Fraction Review

I saw this great post on the blog http://www.teachingwithtaskcards.com/2014/02/using-task-cards-in-interactive.html and decided that this would be a great way to use the worksheet that was to be independent practice for one of our fraction lessons.

I used the worksheet and retyped each question or problem into a table so that students would have eight small problems to glue into their math journal.  I hoped that the eight little problems would look less daunting to my students than a full worksheet page.  I guided students as to how to place and glue the "task cards" into their notebook and then explained how they would record their work. This is what they looked like after they completed each "task card".

Students worked with their partner to complete each task card.  Once again I heard some great math talk.  The problems on the left hand side of the notebook were comparing and ordering fractions.  The tasks on the right hand side were word problems.  I quickly realized that many students did not understand how to do one of the problems so we took a break and worked on that problem as a whole class.

This was a great way to use a worksheet in a new and more engaging way.  Thanks again to Mary from http://www.teachingwithtaskcards.com for the great idea!

Currently

I have finally figured out how to post the Currently status that everyone else appears to already know how to do.  I am linking up with Farley to join in on the fun.

Listening:  This is our second round of snow in eastern North Carolina.  We had four days off two weeks ago.  Went to school for a week and then a Monday and now we are on day three of this round of snow days.  We are supposed to have off for six days at Easter for our spring break and I am getting worried.  I think that we will most likely make up the days on Saturdays.  (Not too happy about that-but better than loosing our spring break).  This is our first big snow storm in our new house and I am loving it!

Loving:  Hubby works for the school district as an HVAC (heating and air conditioning) technician so he is also home.  We have spent time just hanging out, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning. Plus lots of Hallmark Channel movies!  If we have off tomorrow we will be together all day for Valentine's Day as well.  I already bought his card and a box of candy so that is probably all we will do to celebrate due to the weather.  

Thinking:  I have done some school work but at some point you just need to veg out!  Does writing my blog post count as school work?

Wanting:  I want to know if there is school tomorrow.  I love taking afternoon naps but can't do that if I have to work the next day. With no kids at home we can do this whenever we like!  I like long naps and then I can't get to sleep at night.  Hopefully we will know soon.  

Needing:  We finally have a treadmill in our fitness room and I have been using it each day.  I have also started "running" on it.  I am not too confident with this yet.  

2 truths and a fib:  

Truth-I met my husband when I was 14.  He was a volunteer in a nursing home that my mother worked at and she volunteered me to help the nursing patients go on a trip to the local mall.  I thought he was the cutest guy I had ever seen.  We just celebrated 31 years of marriage!

Truth-I want to apply for the math instructional coach position available in my building next year so I need to learn the standards for math K-5!

Fib-I don't drink coffee or any caffeine.  I haven't had caffeine for about 3 years now.  

Be sure to join the party and link up with Farley from Oh' Boy Fourth Grade!

Equivalent Fraction and a great review strategy

Happy snow day!  Believe it or not this is our fifth snow day this school year.  Here in eastern North Carolina we rarely get snow days just an occasional hurricane day every couple of years.

Since we have had so many snow days we are really behind in our fraction unit so I decided to review equivalent fractions with a great review strategy that I found at my friend Mandy's blog at http://the4thgradejourney.blogspot.com/.  

I used a previously created worksheet to review equivalent fractions.  It is designed in a tic tac toe board and I chose this particular worksheet because it begins with pictorial representations and ends with abstract examples where students have to apply the math skills taught to identify equivalent fractions.  As you can see in the picture they did have fraction bars if they needed that concrete manipulative to help them solve the problems.  Students worked on the assignment independently and as they worked I passed out red and green algebra tiles for the review part of the lesson.  

Once students completed the task we reviewed each problem together on the Elmo.  As we discussed the answer to each problem they placed a green tile on the problem if they got it correct and a red tile on the problem if they got it incorrect.  Once we reviewed the whole sheet they were required to write the fraction for the number of problems they got correct at the top of the paper.  I went around the room and checked each students fraction to make sure that they wrote it correctly. If they did I gave them a piece of candy!

The students really enjoyed the activity and the self-check and immediate feedback was a hit!

Now if we ever get back to school we can continue on our fraction journey.

Equivalent Fractions

We started our fraction unit a week late due to a rare four days off for snow.  We don't get much snow in Eastern North Carolina so just 2-3 inches caused students to have off for four days!

