Five for Fraturday

I'm back with the Saturday edition of Five for Friday (also known as Five for Fraturday). Thank you to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

I don't care what the calendar says - February is a ridiculously long month! Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, Dental Health month, Black History month, snow days, picture days, Science Fair projects, parent conferences - it's exhausting trying to fit it all in and also teach the curriculum we are required to teach. I'll be glad when this month is over. Not that I'm counting, but, at least there are only 5 weeks to go until Spring Break!

Here's a picture of my cat, Boots. He loves boxes. We're getting some things together to donate, so I pulled some boxes out of the garage. I set this one down and he immediately jumped in. Isn't he cute?

My class and I love the videos and inspirational quotes from Kid President. When we found out he had surgery on Monday, we just had to make some get well cards to send. Here's my favorite one:

For those of you who don't know, Kid President, whose real name is Robby, suffers from Osteogenesis Imperfecta. He had surgery to replace a rod in his leg. I follow his Facebook page and, according to his brother-in-law, Brad, the surgery went well and they hope to get back to making videos soon.

Presidents' Day was originally supposed to be a Teacher Workday for us. Then it was a snow make-up day, so we were supposed to have school. On Monday, there was a last minute cancelation due to the weather forecast of a wintry mix in our area. So, no school for students and an optional teacher workday for us. Now we have to make it up on Memorial Day. To add insult to injury, although there were reports of ice and slick roads in the northern part of our county, we didn't get any snow/sleet/ice at all where I live. Sigh. The joys of living in the south during the winter.

So, we learned about the President's job this week. I shared my One Day When I Am President poem from my Patriotic Poems and Activities for Primary Grades.

After we read and discussed the poem, we read this book:

We talked about what would be important to us if one of us became President one day. Here are a few of my favorite written responses. If only our elected leaders would listen to the nation's children, right?

Don't they all look very presidential?

This one's my favorite. It gave me a giggle and a warm fuzzy as it reminded me of the innocence of children.

Our STEAM Night is next Thursday. We're scrambling to get our science project done in time. This year, I decided to have my students investigate what happens to a liquid when it freezes. I found a great project idea on www.education.com. My kids were so excited about it. I wish we had time to do more activities like this.

We'll probably do some follow up activities and finish up the board next week. I'll try to share some better pictures in next week's Five for Friday.

So, that's it for this week. Now I better get busy and get all my weekend chores done. Don't forget to check out this week's other great Five for Friday posts!

Five for Fraturday

It's been awhile since I wrote a Five for Friday (or in this case, Fraturday) post. It's been a busy week, so I thought it would be a great time to get back in the habit.  Thanks as always to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

100 Acts of Kindness Challenge

We didn't quite make our goal of 100, but we're going to keep it going until we do. In the meantime, I'm experiencing a lot of warm fuzzies as I tape up the cards. So nice to read about one student who "brot me a tishu because I was bliding and askd if I was okay." (Don't you love phonetic spelling?) Another student "asked me to play at recess when I was left out." Here are a few more:

And of course, my favorite one this week:

If you'd like to know more about my 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge, make sure you read my blog post from last year. If you'd like to start your own (who says you can't start with Valentine's Day and make Spring Break or the end of the year your deadline?) you can download your freebie here.

I love having season passes to our local theater's Broadway Lights Series. Charlotte is lucky to have The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. Teachers here are lucky they support educators with discounted tickets and receptions through their Teacher's Lounge affinity group.  On Tuesday, we were treated to the amazing show, Matilda.

We had a Behavior Management PD at our faculty meeting on Wednesday. While much of the information presented was a review for me, this slide really resonated.

Three things that should never, EVER, happen on the same day:

1) Valentine's Day Party

2) Snow

3) Class Picture Day

Enough said.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

On Friday evening, I broke from my usual routine of falling asleep on the couch by 8:00 and instead attended my second show in one week.  This one was performed by the Children's Theater of Charlotte at ImaginOn.  It was a wonderful adaptation of the book by Kate DiCamillo. I had just finished reading the book to a captivated audience of second graders last week, so I was excited to see the show. It did not disappoint. If you haven't read the book, find out more about it here. I highly recommend it!

And there you have my Five for this week. I hope you have a great weekend and a Happy Valentine's Day!

Math Tip Monday: Place Value in Primary Grades

Welcome back to Math Tip Monday! This month, our wonderful teacher bloggers will be focusing on great ideas for teaching place value in the Primary Grades. 

