Woo Hoo! A Success!

Don't you love those?

I wanted to share about this past Friday.  Now, I've created lessons that I thought the kids would be excited about, especially the fourth and fifth graders.  Into Wimpy Kid and Bone?  Let's look at videos about the artists talking about how they draw/get inspired, then have our own session on cartooning!  Nah, not so much.  Using sidewalk chalk and going outside to draw real-sized animals?  Running around the courtyard and not really following directions.


Our resource team has been, um, strongly encouraged to do a "Focus Friday" with our students.  The way our schedule runs, we see all classes Mon-Thurs, then on Friday, we repeat (first nine weeks, Monday's groups, second nine weeks, Tuesday's groups, etc).  My current fourth and fifth grade groups are kind of tough to please.  Fourth grade is the gifted class, so it's challenging them (and keeping them focused and listening), and fifth grade is one of the struggling classes, so keeping them interested and engaged.  Oh, and on Fridays, we don't do check out, so that means its a 45 minute lesson (instead of a 30 min one with 15 min of checkout).

So...this Friday was fractions.  I KNEW there was NO WAY I could read a book on fractions, or related to fractions, with students.  Not this time of year, especially.  So, I thought about it for awhile and looked at my resources.....Cyberchase DVD on equivalent fractions (one episode).  Okay, PBS Kids is always popular and many have watched the program before.  Now....what to do for a follow-up activity?  That's where fraction war came in.

I'm a sucker for clip art.  LOVE adding it to items, and the kids seem to respond to it as well.  So, why not Star Wars?  Good vs evil.  High interest, high recognition.  Competitive.

It was a HUGE HIT!  The kids were so engaged, that I made sure to send my file to their teachers to use for math centers (the kids actually requested me to do so!).  Even my worst discipline problems decided it was much more fun to play cards than to cause any drama.  Woo hoo! Score a win for me!  They even asked if they could play AGAIN next week!

Click on the picture to see it up close.  By the way, did I mention there was a dance for grades 3-5 after school that day, and they were STILL engaged???  Made me feel like the coolest teacher ever! LOL

Math Freebies!

Wow, where has March gone?  Granted, part of it we've been buried in snow and ice!  I realized the other day we've missed more holidays this winter!  It snowed out Valentine's Day, kept moving our 100th Day, snowed out Dr. Seuss/Read Across America (we only went that Thursday!), and then St. Patrick's Day.  Okay, old man Winter, that's enough!  I won't even mention what's in the forecast for this Tuesday!

So, because we've missed, I think, 18 days since January, our time has been crunched!  As in, they wanted us to teach Regrouping with Addition and Subtraction WITH Estimation in 4 days, and then test.  Um, yeah.  It's a brand new concept for our 2nd graders, and they think we'll do that in 4 days????  I wish "they" would come in and work with my 10 kiddos that haven't gotten it after 4 days!  (Shh!  I'm adding 2 extra days next week and testing on Wednesday.)

I told some of my friends in the upper grades what they wanted us to do and they about flipped!  I have to admit, I'm glad they had the same reaction I did!

Well, several years ago, my kiddos (who are now in 6th grade) made videos explaining regrouping with subtraction.  I dug it up and showed it to my class on Friday AND I presented a poster I made to help them along.  We use base 10 blocks when regrouping so students can "physically move" the ten over to the ones place.  I also created a unit to help them as well, starting with base 10 blocks and gradually weaning away from them (although  I told students they could always draw them on a test!).


I fear some of my lowest ones still will not get this concept, even after 2 extra days of practicing, so we're using our extra 15 minutes a day they added on to our schedule to practice regrouping with white boards/markers.

After regrouping, we have fractions.  They wanted that in 4 days as well (what are these people thinking???).  We have to introduce comparing fractions, so I actually spoke up and said I needed a week and a half.

Why the rush?  They want us to post test after spring break, which is the week of April 21st.  Granted, SOL tests for our 3rd-5th graders starts May 12, so they have to pull all our computers/laptops for that.  Hmm, but if my calendar skills are correct, that is at least 2 weeks after we post test.   Oh, did I mention that our last day of school is May 30 and we won't have taught measurement by then, but we were told that wouldn't count against us!!!!! (because we'll have the rest of the year to teach that!!!!).

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now....anyone else having this problem and would like to vent?  My comments are open :)

So, where are these freebies I teased you with in the title?

First, I revamped my "Gumball Fractions" to include comparing and gave it a cute frame.  I'm all about the cute clipart and frames! :)  You can either copy the gumballs on colored paper, or have the kids color them and paste them on the gumball jar.  Since I'm already doing smarties and marshmallows for another activity, I figured this would have to be a inedible version :)

Click {here} for TpT and {here} for Teacher's Notebook.

