In Memory

A Game, A Song, and an Epic Fail

What a roller coaster of a day! That's one of the things that is so great about teaching. It's different every day, and you have multiple opportunities to do fabulous (and sometimes not-so-fabulous) things. So it was today...
The GAME:

If you've not tried this equivalent fraction race, you have got to go right now and download it (Freebie from Holly Olberding). I was really nervous about this skill (naming equivalent fractions) until we took a review day today and played this awesome game. My kiddos can all name equivalent fractions now and we had a blast practicing!

The SONG:

We were actually using a different song for reviewing the continents and oceans, when we came across a group of students singing this one. So we thought, "Hey, why not us?" It wasn't on the lesson plan (Shhh) but aren't the best things sometimes impromptu? Check it out:

And finally, the EPIC FAIL:
I *thought* I had the most fabulous lesson ready to review setting with my kiddos during our literature circles today. I had the really cool graphic organizer. I had a high interest book (our read aloud). I modeled what I wanted them to do. One group at a time, they set out to read their books and apply what I'd just taught them. What a bummer. I quickly realized my little darlings were lost as geese! It was clear that I needed to back up and regroup and offer lots more support. Knowing there was no way to salvage this failure of a lesson in our allotted time, I decided to just let them read and discuss their stories with them. And re-plan this lesson for tomorrow. I've got some more tricks up my sleeve and tomorrow or Friday I'll be sharing a hopefully much more successful lesson with you.

What a day :)

It's the Thought...

At the end of the day Thursday, I gathered the students and started out of the room for my afternoon bus duty when I heard from around the hall corner, "MRS. KILGO!!!!!!"  The shout was followed by a pair of little feet and a precious, smiling little 2nd grade boy. (I teach 4th). "CONGRATULATIONS!!!" The brother of one of my former students rushed up to me and gave me a huge hug. "My whole class said congratulations, Mrs. Kilgo!" I had recently been honored by being chosen as our district's elementary teacher of the year, and my principal announced it that morning over the intercom. As we made our way to the lunchroom to wait for the buses, this little sweet heart came back up to me and presented me with this cupcake. "I've been saving this for you ALL day!" It just doesn't get any more precious than that! Call me sentimental, but that cupcake is sitting on my kitchen counter right now. I'm keeping it for as long as I can. 

 

Text Structure Magic (and a Freebie)

Don't you love it when everything comes together? I had one of those magical moments today during reading and had to share! Like all of you, I'm working diligently to implement the new Common Core standards, and this week I decided to focus on 4.RL.5:

Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.

I knew I'd need to start small with this one, so I chose two texts to begin with and made a graphic organizer for my students to use.

We started by simply comparing and contrasting the features and structure of a chapter in our science books about rocks and a short story about a mountain eroding called The Sun, The Wind, and The Rain.

I modeled at first, then allowed students to work with partners and contribute to the organizer. Above is the neat copy I typed up. Trust me, you DON'T want to see my dark, doc camera, chicken scratch on the board version.

Next, I gave everyone a blank organizer and assigned two short texts from this week's basal lessons to read and compare/contrast with their table groups. One was a narrative, and one a newspaper article. After the students worked with table groups, we regrouped so that every person was in a new group and able to share what their group mates had discussed and written on their organizers. (Sorry I forgot to take pics of the kiddos' work). I'll try and add them tomorrow.

What was really great about this lesson was all of the connections we were able to make. We're learning about rocks in science, narrative story structure in writing, and plot structure in reading. At one point, we even reviewed subject/verb agreement as we were adding things to the class chart. Love it! Such a great lesson, using a simple idea.

And here's a little freebie for you: the blank graphic organizer. Just click on the link text below the picture to snag it!

Compare/Contrast Text Features Graphic Organizer

I Opened a Store!

I never thought I would be saying those words, but I have a teacher store! I've been on the fence about it for over a year, but after long consideration and some encouragement from a friend, I decided to jump in and try it. I hesitated to open one for so long because I started teaching during the time when the online community shared freely with one another. Sites like Proteacher (still one of my favorites) abounded with files that teachers had made and just wanted to share with others. I felt the need to give back to all of those fabulous people who had taken the time to share.

For me, that thought hasn't changed---I still have loads of free files on my Files tab above, and also on my class website, and will continue to add some free files. But it was just this morning when I came to the realization that it is okay to sell some of the products I make. (This hit me after working for two hours on a character education file). I had created it for my own classroom use, but decided I wanted to share it with others, so I was making a title page, credits page, etc...

I'm starting to see the other side of the coin. It's okay to sell items that I've created. I work for hours on them. Some of the graphics I use have been purchased, and using digital scrapbook files, I can really be creative and make things look great.

I'm really excited about this, and I hope you'll stop by my store and have a look around. Any advice for a new teacher store owner? I'll take all I can get!

Thanks in advance.

