A Go Figure Debut From A Kansan Who is New

Today, my Go Figure Debut is for someone from my hometown, Wichita, Kansas. (I personally have never met Dianna, but I would like to. In fact, we live very close to one another.) Dianna has been in education since 2004. She spent nine years in the classroom teaching different grade levels - PreK through 6th grade. She now works as a success coach (university supervisor) and instructor for Wichita State University (I, too, worked there for five years.).

Dianna likes working with students who are studying to be teachers. She helps them come up with lesson ideas for grades PreK through 6th grade, and she delights in watching these students phase into teachers. Since she teaches online, her home office is her classroom. Right now she is teaching her four year old preschooler; so, she has turned her office into a classroom for her with a calendar, letter of the week, weather, and fun learning activities. She and Evangelene enjoy playing file folder games together.

Dianna has been married for 13 years to her husband Greg. They have two children; Joshua who is nine, and Evangelene who is four. They have two dogs, a Collie named Blue Bell, a silver Labrador named TC and a leopard gecko named Spike. Dianna loves reading, especially romance novels. Her favorite author is Jane Austen, and her favorite TV show is Friends. Spending time with her family, travelling, swimming, fishing, going for walks, etc. is her favorite thing to do.

Teachers R Us

Dianna’s store is called Teachers R Us. Currently her store contains a total of 107 resources with five of those being free. Her resources are suitable for grades PreK-2. 

One of her free items is titled, Kindergarten Popcorn High Frequency Words Activity Freebie. It comes with:

Free Resource

• 9 High Frequency Words on pieces of popcorn
• 9 High Frequency Words on popcorn containers  
• Popcorn High Frequency Words Writing Page 
• Take Home Word Cards 

This product teaches sight words, nine words from Literacy First. It is a fun way for your students to interact with high frequency words.

Her featured paid item is a $15.00 bundle (you save $2.00) called Long e (-y), ey, and y Literacy Activities Bundled with Assessment. This product teaches Long e (-y). It has puzzle matches, picture and word sorts, word scramble, and worksheets. This product includes: 

Only $15.00

• 6 worksheets with answer keys
• Picture Sort Worksheet with answer key 
• Word and Picture sort 

If you are looking for morning work, center work, or homework, then this product is for you.


Dianna says she loves teaching and believes God has given her the best job she could possibly ask for. If you check out her store, you will observe that she has top ratings (4.0) from her buyers with many of them saying that they “love” her resources! I expect you will, too.

There's A Place For Us! Teaching Place Value

When my college students (remedial math students) finish the first chapter in Fractions, Decimals, and Percents, we focus on place value. Over the years, I have come to the realization how vital it is to provide a careful development of the basic grouping and positional ideas involved in place value. An understanding of these ideas is important to the future success of gaining insight into the relative size of large numbers and in computing.  A firm understanding of this concept is needed before a student can be introduced to more than one digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. It is important to stay with the concept until the students have mastery. Often when students have difficulty with computation, the source of the problem can be traced back to a poor understanding of place value.

It was not surprising when I discovered that many of my students had never used base ten blocks to visually see the pattern of cube, tower, flat, cube, tower, flat.  When I built the thousands tower using ten one hundred cubes, they were amazed at how tall it was.  Comparing the tens tower to the thousands tower demonstrated how numbers grew exponentially.  Another pattern emerged when we moved to the left; each previous number was being multiplied by 10 to get to the next number.  We also discussed how the names of the places were also based on the pattern of:  name, tens, hundreds, name (thousands), ten thousands, hundred thousands, etc. 

I asked the question, "Why is our number system called base ten?"  I got the usual response, "Because we have ten fingers?"  Few were aware that our system uses only ten digits (0-9) to make every number in the base ten system.

We proceeded to look at decimals and discovered that as we moved to the right of the decimal point, each number was being divided by 10 to get to the next number. We looked at the ones cube and tried to imagine it being divided into ten pieces, then 100, then 1,000. The class decided we would need a powerful microscope to view the tiny pieces.  Again, we saw a pattern in the names of each place:  tenths, hundredths, thousandths, ten thousandths, hundred thousandths, millionths, etc.

I then got out the Decimal Show Me Boards.  (See illustration on the left.)  These are very simple to make. Take a whole piece of cardstock (8.5" x 11") and cut off .5 inches. Now cut the cardstock into fourths (2.75 inches).  Fold each fourth from top to bottom. Measure and mark the cardstock every two inches to create four equal pieces. Label the sections from left to right - tenths, hundredths, thousandths, ten thousandths. Numbers (see free handout below) will fit into the slots which are the unfolded part of the cardstock. (You can type up the names of the places which then can be cut out and glued onto the place value board).