My other freebie is my Regrouping poster.  It's part of my Regrouping Packet I mentioned above.  Our PTA bought us a poster maker that prints in color (!), but if you don't have one, the kids can always put this in their math journals.

Please click on the "free preview" to snag the poster! :)  Click {here} for TpT and {here} for TN.

Oh, and here's the video - too cute! :)  I also have it on my math wiki page as well. :)

Fraction Fairy Tales and No Excuse Words!

So, two things on my mind lately:  Fractions (our next math unit) and these "No Excuse Words" our students have to master.  The words are a list that students have to spell correctly in their writing that is sectioned into 3 parts:  by the end of first, second, and third grades.  Looking at the list, it starts out easy enough:  a, I, the, etc.  It goes onto words like "were" and "their" as you progress.  

So, we pre tested students at the beginning of the year and, like you'd expect, it was a mixed result.  However, I haven't done much with it since then, honestly, because we've been focused on mastering other skills.  Now that we've gone beyond 100 days (110 to be exact), I'm starting to worry about my lower readers and writers who have not quite mastered all the words!  I wracked my brain, wondering what I could do to help them practice these without the old fashioned "write 3 times each".....and, as we all know, students can master spelling words on a test, but not apply them to everyday writing!

So, brainstorm!  A "write the room" activity!

Which then led me to fractions.  One of the hardest skills for our second graders is comparing fractions.  Right now, we're finishing up comparing numbers with our little monsters we made and number cards.  Here's the picture from Pinterest (because of course, did I think of taking a picture?  Of course not!  Too busy teaching - oh, and having my formal observation.  I'm sure it would've gone over well if I said, "Yeah, I need to take a pic for my blog! LOL).  

 

I'm wondering if on my evaluation (which I have not seen yet) it'll say I need to use the term "greater than/less than" more than "monsters," which my students like to use! We did not add teeth, but I added an eye on the corner like the picture and let my kids decorate their own.  They'll be able to take them home and practice this coming week! :)

It's something about fractions, though, and using these symbols.  I found a GREAT resource at this website and went a little crazy printing out worksheets.  However, I felt justified when my grade level went a little nutsy too and we duplo'ed all of them!  Hey, practice makes perfect, right?

Well, I started thinking about centers.....my kiddos have enjoyed our "battle" games so far with place value (base 10) and comparing numbers, so I figured I'd create another one for them with equivalent fractions!   They love a good vs. bad theme, and we've already done Star Wars, ninjas, and super heroes...so I went with fairy tales this time!

I hope you'll be able to use one of these resources in your own class!  Click on the pictures for more information!

Fraction Fun

It's amazing what you can fit into a week with a snow day, 2 hr delay, and a full moon!

I swear, the effects of the full moon did not wear off for days.....

We're right into the swing with our fraction unit.  I vamped up some past activities this year.

Learning parts of a whole - there's a great Discovery Education video where parts of a whole is compared to pizza.  Been using it for years!  Check out my math wiki page on fractions to see more (I use Internet Explorer for it, since Firefox does not like to recognize Windows Media).  We created pizzas, as we've done in the past, but this year I had a brainstorm, and we "ordered" pizzas and then made them, complete with a "box" (made from the large construction paper).

 We used the book, The Lion's Share to discuss how even though denominators may seem big, in "fraction world," the bigger the number, the smaller the piece!  We created animal pies to feed each of our hungry furry/scaly friends!

 

 

Then, we moved on to parts of a set - doughnuts.  We then became a bakery and created doughnuts!

Yep, it's kind of a "fraction foodcourt" outside our room right now.

Today, we continued our map studies and students had to follow clues and the cardinal directions to find their egg.  It was a big hit with my kids who apparently (I found out later) were bragging in the hallway to other kids during Title I about it.  Too cute! :)  For your copy, please refer to my earlier post about it!

At some point, (Spring Break?  Summer?) I will have the fraction unit up (we don't finish it for another week) as well as some map activities for you to use.  I think I've discovered that it's best to have my kiddos do it first, then tweak it.  For example, those "order forms" that go on the front of the pizza box?  Yeah, a little big.  Also, they were supposed to have a doughnut box to put those in, but 12 doughnuts were just too big.  It turned out cute, though! :)  

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter/Spring Break (whether it's ending or beginning) and stays safe!  We'll be traveling to my parents' house for the annual Easter celebration, then Sunday we have our men's breakfast (yum!  prepared by all the men in the church!) and then on to the inlaws for some celebrating and possibly another egg hunt!  

Monday is my "official" start to Spring Break for myself and my 2 personal kiddos, so hopefully something productive will come out of it! :)  Until then, thanks for reading and be sure to check out my TpT sale that starts April 1 (Monday) and the Teachers Notebook sale going on now! ;)

End of Year Ideas

So, this week and last have been hard because 1) end of year testing 2) disruption of schedules (field day/awards assemblies, etc) and 3) the kids are CRAZY this time of year!  

