Earth Day Craft

Earth Day

Light Switch Cover

Here's a fun way to get your students involved in ways to make earth friendly choices. Below are directions on how to design your own light switch covers for your classroom or for the entire school. This is a great activity for your earth friendly school clubs or even a classroom project for Earth Day. 

Supplies:

-      cardstock

-      pencil

-      light switch plate

-      scissors & tape

-      markers or pencil crayons

Directions:

1.             Begin by removing the light switch cover you would like to design.  Trace it onto cardstock with a pencil.  Trace only the outer frame and places where the light switches will be.

2.           Put the light switch cover back on.

3.           Design your light switch cover with a “save the earth” theme.  You may use your own designs or use decals, stickers or clip art.

4.            Cut the design out very carefully. 

5.           Attach your light switch cover onto the original light switch plate with tape. 

	from Mrs. Naufal’s Nook © 2015

Math Chats with Part Part Whole Cards

Part part whole cards assist students in seeing numbers as made up of two or more parts.  Once students have mastered the counting principle, they can then move onto part part whole relationships.  This will assist in developing addition and subtraction facts.  For St. Patrick's Day, I have developed these part part whole cards:

Part part whole cards can be used during math chats (number talks), guided practice groupings or as assessment tools.  Until St. Patrick's Day, this set of 25 cards is available for $1.00 by clicking on the cover above.

Math Tip Monday - Spring ideas

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to be part of this month's Math Tip Monday, hosted by K's Klassroom Kreations and Theresa's Teaching Tidbits.  This month, the focus in on Spring Math Games.  This year we celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Easter in one month.  I have always made an effort to implement BUILD Math Stations with my students.  During the Spring months, the focus is on buddy games.  Here's a break down of what BUILD is:

B= (buddy games) partner games

U= (Using Manipulatives) free exploration, mats, pattern blocks, money, clocks, unifix cubes, number cubes, cards, calculators, dominos, counters, math carpet

I= (Independent Practice) journals, read alouds,  math/art link, apps, whiteboards, task cards, assessments, creating story problems (teacher may leave template to get students started)

L= (Learning about Math) hundred chart activities, number lines, number orders, student generated books, comparisons, math carpet activities

D=doing math with teacher

My focus is on buddy games during this month.  With Spring Break and two holidays, it may be difficult to get all stations going at once.  I have a few fun activities that I incorporate.  The first always involves a glyph of some sort.  For St. Patrick's Day, it's a build a leprechaun challenge.  For Easter, it's build a bunny and for Spring, it's a butterfly.  Students play with two number cubes and then add the sums.  When each sum is generated, the students have to draw that particular part of the object.  Once the entire picture is complete, a winner is declared. 

Other station ideas include race to the finish games.  They involve addition and strategies to get from one end of the gameboard to the finish.  I often incorporate seasonal graphics to keep my students engaged in the games.  To ensure success, students are placed in pairs or triads.  The games are played as a full class first.  It's them against me.  Modeling is key.  Otherwise, chaos will exist and that is not what the purpose of BUILD is.  BUILD Math is practice with purpose.  

Below is an anchor chart co-constructed with the students to ensure things run smoothly:

Sample BUILD Expectations Chart

*Math stations should:

Look Like	Sound Like	Feel Like
We are working with math ideas. We are taking turns nicely. We are talking with our partners about math. Things are put back in their places. We are on task. We are using the materials the way the teacher showed them. The teacher is not interrupted while working with a group.	Quiet voices so others can concentrate. Using math talk. Talking with just your partner. Making good choices together.	I can do this! I like to solve problems. I feel calm. I like math!

Previews to each of the math stations is included below.  There are enough buddy games to keep the students engaged throughout the month of March and into April.  For additional practice, I often print the games and send them home for reinforcement.  

