Tried it Tuesday- Triple Play!

It has been such a busy week!  Tuesday came and went, so today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday!

Last summer, I visited a teacher store in Nebraska and found this neat card game.  It's called Triple Play, and my kids love it!  I have a few sets:  Homophones, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Math Vocabulary (not pictured).

The games offer three ways to play: Go Fish, Memory, and Match Maker.  I divided each set into 2 piles, because each set has 25 pairs.  Try playing memory with that!  The cards spread across the whole table!  So I divided them up to make matching more manageable.  Now kids can just grab a bundle and get to work.  My guided reading groups especially like using them as a warm-up activity.

I love that the cards have clear pictures and sentences.  Perfect for my ELL kiddos!

A match from the Synonyms set.

A match from the Homophones set.

Like I said before, I found these at a little teacher store in Nebraska.  I did look online and the ONLY place I could find them was on Amazon.  I actually found many other Triple Play games that I had not seen before!  Click the links below to check out the games.  :)

Antonyms           Homophones          Synonyms

Letter Recognition          Ending Sounds          Letter Sounds

Things We See          Primary Math- Subtraction          Primary Math- Vocabulary

What did you try this week?  I'd love to hear about it!

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Mathematical Monday! February 3

Hello everyone!  Long time, no see!  

I have been busy taking some "me" time, as well as creating some fun things for my TpT store.  But today I'm linking up with I {heart} Recess for Mathematical Monday!

In math for the past few weeks, the third graders have been working on Input/Output tables.  As an introductory activity, we created Input/Output Monsters!

The two white squares in either corner and the rectangle in the middle are laminated, creating a dry-erase surface that is perfect for practicing input/output!

For example, I told the students the rule was subtract 7, which they wrote in the center.  I also told them the input, which was 49.  They had to use the rule to figure out the output.  

Occasionally, I would give them the output, and they would have to find the input using the rule.  Some of my students even chose to grab their Monster when they had an input/output table, using it as a tool to complete each part of the table.

Here's how we got started:

1)  BEFORE doing the project, we cut out the squares (2.5 inch), and rectangles (4 inch by 2 inch).  Each student will need 2 squares and 1 rectangle.  Then we laminated all of the pieces and cut them out so they were ready to go for the project.

2)  We also cut out some card stock "templates" for the kids to use to trace and cut out a body.  We had circles, squares, and rectangles available for body shapes.  If you prefer, you can have students "freeform" a body shape.

Materials students will need:  

- A 9x12 piece of construction paper for the background

- 2 laminated squares

- 1 laminated rectangle

- assorted construction paper to create head, arms, legs, and body

- scissors and glue

- stapler

The process:

1) Have students cut out their body shape and staple the laminated rectangle to the body.  (Trust me, it is much easier to staple the rectangle to the body first before gluing… I learned this the hard way.)

2)  Staple the squares to the corners of their background paper.

3)  Begin to lay out the body, arms, legs, and head.  I made sure my students had their Monster exactly how they liked it before gluing.  They need to keep in mind that the top square is the IN, and one arm should be pointing up, and the bottom square is the OUT, so one arm should be pointing down.

4)  Once their Monster is cut and created, they can glue it all together.  Check out some of the creative monsters my students made!

Once they are all done, they can use a dry-erase marker on the laminated sections to practice Input/Output tables!  I showed my Monster on the document camera, and had a large blank input/output table on the board to fill in the inputs/outputs as we solved.

It's also a clear way for the visual learners to see that the input + the rule = output.

What have you been learning about in math?

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Mathematical Monday- Mobiles

Happy Monday, everyone!

I'm linking up with I {heart} Recess for Mathematical Monday!  Today I wanted to share with you a project that a 4th grade teacher at my school did with her kiddos.

The concept?  Fractions, fraction models, decimals, and word representations.

The delivery?  A mobile to show equivalent fractions and decimals.

Here are the supplies you'll need:

-- Printed fractions, decimals, picture representations, and words for each fraction (she used 1, 3/4, 1/2, 2/4, 1/4, and 0).  She printed them on different colored card stock- so kids could tell the difference between each type of card.

-- Sticks (she collected them from her backyard)- Each student needs 1 stick (clothes hangers or wooden dowels would work well, too).

-- 5 pieces of yarn (each about 18 inches long)

-- scissors and glue

Here's how they did it:

1) Students first laid out their four strings and began sorting their decimal and fraction cards.  At the top of the string was the fraction, then the picture representation, then the words, and finally the decimal towards the bottom of the string.

Each string should have a fraction, decimal, words, and picture representation that are equivalent.  The strings should also be in order from smallest to largest (not mixed up).

2)  Once they had their cards where they needed to be, they began to glue the cards to the string.  They glued a fraction or decimal card on the front and back of the string, for stability and easier viewing.