So, in order to review, but also keep them focused and somewhat calm (hah hah).....I first created an ocean theme that turned into "Animal Afternoons", as my students called it.  We used our writing/read aloud time to explore the oceans and then during reading groups, students worked on murals and ocean-based literacy activities.  It was a big hit!  

In reading groups, I used books I picked up from the Target Dollar Zone on animals, and students picked an animal from the book and filled out an animal matrix.  I have these free on my TN and TpT stores if you like what you see!  Just click on the picture to take you to Teacher's Notebook or here for TpT. :)

Then, as a review for math, we created "Fraction Monsters."  Students had a great time using our scrap we accumulated during the year to create monsters, then during the next lesson, they created fractions based on shapes or colors of their monsters (they had to count the total parts they had used to create their monster).

So, we have an interesting theme in our hallway right now - space, ocean, and monsters!  Ah well, it's the end of the year. :)  It's kept the kids interested while we've been fitting in our 4 end of year tests (reading, math, science, history) and our crazy schedule!  


Next week, we'll be doing some activities for Father's Day, which is new for me...normally, we are out before Memorial Day, but due to that lovely rattle and roll we had in August, we don't get out until this Wednesday.  Two and a half days...think we can make it! :)

Apples and Pizza

This week, besides prefixes and suffixes (another post, another day!), we were working on fractions and Johnny Appleseed. Yes, a little late in the year to be honoring good ol' John Chapman, but in our reading series (Harcourt Trophies), they have his story as a Reader's Theater, and since most of my kiddos couldn't participate reading that, until now, we waited. It went well with our plant/animal life cycle unit :)


So, a few Pinterest-inspired activities: The fraction pizzas my sub did while I was out sick (unfortunately, I just got them up, and after a few corrections my kiddos did!) and "getting to the core of Johnny Appleseed." I thought they turned out cute. We also did an anchor chart on Johnny Appleseed as well.

Our "brag" wall :)



A few pizzas...I like the one with the bugs! :)

I also threw in my fossil anchor chart as well as our "metamorphosis" one (yes, I had to use clip art for deer after my first attempt, which the kids thought was a dog!).

So, hope you find something useful! Feel free to comment or ask questions! I'm excited because tomorrow is our "unmuffin" episode for Electric Company, and I am excited about our activities!!! "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Spring Centers

I didn't go whole hog into Spring Centers this time, just because we had a field trip scheduled for that Friday. However, we celebrated a bit on Thursday, so I wanted to share what we did!

First, my team put together an egg hunt that was a review for Science and History. Students had a numbered sheet, 1-20, and had to work in partners and find each egg, read the slip inside, write the answer on their sheet, and put the egg back.

I don't know why...maybe it was the excitement, the fullish moon, the field trip the next day...but my students had the worst time putting the eggs back where they found them! Some would be holding clues in their hand, with no idea where the egg was! The bad thing was, we were FIRST! We finally got it all settled and taken care of but...whew!

Since it was our math time, we came in and did our usual math rotation, except with a twist. We usually do a group/independent/center rotation (the center this year being with my assistant, who does different activities with the students....when students finish their independent work at their seat, they have time for centers...each rotation is 30 minutes or so).

With my assistant, they created bookmarks with fun foam spring stickers (Dollar Tree!) and had to write on the back the fraction of what each item was (to emphasize parts of a set!). With me, they had two activities: Estimation Station and a fraction activity using spring erasers (also from Dollar Tree!). I've included them both here, and you can also click on them and find them as a free download on TpT!


So, know Easter's over, but if you'd like to use them after break or for next year ;) feel free! The kids had a lot of fun with them! It was a fun way to review fractions....I' m also going to be posting my fraction centers on TpT that we're going to use on Monday to ease us back in from a week off! If you'd like a free copy of the fraction centers, be one of the first three to comment and leave your email address!

The emphasis is on recognizing fractions, determining the denominator and numerator, and being able to represent fractions! Included are 4 different games that use fraction tiles, fraction dice, cubes/colored blocks, two-colored chips and a "graffiti wall." If you don't have those manipulatives, I've either included a link to a free download, or provided them in the packet.

Life Cycles, Fractions, and Rounding...Oh My!

I have posted some different activities/games on Teachers Pay Teachers....I'm pretty proud of them! My class is sooo into Scoot, I find myself going and making new Scoot games for review in math, as well as branching out into our current Science unit! I try to make them versatile for every teacher, including cards up to 30 for those larger classes. My students are too cute...they are even requesting "Scoot" for reading! (One of my students even demonstrated during reading groups how we could do it!) I think my "to do" list for Spring Break is growing! :)

So, let me show off what I've done so far....click on any of the pictures to see more details.
Fraction Action includes suggestions for games to use the cards with, including recognition of fractions and equivalent fractions! I am so excited to have a set of cards to be able to use for different games in my classroom, as well as being an extra set of flash cards!

