Holiday Freebies

Every year my favorite teacher authors and clip art artists give away great freebies. For the past few years I have wanted to join in on the gift giving and offer a holiday freebie of my own, but like most people life gets extra crazy once Thanksgiving hits. This year I have actually been getting a head start on some holiday goodies, and I created a fun little math activity just in time.

And......I'm super excited and honored to share that I have been included as one of the 50 teacher authors to have a page in the 2014 Winter Holiday Tips and Freebies: Grades 3-5 Edition e-book.

You have to go check it out, there are so many amazing holiday tips and resources that I'm sure you'll find many that will really make this time of year more fun and engaging for your students as well as help reduce some of the stress that comes with this time of year. Rachel Lynette of Minds in Bloom is a TpT ROCKSTAR and puts together this generous holiday gift. She is amazing!

My holiday tip and freebie link are on page 45! Go grab your FREE copy now! Or you can check out my holiday freebie first, but don't forget to download your holiday e-book.

As a kid I loved doing MadLibs. My friends and I would come up with the silliest stories, and I'm sure this is how I learned parts of speech. This was my inspiration for the Holiday Mad Math Stories. I thought this would be a fun way to make math problem solving more fun too! I created two stories which students fill-in-the-blanks to personalize, all while they practice adding and subtracting decimals. These two stories can be customized to any gift-giving holiday, so you can include students from a variety of backgrounds.

I hope the tips and freebies help make the holidays cheerier for you and your students!

Choose an Operation Math Key Word Sort

You know when you are in a staff meeting and someone starts talking about something as if everyone is supposed to know about it and be implementing it? No? It's only me?! I can't be the only one!

Well, last year there was talk about using Data Wise to pick a target area as a school and to implement strategies school-wide to bring up student achievement. We did a great job of narrowing down the problem of practice and writing a great goal, but nothing really went from there. This year we had some awesomesauce staff who beefed up our plan and set it into motion. Our goal was to target problem solving and implement strategies that would be the same across grade levels. Our fabulous Angie from Fall Into First created a super poster for each teacher to hang.

The first strategy we are using is "choose and operation". As I was hanging the poster and thinking about a math bulletin board I was digging out my math operation posters that I had made when I first started teaching. They were cut-outs of each symbol (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and had the key words for each written on them (they were so sadly faded that they have been retired). Well, it dawned on me that hanging the posters would be meaningless if the kids had no particiation in their creation and I realized a word sort would be PERFECT for an opening activity.

Well, today was our first day of math groups and I had this baby ready to go. It took the students a few minutes to work as a team to cut out all 48 key words, and then it took about 20 minutes for them to collaborate and sort. I was amazed at the language that students used to explain their reasoning for why a key word went with a certain operation. I think we're going to rock the "choose an operation" strategy!

Here are some action shots (which I took late in the game because I was listening in to their super discussions).

We put the key words in envelopes so that we can play again later as we review the operations. Students could easily glue these on to keep as review sheets, or it could even be their assessment. Interested in playing this with your kiddos? It's in the shop!

I've included an answer key (this was super helpful to display and have students check their work) and colorful posters.

Oh, and hey, did you hear...the TpT Back to School Sale is next week on August 4th and 5th! As always my store will be 20% off. Use TpT code BTS14 for an additional 10% off.

The amazing Matt Sutton from Digital Divide and Conquer has been making some hilarious meme inspired sale buttons! The GoT one was the obvious choice for me.

BB Part 6 - Fibonacci and the Golden Spiral

Woohoo, I'm more than halfway through my Blog Backlog: Playing Catch Up series! Make sure to check out all the BB posts!

During our last few days of school I wanted more of an "enrichment" lesson with my intervention math class. I've always been fascinated with Da Vinci and Fibonacci numbers, so I figured this would be a fun and meaningful math activity.

I have a copy of the book Math Wizardry for Kids that I picked up at a second hand bookstore ages ago. There are a couple of chapters on Da Vinci, including a biographical background and some activities.

I started by reading about Da Vinci to the class, then we figured out the Fibonacci sequence using calculators (0+1, 1+1, 1+2, 2+3, 3+5, 5+8, etc.). Next we took a mini field trip out to the playground to collect some samples from nature. We brought back twigs, leaves, pinecones, seed pods, and more. Then we looked at our samples to see if we could locate the numbers in our sequence. The seedpods had places for 8 seeds, the twigs had sections of 3, and the pine needles always came in sets of 2.

The following day we discussed the Golden Spiral and we created our own using the Fibonacci sequence we had discovered the previous day. For the most part it was easy, we just had to make sure we were all turning our papers the same way.

