Five for Fraturday

What a crazy week! October in general has been busy with report cards, conferences, fall festival, and science fair quickly approaching. We've also started multiplication and timed tests on their facts which is very new for my third graders. Luckily this past week was loaded with fun stuff so we made it through :) So here's my 5 for Friday (or Fraturday rather) and my link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! Check out their blog at http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/

First thing I want to chat about are our awesome tablets we got through a donors choose project. We were very fortunate to be funded for 3 Amazon Fire tablets and 2 iPad minis, bringing us to 9 total tablets in my classroom. This week was our first chance on them and with so many I could have each child in a small group on a tablet. The kiddos got to make tellagamis to explain math vocabulary, tweet about multiplication, and scan QR codes to self correct. They loved it!

We also used the tablets to research for their engineering projects! With the science fair quickly approaching my students were introduced to the engineering design process. What better time than the week of Halloween! Our first project was candy corn towers. I do not want to wish this project on my worst enemy... I saw the idea on Pinterest and candy corn is definitely not the ideal building material. But hey, it was perfect for the "improve and redesign" step of the design process LOL! The other project we engineered was a catapult. Now THOSE were a HIT! The "problem" they were facing was how to launch a candy corn pumpkin the farthest possible distance. We took time researching catapults and different designs with various materials. They planned their designs and put it into action. After each team launched their pumpkin we graphed the distances. 

Monday we'll do some math with the results finding the difference between first and last place and also the total distance from all 6 teams. It's been a blast!

Totally random note here, I saw this book from the Math Coaches Corner and I was so pumped about it I went right on over to Amazon and got it. "Building Mathematical Comorehension- Using Literacy Strategies to Make Meaning" by Laney Sammons.

I'm only on chapter 2 but I'm loving it so far. I'm noticing some of my students are having trouble visualizing the difference between addition and multiplication. We draw pictures to demonstrate the situation in the word problem but I'm looking forward to some fresh insight from this book and incorporating it in my lessons as we explore multiplication and division more. 

While working on word problems and multiplication techniques we are also starting to work on multiplication fluency and memorizing their times tables facts. We take a 1 minute timed test and when they pass they move onto the next fact. I've been thinking of a way to motivate students to move onto the next facts without doing a clip chart sort of thing that shows what children are behind. So in comes the multiplication monster! 

Each time they pass a fact they can add an eyeball, arm, antenna, tooth or spike to the monster with their name on it. They have love this! We can't wait to see our monster grow :) 

Last but not least it's Halloween! Us teachers have to have a little fun too and spook the kids hahaha. The kids have launched an investigation as to who is placing these creepy dolls in our classroom.

Grading made easy

I'm writing today after the daunting task of grading 45 benchmark tests with 30 questions.. Normally just getting myself mentally prepared for the idea of grading all those papers would take me at least a week to come to terms with, but I have exciting news- it only took me 4 minutes. Yep, not even 5 full minutes. Take that extra minute to revel in your success and productivity!

I was able to do this with a nifty app called zipgrade. I first saw it pop up on Pinterest and I was intrigued but like all my other pins I saved it to a board and it was lost in the abyss. It kept popping up though so I figured I'd check it out. It's an app that will scan bubble sheets and grade it for you, like a scantron. You use the bubble sheet made by zipgrade.com which are easy to find and print. Then with your phone or device you can scan a paper in seconds. You enter your key, and can even do multiple versions of the test. After all of your papers are scanned you can find valuable information like the class average and even item analysis so you can see what percent of the class got each individual question- GREAT for reteaching! 

You can view individual papers, so this is a scan of this students bubble sheet.

You can also view all of the scanned papers to easily add to your grade book. The names have been blurred, but they'll appear as the student has written them.

Here's the item analysis I was referring to. I literally graded these tests while the children put their test materials away and in minutes we were discussing he first question since it was only answered correctly by 43% of the class. This instant feedback is great because it's fresh on their minds.

The app also allows you to export your data from the assessment so you can print out and have a hard copy, or need to file it.

The first 100 scans are free, so that's a great way to try it out with no strings attached. After that a year of unlimited scanning is $7.. Let's be real I was hooked and thought that's a steal for such a time saver and great data analysis!

I hope you consider checking out zipgrade. I highly recommend it!

Rock on,

Diana 

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! Here's my 5 random thoughts for the week :)

Multiplication!! We were off to a great start this week and the kiddos have named themselves the master of multiplication. Before we jumped in I met with groups to see how they would go about solving word problems with pictures and repeated addition. It was so neat to see all the different strategies! The other kids in the group would share what they liked about the strategies and ask questions. It was a great opportunity for math talk.

