Winter and a Math Game

I guess it is finally going to act like winter in South Dakota. We have been so blessed (my OLW) with favorable weather the last few months and then today it hit like a ton of bricks. And the kids knew it because I was crrrr-anky today! But I had good intentions with my crabbiness. I needed a reminder that it takes 20 minutes to put on snowpants. And then another 20 minutes to put boots on. And then...well, you get the picture and yes, I MAY be exaggerating. This is the view outside my classroom window.

And although you may not think it LOOKS that bad, it is. It's freezing. It's icy. In fact, we did not have recess outside this afternoon because they playground is one big hunk of ice. My kiddos were "stuck", as I call it, inside for recess. They were overjoyed. I don't know what it is with them and inside recess. You could not PULL me back inside when I was their age. So were playing board games during recess. Have you seen these?

They are these great travel games from Target. I'm sure there are other stores that have them. I just happened to find them at Target. They are GREAT and my kiddos love them. I could use more. We have Hang Man and Tic-Tac-Toe.

Amongst the snow excitement (and clearly, not by me), we played this fun math game using Base 10 Blocks. It's called Race to Flat. Clever, huh? I'm sure y'all have heard of it and I'm behind the times, but I'm okay with that. You use:

The kids partner up and take turns rolling the dice. A feat in itself. When it's their turn, they roll the dice, and place that many ones on the hundreds flat. Then, they continue taking turns. When they get a number with a ten in it, they replace their ones with a ten. The first person to fill their hundreds flat with ten sticks is the winner. Fun! I hope those of you that haven't played it, try it out and enjoy it!

Hope you all are staying warm....it's not the most pleasant weather in South Dakota right now! And to think my teaching best friend and I walked to the gas station for pizza yesterday. That won't happen again for awhile. SAD!!

Marcy