We began the week by discussing whether or not 1/4 and 2/8 were the same.  We used paper folding to determine if they were the same number.  During our next lesson we used a Meaningful Math Task created by our district curriculum specialist.  The task was:

My students sit with a partner throughout the day, partners are grouped according to abilities so that students can learn from one another and get support as needed.   The lesson began by displaying the Math Task on the SmartBoard and students were given fraction bars to assist them in visualizing how to determine which person had the best plan for sharing the brownies.  The math talk was very interesting and diverse.  Just from listening to the students talk with their partners it was clear who had a grasp of the concept and who would need additional support.   Several students struggled with the fact that denominators were not the same or that there were more pieces in the brownies that were cut in sixths and twelfths.  
I heard one of my students clearly tell his partner that the fractions were all the same because the fraction bars all lined up so therefore they had to be the same or equivalent.  Here are pictures of how the students worked out the problem with their partners.

Students spent about 10 minutes working with their partner to determine if the fractions were equivalent.  We then discussed how many brownies each person would get for each of the three plans listed in the task.  This discussion allowed us to generate a list of equivalent fractions and students recorded these in their math journals.  

This was a great way to introduce students to the concept of equivalent fractions.  The use of the fraction bars gave students the opportunity to visualize what the pieces of brownies would look like. Allowing students to begin with a concrete representation before moving to a pictorial and eventually abstract representation is the best way to engage students in math concepts that can be very difficult to comprehend.  

We ended the week by playing a great game called Take Away game with smartie candies.  The students enjoyed the game.  

Hope you enjoy this activity with your students.

The Great Pumpkin Caper and a trophy too!

My new school is located in a small town and is considered the local elementary school.  At the beginning of October I was told that every classroom would receive a free pumpkin and that we would need to decorate it for a pumpkin contest.  One of the rules of the contest was that the pumpkin could not be cut in any way and had to have a title or name.  I was intrigued and the competitor in me decided to keep my ideas top secret in order to win the contest.
I searched the web for an idea on how to decorate a pumpkin to look like a tiger-our school's mascot.  I found one on pinterest.  Here is the link to the original page-http://thecraftyhostess.com/?p=1801 
I explained to my students that we were going to enter the contest and told them that our design should remain top secret so that no one copied us.  One parent and a grandparent were kind enough to donate a tiger tale to us.
My husband and I created a prototype of the tiger at home over the weekend before we would do the project in class.  Here are the pics.  This is how we got started-hubby was my assistant.  Before we glued the candy I made the nose and white part of the eyes with acrylic paint.  Then I used a thick black sharpie marker for the inside of the eyes and the whiskers.

Here are pictures of the pumpkin as it progressed to being done!

The picture directly above was the final product.  Until about an hour later and I realized he didn't have any ears.  So now he is done.

I took the prototype to school so that the kids could see what it was supposed to look like.  I had a parent volunteer come in one morning and she helped the students glue the candy corn onto the pumpkin with a hot glue gun.  Each child had a chance to put some of the candy corn on the pumpkin.  I put the face, ears, and tail on prior to bringing it to school.  Here is the one we made in class.

We won second place in the pumpkin contest!

The students really enjoyed creating the pumpkin and were thrilled when the guidance counselor came with the pumpkin and our trophy!

Great Math Resource

Great resource from North Carolina Department of Instruction.

I had forgot about this great resource until I went searching for a game I wanted to use for place value.  NCDPI has a great site with math resources.  Although the resource is not specifically based on Common Core there are some great games, etc. that will work for grades 3-5.  Check out the resources at:  http://mathlearnnc.sharpschool.com/cms/One.aspx?pageId=5051238

All of them are available as a PDF file so you can save them for future use.  Each week features specific objectives and has some sort of game or activity to reinforce the objective.  

Hope you find it helpful!

Third week of school is already over!

I can't believe that school has already been in session for three weeks.  It has just flown by.  So far the beginning of the year has been great.  I am in a new building so slightly intimated because the rules and procedures are different.
I am also in a new grade level and have 26 students (4th grade)!  We are pretty crowded but all is going well.  They are the sweetest group and very well behaved.  I love my new principal she is funny and very no nonsense with the students.  She does announcements each morning and the last thing she says is, "Remember boys and girls- If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!"  I love it!  Last week we had a behavior expectations assembly with third, fourth and fifth grade students and she made her expectations for the year very clear.
My grade level is doing Daily 5 this year for the first time and we are loving it!  I teach 4 rounds of mini-lessons and meet with small groups 4 times.  Our Daily 5 is about 2 hours and 15 minutes long.  I know it will get shorter but we are still working out the procedures and timing of things.
Last week the students worked on a descriptive paragraph.  We created a bubble map with words that described our classroom.  I was expecting them to focus on the appearance of the classroom but they described the atmosphere of the room.  Thanks to my friend Meghan at Fifth Grade Swag I decided to create a Wordle of their description of our classroom.  I think it looks great and made me feel wonderful!