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~Routines, Routines... & Making 10

Hi, Friends! How are ya?! Another Five for Friday has rolled around….and we’ve officially survived the first two weeks!!  Whooo hooo! Sit back and stay awhile….check out these 5 happenings from our TODAY!



Routines are taking shape! My little crew of firsties and I are getting to know one another and meeting expectations has become the name of the game!



1 of our classroom expectations is knowing how to use an appropriate voice level. Sometimes you also just need a little space for yourself to get your work completed. With the switch to {round} tables this year, there’s no space for big, rectangular privacy folders. To gain a little privacy students learned to divide their tables into 4 individual spaces by placing their book boxes on the table extending out from the supply caddy set in the middle.



After taking time to learn procedures for showing what we know….students earned their first crack at smart art! Smart art is our weekly reward activity for meeting expectations during Daily 5 throughout the week. Our story this week was about pals, so students worked in pairs and used verbs to tell things that friends or pals do! Turn & talk, reading response and art all rolled into one….=)



Having a classroom library that students are allowed to access for good-fit book choices requires organization. Last weekend, I had my [personal] kids return all of the books back to the library bins because….let’s face it….I was just too exhausted to have the class do it for themselves! This week….however…I knew that it was important to teach this routine and hovered just a bit to ensure each student neatly returned their “good-fit” books back to the correct library bin by matching the sticker or letter on the bin. They did a great job!



I posted this picture earlier today onto the FB page and it’s gotten A LOT of attention! {Thank YOU to all!} We started this lesson by viewing a quick video clip about different ways to make 10 on DiscoveryEducation.com. The title of it was The Making of 10 (Math Monsters). We discussed what the little monsters were doing to create groups of 10 as we watched and then used this little activity to review the week by showing the pattern found in creating the same number different ways.

We worked on 2 or 3 of the little rectangles together and then…..I asked the class to stand and pretended that I couldn’t remember the next combination that would come in the pattern, sent them to talk about it in small groups and to build it using their own set of cubes {for each group}. They were charged with the task of holding up cubes that would be an example of the next combination needed…FIRST….THE FASTEST….and it involved a “clip up” action for getting it done! Engagement, movement, good behavior….all in one!

A little friendly competition makes things fun and interesting too! =)

After working to create the needed combination, the class was called back to the carpet and we completed additional squares together. Students making wise choices were chosen to record the numbers for each part to be joined to create a group of 10. Oh, how wonderfully a firstie will sit in order to get their hands on one of the teacher’s FAVORITE markers!

It took a couple of times to go back and forth before completing the chart and our room was a little rowdy, BUT the kids really enjoyed the lesson and it was a great wrap up to subitizing, spatial patterns, counting in easy ways and counting in hard ways, etc… It was so much fun to watch them challenge each other!

ANNNNNd guess what?! All I did was put the chart together and facilitate the discussion…the kids did EVERYTHING else! Score! ANNNNNNND, little did they know…..as soon as they were off on their way home, the chart was laminated and placed in a bin for math stations next week! No excuses about not knowing what to do because… guess what?! They created it! Extended practice……deepening of understanding…..here we come! You can see the blank poster that was set into stations by visiting the FB page.



Before ending the day, we settled down and settled in to routines for writer’s workshop. Today, we completed the assembly of our folders and began to write across 3 pages for the first time. Because it was our first time, I simply stapled 3 blank pages together. No copies. No wasted ink. 3 blank pages of printer paper. Students used their pencils to draw a line across the page from the middle staple to divide their paper in half. Illustrations went above the line. Words/writing went below the line. We use that same routine in our morning work journals. It saves pages. =)

Reference resources are kept on the prongs that run down the middle. So far, we’ve added our heart maps and a mini-poster to practice the path of motion for forming our letters. Each student also has a personal word wall that is kept in the folder. The pocket on the left houses writings that are still a work in progress. The pocket on the right houses writing that is complete.

I searched all over and couldn’t find green and red coding dots….soooooo, instead we incorporated color coding plain white labels as part of our discussion about the use of our folders! Glad I never found them….

Well, friends…..that was our Friday. There’s been so much happening on the homefront since school started that I’d loved to share! One day that I don’t come home and collapse…we’ll play catch up! Until then, keep visiting…more fun stuff to come! Click the pic below to grab a little freebie for Making 10. Next week….beginning addition!