Here are some examples of how I use the boards.  I might write the decimal number in words.  Then the students make the decimal using their show me boards by putting the correct numbers into the right place.  Pairs of students may create two different decimals, and then compare them deciding which one is greater.  Several students may make unlike decimals, and then order the decimals from least to greatest.  What I really like is when I say, "Show me", I can readily see who is having difficulty which allows me to spend some one-on-one time with that student.

If you aren't ready to do decimals, Show Me Boards can also be made for the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands place.  Include as many places as you are teaching. I've made them up to the hundred thousands place by using legal sized paper. As you can see in the photo above, my two granddaughters love using them, and it is a good way for them to work on place value.

I have attached a link to a number handout which is FREE. Just run it off onto cardstock, laminate, cut apart, and place the numbers into small zip lock bags (one sheet per child). Try using different colors of cardstock, so if a number is lost, it is easier to find the bag from which the number is missing.

Free Resource

Under the resource cover on your right is the link to a free page of numbers which anyone is welcomed to download and use.

Only $3.00

A good way to practice nay math skill is with a game. Your students might enjoy the place value game entitled: Big Number.  Seven game boards are included in this eleven page resource packet. The game boards vary in difficulty beginning with only two places, the ones and the tens.  Game Board #5 goes to the hundred thousands place and requires the learner to decide where to place six different numbers.  All the games have been developed to practice place value using problem solving strategies, reasoning, and intelligent practice.

Let's Go Fly A Kite - Using the Correct Geometry Term for Diamond!

This was a comment I received from a fourth grade teacher, "Would you believe on the state 4th grade math test this year, they would not accept "diamond" as an acceptable answer for a rhombus, but they did accept "kite"!!!!!  Can you believe this? Since when is kite a shape name? Crazy."

First of all, there are NO diamonds in mathematics, but believe it or not, a kite is a geometric shape! The figure on the right is a kite. In fact, since it has four sides, it is classified as a quadrilateral. It has two pairs of adjacent sides that are congruent (the same length). The dashes on the sides of the diagram show which side is equal to which side. The sides with one dash are equal to each other, and the sides with two dashes are equal to each other.

A kite has just one pair of equal angles. These congruent angles are a light orange on the illustration at the left. A kite also has one line of symmetry which is represented by the dotted line. (A line of symmetry is an imaginary line that divides a shape in half so that both sides are exactly the same. In other words, when you fold it in half, the sides match.) It is like a reflection in a mirror.

The diagonals of the kite are perpendicular because they meet and form four right angles. In other words, one of the diagonals bisects or cuts the other diagonal exactly in half. This is shown on the diagram on the right. The diagonals are green, and one of the right angles is represented by the small square where the diagonals intersect.

There you have it! Don't you think a geometric kite is very similar to the kites we use to fly as children? Well, maybe you didn't fly kites as a kid, but I do remember reading about Ben Franklin flying one! Anyway, as usual, the wind is blowing strong here in Kansas, so I think I will go fly that kite!

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Only $1.95

This set of two polygon crossword puzzles features 16 geometric shapes with an emphasis on quadrilaterals and triangles. The words showcased in both puzzles are: congruent, equilateral, isosceles, parallelogram, pentagon, polygon, quadrilateral, rectangle, rhombus, right, scalene, square, trapezoid and triangle.  The purpose of these puzzles is to have students practice, review, recognize and use correct geometric vocabulary. Answer keys are included.

Free End-of-the-Year Ebook

FREE Ebook

We hope you and your students will enjoy our "Free End of the Year Lessons" by The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative (TBOTEMC) for 2019. On each page, you will find links to a free resource as well as a priced resource created by a member of TBOTEMC.

Inside this 2019 edition of the "Free End of the Year Lessons" you will find:

• French: Les Animaux Marins
• Nursery Rhymes Activities
• Beginning Letter Sounds (A-Z) Worksheets
• Geometry Shapes - Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd
• "R" Blends Coloring Fun
• Digital Citizen Pledge
• Close Reading for LITTLE ONES!
• End of the Year Activity Booklet
• Twenty Study Tips to Help Students Succeed in School
• End of the Year Awards

PLUS much more! Altogether there are 14 free items for grades K-12. All you have to do is download the free Ebook.

TBOTEMC is made up of teachers who work together to market their Teacher Pay Teachers products. Using the power of cross-promotion, TBOTEMC members are able to use their combined social media sites to its full potential. If you are a TPT seller, join The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative and take your TPT store to the next level. For more information, email Victoria Leon about TBOTEMC. You'll be glad you did.