~Farrah

Go Math! Implementation: Month 4

We're in our fourth month of implementing our new math program, and I must say that my kiddos and I are really making some great strides. We've learned a lot through these last few months, and are able to complete a lesson in a day's time. There are still many things I know that can be better, but we're all on the right track. Here are my top 53 "Aha!" moments:

1. Do math first. "I do better in math when we have it first thing in the morning." This statement was echoed over and over by my kiddos after I did some schedule swapping one week. I suspected this, but wanted to hear it straight from the horses' mouths before I made the permanent change in our schedule. Our original schedule called for math in the afternoon, but we much prefer to have a read aloud and time to read to self at the end of the day. It's a better ending to a rigorous school day.
2. Focus on the Essential Question: I sort of skipped over this until I was part of a demonstration lesson in which the trainer focused on the essential question. I realized that the question helps focus students' minds on what they are supposed to be learning. Now, I always begin by reading it and explaining what they will be able to do by the end of the lesson. "Today, we will be exploring how to use a model to find factors of a given number..." We revisit the question during the lesson, "Are we using models to find factors of numbers? How?" and at the end of the lesson as a review, "How did we use models to find factors of a number?" Sometimes they answer orally and sometimes in their journals. 
3. Anticipate issues with manipulatives: Upper grades have never had sets of manipulatives to use with their students until this year, so our students simply weren't used to using them. Many of my students had never even touched a base ten block before this year! As a result, I had to let them build houses with the base ten blocks, make patterns with tiles, and build towers with counters before they could be really utilized. Because it was all so new, sometimes the manipulatives were more of a hindrance than a help. For example, when using counters to model division with remainders, many of my kiddos didn't count out the correct number---multiple times! I've learned to think carefully about how to anticipate issues and solve problems before they can happen. 

Overall, I'm really excited to be teaching the new Common Core standards, and I love learning new ways to solve problems and new strategies to teach my kiddos.

Calendar Math Routine Freebies

After participating in the Guided Math book study this summer, I set a goal for myself to implement a successful calendar math routine in my fourth grade classroom. This was something I was a little nervous about, because I've only used Saxon math's calendar routines in 3rd grade and I just wasn't too sure what to do in 4th. Well, I did it! I think I've finally struck gold! I've waited a while to post this because I wanted to make sure it actually worked for me and my students. 

I decided to include these daily/weekly routines to begin with:

• counting large numbers
• number line (using multiple markers based on Every Day Counts)
• date/day calendar questions
• daily depositor and coin counter (based on Every Day Counts)
• decomposing numbers
• rounding and place value
• elapsed time
• facts practice

My daily routine: I spend no more than 15 minutes total on this, so I don't always do every part every single day. We start with facts practice. Sometimes this is a timed drill sheet, or I use the links I put on the flipchart (file below). Then I pretty much follow the pages in my flipchart. Although we do the same activities every day, I like to keep it interesting by varying the way we do them. There are basically three formats I use on different days of the week:

1. Whole group using the the IWB. Any student who is not at the white board writes the answers on their individual dry erase boards.  
2. Small group: I used poster board to make 5 calendar math posters. The posters have the same things on them that we do on the IWB (file included below). I just laminated the posters, and groups of about 4 work together to compete each section. The first group to complete every part correctly wins a treat. 
3. Individual: I created a worksheet that looks like what we do on the IWB, and students write in their answers on their sheets independently, then we check together.

Every 2-3 weeks I test the students using a sheet similar to the independent practice worksheet. I'm so glad I've implemented this! It's a lot of math in a short amount of time, and a great way to review those skills that need to stay fresh. 

Now for the files. I've created a highly interactive Promethean flipchart that can be used on your whiteboard. There are also copies of the tests, worksheets, a PowerPoint version of the lesson (though not as interactive), and black and white printables to make your own small group calendar posters. Just click the link under the picture to download the zipped file. If you decide to download, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Calendar Math Files

Hurricane in a Bowl

We've all made the tornado in a bottle, right? Well, how about a hurricane in a bowl? I wish I could take credit for this activity, but I found it in my science book and just knew we had to do it. All you need are clear bowls, water, spoons, food coloring, and newspapers to help with spillage. Here's how:

Imagine the red swirling around really fast. 

I used the 5E model for this lesson (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate), and placed my students into groups of about 4 or 5. 

Engage: Activate Prior Knowledge: We had already discussed students' schema for hurricanes and read some sections in our book about how they form, how they're forecasted, etc...

Explore: Have students use a spoon to swirl the water around very quickly. As a group, the should work together to time the next part carefully. Once the water is swirly rapidly, raise the spoon out of the water and add food coloring. The food coloring should swirl around in the water, showing "arms" like a hurricane. *NOTE: There is a bit of a learning curve to this. If students continue to stir the water, the food coloring will mix and they won't see the model.

Explain: We discussed what each part represented. What does the food coloring represent? What does the water represent?

Elaborate: Discuss how the model is similar to and different from a real hurricane.

Evaluate: Okay, I didn't really get to this part, but if I did, I would have had the students write a journal entry explaining what they did and how the model helped us visualize the bands of a hurricane.

We had to repeat this about 3 or 4 times so the kiddos could all get to use the spoon or the food coloring, but even so, it was a very quick activity. What's even better is that the kiddos were having fun and learning the whole time.

I Put Students in the Trash

Well, to be fair, they got in voluntarily...Why, you ask? We did the coolest experiment about air pressure to show that air is pressing all around us. Each kiddo took turns getting into a giant trash bag and we stuck a vacuum cleaner hose in the bag. Volunteers held the bag so that no air would get in or out, and we switched on the vacuum cleaner. It was so much fun to see the kids actually experience air pressure! They were amazed, learned a little something, and had a great time doing it.

Me in the bag!

Explanation: when the vacuum cleaner removed air from inside of the bag, the air outside of the bag continued to press all around.