Family Math Night…I’ll keep you posted!
I’m planning for another Family Math Night. This time since the 100th day of school is the day after math night. Because of this, I am incorporating our 100th day celebration along with Family Math Night. I’m thinking about doing some fun things like…maybe a 100 scavenger hunt. I am going to hide signs around the cafeteria which are equations that equal 100. The catch is that some of them won’t equal 100. Students who find the equations that equal 100 will get a prize. I’ll keep you updated and be sure to post some pictures of all of the activities and ideas I have as they come to fruition!
Do your students know what a group is? or what a group of ten is?
I’ve been wanting to incorporate counting collections at school for a while, but I haven’t had the understanding of how to organize counting collections effectively. I recently attended a colleague visit where a kindergarten teacher showed the procedures she used for teaching counting collections. So, after attending this training, I initiated counting collections at our school with the 1st and kindergarten teachers. In the meantime, one of the kindergarten teachers shared with me at school that she realized her students didn’t know what a group was– much less know what a group of ten was. She began her instruction with just discussing groups and what kinds of things can come in groups. They talked about groups of three, four, or six etc. They made groups of different amounts in whole group discussion under the document camera. Students were able to have a foundation to understand a “group of ten.” Then the teacher was able to place a different amount of counters underneath the camera to ask if she had a group of ten. First, she placed less counters under the camera like 8 and asked if she had a group of ten. After that she placed more counters under the camera, like a group of ten and 3 more, and asked if she had a group of ten. Doing all of these seemingly common sense-ical counting procedures before hand led to a much more successful counting collections lesson for students to count their collections effectively. These are the rudimentary things that no college or textbook teaches you!
To read the valuable counting collections article from Teaching Children Mathematics, click here.
How to Set Up Your Data Wall?
I know when I was faced with the challenge of setting up a data wall, I didn’t really like the way I had it set up the first two years. Since then I have developed this idea which I borrowed from the middle school teachers at a school nearby. They used large pocket charts for each grade level and they colored students names with highlighters to indicate students’ proficiency levels. Then they used different stickers to indicate other factors such as special ed, after school tutoring, etc. While I really liked the middle school teachers’ idea, I didn’t like the fact that the student names were showing on the outside, which didn’t give the students privacy of test scores.
Sticker key to mark different student factors on each student data card.
Using the middle school teachers’ idea, I revamped their data wall for our school’s math wall. I used colored index cards to indicate proficiency level. That way we could identify students’ initial proficiency levels on the card, and they would quickly pop to the eye when they were moving up or down the wall. The only writing that faces the outside of the wall is the quarterly test data, and no students’ names. So, for example, when the pink cards (proficient students) move down after a quarterly assessment to the basic level, we can easily see that these students need intervention to move back up to proficiency. We different use stickers to mark students with special factors such as students who go to school sponsored tutoring. That way at the end of the year, we can determine if after school tutoring was effective by looking at students who score proficient at the end of the year state tests.
Data Wall Pocket Chart for 4th grade at the beginning of the year. (sorry about the cardboard box)
The Data Wall Pocket Chart after one Quarterly Assessment. Notice how the colored cards moved up and down.
The key for the cards is as follows:
- Green= Advanced
- Pink= Proficient
- Yellow= Basic
- Orange= Below basic
Notice how the green cards moved down. That means they didn’t score as well on their quarterly test. Many of the orange cards and a few of the yellow cards moved up so that let’s us know that these students improved.
A close up of the data wall card so you can see how we keep track of the data. The first number is the state test. The second number is the 1st quarterly assessment. Students names are on the back of the card so that they are hidden from public view. If a student has been present at the school for two consecutive school years, then we stapled their card behind the initial card so that we could have two years worth of data on the wall. Notice that you can see a little pink behind the green cards. This means that the students scored proficient the year before this one, so they are solid low-risk students which will not be targeted for interventions .
How Big is Your Kiss?
