The end of the first week of school is such a triumph! I have a wonderful set of fifth graders this year and they all seem eager and excited to work.  Of course there is a sprinkle of nuts here and there but life without nuts is boring.

THE GOOD- I used Kahoot as a way for my students to get to know me.  They loved it (they always do love Kahoot) If you have never used Kahoot go HERE and sign up for free!

Teacher prep week is NO JOKE! There are so many meetings and things to do in order to get your classroom prepared for students.  I spent all week preparing my room and then only about half a day on lesson plans! Don’t get me wrong, I have been mentally preparing my lessons and storing ideas in my head but putting them into words and gathering materials is another story.  While I am so excited to actually chew and savor my food at lunch, I think I have gained 5-10 pounds, because I have enjoyed lunch just a little too much.
Our faculty had a wonderful back to school photo scavenger hunt in order to get to know our new teams better.  At my school every grade level has new members except for second and fifth.  Our scavenger hunt was a blast and it allowed the teams to bond on a more personal level.  I cannot express enough how important a good team is to ensure a successful year.  I am blessed to be on the best team in the world! We have each others backs and we collaborate all the time! A good team can make even the most stressful day or week instantly better. I thank god for my team everyday!

This is one of the pictures from our scavenger hunt.  We had to find a statue of an animal.

We also had to take a picture of the team in shopping carts. We had such a great time with each other!

For the first time in 3 years, I have changed my classroom. I absolutely love Star Wars, so I wanted to bring my love into my classroom.  I started collecting years ago but that was for personal reasons.  I also got a few things for Christmas.  I was also very excited that I got to paint my room! Here are some photos of my new room…. (the bags on the desks are student supplies left at Sneak-a-Peak)

It just so happened to be at Disney during Star Wars Weekend so I meet some of my favorites and took pictures with them!

The “Learn It You Will, Teach It I Shall” wall decal was made by Sara Patten on Etsy.  You can visit her store by clicking HERE

These cute little Math Jedi Posters can be snagged for free at this SITE

I bought the “Truly Wonderful is the Mind of a Child’ decal from another seller on Etsy.  You can access this decal HERE

I am excited to start the new year.  The new year brings new beginnings and new challenges.  I am always up for a challenge and I look forward to trying new lessons and new technology tools so STAY TUNED!

Next Week- My blog will focus on using data and graphs to solve one-or-two step problems!

Have a great first week!

Peace-Love-Math
Jennifer 🙂

As I get older, time passes faster and faster! I cannot believe we are entering the last week in July. Before we know it, another school year will be upon us.
Two years ago I wrote a grant, along with my teammates, to secure a chromebook for every student in 5th grade.  When students come to us from 4th grade they are so excited to have their own chromebook and can’t wait to get busy using the technology.  Because they are so excited, I try to find ways they can use the technology while I get a chance to get to know them.
Here are a few ideas I have come up with for this coming school year… (I have also included Ipad alternatives for those of you who have Ipads as resources)

4. Another idea I had for locker name plates, was to use Word Clouds that students create about themselves using ABCYA Word Clouds for Kids.  This site is so easy to use and can be done by any grade level! Students can change font, colors, size etc.  You can save and print.  I would have students put words or phrases that represent who they are.  You could even print up questions or display questions on the board to have students answer using the word cloud.  To visit the site and create your own word cloud, click HERE

Happy Summer Everyone!

I was just reading an article from NCTM titled, Discovering the Greatest Area of Need in a Mathematics Classroom by Derek Pipkorn.  This article focuses on a middle school classroom, while I teach a fifth grade classroom, but good teaching practices are good teaching practices regardless of age or grade.  Here is a link to the article: NCTM Article

I love this article because it reminds us that good teachers do not lecture or give formulas, instead we provide experiences so that the students can derive their own formulas or approaches to solving a problem.  Towards the end of the year my fifth graders learned about Volume of a Rectangular Prism.  In Texas, this concept and math formula is new to fifth graders.  This was one of the last concepts I taught before the STAAR test (our state wide high stakes test).  I could have shoved the formula down their throats and then done drill and kill until they “mastered” the concept.  I chose not to take the easy way out (and really is it that easy?) and instead provided opportunities for students to derive their own thinking and explanations and subsequently the students found the formulas V=Bh and V=lwh, all on their own.  When students take ownership of their own learning, the learning becomes significant and put into long term memory.

