Back to the Grind…Five for Friday 11.6

I've been through a roller coaster the last few months! I had my beautiful and super smiley little girl, Baby L. I love her to death and her older sister loves her as well. The transition has been pretty smooth for K actually. We have visitors for quite a bit of my maternity leave, but I'm very thankful to have had the help around. Just before I was to go back to school, my precious grandpa passed away. I have not had to deal with death in my side of the family and it was, and still is at times, very difficult. Because of that, I extended my leave for a week.

 The week I went back was a fabulous week *sarcasm* to go back. It was Halloween week, Red Ribbon Week with dress up days, full moon, and Parent/Teacher conferences. Let's just say I was exhausted by the time Friday came around.

This week I did my best to get the kids used to me and what our now normal routines are going to be.  I also wanted to put into practice some of the things I've thought about while I've been away.

My social studies topic for this quarter is explorers. I had planned on doing a different project that we did last year. We were to begin this the my extra week off, so I wasn't quite ready when I had to go take care of family things. My wonderful sub and I were able to quickly put together this and I'm loving it! I still need to tweak a few things, but I'm glad we did it.

I came up with a list of required facts the kids had to find and at least 3 extra facts of their choice. I also gave them the freedom to decide how they wanted to present their information. Most students did choose to make a poster, but a few ventured into making iMovies. Today we watched the iMovies using Reflector. Tomorrow we will do a gallery walk with the other posters. 

To help our staff become more comfortable with Kagan structures and not overwhelmed, we are doing a Kagan structure each month. In my intervention reading class, we used "Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up" to share their responses about things they collect. (We just started reading Donavan's Word Jar, and are using Mrs. Jones's book study.) They paired up three different times with someone who was not their neighbor, then sat back down. 

I pulled out some partner plays from Deb Hanson to practice fluency. They loved the fun little stories! They also rolled their eyes at me when they had to read whatever part they were handed. That meant that a few of the boys had to be "Mom." They got over it and had fun it.

Here they were reading the plays from her Fall/Halloween plays.

In math, we have ventured back into using Gaggle to watch my lesson videos. I can now include exit ticket questions directly in the Gaggle assignment! I'm excited to see how it works out when we get to a lesson that doesn't need drawings in the answer. However, my workshop for when they are finished with the video needs some work. To help with it, I decided to whip up a basic "Number of the Day" to review basic things. After more decimal lessons, we'll move into using Teaching to Inspire with Jennifer Findley's "Of the Day" resources 

Click to download my Free Number of the Day packet.

My sweet family at our school Halloween Safe Night Carnival

We have Rapunzel and a sweet strawberry.

My husband just wore his fire duty clothes, I was a last minute witch.

Linking up with Doodlebugs!

Thanks for stopping by! I will try to stop in myself a little more often with more things to share!

Keep Smiling!

*Steph*

Wordless Wednesday {Go Math}

I haven't linked up with Miss DeCarbo for a while now, but decided it was time again!

I'm trying my hand at creating a Fill-In Resource for my 5th graders for Go Math. 

If you want a look at what I did for Chapter 1, click {here}

Any helps/comments are appreciated! :)

P.S. Some of the wording is totally my own, not Go Math. 

Question: Do you create things on your own for you classroom? Have any tips if you do?

Thanks for stopping by!

*Steph*

Random Problem Check: Spark Student Motivation

I used an awesome freebie this week in teaching metric system conversion! Another plus was that it made our first day back from Spring Break a happy, non-stressful day!

I'm also linking up with Joanne! 

(Yea, yea. I know it's not Saturday, but oh well!)

My coworker, with the advanced  group, said that her kids had a hard time with it for some reason. Because of that and the difficulty they had with multiplying and dividing by 10 at the beginning of the year, I looked at what I could use to pre teach before our program lesson. I planned to start with the metric video from Brainpop.com. Then I found this measure conversion chart by Too Tired to Teach and it helped drive my lesson.

There are a couple of different mnemonics used to remember the most commonly used metric prefixes, but my favorite is

King Henry Died Unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk

This freebie is slightly different using By instead of Unexpectedly, but the kids went with it.