To create the Gold Spiral we started with a piece of graph paper (ours had very small squares, less than 1 cm). We found the approximate center of the paper and outlined a 1x1 square as our starting place. Next to this we colored in a 1x1 square. Beginning to move in a spiral we then made squares to the dimensions from the sequence, 2x2, 3x3, 5x5, 8x8, 13x13, until we had no more room. I think we were able to make it to 21x21. For each square we changed colors trying not to have any same colors touching. Finally, we used a dark colored pencil to create the spiral shape.

Not only did this simple activity help them better appreciate numbers and how math is related to nature, we ended up with some pretty cool looking art!

BB Part 3 - Rubber Duckie Gifts

It's time for part 3 of my 10 part series Blog Backlog: Playing Catch Up! If you missed out on previous posts you should definitely check out part 1 on our state mobiles and part 2 on Go Noodle!

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite things...gifts. I love creating cute thank you gifts for the amazing people who give so much of themselves to work and volunteer for our kids. Some of the past gifts include: thank you cubes, out of this world space themed gifts, and flower cards.

For the past two years I have been teaching the 5th grade intervention math. Most of the kids have an IEP or just struggle with math. We are lucky to have a wonderful para and resource teacher who come in three days of the week to work with us. Last year these awesome gals got calculator cards and fun flexible calculators. This is even a freebie in my TpT store!

Since I had the same lovely ladies this year I needed something different. I was wandering around Dollar Tree and stumbled upon some cute rubber duckies. I immediately had the song, "Rubber Duckie you're the one..." in my head. My next thought was, hey, I could replace "bath" with "math", and this new gift was born. 

Each gift basket includes: cards from each student, two rubber duckies, a loofa, a bottle of bubbles, a lavender bath soak, and a gift card to Bath & Body Works. Most of the items I found at Dollar Tree!

I found a cute image of a bath with a duckie in it and just used that as the cards that students wrote on. The front of the cards says "Mrs. White, you're the one! Making MATH time oh so fun! Mrs. White we're especially fond of you!"

Inexpensive, cute, fun and full of gratitude! That's my kind of gift! There will be another volunteer gift post coming up in my 10 part series! Stay tuned!

*FREEBIE* A Gift for Volunteers and Awesome People

The past couple of years I have been teaching our intervention math class. This group of students includes those with IEPs and ones that just struggle with math. It's a small group, and we have the pleasure of getting extra help from teachers/paras during the week. Last year, my students and I made these calculator thank you notes at the end of the year to show our appreciation. I found some fun calculators that were bright and flexible to attach. The students wrote a sweet note on the fun calculator cards (that say things like "all your help really adds up") and I used our binding machine to put them together in a cute little book.

The calculator cards are free in my TpT store...go get them and make some fun gift of appreciation for the awesome people you know!

Gift of Appreciation ^cubed

It seems like I can never keep track of all of those days/weeks of appreciation...you know, Administrative Assistant's Day, Boss' Day, Monkey Trainer's Day, etc. The resource teacher emailed me earlier this week alerting me to the fact that this past week was School Counselor Appreciation Week. Our school counselor is full of awesome. She and I used to have rooms right next to each other when she taught resource, but last year she moved up to the office as our counselor. Now, I am still super lucky to have her come to my room 3 times a week for my math intervention class. On top of all this her and I share a love for TV shows ranging from Downton Abbey to American Horror Story. We try to meet once a week to dish on the latest episodes.

Anyhow, we needed to have our intervention kiddos make something to show their appreciation, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't lose instructional time. Well, it just so happens that we have been studying 3D shapes and volume and I had already copied off a cube net on pretty pink. The idea hit and I knew what to do. The kids wrote notes and drew pictures on each face and then cut and taped them together. One girl even rushed back to her classroom for a piece of jewelry to put inside of her cube! We brought our cubes to the floor and used them to make some rectangular prisms and found the volume of each. Then we took a walk over to the front office. I sent a few kids at a time into her office and they built a rectangular prism of appreciation right there on her desk.

Today's Formula . . . Learning x Fun x Gratitude = Gift of Appreciation^3

I'm linking up with Head Over Heels for Teaching's "Spark Student Motivation Saturdays"

Tried It Tuesday - Linking Cubes for Math Practice

Today I'm inking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday. 

A few days ago Nick, over at Sweet Rhyme Pure Reason posted something he does for Spark Student Motivation Saturdays, and I knew that it was perfect for my math intervention class. I love things that are fast, easy, free, and MOTIVATE!

