Math Fact Fluency Races

Hey ya'll! It's Marcy from Saddle Up For 2nd Grade and I'm super excited to be your guest blogger today. I'm going to share with you a fun, engaging way my students like to practice their math facts.

We all know how important is for kids to practice and know their math facts. I try to come up with fun ways to practice so the kids don't get burnt out. One of their favorite games to play is math fact races. This is a twist on the traditional, go to the board, write a math fact, and see how can solve it the fastest type game. Even though I play this with 2nd graders, it can easily be adapted for younger or upper grades.

Here is how it works. Split your class up into teams. I always have two but you can do more than that if you have space. Draw two large circles on your white board. Inside those circles write the numbers 0-10 all the way around. Leave space in the middle to write a larger number. 

*Don't hate on my circle drawing skills. :)

The number in the middle is the main number. They are to add the main number with a smaller number and solve for the sum around the outside of the circle. When I say go, the two teams race to complete adding numbers all the way around. The team complete their facts the fastest, and have them all correct is the winner. 

They do not have to complete the circle in order. For example, they can do 5+2 and write the sum of 7 on the outside of the circle. They pass the marker to the next person and they can do 5+9 and write the sum of 14 on the outside of the circle. The reason I don't have them go in order is for differentiation. I still have some students who struggle with adding higher numbers. This allows the ones to can answer 5+1 quickly to participate without feeling left out. 

After each round, that team gets a point and I change the number in the middle and the game starts over. 

We play this game once a week and they love it. I hope you can use it in your classroom too! It can easily be adapted for subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. 

 You can visit my blog here. Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Valentines Ideas for Bigger Kids

I'm gearing up for the last big holiday celebration before the end of the school year/my maternity leave: Valentines Day! Even though I teach 4th grade, my student's are always ready to celebrate whenever they can; I just try to make it educational too.

A year or two ago, I saw a fun idea from Ideas by Jivey, and I challenged my homeroom students to this last year. It really got them to thinking. Nothing like throwing in a few fractions to make decorating a Valentine's Day bag more fun.

Working with figurative language, while it can be difficult at times, it can be fun change of pace for the holidays. Last year, student's worked with similes and metaphors to describe their families and share the love a bit.

To try and brush up on skills before the "big test" I created some centers with a Valentine theme to help my student's review. Learning through centers and games are a classroom-favorite.

A very sweet paraprofessional with an artistic flair, helped me create some valentines for a few ladies in my building who don't always get the recognition they deserve: the lunch ladies. A freebie for kiddos to color and surprise the cooks with. I know the ladies sure enjoyed the extra showering of appreciation.

A little Valentine's Day flair found itself in one of my RTI groups. A fun game to work on nonsense long and short vowels. 

Here's hoping you and your student's have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Public Service Announcements

Hello, my name is Teresa Kwant and I am thrilled to be a part of this new blog! I teach 6th grade in an elementary school in Utah. Recently, I finished my technology endorsement through a program called eMINTS. The goal of eMINTS is to encourage inquiry-based learning, build cooperative learning, and create technology-rich learning environments. Here's a peek at what my classroom looks like:

We have all kinds of fun using technology on a daily basis!

Recently I decided to have my students create Public Service Announcements to spread some positive messages around our classroom and school community. It turned out to be a fun writing project as well. To engage the students and get them excited for the project, I first showed them commercials from [this] website. Some of my favorites are titled Imagine, Concert, The Greatest, Top Shelf, and Bus. Then we discussed as a class why these commercials impact people and in what ways they leave impressions. 

Next, with a partner, students brainstormed as many positive values as they could and created a [wordle].

Depending on the technology available to you, this may be done on your classroom computers, as a whole class creating a wordle on the teacher computer, during centers, or in the computer lab.

Once the wordle was completed it was time to get started on the writing. A Public Service Announcement (PSA) is an excellent example of persuasive writing (which fits right into the common core). This writing prompt was a great introduction for their paper:

After students had read the prompt, I passed out a graphic organizer and told the students that they had to choose one value they wanted to persuade our class and school community to follow. Why is it an important value? Why should anyone incorporate this value into their lives? They could refer back to ideas brainstormed in their wordle as needed. 