You don't have to have the book to use this activity (but I find it's usually available in any school library or in a buddy's classroom...Pat Hutchins is VERY popular!).
Be sure to check them out on my TpT store! Right now, I have them priced CHEAP! Next up will be a Fact/Opinion Scoot and a Telling Time to the Nearest Five Minutes Scoot (as soon as I can get them done!).

Oh, quick question....I'm thinking of expanding into a"Teacher's Notebook" store. For a one-time fee of $19.95, you get 100% of your profits (minus any Paypal fees). Do any of you have a Teacher's Notebook store? How well does it do? I think TpT is more popular, but it sounds like Teacher's Notebook is friendlier. Just curious if anyone knows a difference or has a preference? Thanks so much for the input!!!!

Anchor Charts!

So, I wasn't able to accomplish too much this week to brag about in pictures since I wasn't here :( However, I was able to use my workday to create some much needed anchor charts (including finishing one my sub didn't seem to quite complete on homophones!). I thought I'd share:

Fractions: I wanted my students to remember the reason why we have a numerator and denominator, as well as a fraction being equal parts. I was worried it would look too boring, but a few "dashed" boxes, and I thought it turned out pretty cute!


Plants: We're beginning Life Cycles this week, but have already discussed plants and animals with plant products and seasonal changes, so this will be a quick review of plant parts (notice the smaller life cycle on the side?). I'm not much of an artist (as you can tell by the flower's lower petals), but it wasn't too bad.

Homophones: Not earth-shatteringly spectacular, but it'll help those of my kiddos who are still earning their badge for the Grammar Police, Homophone Division!

I just realized I should have done one for Fossils! While not a huge part of our habitat unit, the students have to know that due to the study of fossils, scientists can learn more about plants and animals and early habitats. We're making fossils on Monday with shells and clay (postponed from this past week), so hmmm, maybe that'll be my next one. If it turns out cute, I'll be sure to post it! :)

Back in the Saddle Again!

So, after 5 days (3 school days) of being down and out with pneumonia, I managed to go back today. I wasn't quite 100%, but I was able to manage the day AND I have to be honest - the determination to NOT write sub plans was VERY strong! I swear, we are the only profession to drag ourselves into work SICK because of sub plans! If yours are anything like mine, I try to make them fun and engaging, without a lot of background knowledge needed on the part of the sub (because you never know who you're going to get!). I was unfortunate to have 3 different subs for 3 different days. :(

Fortunately.......

I work with an awesome SPED assistant! She and I were texting throughout the week about what was going on in the classroom, so I was able to stay on top of things, including with some of my more difficult students. Since I had to go in every afternoon (after 3) and pick up my own kids from school, I'd spend time in my room doing sub plans (how do these take two hours???) and write a few "love notes" to some of my students who were doing great, and others who needed some encouragement. I also left a class love note on the board as well. It seemed to have worked, since for the most part, they did well!

I have to admit.....I loved coming back today and feeling so special, seeing those smiles on my kids faces (not to mention the hugs!) as they welcomed me! Let me tell you - I think it's one of the best parts of being a teacher! I even had one of the resource teachers tell me, laughing, about what she had overheard some of my students talking about. They basically said that I had come back, even though they knew I wasn't completely well, because I missed them sooo much that I had to spend at least one day with them before the long weekend! (Teacher workday on Friday). Very cute! It's a little disheartening to think that I have a little over two months left to spend with them!

So, as a thank you to my kiddos for being good, I read them the Homophone Mystery story, they paired up, and went to hunt for clues. I kind of fudged my own directions, though. I was the "clue holder" and they had to come to me to show me the corrected homophones on their detective sheet, then exchange for another clue. They didn't really care, though, because they were having a BLAST! Even my most reluctant were engaged, and kids were SO EXCITED ABOUT HOMOPHONES!!!!! Bet you don't hear that everyday! :)

We also played Fraction Scoot. We've played Scoot before, and my kids really liked the game. Wanting to see where they were on identifying fractions, we played a fractions version. It was great because the kids were excited and active, and I had an instant check of who was getting it, and who wasn't!

I uploaded my "Basic Fraction Scoot" to TpT today if you'd like to try it out! I originally priced it at $2.00, but it's on sale for $1.00. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out! Because the class we adopted in Kentucky has 27 students (!), I made it for up to 30 students, but there's also a Scoot version for 20 students as well, all in the same package. Please go check it out if you are doing fractions. :)

Next week, we'll be playing "catch up" and then a field trip to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton on Friday! After Friday......SPRING BREAK! :)