Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites: Strategy 7

Hi, Friends! This strategy is all about using manipulatives, experiments, labs, and models. We’re teaching at a time when assessment has been placed at the forefront of well, just about….everything. Often times, we rush too quickly to abstract paper and pencil tasks without allowing students adequate time to enjoy concrete experiences. By using hands-on objects that students can touch, manipulate, change, pull apart, put together to create…we help them to build a deeper understanding of concepts that will be easily remembered in order to apply the learning to real world situations.

How many students do you have that get frustrated or misbehave when a piece of paper is put in front of them or even flat out refuse to complete work? The frustration may not be with the work itself, but in being rushed to show it in a way that is uncomfortable…too soon. In the real world, no one takes away our support. No one insists that we “figure it out” and solve problems based on memory alone. We have calculators , fingers….tools and apps that we use to solve problems….all.the.time. So, why do we as teachers take away support from students because we feel they’ve grown dependent on it or have used it for too long?



Students understanding of mathematical ideas is broadened when they’re allowed to use concrete representations. In our classroom, when students visit work stations, manipulatives are provided as support. If students need them, they have assess to them. If they don’t, they’re not required to use them.



Before beginning independent work, examples of expected outcomes are projected to provide clarity…



…and a quick reference {example}. Using manipulatives can also provide game-like opportunities for learning.



In order to display our understanding of edges and vertices, students constructed models of 3-Dimensional figures using toothpicks and marshmallows. (I’m sure there were a few missing vertices, by the time this lesson was done!)



We could have read lots of books, colored pictures, looked at video clips....and we did, BUT none of those things could replace getting our hands dirty to plant real seeds.  Planting in our classroom is definitely an experiment because growing dendrites might be a talent, but growing plants is NOT! Ha!



When we compared living organisms to non-living objects last year, the kids couldn’t wait to get their hands on worms! Real…icky, slimy…wet, muddy worms! Yuck! Now, while I enjoyed watching them enjoying themselves….the gummy worms were more my speed! Lol! =)



Concrete experiences like this and labs also help ELLs when focusing on new vocabulary and concepts at the same time! There’s no doubt, every student in the room knew the difference between the living worm and the non-living gummy worm…not to mention, which one tasted better!



So, the next time you’re planning….think of  tactile ways to engage students in learning! Kids remember what they experience and DO!



I love my big take away or “aha” from this chapter. Provide students with the support they need for as long as THEY need it. It’s not up to me to decide it’s time to force them away from it. When a student is ready to show what they know independently, they’ll tell me they no longer need the aid or simply stop using it. Let them guide the learning. Let them touch, manipulate, feel, and experience as much learning as possible with their whole bodies. Paper and pencil tasks should be the very last step in learning….learning IS in the doing.

Allow students to use manipulatives, conduct experiments, build models and watch them flourish! Hands-on learning is FUN!

Stop by Mrs. Jump's Class to hop through the other posts about this chapter. Enjoy!

Five for Friday~SNOW DAY!!!

Hey, ya’ll! It’s SNOW DAY Friday!



We woke up to SNOW! Real……SNOW!  My friends that live a little further north of the Texas state line will most certainly get a real giggle out of the frenzy we went into over a couple inches of the frozen stuff. We didn’t dare venture any further than our yards today because we have no idea how to get around in this stuff! My son didn’t even make it out the front door before he was flat on his butt!!!



Now, here’s the real kicker! On Monday, we had on shorts! The forecast for tomorrow…70! Yes, that’s how drastic our weather can be, but we wouldn’t have it any other way! We live in the only state where we experience EVERY season of the year…….weekly! Ha!!!



With only 3 days of school this week, getting a chance to snap a pic or two was tough. These first two weeks back have been used to complete mid-year assessments. They’re D.O.N.E and now we can move on to the fun of teaching and learning again! Yahooooo!!!

Things are getting a little harder, moving a little faster….expectations are, dare I say {more rigorous}. One of the little changes we’ve made is switching the dice on our fact family slide from 6 sided dice to 10 sided dice. By doing this, we’ll practice adding and subtracting to 20 rather than to 12. Each day, our fact family is randomly selected by clicking the dice to name our addends, adding to find the sum, then writing the 4 equations for the fact family. This also meets the guidelines for our new TEKS (state standards) update that rolls out next school year. This is one part of our daily calendar routine.



Because my kiddos did such a great job working like little church mice during testing and running records, math time was a little more hands on and active. Well, um…if I’m completely honest……….math time in our classroom is ALWAYS hands on, active, and loud! I believe in structure, but I also believe in balance. We start our day quietly….reading requires thinking, concentration…., math gets a little rowdy with music, games, manipulatives….then we end the day with writer’s workshop that goes back to quiet. Balance. It’s key!

Also, having a class that’s made up of mostly [the cutest] firstie boys….I have got to keep them moving or they will move on their own! One of the ways I use that energy rather than fight it, is by completing write the room activities. One way we ‘write the room’ is to review math skills, work in pairs to share “thinking” strategies, and to encourage “math talk”.



Cards with review problems are printed, cut apart and hung around the room. Student pairs…….each with a response sheet, pencil, and whiteboard (to write on the back of) in hand scoot around the room solving problems and recording their answers. I get total engagement, they get to move, talk, and learn…..all at the same time! Win/win! While students are working, I float around the room checking in, questioning, and {smiling}.