If I had been really thinking about it, I would have dressed in black and treated the beginning of the lesson as a funeral, complete with chocolate milk as a refreshment. :)

We reviewed what each letter stood for and what each prefix means. Then we went right into how to use the mnemonic to help them convert. The chart has a great example that we walked through together. I had found a worksheet site that quickly created some conversion worksheets for me. (I already forgot which one it was. Oops.) 

I would write the problem on the board that we were going over. I was also very specific as to what they should be doing. We put our finger on the label we were starting at. We then decided if we had to move right or left to get to the label we needed. They showed me this by pointing either right or left. 

After we knew which direction we were headed, we counted how many "jumps" it took to get from our starting point to ending point. Students showed me on their fingers how many jumps it would take.

The next part was showing their work. They put their pencil wherever the decimal in the the starting number was. That meant that if the number didn't show a decimal, it was after the last digit. They then had to "jump" as many digits as they had to "jump" on their chart with their finger in the direction we had decided. If they didn't have enough digits, they had to add 0's so they could make their jump. I was very specific that I must see these jumps on their worksheet, even if they thought they could do it in their head. Lastly, they rewrote their new number next to their new label.

I was so excited that there were only a few students that seemed utterly confused by this. I took the last 5 minutes and had students work on finishing the worksheet independently. I told them that after the 5 minutes, I would call out some random problems that could be worth some treats. I figured that most off the students should be able to finish easily. While they were working, I worked with the few that were confused. What I noticed was that they seemed to be the only students who didn't go through the problems with us actually showing their work. Once I had them do that, the lightbulbs clicked!

At the end of the 5 minutes, I chose 3 problems. If a student got it correct, they lined up with their worksheet and received a couple of M&Ms. I'm not sure if it was giving them a specific amount of work time with a countdown clock or the chocolate, but I really liked that they didn't know which problems I was going to check. It also proved a point to a few of the students who dilly-dallied and didn't finished due to their choices. 

Piggy Valentines

I have been pretty M.I.A for the past couple of months. I will try to be back more often!

 Until I have time for a longer update, here are some pig valentines I made with some free clipart/graphics.

The clipart is from mycutegraphics.com and the background is from  Teresa Lewis @ TPT.

 I'm not pro at creating things but thought I'd try it out. I hope the link works!

(If there's a copyright infringement, let me know please! I'm not sure how that specifically works.)

Valentines…Piggy Edition

*Steph*

Monday Made It…with Freebie…Hopefully :)

I haven't been very productive with making things for awhile due to family visits and my trip Outside (the lower 48). This last week I went into my classroom to try to help me get into school thinking mode. It worked! I went and bought new fabric for my white walls and I started placing the big furniture around. I said "good-bye" to my teacher desk as a teacher desk and started thinking about my year with a kidney table. 

I knew I would need one of those fabulous teacher toolboxes! Are you tired of seeing this in Monday Made Its? I'm not! I love to see what everyone decides to put in their drawers and the labels they use. I'm not as crafty as some others when it comes to creating fun labels so I used the labels I found at  Teaching with a Mountain View. You can find all sorts of pre-made labels if you look. 

I'm also not sure what to put in the last two little drawers so I am going to leave them and see what accumulates that needs a home. :)

 I also decided I needed a shelf or table of some sort for my toolbox and phone. I found this table at WalMart. I "made" it all by myself! I was pretty proud :) It may be too deep for the space I am wanting, but if it is I have a couple of other places I can probably use it. 

My brain kept spinning and spinning and thinking about things that I necessarily couldn't complete right away and it was driving me crazy! I am one that if I write it down, I can usually calm down and leave it alone. I decided to make a Back to School checklist. This has already helped me focus on what I can accomplish now and what I have to talk to other people about first.

Finally….. a freebie!! I do not have a TPT shop and don't have plans of opening one. I don't think I'm the type that could handle that and my family in my time out of work. The blog is enough for me. :) However, I may create some basic thing every now and then for me, so why not share? Please let me know if you are able to actually download this. I'm using dropbox and I'm not quite sure how this works sharing with the public. 

Kagan Table Numbers (Or Mat)

Thanks for stopping by!