3) Tie the strings on to the sticks.  For display, you might want to tie one more string to each side of the stick for hanging.

I like that students did not have to spend any time writing or creating the cards for the mobiles.  Their main focus was to identify equivalent fractions and decimals and assemble the mobile.

While the 4th graders used fractions and decimals as the focus of their mobiles, mobiles can be modified for oodles of content areas!

Think: 

equivalent fractions and fraction models

alphabetizing words

food chains in different ecosystems (each string has a different ecosystem)

musical instrument families

vocabulary words and definitions

ordering objects of different sizes

retelling stories

sorting colors (each string has objects of the same color)

Have you ever made mobiles in your classroom?  How do you think you can apply the idea to your grade level or content area?  Tell me about it in the comments below!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Flash Freebie!

Teachers in Minnesota are rejoicing today!  Governor Dayton announced that all schools in Minnesota will be closed on Monday due to extremely cold temperatures.

Yep, you read that right…. wind chill of -50!

We were supposed to go back to school on Monday, but, okay…. I'll take another day of Winter Break.  

In honor of the extremely cold Minnesota weather, I'm offering a FLASH FREEBIE in my TpT store!  Polygon Bang! is a great game for Math Centers to help your kiddos practice polygons and polygon characteristics.  The product includes two games to practice polygons.

Click the image to snag up the freebie!  But be quick- it will only be FREE for 24 hours!  It will go on sale tomorrow night at 10:00 pm.  All I ask is that you give me some feedback on TpT!

Happy downloading (and Pinning!)

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Five for Friday- November 14

It's Friday again, so I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday!  Here's what happened this week in Miss Woodward's Class.

1.  Celebrating!

A good friend and coworker, Mrs. Elbert, celebrated her birthday this past weekend!  She is such a special lady, and I was excited to be able to share in her special day.  And now she is expecting her first child, so we had even more to celebrate!

Me, Mrs. Boos, Ms. Eichhorn, and Mrs. Elbert celebrating Mrs. Elber't's birthday.

2.  Pushing through the Polygons

 We started our unit on polygons in math this week.  For my ELL students, learning polygon names and characteristics is really hard.  One of the first things we did with polygons was create a foldable to help remember polygon names and qualities.

On the outside flap, we wrote the name of the polygon (triangle, square, rectangle, rhombus, parallelogram, pentagon, hexagon, octagon).  On the inside flaps, we cut out an example of the polygon, and wrote characteristics of the polygon.

The only materials we needed were large 11" by 17" paper, some shapes to cut out, scissors, glue, and a pencil!  It was a simple project to introduce polygons!

3.  You've Got Mail!

For writing this month, 3rd grade is working on writing letters.  My team and I decided to make the task into a grade-level project.  We set up each student with a pen-pal in one of the other classes.  Their job is to write a letter to their buddy and address it to the correct class.

Each classroom is going to have a mailbox outside their class.  Once students write their letters, they will give it to the "mail carrier" of the class.  The "mail carrier" will deliver the letters to the correct mailbox.  The "mail carrier" will then collect the mail from their class' mailbox and distribute it to the students.  

Here is my class' mailbox.  I made it out of a cereal box covered in paper.  I used velcro squares to attach it to the wall in the hallway.  Isn't it neat?!  Can't wait to see how this writing project turns out!

4.  Dia de los Muertos

At the end of the day, we mix up all of the 3rd graders and have an intervention time.  Some groups get extra help in reading, and some in math.  In my group, we have been reading about Dia de los Muertos lately.  A middle school teacher saw the book laying on my desk and offered to bring in some authentic sugar skulls.  The kids went nuts for them!  Lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" were heard.

5.  Best for Last… Curriculum Night!

Thursday night was Curriculum Night at our school, and I was the representative for 3rd grade.  The idea behind the event was giving students and parents ideas of reading and math activities to do together at home.

Time and time again at conferences, parents tell me that they don't have access to the public library, and don't have books at home.  In my room for curriculum night, I printed off a variety of books from Reading A-Z for parents and students to take to read together.  I made sure to have a variety of levels available.  Some parents took four or five books!

I am also a firm believer in having kids talk with their parents about what they are reading.  To get the conversation going, I had students create a "story cube".  I found it on superteacherworksheets.com.  I printed it on card stock for durability, and had them cut and tape it together themselves.  I also showed them how their parents can roll the cube, and the students can answer the question on the cube using the book they just read together.  I printed off 50 of these cubes, and I had less than 10 left at the end of the night!  At some points, my room was so busy that I couldn't even greet everyone in there!  It was awesome!  I really hope that parents and students start to read together at home.

What happened this week in your class?

Until next time,
-Miss Woodward

Five for Friday!

I am beginning to realize that Fridays are the only times I post.  :(  I am sorry for neglecting my blog!  Linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday Linky.  Here's how my week went!