 

While working on multiplication we reviewed arrays which they learned in 2nd grade. We talked about how arrays aren't just dots and counters though- they're all around us in real life! We takes about the floor tiles, or the many windows in our school's lobby. If we needed to know the total number of objects we could look at the array and use a multiplication equation instead of counting every single object. Pretty cool! So that sparked an impromtu scavenger hunt of course. We recorded all the arrays we could find in our classroom and around the school. So fun!

Another plus this week that could have made me cry was finding a little note...

This little sticky note was stuck under my big fake apple that sits on my desk. Creston had came in to help me hang some things in the classroom and left it there 😊 I can't believe we've been married a month now! 

Now that we've been in school for 9 weeks almost, my students have really gotten the hang of math centers. They know where to go, what to do, and MOSTLY what the voice volume should be :) So time for me to add in more differentiation! They already come to math group where I work with a small group on a skill deficit from their pretest and check-ins. I'd been trying to think of a way to make their independent practice more differentiated and how to organize that. I've now got a color system and envelopes and we'll see how this works.

The color coordinates to the color of the charts on my board with their groups and assignments.

Now the trick will be finding enough resources or making enough to have all my groups working on their own level. Their math technology assignment is on Mobymax, which also has them work on an appropriate level with lessons to move up. I'm excited to see how much these kiddos grow with everything going on with our math centers!

Finally at the end of a long but exciting week, I go out to my little farm and am greeted by this.

Love my furbabies ❤️

Link up and share your week!

Rock on,

Diana

Daily 5 Math Centers with Freebies!

I'm finally getting caught up with grading and planning since the wedding! It only took me a month :) I wanted to share how we do math centers in my classroom- which the routines set in place for those were a God send with being gone for a week!

Although I call it Daily 5 centers, we actually do 3 a day. We only have about 45 minutes for centers so by doing 3 each day I get a longer chunk with my math groups. There are 5 centers that we rotate between.

1. Math by Myself
2. Math with partner
3. Math Writing
4. Math technology
5. Math with teacher

I love that these 5 centers allow for different approaches to a concept where students can have independent practice, play games, write about vocabulary or explain their thinking, and use technology to reinforce their skills.

This is a few examples of what math centers look like around my room. You'll see children all around the room in seats, on the floor, crowded on the couch, bouncing on our bouncy ball chairs, even standing. I believe movement is so important to incorporate, not only as they transition between centers, but also while they're at their center. You'll also see different manipulatives, technology, and games to reach all learners and keep that engagement going. However, you won't see blurry faces.. that's just a fancy app I have ;)

Every day students do "math by myself" which could be a page in their book, a worksheet, or interactive notebook activity. This should be something they can do completely on their own, since it's not partner work and I'll be working with a group. "Math with a partner" and "Math Writing" centers are visited twice a week, and "Math technology" and "Math with Teacher" are 3 times a week. On Friday I meet with all my groups to reteach anything they missed from our weekly quizzes.

So, here's the kicker. I start centers on day 3. I promise I'm not crazy!! The first full I week I do not do my "Math with teacher" group and they just play a game or do a review activity as a group. Meanwhile, I monitor the class and check on groups to make sure everyone is on task and I can answer any questions. I set a timer for 12-15 minutes and display it on the smartboard. When the timer goes off, we clean up our centers and all the of the students return to their seats. I start by setting a timer for 1 minute, and then each day I see if we can beat our previous time to clean up. Once all students are at their seats I announce where the groups go next and send them on their way.

During that week my students learn procedures such as where to find their work for each center, what materials they need (and where they can get them), when it's appropriate to talk or when they should work quietly, and where to turn in their work. This takes a lot of modeling and repetition, but that saves you a whole lot of time in the long run! Now my students know exactly where to go, and can even move into their next center without me announcing each group. They know to move quickly during transitions before I start the timer. They've even gotten the hang of "early finishers" activities and working on those independently. I'm so proud of how far these kiddos have come so far and how independent they are! They take pride in their work and do not take the responsibility of centers lightly.

If you're interested in trying out our centers I've made a few different schedules and cards for math centers to help get started! I'm still working on a product that has the 3 centers, but feel free to check them out and see which fits your schedule the best!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Daily-5-Math-Schedule-2007691

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Daily-4-Math-Schedule-2092579

Rock on,

Diana