When I give math assessments we always review the concept(s) first. I have a great little game that we play.  It forces students to work together as a team which helps my students who "get it" re-teach those that are still struggling (post for another day?). Anyhow, I saw Nick's post about giving students unifix/linking cubes when they get an answer correct while doing math practice and had to try it out. As students get correct answers they get more cubes they are able to start building with them.

We have been working on multiplying decimals, so each student pulled out a white board and I explained that they would get cubes for correct answers and we started. I gave 2+ cubes per correct answer because it takes my intervention kiddos longer to complete problems, and I wanted them to be able to build too.

Students who already received cubes did two things while waiting for the next problem. They either helped the other kids at their table or they began to build. They weren't waiting too long though until the next problem was up. This also gave me an opportunity to work one-on-one with those few students who still needed some support.

After about 8 problems I told them we only had time for one or two and they were devastated, they wanted to practice the whole class period! Here are some of their creations....

There are so many advantages to doing this! I can instantly see, based on how many cubes students have, who is "getting it" and who is still struggling. Then I can make sure to spend more time with those that don't have many cubes, or I can pair them up with a peer tutor. The students really wanted more cubes and they were motivated to keep going, it was much better than groaning about practice. Building is also a great way for students to be creative and use another part of their brains! I will definitely be using this in the future. Thanks for sharing your great idea Nick! 

Smart Smarties Fraction Fun

Back in September I posted about a quick Smarties activity I used with my intervention math kids. I was still getting a feel for where they were, and we were jumping into fractions, so I figured why not start with something extra fun. Using Smarties for fractions was not my original idea, I just used the concept and tweaked it to include ordering and comparing the fractions as well. The kiddos enjoyed it, and I felt that it helped them master the concept. I didn't even think to post it to TpT since it was pretty basic, but I had someone interested so I figured why not share it with others. So, here it is, FREE!

Calendar Math and Cyber Monday+Tuesday Sale

Over the summer I saw a few posts about upper grade teachers using calendar math. This was not the sit on the floor, use a pointer, and bundle up sticks kind of daily calendar that is typical in primary classrooms. I really liked the idea of not having to create numbers for the students to use, and I loved that using the numbers in the calendar would lead to students being able to see patterns in math.

This year not only marked my return to 5th grade, but it was also returning to teaching math after several years of being departmentalized in 6th grade. To top it off I would be teaching the intervention math group. I was excited and apprehensive, but my calendar math fits in perfectly!

In my intervention class I am blessed to have an hour of support from the resource teacher and a para educator. These wonderful ladies come in Tuesday-Thursday and we do an 18 minute rotation between our three groups. Because we were able to keep the class small our groups have only 6 students in each. The resource teacher works with her group on the Lindamood-Bell program "On Cloud Nine." It is a wonderful program to help students gain the number sense they struggle with through visualization.  In my group I work with the students on whatever concept we are covering. Sometimes I am introducing a new topic, providing extra practice, or we are playing a related math game. The para is the lucky Calendar Math guru! She sits with her group and sometimes they work through it together, or she lets them work on it on their own and supports them and checks their work as they go.

So what do I have in my calendar math? Well, it is a double-sided worksheet that has concepts that they should have learned in previous grades, such as:
* word form
* expanded form
* double digit multiplication
* long division
* convert fractions, decimals, and percents
* determine if numbers are prime or composite
* use a number line
* greater than, less than, or equal to
* mean, median, mode, and range
* perimeter
* area
* prime factorization 
* order of operations 
* base ten multiplication 
* estimation 
* operations with money

Students use the following numbers to complete the problems:

* month number
* day of the month
* year
* day in school
* days left in school

At first the students were not coming close to finishing even one side of the worksheet during the 18 minutes in that center. I was ok with this, I knew that as they practiced, they would get better at it. And I was right! By the end of first quarter I had many students excited that they were finally able to finish the page! To freshen things up I made a second page for second quarter. Some of the concepts  remained the same, and others that they knew well I switched out for new concepts. Now they are working their way back to being able to complete the entire thing in 18 minutes.

For the first part of the year the students each had a folder filled with blank Calendar Math pages and they would work on one each of the three math intervention days. I've come to realize that this is taking up a lot of paper (and our principal wants to cut down), so I think I am going to laminate them so they can be reused each day. It seems to be effective so far and the para often tells me how the students are becoming better and more confident each day. 

Interested in trying out my Calendar Math for Upper Grades with your upper grade students? You are in luck! Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a HUGE Cyber Monday + Tuesday sale. I'm discounting every item by 20% and if you use the code CMT12 you'll get an additional 10% off. That's a huge 28% discount! Monday the 26th and Tuesday the 27th will be a great day to buy from the many talented teachers who have created outstanding resources! Think of it as a little holiday treat for yourself and your kiddos!