My favorite thing that has happened so far this year? One of my shy guys walked over and quietly asked…. “Is it ok if I put your name on my heart map?”….{heart melted}. It’s been just 9 days, but……..I think they like me!!!!!

Setting up for Success~Math Stations

Hi, Friends! How are ya!

Have your summer days been flying by at the speed of light, like mine?! I mean…really….next Friday’s post will be written on the first Friday in August! YIKES!!!! It’s time to get busy! Sooooo, in the spirit of all things prep and get ready, I’m linking up with my pal Kacey from Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday. No better way to get back in the swing of things!

With preparing for the new year in mind, I thought I’d share with you the tentative plan for implementing guided math. Did I just say that? Small groups…IN MATH?! Big changes are coming, but the more I think about it, the more excited I’m getting! I think its gonna benefit my firsties and help us both to grow as better mathematicians as we fully walk through new changes to our state standards.

Remember those freebies I posted not too long ago?

Well, this is how they’ll be put into play in a few short weeks….3 to be exact. I have to be back at work in 3 weeks!!! Did I say that already?

Math journals and interactive notebooks will be housed in the top two bins. On each label are reminders of behavior expectations that we’ll implement together. Math journals will be used daily as an independent learning choice for math writing. Interactive notebooks will be used in small group and to complete whole group review, as needed. 

You can read a quick blurb by clicking HERE that gives a little further explanation. You can also grab the labels if you like ‘em in that post too! I printed the math journal and interactive notebook labels at 80% in order for them to fit the size of my bins. The remaining slides were printed at 100%.

Bins 1-4 will house independent “Math with Someone” {work station} activities. Two will be review. Two will be games or station activities on our current unit of study. Students will check into Math Daily 3 in the same way that we check in for Literacy Daily 5. 

We’ll talk about that a little more in a sec….

Inside each bin, students will have everything they need to complete the activity. The metal bins will hold small game pieces, crayons or pencils….whatever the activity requires to be completed. Under each bin, will be an ‘I Can….’ statement that outlines the standard students are practicing (in kid friendly terms), then….the activity itself. The number on each bin will designate the area of the room, students will take the bin to work…

Here’s  a closer look….

How will we manage all of this…..? Each day, just as we do in Daily 5 for literacy….students will use the interactive whiteboard to choose where they will work for each of 3 rounds. We will begin our math workshop by completing a mini-lesson, check in for small group….and repeat twice.

Mini-Lesson 1: Introduce, model and think aloud for the concept of the day. I do…students observe and follow along.
Mini-Lesson 2:  A short continuation of the 1st lesson, with students participating.
Mini-Lesson 3:  Students will practice the concept on their own or with a partner.

Following this pattern daily will allow for a gradual release of responsibility and will make sure our lesson length coincides with current brain research. In the Second Edition of The Daily 5, the two sisters indicate current research  suggests…..The average number of years our children are in age parallels the average number of minutes they are capable  of maintaining their attention on direct instruction.

So my friends, we’ve got to make every minute count and fast!

Up next on the list….can you guess what I’m wrapping up? Stay tuned….if you’re not following on FB yet, you may want to! There will be some give-away fun going on as soon as I put a bow on this baby! Then, on to morning work for September….after all, in just 3 short weeks, it’ll be time to put it all in place for a brand new batch of firsties! It’s gonna be a great year!

Like the Math Daily 3 Check-In? Click the pic to grab it! It is saved as an image because I don’t have access to Mimio software at home. To put it to use in the classroom, copy and paste the picture to your interactive whiteboard software program, add text boxes for student numbers (over the gray squares) and save for use. Students will choose the area of math they will work in for each round by moving their number to a box under the designated area. If they are moving to small group, their number will be moved to the "teacher table". There are 4 rounds saved in this file because one of my co-workers is planning for 4 rounds and requested an additional slide. My firsties and I will only be doing 3 each day. The last slide is blank without graphics for you to edit to your taste of graphics and fonts. I will also be adding an interactive timer to the bottom right corner, once I have access to my school laptop.

Enjoy these last few weeks of freedom!
 