The next day we started writing a persuasive essay about the value of their choice. Once the rough draft was finished, students did a self and peer edit of their writing. Last, I had them publish their writing on this template page:

For the final project students were put into small groups of 4 or 5. They chose one of the values a team member had written on, and started creating a PSA. They were given a storyboard for thoughts and details to map out their ideas. Once a storyboard was finished, students practiced their PSA. When they finished practicing (which was a day or so later) students then recorded their PSA's (filming with iPODS) and uploaded them to the computers. I set up time slots for my students to film during recess so I could guide and monitor each group and so there wasn't any unnecessary background noise. My class used a program called Windows Live Movie Maker to create their work.When all the videos were completed we watched them together as a class. Unfortunately I can't post student samples, but they did PSA's on topics like "Caring," "sportsmanship," and "being a friend."

 If you do not have access to technology or computer labs often, try having students make skits and performing them in front of the class or designing a poster about their values to hang around the school.

This activity definitely added a closer community feel to our classroom and they enjoyed working together to make the videos. PSA's are a great way to get your students involved, no matter how big or small, in their community. Here is a link to my store with the PSA pages [here].

If you are interested in other CCSS writing units, check out my Writing by the Month Units in my TPT store [here].

(Graphic Provided by Krista Wallden)

Incorporating Logic Problems

Hello Bloggie World!  I'm Deniece from This Little Piggy Reads.

I'm a Texas Teacher with 10 years of experience.

If you aren't aware, Texas is totally different from the entire country.

TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) drive our instruction, not Common Core.

This year I was offered an amazing opportunity to teach 

Gifted & Talented Students across our district.  Each elementary school is bussed to our campus a different day of the week.  I teach a 4th/5th split class.  My students beg to be challenged.  I love my job!  

We start off every class period with a logic problem.  I've used a variety of them.  TpT has some great free and paid resources for logic problems.

How do logic problems help students?

Logic problems increase their reasoning and problem solving skills.

It is basically a mystery that students have to solve by sorting through the evidence.

Shown in Pic: Thanksgiving Jokes

Our district has pinpointed skills that all of our elementary schools have deficits in.  In reading, we know that they lack inferencing skills and in math we know that they need more exposure to solving multi-step word problems.  Logic problems marry both skills in a fun and engaging way.

When I say logic problems, you might automatically think of SUDOKU Puzzles or Logic Grids.  Don't forget about riddles, rebus puzzles or word games. 

Have you ever been in a room with all gifted students?  

It is surprisingly quiet (except for my Tuesday class).  I have to force them to talk!  I know teachers across the blogosphere are turning off their computers or yelling expletives at me.  If I give my students a SUDOKU Puzzle or a Logic Grid, they will take their pencil, move to a corner of the room and choose not to talk to anyone. 

Shown in Pic: Whose Grandparent is it?

However, if I give the table a baggie with a riddle or a problem to solve and offer an incentive for the table that answers the problem first (or within 7 minutes), I begin to hear chatter.  I enjoy listening as they discuss different solutions to the problem. They are highly motivated when I tell them the prize is 1 hour of gum chewing in class.  

Now, I'm sure all of you have morning work or bell work.  

I know I did in my inclusion classroom.  But, it was silent seat work.

Let's be serious, I needed to drink my coffee in silence.

If I reflect upon this practice, was this the best thing for my students? No, not always.

All of my students needed exposure to problem solving.  My ELL and RtI students needed to hear the process their peers were using to find answers.  My Gifted students needed to be challenged.  This activity helps build social skills, due to its collaborative nature.

Do you use logic problems in your classroom?  If not, I challenge you to incorporate them once a week and watch your students collaborate to find answers.  To get you started, I made a beginner logic puzzle with moveable pieces.  It's scaffolded with a chart that younger students might need to get started.