Category: Teachers

Metric Manipulative

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Part of my math curriculum was teaching my 5th graders about the metric system. Now, I am may be dating myself big time, but I don’t remember learning about the metric system until I took Chemistry my junior year of high school! I must confess, also, that I did not do well at all in mastering the system…I flunked the test. So, when presented with having to teach my elementary students, I was racking my brain for ways to help them master the concepts.

I decided my students needed a visual manipulative to make the metric system more hands on for them…They needed to master the metric prefixes AND have an understanding of each of the prefixes and how they related to each other.
So…VOILA!!! I had my students create this quick reference…

 

I had my students write down the meaning of each of the prefixes on the back of each of the prefix cards.  Finally, both my students AND I had a better understanding of the metric system.  Where were these kinds of things when I was taking Chemistry!?  LOL

A Math Close Read!

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Ever have one of those days where a random thought during your lesson plan suddenly causes the light bulb to go off with your students?  Well, it happened to me last week and it was amazing!  I wanted to share it with you all.

We were discussing  “What questions can be answered by using addition and subtraction?”  The students were struggling to come up with words that made them think of using addition and subtraction when reading word problems, when the idea of treating word problems as a mini-story with actions occurred to me!

I reminded the students that they were experts in reading short stories and able to see the action of the story. We used their close read skills to examine story problems.   I, then, had my students brainstorm actions that they had seen in addition problems and what a list they came up with:

ADDITION: earned, combined, combining, saving, growing, altogether, getting more, put together,received, build up, getting larger, gathered, bringing together, total, in all, brought together

We did the same for subtraction using those same close read skills and here’s what they found:

SUBTRACTION: separating, giving away, putting into groups, throw away, break apart, spend, eat, used, gave away, left,

I had the students use their lists to examine the word problems on their homework sheets.  They were so excited to be able to identify what operation was needed to solve the problem!  How often are students excited to read word problems…not very!  Hands flying into the air, excited to share what they thought was the action and operation of the problems.

So where do my students go from here?  My goad for the list is that my students will continue to add to their lists as we go through the year.

Next week, we will be examining multiplication and division word problems.  I’ll keep you posted!!

Sue

Gettin’ Ready For Whole Brain Teaching!

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I have continued to read “Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids,” by Chris Biffle.  Actually, I am rereading as I have been meeting with a couple of colleagues who are also excited about implementing the WBT strategies.  I tend to rush through my reading when I get excited about the content.  So, with my friends, I am going back through and taking notes this time.

WBT has a lot of visual cues for students  and a set that I that I am definitely putting on my bulletin board are the cues for solving math problems.  As I will be the math teacher for all my school’s fifth graders, I was instantly on point! The titles of the cues are: *Prove It!   *Show Work  *Doofus/Trickster/Smarty  *Double Underlining   *Headings The two cues new to me were  Headings and Doofus/Trickster/Smarty.  “Headings” is a process of 5 steps that students work their way through to solve the math problem.

Slide3 My favorite, though, is Doofus, Trickster, and Smarty!  Students are taught to sort multiple choice answers into those 3 categories.  The names made me laugh and I know my students will get a kick out of them, too. Doofus answers are those answers that are so obviously wrong and easy to spot.  Tricksters are a step up from Doofus and can be harder to spot.  They are designed to fool students and are completely wrong.  The Smarty answer is the correct answer.   Once students label the anwers, they then must be able to prove their choice is correct. I knew I would want my own version of the cues, so I got busy yesterday and made a set.  Here’s how they turned out.  If you want a set, they are at my TpT store.  Just click on my TpT link and download them…FREE! Slide5   Slide4

Wow! It’s Been A Long Time!

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Wow! It has been a long time since I last posted. It was a really busy year for me at school…my first year, in a long time, of teaching all the subjects! It took a lot of my time to create lessons for all subjects. I teach 5th grade and it was the first year in a long time that my grade level did not block! I had to play catch up in math, especially, as it had been many years since I had taught it. There have been many changes in the years, and then North Carolina adopted Common Core!

Much to my surprise, after a few stuttered starts, I found that I was enjoying math! I had always considered myself a reading teacher and to find enjoyment in math was a nice plus. Fast forward to today and I have just gotten the word that my grade level will be blocking once again, and I will be the MATH teacher for all three classrooms!

I have agreed to step out of my comfort zone of reading and science and jump into math. I have a trio of resource teachers who have shared with me that they will help me set up my lessons. I am going to be teaching my math class using small group instruction and differentiation. I am very excited as I begin this new adventure!

Before I finish this blog, I want to share with you a book I have been reading this summer…”Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids” by Chris Biffle. If you have experienced classroom management issues (and who among us has not?), this book is AMAZING! This summer, several of my colleagues and I have been reading and discussing this wonderful book. We are going to be implementing Chris’ideas into our classes. I’ll keep you posted on our progress!

Staying Busy!

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I am one of the many Southern teachers who have been at home this past week due to bad weather conditions.   I have been pretty productive in my time at home…ELA lesson plans completed three weeks out, dishes actually put into the dishwasher instead of on the counter, and several loads of clothes washed, dried, folded, and most importantly, put away!

I have also been productive with my Teacherspayteachers store.  I had several requests to add to one of my best selling products, Non-Fiction Text Feature I Have, Who Has? activity.  So, with my time at home, I added 8 more text features to my game.  I am very excited about my revisions, so I hope you all will check out my new and improved product.