Student Motivation: Achievement Awards

Oh, motivation... how I love you!! Linking up with Joanne to share something that is working wonderfully in my classroom.   

This week I was prepping more achievement awards for my students.  These ink friendly ones I made up this past summer.  So far this year I have given out the beginning of the year ones - the First Day, Belonging to (their names), and Birthday.  Then as students have passed their multiplication and division facts, they received their facts badges too for their necklaces.   

Now with the end of the first trimester I get to give out these new awards.  

Principal's Honor Roll, Honor Roll, Effort, and Perfect Attendance (for 1st trimester).  I also made up some ones specific to AR and IXL goals for my class.  :)  

It really is the little things that get them excited about learning! 

Have a wonderful day!  

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Science Dioramas {Revisited}

Sometimes I'm amazed at the amount of stuff we accomplish throughout the week... Even though at times it feels like herding goats.

Science dioramas

Last week was the culmination of our ecosystem unit. The Friday before the kids took Kleenex boxes and painted the inside, creating a setting/background of for whatever ecosystem they wanted to create.


Then last week they took index cards to make pop up animals and plants to add to their boxes.   I use index cards since we have a ton of them in the classroom and they need some type of cardstock/thicker paper to make the figures stand up.  Last year we used shoe boxes but the Kleenex ones were smaller. Liked the smaller aspect for trying to hang them.


After they were done designing/decorating they had to list the different predators, prey, consumers, producers, living, and non living organisms they added to their boxes.

Last year I had them write all over their boxes, but this year I simplified it since they wrote all that other information on their ecosystem interactive folders.  

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Monster Week: Story, Writing, and Math

Last week revolved around monsters.

In our mentor text last week we were reading I Need My Monster. 

From there we worked on adjectives and dialogue. The kids brainstormed words to create their own monster using a brainstorm sheet from Copeland's Got Class in 3rd.  They then made a rough draft narrative that included those 10 adjectives and did a rainbow edit to check their work.

They wrote up a final draft which they glued on one side of a piece of construction paper, and then drew their monster using those same adjectives on the back.

We also reviewed math facts using these mystery monster pictures from Jean Vanderford.

The kids enjoyed it!  Hope this helps you.  :)  

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Tried it Tuesday: Design a Store

 A couple of weeks ago we started our "Dollars & Sense" unit in OCR.  The first story is a nonfiction, 4 page one - full of good information to get kids thinking of what goes into starting a business.  This year we have been challenged to take the information and adding even more real life connections, so I picked up this project from The Science Penguin.

She has a bunch of different pages in it, I choose 4 of them that I wanted my class to focus on.  

They started out completing the brainstorm pages to design their own store - type of business, their products, and then answering some questions about their store.  It was almost identical to the same questions posed in our textbook.  

After they were through with those pages, they went on to the designing part.  They decorated the outside of their store, and then designed the inside layout.  I wanted them to focus on making sure they thought of their products.  

The above are a couple of the covers students created.  We took a piece of 12x18 blue construction paper, folded it in half, then glued the Store front onto the front.  Inside the blue construction paper, we glued the layout onto the top, and they stapled in the 2 page brainstorm pages to the bottom.  

They LOVED this project, and I loved the connection it made to our story.  Definitely would recommend it to anyone that has a business/store unit, or just a fun activity to tackle on one of those "special" days.  

Linking up with Holly for her Tried it Tuesday!

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Explorer Folder {Revisited}

2 weeks ago we finished our explorer unit.  I know, I know... I've been running behind with taking pictures.  This week I'm going to try and play catch up with all the fun activities we have been doing.  

Now, this is going to be mainly pictures today... I got home not too long ago after having 23 parent & teacher conferences all... day... long... today... My brain is fried and I'm tired of talking.... but I really want to share this year's explorer folders with you.  

 I usually have made their explorer books out of construction paper, this year though has been all about file folders. 

Their folders include notes comparing and contrasting the explorers,

a paragraph about each explorer,

timelines of the men,

a map of CA with the 3 routes colored in,

and portraits of the men that we created as a guided draw.

I used many pages from my Explorer pack.

It was a great learning activity, one the kids enjoyed.

Have a great night!