If you have already purchased this item, THANK YOU! If you provided feedback on this item, another THANK YOU! You are now able to download the updated version of this item. Enjoy!

I hope everyone is having a lovely time with their family and friends this weekend. My husband and I had a nice early meal at my mother-in-law's and I'll be spending the rest of the weekend getting caught up on writing my novel! Only 9 more writing days left of NaNoWriMo 2012. 

Smarties Fractions

My math class is an intervention group. The majority of the students have an IEP, and if they don't they are at least one grade level below 5th grade and need a lot of extra assistance. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are great because I have a para and the resource teacher in there and we do a small group rotation. On Monday I typically teach whole group and introduce the concept for the week and on Fridays I take them to the computer lab to practice math facts, we review the concepts of the week, and then we complete an assessment.

This week we started fractions. I was a bit worried because I know that students often struggle with fractions and I haven't taught math in forever. We started off by discussing what fractions are and they did a great job of coming up with a definition together....Fractions are parts of a whole. Many remembered the names of the numerator and denominator and some even knew the connection between fractions and division. One of the girls walked in wearing a great shirt that was perfect for fractions. It had an image of a bubble gum machine with different colored gumballs. We used that briefly to remember what fractions were. Then I had them briefly discuss what they liked about fractions and many said that they were fun and enjoyed working with fractions. One said they like fractions because it was easily related to food! What a great segue to our Smarties lesson!

I had seen several Smarties activities on Pinterest/blogs/TpT but most were geared to the younger grades and didn't accomplish everything that I needed to. So I whipped up a little worksheet that we completed together, each student had their own unique pack of Smarties. First the students colored in what their pack looked like and then we wrote the fraction for each color. Next they ordered the fractions from greatest to least and I touched on reduced fractions and equivalencies. Then the students compared the fractions.

As we were working I thought of more that I could have added to the handout, but just had them flip it over and write it on the back. They first wrote their fractions in word form and then they wrote a simple word problem and wrote the solution. I thought it would be great to have them eat certain fractions and so had them put their Smarties into fifths (since there are 15 in a roll they had groups of 3). We talked some more about equivalent fractions and then they ate three-fifths of their Smarties followed by six-fifteens and they were all gone. The lesson went pretty well and the students enjoyed it. The part that they struggled with the most was coloring their roll in the correct order!

Get your free copy of this activity!

Comparing Integers

As I've mentioned before, I haven't taught math in several years, and this year I am teaching an intervention math class. I have 21 students in my math class and three days a week I have the resource teacher and aide come in for a full hour. It has been working quite well so far. This week we are working on integers. After getting some ideas from other bloggers I put together a really simple game. Each pair of students gets 40 integer cards, most of which are negative numbers. Each partner takes 20 cards and then they flip one over. Just like in the card game 'War', the card with the highest value wins.

 

I made some simple recording sheets for students to write their card value, their opponents card value, and then add the appropriate <, >, or =.

We played for about ten minutes yesterday and today and the kids are really enjoying it, I can tell they are also mastering comparing integers! You can easily whip up your own version of the game, or buy the one I created for a mere $2.00.

Math freak out!

I know that I should be spending my short six-week summer break relaxing, but I am in school mode. Not only am I moving down from 6th to 5th grade next year, but I will be teaching math, something I haven't taught in years! I love math and I am so excited to be teaching it again, but my mind needs to have, at the least, an outline of what I will be teaching and in what order. The Common Core State Standards are a good thing, but our state and my district are in a transition period, meaning we need to still teach the old standards but start to incorporate CCSS. A friend, who also teaches 5th in my district, reassured me that I should not freak out. Plus I know my new team will be nothing but supportive. So, I still plan on getting prepared for next year, but I will re-direct my focus to things that won't cause anxiety, like the following...

I love guiding students to be responsible and accountable for their own learning. I made these Math and ELA posters to post in my classroom (available for purchase at my TpT store).

To accompany these posters I thought it would be great for students to have something to keep in their binder to track the concepts that they have mastered, so I devised the Wheel of Math Common Core Standards. 

This fun wheel of standards includes all 26 Common Core math standards for 5th grade. Display the colorful copy in your classroom and provide each student a copy of the blackline master to keep in their math notebook. When students have mastered a concept have them color in the appropriate piece of the wheel. This will help encourage kids to be accountable for their own learning and keep them motivated to master every concept! Best of all, these are FREE!