Simplifying Fractions

This is a challenge. Hopefully this anchor chart will help! 

100th Day of School!

Now that I teach 5th grade, we don't celebrate the 100th day on as grand a scale as when I taught younger grades. As a kid, I remember the 100th day, always in early February, being a day filled with themed activities, kids wearing 100 items, and teachers having a chance to be creative!

I went on Pinterest this morning to look at some fun ideas and put together some of my favorites that I found. 

**please note: none of these ideas are mine. The sources are in the top left corner of the photos**

Tell me in the comments: what are your favorite 100th day activities?

1. Decorate the Entrance

The excitement and celebration begins the moment kids walk into the school!

2. Educational Connnection

As a math and science teacher, I especially love the connection to STEM curriculum!

3. 100th Day Fashion

4. Gift Bags

Kids love getting presents!!

5. Fun activities that encourage imagination and creativity

 

6. Community Building

Leave a comment and tell me some of your favorite activities for the 100th day!!

Magnetism

As we continue our study of energy, we discussed and explored the concept of magnetism. Kids LOVE working with magnets and I am excited to get our hands on the making of an electromagnet and feeling the pull of the magnets as the opposite poles attract and the repulsion as they move away from having like poles facing one another. 

Below is the anchor chart I made to accompany our study. I love how much color they add to the classroom!

Whose Job is Harder???

The age old question: who has the tougher, more demanding job...elementary school teachers or high school teachers? I've never been a high school teacher, but being an elementary school and middle school teacher is not easy by any stretch! What do you think? Leave your vote in the comments!! 

Laundry Math

Doing some loads of laundry also presents an opportunity for some fraction practice. This type of activity allows students to think abstractly about what information they will need to solve a problem.

Math in the Kitchen!

Cooking and baking presents lots of opportunities for fractions practice. Today, my kids and I baked some cookies. Just taking some photos along the way allowed me to create a task for my students with a real-world connection. This task asks students to multiply fractions and solve multiple step problems.

Making Brownies=Learning Fractions

I created this fractions task for my students to work on their operations with fractions. What I like best about this style of task is how it encourages students to first list the information they will need to answer the questions. First having students brainstorm what they will need to formulate their answers gives them the opportunity to discuss the concepts and open their minds so they go looking for the info they need, rather than trying to figure out what to do with info that is presented to them.

My aim was to create a task that was both engaging and rigorous - two buzz words floating around my school right now. With feedback from our vice principal and math coach, I put this together and am excited to have the kids work on it next week. I'll let you know how it goes!

Bonus: the brownies were delicious!!!

Evil Sub Plans

I have a special kind of loathing for sub plans. However, they are kind of like high heels: a necessary evil in life. Setting up detailed sub plans is very very important and it's definitely something at which I have never been very good. Leaving proper sub plans ensures that students do not miss out on a day of learning while you are sprawled on the couch hacking up a lung.

My weekend project is a Substitute Teacher binder, aimed at improving upon my ability to leave really good, really detailed sub plans. Some teachers do folders, drawers, "sub tubs" and more. I am combing different methods into one to try and get better at leaving very good sub plans for future absences. When the project is complete, I will post some photos.

For now, I am going to our another cup of coffee and enjoy looking out the window at the beautiful snow that is falling.

Happy Learning! <3

Multiplication Masters

Hi Everyone! It has been a VERY long time since I have posted. As a fifth grade math teacher, I took some things for granted. One major one was that all of my students would know their 0-12 multiplication site facts as they came in. Unfortunately, this was just not the case. If you're a parent reading this: the BEST thing you can do for your 3rd graders is make sure they know their site facts! Spend 10-12 minutes a night practicing, quizzing them and teaching them how to quiz themselves. Every topic that is covered in math from 4th grade through high school has a basis in multiplication. Knowing one's multiplication facts makes all math concepts more manageable.

After a few false starts, attending several workshops and LOTS of research (read: Pinterest), I made these multiplication sprints. My research and training led me to determine that students master their facts better when taught in chunks. Each week, we spend 30 minutes on practicing the facts, playing multiplication games, and using IXL.com (math concepts website = AWESOME). Further, the students are assigned each week to practice their facts at home.

Every Friday, students take a Sprint. They have one minute to complete 20 multiplication site facts. This week, we did the ones facts. Each student who received 100% on their sprint got their name placed into the "Ones Facts Club." Each of my math students have their name on a clothespin so they can move their name around.

The one below is is for the ones facts. The order I chunk them in is:

ones
tens
fives
twos
nines
fours
eights
threes
sixes
twelves
sevens
elevens