I know no one is probably looking for Valentine’s Day lessons yet, but I redid my cute little Valentine lesson “How Big Is Your Kiss”. This will be my momentous tribute 🙂 to working over the Christmas break. This is my favorite lesson to do at Valentine’s Day. Kids kiss a piece of grid paper with Vaseline on their lips, and then measure their kiss. This looks SO cute, too, when you hang it in the hallway with all of your kids lip prints. See the lesson below.
Happy New Year!
In my case, I will not be able to forget my ungraded papers! They are quarterly tests! I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year! May your lessons be engaging, your bulletin boards be creative, and your students learn quickly!
Not Sure What You Will Get Your Colleagues for Christmas?
I always struggle with what to get my fellow teachers for Christmas. I think a Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Certificate is the perfect gift. Giving a TPT gift certificate is such a great way to spark a new passion in a seasoned teacher or to give a boost to a hard working teacher. To try them out, click here.
Use This Simple Idea to Make Patterns Explicit in Number Charts
When having second grade students explore patterns in number charts which were in increments of 300, it dawned on me to cover up some of the numbers to show students how the numbers repeated. I did this on the document camera. For those students who weren’t able to see the number patterns explicitly, this proved to be very helpful.
The number chart is shown above uncovered.
First, I left one column uncovered except for the hundreds place. Students were easily able to see how the hundreds place repeated.
Then I uncovered all but the tens place. Students saw that the tens place goes up by one ten going down each row.
Finally, I uncovered all except the ones place and students were able to see that the ones place remained the same ALL the way down the chart.
In case you are interested, these number chart printables to 1,200 are available here. There are fill in number charts too.
Smart Board lessons that match the printables are available here which may work even better for showing the patterns with the screen shade.
If a Student Can Build 199 with Base Ten Blocks, Can They Count to 199?
Another base ten realization occurred to me today! Working with one of my intervention groups I had them build the number 199. I initially had the intention for them to add one more unit after they had counted to 199 for them to cross a century. This would make the number 200. While working with the students in the group, only half of them could actually count the number they had built. Then I realized that students can easily build a number with blocks recognizing the pattern of hundreds, tens, and ones without actually understanding the number they have built.
While I know it may take a while, I suggest that while students are building or representing base ten blocks that students actually show their counting numbers underneath, which I had never thought to make students do before. I had always taken for granted that students understood the counting numbers if they could build the numbers with blocks, but this regretfully isn’t always the case.
Great Free Assessments for Each Common Core Standard K-2
We owe North Carolina another thank you for the awesome common core resources that they have helped us all with. Now, I have discovered these common core assessments for K-2 for EVERY standard. They are all downloadable Word document files. Just follow the red arrow in the picture below to know where to click for your grade level.
Below is an example of one of the second grade geometry tasks. You could copy and paste these directly to your lesson plans. The addition and subtraction tasks have word problems already written. Also, I like how they provide a checklist on the side of the task so you can track students’ mastery.
It gets better! There are black line masters to go with the tasks!
Are You Wondering How to fit a 1,000’s Chart on Your Wall? Try this!
I just finished these Smart Board Number Charts to 1,200 and I will be using them with some second graders next week. I have been working on this Smart Board lesson so that students can see a lot of patterns quickly without having to change all of the number cards on a hundreds chart. While the hundreds pocket chart cards have value, it would just take too long to see all of the numbers to 1,000 quickly enough to see how the patterns within the centuries repeat.
Oh, and the best part? The Smart Board number charts are on sale for 20% off ,and tomorrow they will be on sale for 28% off for the Cyber Monday sale! (YAY!) And, you will even get a few charts for free if you stop by my store and download the preview!
There are 1-100 and 1-120 number charts and fill in number charts for K and 1st.
This set of number charts includes charts that start 10 before and 10 after a century so students get practice crossing a century. Counting before and after a multiple of 100 is difficult for many children, and requires practice.
There are also number charts and fill in number charts that count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.
There are number charts and fill in number charts in increments of 300 for students to recognize patterns across multiple centuries.