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Peek at My Week

This upcoming week is going to be nuts.  The kids get a 3 day weekend - no school tomorrow - because moi will be having 23 parent & teacher conferences on Monday, then another 9 on Wednesday and Thursday.  Tuesday is the only regular day of the week, the rest of the days will be minimum.  :)  

Minimum days are fun, though the day flies by - and when you have the normal amount of stuff to tackle it can be a little overwhelming.  So, I have learned over the years to just change up the week for my sanity.  The kids will automatically be excited since it's a minimum day... and the different schedule doesn't allow everything to get done.  Math becomes a review week - nothing new is going to happen this coming week... and that leaves time to have some educational fun.  

  

Our story this coming week will still be in our Dollars and Sense (OCR) unit.  This week the story is a nonfiction about the restaurant business.  I've been trying to add more realia to my lessons, so the other night I headed down to Black Bear Diner to pick up some of their paper menus for my class.  

The host gave me a funny look when I asked for a class set, so I assured him that half my class (16) would be great too.  This week we will be using the menus for different language arts activities (ABC order in the different sections, adjectives that could be added to the descriptions, etc.)   

The menus will also tie into our review math.  We will be using the Restaurant Math task cards from Ashleigh to go through the different skills - addition, subtraction, multiplication, comparisons, etc.  It won't be the entire week, but there are plenty of things to do with the cards that tie into everything!!

  

For a combined Math and ELA project, the kids will be creating their own menus using adjectives and working with decimal points & dollar signs.... in addition to the normal response to literature and summary and reading log that they always do during the week.  No gigantic extra project though this week.

One last thing though - this week we will be starting our Red Ribbon Week activities.  Our school district has grade level curriculum that the kids go through.  The teacher has a binder with 7 lessons.  I had a parent helper make up mini books for my class.  They are red (of course), and students will be writing the different facts inside them.

Here are the lessons I will start to cover:

1) Our Organs: A kid lies on butcher paper and we bubble draw around the student to make a life size gingerbread man.  Then we try to label the different organs, where they are, etc.  We will be writing in our mini books the different functions of the organs and why they are important.

2) Dangers of Medicine (from the doctor vs. getting something from your friend).

3) Staying away from Alcohol - We write down the effects of alcohol on the organs.

4) Tabacco: The True Story - We write down the effects of tabacco on the body.

5) Terrible Trio - We have a specific lesson on Marijuana, Cocaine/Crack, and Inhalents.

6) Advertising - There is a lesson that goes over the point of advertisements.

7) Saying No - We go over different ways to say no.

I will probably only get through the first 3 this coming week.

I hope you have a wonderful week!  Linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings.  :)  

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Workshop Wednesday: Math Games

Workshop Wednesday...Linking up with Jivey today to share what's going on in my classroom.  I still LOVE math time!  This week we are talking about math games.  During workshop I have 4 stations going... I know I've talked about it before.  

M - Math Facts

A - At Your Seat

T - Teacher Time

H - Hands On 

In the Math Fact station on Tuesday and Thursdays I have math games as the choice of the day.

Students can play with flashcards, math bingo, those ice cube trays with the numbers & cubes (they toss a base ten cube into the trays and have to multiply the numbers together).  It's fun!

At your seat is usually paperwork, but once the kids are done with the spiral/review/worksheet, etc - they get to play on technology.  My students love to play on IXL reviewing skills, or on the ipad working on math games.  Fun times.  

Teacher time usually involves a game or two.  I hardly ever have the students bring their math books to the carpet with me.  Always their whiteboards though.  We usually use the problems from the book (I just pop the problems up on my own smaller whiteboard), and then it transitions into having the kids create their own problems using the same skills, and having the group solve the problems.  The "game" happens when they start switching boards with each other - constant review with the challenge aspect.  Sometimes I pull task cards into the group that we go over, most times we just create a challenge. 

 

Hands On is always a game - sometimes task cards, many times it's involving dice.  Simple, no prep - and it's pretty quiet since I have my students use their dice cards instead of making the clinking sound.  :)  

For example, this week we are multiplying multi-digit numbers times 1 digit (see picture above).  The kids choose their numbers, both partners write the same number, they solve separately, and then check their answers.  If they are different they need to figure out who is right, and who made a mistake & why.  We've worked with dice with place value, rounding, adding, subtracting, and now with multiplication... and I can guarantee we will continue with dice through double digit multiplication, division, factors, etc...    

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