1.  New bookshelf!  

The Title I room was getting rid of some tiered bookshelves, and I offered to take one off of their hands.  I am so excited!  It will showcase books that relate to our science or social studies topic, as well as class-made books and other specialty books.  Yay!

2.  Lice....

Head lice seems to be a major problem at our school.  Five third graders went home with it on Thursday.  Two of those students were mine.  Then again on Friday, four more students in other grades went home with it.  The poor nurse was checking so many classes on Friday, that she didn't eat lunch until 2:30.  The tough part about the families at my school is that they think that all they need to do is treat the scalp.  They need to understand that they need to treat the scalp AND other materials in the home, like pillows, blankets, clothing, and stuffed animals as well.

3.  And then there were 17.

This year, my class started out at 21 students.  Two of those students never showed up to school, and were dropped from my list.  A few weeks ago, a girl moved.  This week, I was notified that another student moved unexpectedly.  In case you lost count, that brought my class size down to 17.  SEVENTEEN!  I begged for smaller class sizes (last year I had 28!), and here I got it.  Now it's my time to prove to administration that, for our school of ELL's, smaller class sizes is going to be the key to seeing the growth they want.  I'm up for the challenge.  Bring it on!

4.  Ordering Numbers

We started a new data cycle, which brought new skills in math and reading.  In math, we have been working on comparing and ordering numbers.  I gave each student a card with a number on it, and they had to arrange themselves in order.  It was a really quick and easy activity to pull together, and it was so funny to hear the dialogue between them.  "No!  You go over there!"  And they would drag each other around to where their number belongs.  

5.  Monster Dash Half Marathon

I have two older brothers.  One has run several marathons, and the other has been training for his first half-marathon.  Today, they ran the Monster Dash half-marathon in St. Paul.  We caught up with Dean at mile 8, and then met both of them at the finish line.  It was so fun to see the funny costumes that the runners were wearing!  I heard that there were 17,000 runners for the event today!

Me, Dean, niece Marianne, Clark, Dad, niece Ramona, and sister-in-law Elise.

Dean (left) and Clark (right).  Dean ran his first half-marathon today.

Congratulations, Dean and Clark!

How was your week?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Five for Friday!

Well, we just finished our second week of school, and I am loving every minute of it!

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share five exciting things from this week!

1.  We have been working on building our stamina for Read to Self and Work on Writing.  I LOVE how excited they get about writing.  I pretended to hold a remote control and press the "pause" button so they would stop long enough to check-in with me between practices!

2.  We started talking about place value in math.  We made a set of digit cards for each student.  In a little baggie, each student has cards with the digits 0-9.  They have four of each digit, so there is enough to make lots of different numbers.  We used them to create numbers, draw the representation, and write the value of each digit on white boards.  They loved it so much, they actually cheered when I said we would do a few more to practice before snack.  Cheered for place value!  (I love them already.)

3.  We read the story Chrysanthemum, and made this cute craft to go with it.  They counted the letters in their name, and then counted the vowels and consonants.  Some of them had names with 8 letters, which was tricky to fit around the flower!

4.  I got the idea for these Name Rainbows from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  They write their name in the cloud, and describing words on the colored strips of paper.  We first brainstormed a list of describing words, and then the kids made their rainbows.  They look SO cute hanging from the ceiling in the hallway!

5.  No picture for this one, but I am SO enjoying this year so far.  I love my kiddos, love my team, and overall feel more confident this year.  I am looking forward to seeing what this school year brings!  :)

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Summer Math

I am excited to show you a big project we've been working on in math!  

We didn't want our students to lose all of the valuable learning they acquired this year.  The problem is that they have very limited access to materials and assistance at home.  We wanted them to create something that reviewed important concepts, that they would be able to use at home this summer.

Introducing.... the Summer Math Book!

For a whole week, we had multiple stations set up around the room.  The kids had to visit all of the stations, but could travel at their own leisure.  If they finished the stations and filled their book, they got to keep doing the activities for fun.

So, what was everyone doing for the entire math block?  Well.....

Some kids were finishing making their multiplication flash cards...

Some kids were finding and cutting out shapes from magazines...

Some were using magnets to write and solve word problems...

Some were writing and guessing number sentences on each other's backs...

Some were making clocks to solve elapsed time problems...

And some were making rubbings of coins and then counting the total amount.

At each station, the kids had to complete the activity (and show evidence of it in their booklets).  They also had to glue in a "How can I do this at home?" sheet, to remind them of ways they can complete the activity over the summer.

There was a lot going on in the room, but after a day or so of doing the stations, the kids knew what to do and where to go, so the classroom was a focused and calm environment.

When they leave school for the summer, they will have a neat little math book that will remind them of easy ways to do math at home.

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward