Five For Friday!

It's time once again for Five for Friday and I am actually posting ON FRIDAY!!  *GASP* 

I have been battling a headache/migraine for the past 17 days.  Yup...that's correct...17 days.  Needless to say, the beginning of the new school year has been exhausting, so I am going to *TRY* to post quickly and head to bed.  :) 

I am in LOVE with my new batch of kiddos though!  They are a breath of fresh air!!  We have been able to accomplish so much in our first three weeks.  We are well into our routine and they have adjusted to the expectations wonderfully.

Here is a glimpse of our week.

First up - Recycle Bowls

I have to tell you all, these bins have saved my sanity already this year.  I cannot for the life of me remember where I first saw this idea (I'm certain it was on Instagram though), so if it is your idea, please let me know so I can give you the credit you deserve for being a GENIUS!  I found these bowls at the Dollar Store and have already trained my kids that whenever their scissors come out, they need to grab a bowl from the side counter where I store them.  All their scraps go into the bowl and one person empties the bowl when we are done with the activity.  This has eliminated all the scraps on the floor and the thousand trips to the recycling bin to throw away every scrap separately. 

We have been working on place value, and I felt like the kids were understanding the concepts but needed some more hands-on, engaging practice.  So I pulled out our place value boards and whipped up an activity for them to complete with a partner.  They had to read a list of clues to determine the 'mystery' number, create the number on their board and then write the number in standard, expanded, and word form and draw the number in place value blocks.

 

They loved it!  They were on-task and engaged for our entire math class.

 

Since that activity had a 'mystery' number that they had to figure out, I decided to mix it up and give them place blocks for the next activity.  This time, the students needed to roll the dice to determine the number that they would write in standard form and at least one other way.  I gave them the freedom to choose which modality they would use.  Again, the activity was a hit!

Notice that the second group of kiddos came up with a plan to work together and all throw a die at the same time to create the number.  So cute!  I love it when groups get along!

Next, I introduced rounding this week.  We began with relating rounding and number lines.  I hung a number line on the board and gave each student a post-it with a two-digit number on it.  They had to place their numbers in the correct place on the number line.  We then discussed which ten the number was closest to.  This was a great way for them to visualize the relationships between the numbers.

And finally, I have proof that there are good people in the world.  On a whim one day, I decided that I would run out to Subway to grab salad for my lunch.  I went through the whole line and had them make my salad, but when I got to the end and was ready to pay, I reached in my purse and realized that I had forgotten my wallet at home.  I was completely mortified and was trying to scrape up enough change to pay my bill, when the man behind me in line handed the cashier his card and told her that he would pay for my lunch!!!  I was so touched by his kindness and generosity that I actually started to cry!!  I asked the man for his name and address so that I could repay him, but he just said that he was happy to do it, and it was not necessary to pay him back.  I cannot wait to have the opportunity to pay his generosity forward one day!

BTW...the salad was yummy and completely hit the spot!

I hope you all had a fabulous week!!

Making Math Fun!

Hello there everyone!  This school year has gotten off to a very busy start.  When I first started this blog, I thought that it would be easy to blog at least once a week.  Boy was I wrong!  We have had so many changes at my school and in my grade level that it has been hard to keep up!!  Now that we are hitting our groove as a class, I promise to be on here more often sharing all the wonderful things that we are doing.

At the end of the last school year, each grade level team in our school was given some money to spend on math materials and manipulatives to support the switch to common core math.  Before that, it had been an  i n c r e d i b l y loooong time since we had received any new math materials.  Needless to say, we teachers were extremely excited!  We had no trouble finding ways to spend the allotted money.  One of the items that we bought were these nifty place value dice from Lakeshore.

Our packages arrived just before the end of the school year.  We ooh'ed and aah'ed and then promptly packed our purchases away for the summer.

This school year, I have a group of gifted and accelerated kiddos for math.  I am always looking for hands on ways to extend their learning.  During our unit on rounding, I pulled these dice out and tried to figure out a fun yet educational way to use them.   The following game was born! 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6ACftpPda43UlJyVllJWmFfT1U/edit

I know that the title is less than imaginative, but the kids
L O V E D it!  They had a great time playing the game with a partner.

My goal with the game was to reinforce the relationship between rounding to the tens and rounding to the hundreds.  In order to do this, the children had to roll the dice, record the number, and then round that number to both the nearest ten and the nearest hundred.  After playing the game, I was confident that the children had mastered the concept of rounding.  Click on the link to grab a copy of the recording sheet for your class!