect timing!!  It was so nice to see my old students and teachers and get to run at the same time.  The PE teacher has a running club and a lot of my former students were running in the 5K race.  I was extremely proud of their hard work and determination! What a cool thing to be able to do a 5K at the age of 9!  These types of events make me realize just how remarkable our students are outside of the classroom too.

Okay, so about my actual running.  The course is a 5K loop, so if you're doing the 10K, you do the loop twice.  I had a goal of running 8:00 minute miles.  The first half was a bit slower than the second half, and I don't think I had the confidence that I could actually do 8 min/mile.  I ended up averaging 8:07/mile which I was pleased with, but it certainly makes me realize that I should be running at least this for my shorter runs.  Now the real question is whether or not I can run this pace for 13.1 miles! Fingers crossed!

Weather Craziness
We always know in Indiana that we're going to have crazy weather, but really?  A snow storm on March 24th!  On Saturday we had beautiful weather.  So much so that I took my dogs for a walk to the dog park, played frisbee, and completed doo-doo duty in the backyard!  24 hours later this is what it looked like at my house.  What does all of this mean for me?  A snow day today!!

             Saturday on a walk with Addie and Scout.   Sunday into Monday 8 inches of snow!

Snow Day = New Math Games!
I've had such a great response from all of my I have...Who Has? games that I've been trying to add to the selection.  Right now, I'm doing all math games, but have many language arts ones on the list for spring break.  Watch out contractions, short vowel sounds, r-controlled vowels, long vowels, and silent e!  I'm coming for you.

Anyway, I started with a bright and vibrant spring theme for converting fractions to decimals because I needed a little bright in my life.  After all, Spring Break is only 3 school days away!

Next, I used some pizza slices for fractions practice.  My EL students need some help on simple fractions before we move into more complicated fractions.  This will be a great refresher and an easy entry point into fractions.  

And our 4-H clubs are gearing up again for a great summer 4-H fair, so I got a little country with reading decimals.  Knowing how to read decimals is an important skill for students, and this is a great game for reinforcing these skills.  

Here are links to some of the other games that teachers enjoy:

Addition with Regrouping Game

Subtraction with Regrouping Game

Addition with and without Regrouping Game

Also, I have undertaken a huge task (much bigger than I originally had though) to create a year-long unit of greek and latin roots.  If any of you do work with learning roots and vocabulary words and would like for me to include something specific, let me know!  

The countdown is on until my Spring Break.  I'm hoping this snow melts and the weather warms before my 9-day stay-cation!

Gotta run!