Math Daily 3 {FREEbie}

Hi, Friends! How are ya? It’s been a long, fun vacay day…….BUT, I wanted to be sure to keep my promise to share the labels I’ll be using this year to organize math stations. I’ve been working to wrap my mind around changing the way I teach math and I think I’ve finally got it! Thinking of following a format of guided groups for math is a big change for me, but one I think will benefit my firsties well. The magic happens outside of your comfort zone, right? Well, stay tuned folks because this year……..my friends and I are headed waaaaaay out of my comfort zone! And it’s gonna be UH-mazing!



Click here to read a great post from my friend Katie about how she uses daily math journals in her classroom. She was the one that helped it all to finally “click” for me!



If the explanations for the labels are a little fuzzy…no worries! I’ll be posting lots of pics of them again “in action” ASAP.



If you’re anything like me, you’ve already been printing, laminating and planning away for the new school year. Thanks to my friends that stopped by and grabbed the labels for literacy stations. Click HERE to grab the labels for math.  They were each created to coordinate with the Classroom Couture {Black and White Décor} that I’ll also be using this year.



Click the pic to take a closer look OR you can visit my TPT shop to find this little packet of goodies already listed. Enjoy these last few weeks! Day 1 will be here before you know it! 

Laters, gators!

Five for Friday~A Whole Lotta Random

Hi, Friends! How are ya? I’m dropping in to share a whole lotta randomness from this past week. I’ve got to blog quickly because my daughter is giving me the side eye for missing part of yet another Avengers movie! We’re watching Captain America and I think…..I think, now I can finally put all the pieces to all of the avengers back stories together….I think. I KNOW she can! Can you say obsessed?

One of the most exciting things about this week was releasing our butterflies! 5 of our 6 little friends made it safely from caterpillar to butterfly in our care. Unfortunately, we had to have a conversation about life and death because one of them did not make it. The kids handled it really well and celebrated by releasing the little ones that survived. As each one left the net, they squealed with excitement!

After releasing our new little painted ladies, it was time to begin a new round of station activities! {I’ll be back to share a little more about those later!} 

Do you use poetry journals in your classroom? One way, we use poetry throughout the year is by keeping a poetry journal at word work. We use lots of different poetry resources for sight words, phonics, and seasonal themes. Poems change about every 2 weeks-ish. How do I keep track of who has added a poem to their journal and who hasn’t? See the little number in the top corner? Those are students’ classroom numbers. Every time a new poem is put into stations, I number them. Students are only allowed to get the one with their number on it. Soooooooo, the numbers that are left…..{naughty, naughty} tell me exactly who has not added a new poem to their journal!

Most of my students enjoy working with their poetry journal because when they do, they also get to share it from the author’s chair as part of our transition for the next mini-lesson! Only 2 students are allowed at any 1 activity in stations so it doesn't take long at all.

Our first attempt at planting was an epic FAIL! We grew butterflies, like bosses….BUT bean plants….not so much! As we continued with non-standard measurement, we incorporated a little writing in math with our own versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. Students wrote to retell the story and make comparisons to different things that the beanstalk could grow to be bigger than. We squeezed in one more attempt at growing our own little beanstalks while students wrote their stories. Can you please bow your head now and say a quick word of prayer for our plants? We NEED all the help we can get! 

Whew! Thanks! =)

We also explored choosing appropriate units of measurement with a little measurement stations activity. This is what we doodled to use as our recording sheet. Yep! We doodle a lot! {LOVE!}  After listening and following directions to create our recording sheets, student groups were given 10 minutes at each station to choose a classroom item to measure and record the number of units used, the name of the unit and illustrate. 4 tables, 4 units of measurement, 4 windows on our foldable. Students ONLY opened the window for the specific station they were visiting in order to record their work. For example, while at Table 4, they measured using pencils as their unit and only flap 4 was open to write and draw inside of. 

Telling students how much time they have is a great motivator to keep it movin’ without a lot of lag time. Displaying the timer helps them to see the time winding down and monitor their own progress without hounding them too much. Self management…yep, I can get with that!

What’s that they're measuring, you say? Oh, just one of the best transition tools on the planet! That’s our rain stick. Not being one to actually measure much in real life, I ordered it thinking it would be much smaller. Boy was I surprised!! Care to guess how many unifix cubes it took to measure its length? Yeah, they could’ve used a bigger unit of measurement, but where would the fun in that be? Stay tuned….

….more measurement mania to come!