*Steph*

A Book A Day {Day 6}

with Confessions of a Teaching Junkie

It's Day 6! 

One of the comprehension strategies that is taught in my 4th grade reading program is Cause & Effect. Not just that one thing causes another, but that that effect can become a cause of another effect. Essentially, forming a cause and effect chain. When we get to that concept, I like to pull out books by Laura Numeroff. Her books are great for cause and effect. Visit her website for some other ideas on how to use her books.

The school version is fun to use at school, but I prefer to use one of the pig versions. Pigs are my favorite animal! My students enjoy the moose version because here in Alaska, we run into a lot of moose!

This is a great *FREEBIE* from Fun in Room 4B to use in conjunction with the "If You Give A…" series!

A Book A Day {Day 2} & Math Literature Organization

Day 2 here I come!

Hosted by Confessions of a Teaching Junkie

Today as I was thinking about what book to post, I went to my stash of math literature. While earning my Masters degree, I took a class based on connecting math and literature. I received a bunch, I mean a BUNCH of different books that have math connections through that class.  

When you have that many books, organization is always needed. I decided to use the system that my instructor uses for her books. FIrst you need to get a box of different colored folders. I used the cheap paper folders and they work just dandy. Each color is then assigned a topic.

Blue = Numeration & Operations

Yellow = Geometry

Green = Measurement

Black = Graphing

If you want, you could break it down even more by standard and strands.

Label the folder with the title of your book, put your book inside one pocket, and put any extra resources in the other. Viola! Everything you need in one place and could even be an excellent activity for a substitute.

Now on to the book for today…

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns

This is a great book to introduce polygons. However, you can also use it to look for relationships between the number of sides, angles, and vertices in a polygon. As my kids and I read it, we filled out this worksheet & activity that I found for *FREE* on TeachersPayTeachers. I was late on finding this so we weren't able to actually use the marshmallows and toothpicks. Next time! I really like the column that has the kids think of example of that polygon. It's always a good thing to make connections with students' prior knowledge.

Do you connect literature and math? 

I plan on sharing more math books throughout the month of May!

S.Udy

Products= Simplified Classroom

I decided that the best way to get going on this is to blog about different products I've used through out the year. I don't have pictures of everything but I will try to post a link to the source.

• Partner Picking Cards from Making It As A Middle School Teacher

These cards have been a lot of fun for the kids. I had created my own partner cards by just taking different clipart and cutting the picture in half. I still use that set sometimes, but I really like this set because the kids have to think about what goes with their picture. If they have socks, they should be looking for someone that had shoes. It's a great way to get the kids moving and create partnerships without much fuss.

• Winning the Pencil War from The Wise Owl Teacher

I hate pencils! I'm just going to put it out there. The sharpener is always broken or not working right. If it is working, it is really loud. The kids are always losing their pencil. Bleh. I was over it. I saw this and wondered if it would really work. I talked to my team teachers and we decided to try to implement this system. We made some tweaks to fit us but it has definitely made my life a little simpler. There are still those students who loose their pencil bags but overall, kids usually have at least 1 pencil to use each day. As for the rewards for, I made it a random thing. Some weeks the kids who had everything they needed in their bag (3 pencils, a big eraser, and a red correcting tool) didn't get anything. Other weeks they got some kind of treat.

• Bulldog Vacuum Mount Manual Pencil Sharpener by Xacto

This pencil sharpener has been an angel in my classroom! Doing the pencil management system made me have to deal with the pencil sharpener more often than I liked. Also, we use community supplies. That means that we use whatever supplies our students bring in at the beginning of the year. That means that we usually get more of the cheaper, yucky pencils than the nice Ticonderoga pencils. This Bulldog sharpener will sharpen anything!! All those yucky pencils, no problem. One of my team teachers tried it out, I then got one, followed by the other team teacher. Now our school secretary may be purchasing at least one for every classroom. I don't let my kids use it, but I may purchase another one so that they can sharpen their own at appropriate times. My team got ours at Fred Meyers for about $13 each.

• Clock Labels by Lauren Livengood at First Grade Charades

My 4th graders still have a hard time with analog clocks and telling the time. These fun labels help with knowing the time and the word phrases associated with benchmark times.