Unlike Mr. Pipkorn, I have a longer class periods and I work in a school where 57% of the students are economically disadvantaged and 50% of the students are considered At Risk.  Despite these differences the theory behind the article rings true.  Students who DO MATH are more successful then the students who passively learn math.

Mr. Pipkorn refers to students learning through the struggle, for which he and NCTM refers to as Productive Struggle. I couldn’t agree more with the concept of Productive Struggle.  The article provides a chart about what teachers and students should be doing while learning through the struggle. Here is a copy of that chart below:

I am as tired at the end of the school year as I am at the beginning of the school year! It is hard to find things for students to do that are fun and engaging while allowing students the opportunity to apply skills they have learned this year.

This week, I went with my daughter on her senior trip, so I was gone for two days. Then I had a school wide team leader day, so I was gone for another day.  My students had their fill with quiet sub work, so I knew I needed to provide an outlet for their energy!

Yesterday we built paper sailboats which sailed down the hall using a fan.  Here is the handout that I provided each student with: Paper Sailboat Challenge How far will your sailboat travel using 5 jumbo paper clips as cargo?

I instructed students to pick their groups of three.  As a whole class we went over the objective and the materials that they can use.  I supplied a variety of different paper types and two types of supports (straws and craft sticks).  Students were only limited on their supply of tape.

Step 1: Students brainstormed and drew their sailboat on paper.  During this process students would determine what supplies are needed.
Once they figured out supplies, one student from each group came up to the U table and picked up the supplies.

Step 2: Students built and tested the sailboat.
I left the fan going out in the hall.  Students would go out test their boat and then come back into the room and make adjustments.
I loved hearing how they were going to fix problems that were taking place.  Examples of issues were falling over, spinning around, or sails being too light to catch the wind.
I gave students 60 min to complete the drawing and building phase.

Step 3: Final Test- Students went out to the hall and conducted 3 trials.  After each trail the students measured the distance.  The group went back into the room and found the average distance that their boat traveled.  Students listed their groups average on the board so that other groups could record the data.

All of the boats were so different and many made improvements on their first boats.

Today in math, we incorporated one of my favorite things to do, a STEM Challenge.  Students love STEM challenges! I love to watch them, collaborate and discuss how to efficiently construct, while trying to win a challenge. This STEM Challenge asks for students to create the longest paper chain out of one piece of construction paper. Super easy and super engaging!

The objective of today’s challenge was to create the longest paper chain using 1 sheet of 12 x 18 construction paper.  I allowed students to pick their group members.  At the first of the year, kids always pick their friends.  As we have been doing this throughout the year, the students no longer gravitate towards their friends, rather they pick kids they know will be a resource to their group.

After they pick their groups of 3 (I had a couple groups of 4 because of an odd man out), students were given a handout with the objective of the challenge.  Here is a slide show to help you facilitate this in your classroom. To download your own copy of the handout click here- Great Chain Race Handout

Longest Paper Chain Procedure

I handed out 1 sheet of paper (each group got a different color), 1 pair of scissors and 1 stick of glue to each group.  I set the timer and students had 60 minutes to build the longest chain.  My blocks are 90 minutes so doing this for an hour allowed us to have 30 minutes left over to go onto part 2 of the handout.  If you have a shorter class, you could always set the timer for less. You could also complete the remainder of the handout on the next day. You could have the paper chain building on one day and save the actual math calculations and graph building for the next day.

Students worked well in groups and every group came up with a plan and jobs for each person.  I am amazed at the different strategies that emerged! Some students tried little rings, some tried large, skinny rings, some tried many different types of rings in their paper chain.
  

Update 5-2-17! I have made a completely digital STEM challenge from this blog post! Check it out! 

Today we incorporated a little science into our math lesson.  We have been investigating data and then using the data to calculate statistics such as range, median, mode and mean.  Today we focused on using the data to find each one of these terms.  Later we will explore the appropriate times to use median, mode, and mean.  I know it is getting close to summer vacation so I try to make the lessons even more engaging in order to keep their attention.  I am happy to say, the students were engaged and completed the investigation wonderfully! It is always good when a plan comes together.

I gave every group a handout, cup of water, a pipet or water dropper, paper towel and a penny.
If you would like to get your hands on a digital version of this activity click HERE! 