I enjoy using children's literature in my math instruction. It captures my students' attention and provides them with a context for understanding math concepts. Today I thought I'd share with you three great books that I use to teach place value.

How Big is a Million by Anna Milbourne and Serena Riglietti

This adorable story is about a penguin who is on a quest to find out how big a number a million really is. On his journey, he finds a group of 10 fish, a group of 100 penguins, and a group of (about) 1,000 pretty snowflakes. This book provides a great introduction to place value and using place value charts. It's great for comparing numbers and helping students understand estimation. 

Activity ideas:

1) Challenge students to use cubes or other objects to investigate how many groups of ten are in 100. Then, ask them to discover how many groups of 100 are in 1,000. Students who need a challenge can figure out how many 10s would be in 1,000. This is the type of discovery learning that helps students remember concepts.

2) Connect the idea of 10s, 100s, and 1,000s to using a place value chart. Model and practice making different multiples of ten on the chart with base 10 blocks or other manipulatives. If your charts are laminated, have students write the numbers below the blocks after they make them. You can also use sticky notes or number cards to have students write/make the number.

Graphics courtesy of https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Zip-a-dee-doo-dah-Designs 

Font courtesy of https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Hello-Literacy

The King's Commissioners by Aileen Friedman

This amusing story helps teach students the value of grouping objects in order to count accurately. A rather confused King appoints a different royal commissioner to be in charge of every problem in his kingdom. After a while, he begins to wonder how many commissioners he actually has.
He gathers the commissioners together in order to count them, but quickly loses track of how many there are. Luckily, his two Royal Advisers are also counting. One counts by twos, the other by fives. However, the king is quite confused by their methods. His daughter, the Princess, helps out when she has the Royal Organizer arrange the commissioners in rows of ten.  I love the way this book helps students to see that there are different ways of grouping and counting objects, but the result stays the same.

Activity idea:
Have students work in small groups to count a variety of objects. I usually gather between 25 and 100 small objects for each group. We count shells, mini-erasers, beads, beans, and anything else I have on hand.  This is easy to differentiate because I give my struggling math students smaller numbers of objects and my high-flyers greater numbers of objects.  Students work together to count the objects. First, students count by ones. After students have finished, we discuss reasons why counting by ones is not always the best choice. Students then recount the objects, by 2s, 5s, and/or 10s. We then record and discuss the results.  I keep the objects in a math center for additional counting practice as needed.

Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens A Math Adventure by Cindy Neuschwander

In this entertaining book, Lady Di of Ameter and her husband, Sir Cumference decide to throw a surprise party to cheer up the king. They invite people from all over the country and a huge crowd shows up. This causes a problem when Lady Di doesn't know how many guests she will need to feed for lunch and dinner. Confusion reigns until Lady Di realizes that putting 10 rows together equals 100. As the crowd grows. the castle workers pitch tents sized to fit up to 9 people, 90 people, 900 people, and 9,000 people. The final page of the book relates the story to Knightly Number Neighborhoods and includes a drawing of a place value chart.  This story really builds the understanding of how numbers work in a base ten system!

Activity ideas:

1) Have students "act out" various pages of the story using base ten blocks and place value mats. 

2) Provide pairs of students with four number cubes (dice). Students take turns rolling the dice and working to create the biggest number.  For example: If a student rolls 5, 2, 6, and 3, he might make the number 6,532. Then the partner rolls. If she rolls 4, 5, 1, and 2, she might make 5,421.  Student A would win the point for this round because he made the greater number.  The student with the most points at the end of the game would win. This game is great for practicing comparing numbers. It can be differentiated for younger grades or struggling students by using 2 or 3 dice instead of 4.  


Do you enjoy using literature in your math instruction? If so, please share any books that you enjoy using in the comment section.  

Don't forget to check out the other great bloggers in this linky for more great ideas for teaching place value!

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Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.

We had such a good time learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this week with lots of literacy activities.

As this week's Poem of the Week, we read and discussed my poem, Dr. King's Dream. I'm pretty proud of this one. I want students to share my belief that dreaming big is important and that one person's dream can change the world.

We read several books about Dr. King. I discovered a new book this year and I absolutely love it!  It's called My Uncle Martin's Words for America and it was written by Angela Farris Watkins, Dr. King's niece. One of our wonderful teacher assistants loaned it to me. I've got to get my own copy!

We talked a lot about some of these important words and what they mean. I used my vocabulary cards and the word search from my Dr. King's Dream packet.

