“Bubble gum bubble gum in a dish,

how many pieces do you wish?

1,2,3,4,5,6…”

Have you ever sung that rhyme or a similar one? When I was a kid, the bubble gum chant was my favorite song to sing while jumping with the long jump rope.

I recently bought this 16 ft. long jump rope in case my kids and the neighbor kids might like to do some group jump roping this summer. We’ve already used it a couple of times.

As an added bonus, jump roping keeps the kids active. And when you’re using the long rope with kids taking turns jumping and turning the rope, it’s good practice for taking turns.

The jump rope is also a unique birthday gift idea for an elementary-aged child. You can look online and print off a few jump rope rhymes to include with the gift. Or there are a few jump rope rhyme books available that would complement the rope.

What are your experiences with long, beaded jump ropes?

~Carrie

Linked With:

If you like deals on teaching resources, where should you visit? Markdown Monday. It’s one of my favorite linky parties to join.

As a buyer, it’s great because you are able to see resources that are marked down for that week only. It’s exclusive information. (=

As a seller, it’s fun to pick one resource to mark down each week. You are hopefully bringing traffic to your store. Even if someone doesn’t buy the item you have marked down, they might browse around and find something else they need. The party runs through Friday evening each week.

Here is the resource I’ve marked down this week (regularly $1.50, on sale for $1):

See you there on Mondays!

~Carrie

With Mother’s Day coming up, I compiled a few mom moments that I could recall.

A Few Mom Moments:

1. Sitting in the chair at the dentist feels like a mini vacation.

2.  Making sure everyone has everything they need before you pour the milk on your cereal- otherwise soggy Cheerios.

3. When your 4 year old requests you strap a pool noodle into your other car seat and you do it.

4.  Feeling like a symphony conductor as you prepare breakfast four weeks into the school year. Plate out here, cue the butter and jam. Stir the oatmeal on the stove for the other child.

5.  When your husband has taken two showers in one day before you’ve taken one.

6.  Keeping area on top of fridge open so you can put things there that your kids fight over.

7.  Becoming a sleuth when trying to determine if you should keep a child home sick from a play date or school. Clues…how sick are they? Is the thermometer reading correlating to the estimated temperature you get when you put your hand on forehead?

8. Your child thinks you’re a way better seamstress than you really are after you sew a teddy bear nose back on that the dog chewed off.

9. Not asking your child to take the recycling bin to the curb because they might see some of their school worksheets in there and try to save them.

10. Your heart melts when your child brings you paper after paper with “MOM” written in their beautiful handwriting.

Do any of these sound familiar? Please share your own “mom moment”…

~Carrie

Linked With:

This book is great for the last day or week of school. For me, it’s an instant classic because it portrays how the teacher feels so well. Sentimental, but ready for a much-deserved break. This author gets it.

Last Day Blues is by Julie Danneberg, the same author as First Day Jitters. Mrs. Hartwell, the teacher, is the same character from First Day Jitters. The illustrations are sweetly detailed. Kids love to look closely at some of the pictures in this story to better understand what’s happening.

The story shows how the teacher and students are going to miss all of their routines at school. It cracks me up that the students think Mrs. Hartwell is going to be reminiscing by “reading old lesson plans” over summer vacation. (=

This book would be a nice gift for teachers at the end of the year.

As a supplemental activity, the class could make up their own poem about the year, similar to what the class in the story did.

They can also write about things they’ll miss about school and what they look forward to doing over summer break. I have a one-page freebie response sheet with those two questions available in my TpT store:

You can also download the free printable here on Google docs.

Whether you’re a classroom teacher, parent, or homeschooler, have a wonderful last few weeks of school!

~Carrie

Follow My Book Boost on Facebook to see more posts about great books for teachers!

Linked With:

What is the one thing you can do when your students haven’t used a particular math manipulative in your class yet? Let them explore the items.

Why explore math manipulatives? The top reason is that kids usually need to play with items before they can focus on using them for assigned activities. Build in time to explore before kids use any math material for the first time.

For example, let’s say kids are using dominoes for the first time. Give them a few minutes to touch, smell, examine, and build with the dominoes, if they want. For me, getting some of that building out of their system right away is very helpful.

When I was a full time teacher, we would spend a lot of time during the first week of school exploring math manipulatives. The kids would use their ideas with the materials while I was able to get started with assessing their math skills individually (counting, number sense, etc.).

Here is a list of some math manipulative ideas:

Unifix cubes

Buttons

Dice

Toothpicks

Pencils

Bread tags

Small lids

Dominoes

Legos

Coins

Play coins

Popsicle sticks

Pasta

Beans

Old keys

Jewels

Game pieces

Erasers in fun shapes

Regular erasers

Craft poms

Pebbles

Seashells

Calculators

They can use these items for counting, sorting, patterning, building, practicing place value, etc.

What other items would you add to the list?

~Carrie

Note: Exploring manipulatives is also mentioned in this First Week Toolkit:

Linked With: