Free on...Saturday?!

Hi All!!!  Hope everyone is having a fun weekend and enjoying the fall season!  I can't believe it's mid October already!  The days are just flying by.  This week went quick, but by Friday I was exhausted!  I was attempting to post on here and put up my new Free on Friday freebie.  Actually it was a few attempts.  I had to wait until after my daughter was in bed.  By the time I put her in bed (which was only like 9pm), I was struggling to keep my eyes open.  After falling asleep at my laptop a couple times, I figured I'd better just go to bed before what I type started making no sense at all.

I got a good night's sleep last night, which gave me some fuel to clean my house, chase my toddler around at the park, and then go food shopping.  Here's my little monkey at the park today:

Tomorrow we are going pumpkin picking.  Can't wait to take her.  She enjoyed it last year, but now that she's 2, I think she will have even more fun.

My mom started her chemo on Monday.  She was good for a few days, then started feeling sick Wednesday night and Thursday.  Her nausea meds helped, but she slept all day Thursday and Friday.  Today she sounded good on the phone and said she felt pretty good.  She said she felt extremely tired though, like she couldn't stand for long.  Please continue to keep her in your prayers!  Chemo can do a number on the body!  We are praying each day that it will help her get into remission.

This week in math, I have been working a lot on basic number knowledge and place value.  Most of my posts have been on reading and phonics, so I really wanted to give you a math resource too!  I am currently working on creating a place value themed pack that will be available in my TPT store.  I'm not quite finished, but I wanted to share one of the activities with you.  It's called Place Value Toss.

Click here for this FREE download :)

This activity includes place value mats for ones through thousands, number tossers, and 2 recording sheets.  It also comes with a tips and directions sheet.  The main point is to toss the numbers onto the mats and then record your number down.  The student who makes the highest number wins.

To play the game, you can set up the mats any way that works for your group of kiddos.  Right now we are working on place value up to hundreds.  We are not quite ready for thousands, so I don't even use it.  You can line them up in order, or you can put them in a square, etc.  As a challenge, just mix the mats up in random order and your students will have to remember where the place value should be like this:

Then, it would be a little more challenging for the kiddos to put their number together.  Right now, I;m just laying down the ones, tens, and hundreds mats next to each other like this:

Then, I have the kiddos stand behind a tape line, close their eyes and pick from this container of numbers:

Then they toss it onto the mats.  I give each student 3 tries.  After each turn, they record their number on the recording sheet.  This pack comes with 2 recording sheets.

Click here if you are interested in this FREE download!

My kids LOVE playing this game to review and practice place value.  I would recommend printing the numbers on a cardstock paper and laminating it.  I would also recommend hot gluing each number onto a bean bag to weigh it down.  I didn't pick up the bean bags yet, but I'm going to search for some in a dollar store within the next few days.

I can't wait to get my other activities finished, so I can post them all.  I plan on using them as centers and splitting my small group up even smaller.  This year I have 8 kiddos in my math group...it's one big small group!  I am planning on pairing them up, then they will each have a partner for each center.

I hope you enjoy!

Ciao!