We also read some other great books about Dr. King.

Finally, we read a wonderful book written by students with big dreams, We Dream of a World. I love this one, too!

After all that reading (spaced across the week), I challenged my kids to dream big, too. I asked them to think about big problems in the world that they would like to fix. I asked them what would help all of us have a better life? We then wrote about our dreams for a better life. I'm always so impressed with their responses - they show such awareness and compassion! Here are a few of my favorites this year.

She meant "by making people not poor." I did have her edit it, but I forgot to take another picture after she finished.

On Tuesday, I'll be creating our bulletin board to share our dreams. Here is a picture of last year's board.

We had a great time learning and writing about this important American leader. If you would like my poem and the accompanying activities, Dr. King's Dream is available in my TPT store. 

Until next time!

Math Tip Monday: Ideas for Teaching Word Problems

It's time for another Math Tip Monday! Thanks for joining me and K's Classroom Kreations on our monthly linky party. We hope you find many useful tips, strategies, and resources to enhance your math instruction.

This month, we are focusing ideas for teaching word problems. 

Teaching for understanding 

In my classroom, I've always referred to word problems as story problems. I think it helps students to realize that there is a story they must read and comprehend prior to solving the problem. I believe in using a comprehension based approach to teaching story problems. I've found key word strategies to be problematic, so I try to avoid emphasizing key words. 

I use my daily Math Talks to teach story-problems. I include a variety of problems throughout the year, making sure students have multiple opportunities to practice solving all sorts of problems. Students learn to analyze and solve the problems using these steps.

Math Posters: Be a Good Mathematician! - available in my TPT store.

We read the problem. We read it again and close our eyes to visualize each part. We act it out or we connect it to a real life situation. A student retells the story in their own words. We draw a picture or write an equation to represent the problem. We discuss the appropriate operation (addition or subtraction) and brainstorm possible strategies for solving the problem. Students then solve the problem independently in their math journals. After a couple of minutes, we share our strategies and solutions. Depending on time, we either share with a partner or I choose a couple of students to share their strategies with the class. I spend a varied amount of time on each of the steps, depending on which one I'm emphasizing that day.

I've found that spending ten minutes to analyze and discuss just one story problem during a math talk has far more long-term impact on learning than when I would demonstrate how to solve a problem, followed by students solving ten problems on their own. Making this a part of our daily and weekly routine helps students gain a deeper understanding of story problems. By this time of year, my students rarely just add or subtract numbers without reading and attempting to understand the problem. 

Types of problems

When we analyze problems, one of the things we discuss is the type of problem. Is it a collection problem? A change problem? A compare problem?

Here are some examples of each:

Story problems are tricky, so helping students to notice differences between different problem types can really help them to successfully solve problems.

Jigsaw activities for differentiation

Differentiation can be hard to manage when you are teaching story problems. One way I am able to do so discreetly is by using Jigsaw activities.  I start by grouping students in homogeneous pairs. I write problems that are appropriate for the abilities of each pair. I use the partners' names in each problem, starting with my lowest, struggling learners and working up to my challenge-needed high flyers. Here's an example:

 I make two copies of the page (so that each student has his/her own copy of the problem to glue into their math journals) and cut the problems into strips. The partners take the strips, glue them down, and then work together to solve the problem. They are required to show their strategy or make a proof-drawing. Because the problems are differentiated, the students all get to experience success at their own level. If you have some early finishers, have some generic problems prepared for them to solve while others are finishing up.

For the final stage of the activity, partners must pair up with another set of partners to share their problems, strategies, and solutions.  Sometimes, I split the partners up and they each have to be able to explain the problem and solution on their own. I hold students accountable for the sharing time by randomly asking students to tell me something they learned from the second partner during sharing time.

It takes time to prepare, but students are always engaged during the activity. When I listen in on the sharing, I love to hear my students using the same language we use during our math talks.

Creating their own story problems

One last tip: if you haven't had your students write their own story problems, you might want to start including this as part of your workstations, morning work, or independent practice. I've found that having students write their own story problems increases their understanding of the problems they have to solve in class. I'm always on the lookout for good student problems to use during my math talks. It's a great way to build student confidence and increase engagement. Students love it when I use their problem with the class. I've even received comments about it from parents!

What are your best practices for teaching story problems? I hope you'll share in the comments or by linking up. In the meantime, make sure you check out all the great tips from our fellow bloggers.

An InLinkz Link-up