Scroll down through this list to find 150 1-hour long podcasts from two talented Canadian educators, Joan Badger and Ben Hazzard. Listen to do these after shcool or load them on an iPod and take them for a walk. Many lessons contain files for download and immediate use.
Carol Walters hooked me on the website. Once there you can sign up for the "Writing Lesson of the Month Network & Ning" I have received two monthly emails writing lessons and it so far I think it is fantastic. It is based on the 6 traits of writing and uses picture books as the backbone of the lesson. Also student examples are provided and requested, so you can send your students' examples. I have only browsed the lessons so far and would love to try some out.
I actually used this with my gr. 1/2 class, even! We used it after reading the math lit book "Equal Schmequal"... Check out Christine's lesson plan on our District Math Site: http://web.sd71.bc.ca/math/index.php?page=lessons-activities-grade-2
Yes, Alissa the lesson plan that Michelle is referring to is fanatastic and kids of all ages seem to grasp this concept pretty quickly. In fact my 6 year old son intuitively got it before my 10 year old.
Alissa I used the multiplication arrays and it was fantastic for teaching that 9 x 8 could be partitioned into (9 x 4) + (9X4). The kids made connections to partitioning and part-part-whole.