Five for Friday~Story Problems

Hi, Friends! How are ya? It’s time for another Five for Friday!



It’s been an amazing day! It’s after midnight so, I guess I should say…yesterday was an amazing day! It started with the mad dash out of the door after missing the first go ‘round with the alarm clock. Just before dismissal, the heavens opened and rained down golf ball sized hail! In true TX fashion….20 minutes later….the sun was shining and we were off and making a mad dash for the first night of our church’s Spring Awakening conference. I can hear my pillow calling, so let’s take a quick look-see at what went down in Room 159 this week. Ready?



This week, math was all about addition and subtraction using problem solving. This chart isn’t all that cutesy, but it served the purpose of introducing new math language to problem solving.  Simple, but significant and part of the process of learning…



Admittedly, I think we did a little more adding than subtracting. No worries though because this will be our focus in math again next week. We used this story problem to practice modeling different addition sentences for the same sum (with 2 addends).

Students worked in pairs with a set of ten frames to model “teen sums”. Each pair of students were assigned a number and worked to model all of the combinations for that sum beginning with 0 + the given number.  We started with 0 in order for students to see the pattern developing as their first addend increased and the second one decreased. One student in the group managed the ten frames and one was in charge of the marker.



On the next day, we moved to creating story problems in order to incorporate writing in math.



We dedicate one day each week to story problems. This week was a little different because rather than simply have students work to solve story problems, I had them start from scratch to create them. In doing so, students had to model their thinking using ten frames and use math language in their writing. Differentiation for ability determined how many counters each student was given.

Students dropped their counters onto their desks, then arranged them on ten frames and told a story to their shoulder buddy before beginning to write. I also modeled one on the whiteboard before expecting them to do this independently. Once their stories were written, students were given a sheet of drawing paper to illustrate the problem they had written. Notice the finishing touch? Even my witty class of mostly boys LOVES doodle frames!

Part of the learning process was being able to get thinking onto paper…not every student got what they thought and spoke written perfectly onto their papers, but that was part of the learning process too. My struggling readers/writers dictated their story problem to me. I wrote it on a sticky note and they copied it onto the writing paper.




Math is ALWAYS the most active time of day in our classroom. You can check out some of the activities we use to review skills in my little TPT shop! I’m blessed to be participating in a sale with over 200 fantastic blogging friends! Here are…..ummmm, just a few 100 or so of them…



You might’ve noticed that things at A+ Firsties have changed a bit. The little rainbow is my previous logo. You’ll find the new one at TPT looks like my updated button. Click HERE to grab a freebie to write a few story problems of your own! Have a great weekend!

Workin’ It Wednesday

Hi, Friends! How are ya?

I’m linking up with Corinna to share a little of what we’ve been workin’ with this week!



As if my clipart obsession wasn’t bad enough, I purchased a little set that I thought was absolutely adorable from Melonheadz Illustrating last week. Initially, I bought it to create an encouraging award for a sweet 5th grade friend, but was quickly inspired to use it to create some goodies for my firsties too!



I am a really lucky teacher, who’s had a SUPER {chatty} class this year! No, really….lol! I love my sweet batch of kiddos!!! After grabbing these cute little superheroes, I thought what better to use them for than to have one last hoooorah in math stations!

Our station activities always start with students reading an I CAN statement. For us this serves two purposes….1) understanding what will be expected at the station and 2) reading practice.



We’re reviewing place value AND how to work nicely in a group! (11 more days, 11 more days, 11 more days…..=) The stars on the bottom of the cards are a gentle reminder to make sure our 10’s are on the left when we place the card into a pocket.


Adding to sums of 18…



There’s always one little megamind in each group that I can depend on to “double-check” to make sure the activity was completed correctly. My cute little “Future Teacher” made sure all of these sentences were in the correct place before it was time to clean and move on to the next station! =)



We’re making number sequences…



…and taking a closer look at the hundred chart. 
 
We’re also continuing to practice procedures because the year is.NOT.over yet!



….like cleaning up correctly. Once, we complete a station rotation, all materials go back into a bucket with the I CAN statement on top….all buckets go back onto the shelf, ready for the next day and we’re off to lunch!

That’s what we’re workin’ with this week! Click the pic below to check out these stations in my little TPT shop, then hop over to Corinna’s and link up to show what you’re workin’ with! 


Enjoy the rest of the week!