  

Literary Devices - Take 2

Hi everyone,

Are you thinking about getting ready for a poetry unit?  These are free posters to begin your poetry writing and reading.  I created these literary devices posters for spring with the hopes that students would incorporate the devices into their spring poetry writing unit.  They are a great way to springboard creative writing but also a media idea for students to create literary devices posters of their own.  Just click on the picture below to receive your free copies for inspiration.

Below is a post from last year on prepping for a poetry cafe.  You'll find some useful tips and inspiration to get you started:

Prepping for a Poetry Cafe

  

Leap Year Fun

Welcome to Leap Year 2016.  In my search for fun activities, I have discovered some fun websites and links to explore on February 29th!

http://www.yummymath.com/2016/is-this-a-leap-year-2/

https://www.mathsisfun.com/leap-years.html

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/february-29-2008-leap-day

and finally some fun leap year facts:

http://www.leapyearday.com/content/kids-page

Math Chats

After working with the resource Number Talks by Sherry Parrish, I noticed that students were so skilled at chatting about numbers.  I quickly decided that having math chats in other strands of math would also be of benefit to building basic comprehension and being able to justify student thinking.

I have used photos, real-life objects and begun to build "math" props to encourage student discourse.  Here's one of my favourites so far:

This one was built with toilet paper rolls and basic supplies such as construction paper and paper towel rolls.  A simple question was put forward:  "What Math do you see?"  The goal is to encourage student ideas.  There are a multitude of possibilities when looking at strands such as Measurement, Number Sense, Probability, Data Management, and Geometry.  My goal is to encourage student questions and have the students answer or solve their own questions.

Math Tip Monday - Place Value

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to be part of this month's Math Tip Monday, hosted by K's Klassroom Kreations and Theresa's Teaching Tidbits.  This month, the focus in on Place Value in the Primary Grades.

I have a few helpers to get your students started and to keep them engaged.

1)  The 100's chart or math carpet is a fun way to have students explore place value.  Used on a vertical surface, the 100's chart lets students see the relationships between numbers such as 10 and 20.  Students can move vertically, horizontally or diagonally to see how numbers can increase or decrease in terms of value.  I often have this as part of my daily routine.  For example, we choose a number and talk about its position on the chart.  

2) Place Value Straws or Snap Cubes are a great way to explore Numbers.  I often have a canister set up for 100s, 10s, and 1s.  Each day (from the beginning of school), we talk about the number of days we have.  We add a number cube or straw to the 1s can.  Once ten is reached, we group the straw or cubes together and then place them in the 10s can.  This happens all year long.

3) Guess my number is a great way to "play" a place value guessing game with your students.  I tell the students that I have "magical" powers.  I ask them to choose a number between 0 and 100.  I delegate one student to be the recorder.  The recorder takes ownership of this and with the class decides what the number will be.  The number is then placed on a sticky note.  I stand outside the door during this time (with a door guard keeping their eye on me).  When I come back into the classroom, the sticky note is placed on my forehead.  I cannot see the number but the students can.  

I have three signals (close is a thumbs up, meaning I'm close to guessing the number), (way off is a thumbs down meaning I'm way off), (medium is a not sure wave).  I start with a friendly number such as 10.  Students then give me a signal (no words are needed).  As I'm guessing the number I say "it may be a 10; a 10 has 10 one ten and zero ones in it".  If I am wrong, I guess the next number. For example if I guess 26, I say "26 has two tens and 6 ones it."  The use of verbal cues often encourages students to think of place value.

4) In addition to opening routines involving place value, I have number of the day.  My number of the day is a free activity that is printable.  Students have the option of choosing two numbers.  For example, if a 1 and 9 are chosen, they can become 19 or 91.  Activities based on the number chosen is included in this free printable.  Just click on the link below:

Thanks to Theresa's Teaching Tidbits and K's Classroom Kreations for hosting this Math Tip Monday! 

  

http://theresasteachingtidbits.blogspot.com/

http://ksclassroomkreations.blogspot.com/