We first predicted how many drops a penny could hold.  To my surprise, they all said amounts under 5 drops.  (I thought for sure one of the students had done this in previous years and would tell the others that a penny can hold a lot more than 1 or 2 drops)

After we predicted, we talked about the importance of going slow, when dropping water onto the penny.  We talked about the difference between a drop and a squirt, to prevent any foul play 🙂

Afterwards, students worked in groups on the remaining questions in the handout.  They discovered range, median, mode, mean and outliers.  In the first class our outlier was 7 and in the second class our outlier was 42.  The third class’s outlier was a little more difficult to identify and the reasoning behind what the students came up with was thought provoking and showed their critical thinking skills.

I would love to hear your ideas on how to teach statistics and outliers! Let me know if you use this lesson in your class and how it turns out!

Peace, Love, Math- Jenn

Good Morning!

This past week has been such a busy week! Last Saturday I was helping revise the current 5th grade Math Curriculum and as we were vertically aligning, I noticed that 6th grade will be using Prime Factorization to incorporate the use of exponents.  Prime Factorization used to be a part of the 5th grade TEKS, however, it is not anymore.  I love prime factorization because it allows students to discover that all composite numbers are made up of a series of prime numbers.  So this week I decided that we would focus on Prime Factorization.

First we journaled and talked about the difference between prime and composite (they have all slept since we last talked about this).  Students quickly remembered that breaking down composite numbers into their prime factors, was just like an ipad game they have played called Prime Smash.

I absolutely love Prime Smash! It is a free game, and when we were learning about Prime and Composite, the students would play this in stations or as an extension.  The goal of the game is to smash the prime numbers and slash the composites.  When you slash the composites, the factors appear, then they either smash or slash the factors.  Here is where you can find the game: Prime Smash App

Next we made Prime Factorization Mobiles: Students were encouraged to come up with their own two digit or three digit number.  One by one the students told me the number they were going to tackle in this project.  I had told them ahead of time, no repeats, so if someone else picked their number, they needed to pick a new one.  Then they needed to find the prime factorization of their number and create a mobile of their factor tree.

I put the directions on the board: **note I added- Put the prime factorization of your number on the back of the hanger, after I took this picture.**

I wanted the primes to be different shapes then the composites.  The kids had a blast with this project.  It allowed them to be creative and challenge themselves.

For the next couple of days students worked on a Prime Factorization Tutorial Poster using Lucid Chart for Education.

Lucid Chart for Education is a chromebook app, that allows students to make flow charts, thinking maps etc.  You can use the free version, but you can also apply for a free student account.

Here is the project guidelines for their Lucid Chart:

The students were engaged and worked diligently on this project.  I am always so impressed on how much students love to type and create on their chromebooks!
Here are a few examples: ** Sorry the pictures are so small, the actual product is a lot bigger and saved to a pdf file, these are just screenshots.**

Yesterday we focused on problem solving. I love to use exemplars to involve the students in rich, deep meaningful problem solving.  Today I picked two different questions for my different groups.  Sometimes students tell the answers to problems at lunch, so I try to mix it up after lunch so that the experience is still worthwhile.

Here is the first problem that we tackled:

PicCollage is an awesome FREE app that can be an amazing resource in your classroom.  Students can easily share their PicCollage using google drive. To get the app visit your app store and look for PicCollage or visit their website https://pic-collage.com/

Here is where I find my Math Exemplars: https://sep.southeastpolk.org/exemplars2/html/main_grade2.html

Have a wonderful weekend!
Peace, Love, Math- Jennifer

Who doesn’t love a good shape hunt?  I am sure many of you have hunted for shapes around your campus.  This year we hunted for shapes but used the ipads as a source of collecting shapes.  After the hunt we used the app, Skitch to annotate the shapes we found.

Before class I put several shapes into an empty box.  Students were put into pairs, and each pair drew a shape out of the box.  The shape that they pulled was what they were to look for when walking around the building.  Once they found their shape, they used the camera on the ipad to document their find.  They could find and take pictures of their shape, more than once.  When everyone had found their given shape, we went back to the classroom.

In the classroom students used the ipad to access the app called Skitch.  This app allows students to access the camera roll on the ipad and upload the photo of their shape.  From here the app allows students to use arrows, text, and free draw onto their picture.  Students were to annotate, lines, angles, and the name of their shape.  Here are a few examples:

Skitch is a very easy tool to use.  You can annotate a PDF file, or even a web page.  Once the student is done with their work, they can share their finished project using google drive, email or even message.  We will definitely be using Skitch again in the future!

You can download Skitch for free using this link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skitch-snap.-mark-up.-send./id490505997?mt=8

Let me know what you used Skitch to do in your classroom!

Peace, Love, Math- Jenn