Want to really see their little faces light up? Write story problems that include their names! They go totally bonkers every time I tell them we’re working on story problems because they want to see who’s name is going to be in them! It makes a tough skill a LOT more fun to learn. When I’m reading stories that connect well with our classroom community, I do the same thing. I wish I could’ve recorded us sharing Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a Big Deal! There were laughs and cheers and screams of encore! I would’ve read it again, but YOU KNOW, I didn’t remember who’s name was read where, LOL! Couldn’t give myself away! Try it sometime and watch your kids' faces light up like a Christmas tree!



Prepping for the week? Snowed in too? Click the pic to grab the little set we used to review telling time to the hour and half hour. Enjoy and I’ll see ya on Sunday with lesson plans! Have a great weekend! =)

 

Happy Bloggy Birthday Giveaway

Have you ever been so busy that you forgot your OWN birthday? Has it really been a year already?!!! I looked at the calendar and realized, my little slice of bloggy pie indeed, has turned 1 year old! How could I have missed that?!

This past year, I’ve been incredibly blessed to have gotten to know and befriended a number of talented teachers that have truly helped me to “step up my game” as a teacher. Within a year’s time, I went from asking “What is a blog?”, to following some really GREAT ones, to starting one of my own! It took 4 blog designs to finally get to the ONE that captures the essence of my classroom. I started out with 2 fantastic followers, Amanda and Krysti, and am simply amazed that there are REAL people out there willing to join in the fun of teaching firsties with me……to just shy of 500 now!  You ALL totally rock!

You can read one of my very first blog posts here. It’s from the day Krysti and I met Jack Hartmann! Looking back helped me to see how far my posts have come! Ha! By far, my post popular post has been about………click here to read it!

My most popular TPT product has been one that I was completely hesitant to make! It helped me to realize to follow my gut and only include items in my store that I would actually use in my classroom. It takes me FOR.EVVVVVER it seems to complete a product, BUT knowing they’re all items that are kid-tested and approved makes it all worth the while! My personal favorite so far is my little fraction unit. We’ll be pulling that one out next week and I can’t wait! We had a total ball with it last year!

             



Soooo, in the spirit of all things bloggy goodness…let’s celebrate with a little giveaway fun, shall we?! Now, BOTH the blog and the FB page are just shy of 500 friends, so let’s see if we can tip those numbers right on over the 500 mark! I’ve come to learn that bloggers like nice round numbers {and surpassing them too}, heheee!
I’ll choose 3 winners sometime Sunday afternoon. My fingers and toes are crossed that the 500 mark will be crossed by then!

Winner #1 will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to TeacherspayTeachers.

 

Winner #2 will receive their choice of any 3 items from my TPT store.

 

Winner # 3 will receive any 1 item of their choice from my TPT store and a custom decorated clipboard created by one of my very first blog followers, Amanda!

 

 

Enter to win below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

So that EVERYONE feels the birthday love, here’s a little goodie for ya that my students *LOVED*! Do you have dice in dice? If not, go get some! They’re fun and reduce the need for two dice to play math games. It’s always good to mix up the manipulatives a bit!    

  

   

Give each student one di to shake and roll. They look down into the di and use the two “tops” to write an addition sentence, then a related subtraction sentence next to it, using the recording sheet below. Shake, rattle and rolllll!



Thanks for following along, friends! It’s been a fantastic year!

Valentine Five for Friday

Hi~ya, Friends! TGIF! It’s been one long, FUN, Ex.haust.ing….week! I’m linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching and Stacy from Simpson’s Superstars to share the love from this week.

 
We started the week by floating along with word work goodies! Most of the skills we worked on this week, thank goodness, were review skills because the chatterbox monster reared his ugly head again! Either that or my parents let their kids into the Valentine’s Day candy a little early! Man….thank goodness, for Daily 5.  Without it, I’m pretty sure my hearing would not still be intact.

We worked on using context clues to determine the meanings of words and naming synonyms. I thought replacing them in sentences might be a bit tough, but it wasn’t! It was actually one of their favorite activities this week.



Frrrrrooooooggy……is always a hit! There were tons of grins and giggles when we read Froggy’s First Kiss. As we were reading the story, I replaced Froggy’s name a few times with one of my biggest chatterbox’s name and the kid’s totally “got” the reference. That brought on an insane amount of giggles that caused us to make connections and enjoy the story even more!
After having so much fun creating our Valentine bags with Froggy, he carried right on over into math. We have six table groups in our room. In the middle of each table, there was a heart with a fact family chosen by the students. We used digital dice on the Mimio to choose our numbers. Remember all that talking, I mentioned? Well along with it, came a bad case of the wiggle worms! Rather than fight it, we incorporated it into the lesson because they really, REALLY, REAlly needed to move.

Each student listened and followed directions to fold and cut out their fact family houses. After doing so, they rotated (when told) to each of the six tables to write the four number sentences included in each fact family. To complete the foldable, an illustration of Froggy and Frogelina’s classroom was added.



My sweeties showered me with a few of my favorite things! *LOVE*! They may have motors running those lips, but they’re pretty observant! Admittedly, I don’t eat much. I graze. I’m constantly nibbling on something. One of my students noticed that I always have the same green water cup, so he brought me a new one. Another brought my favorite trail mix and candies and lots and lots of yummy chocolate. They’re just so sweet!



After recovering from all the overflow of l-o-v-e in the room, we floated off into space to use future tense in our writing and make connections to Science. I love how these simple little astronauts turned out!

The doorbell’s ringing….so that means our Friday night Domino’s pizza has arrived! See ya later! Pizza & pjs, here I come!