Wordless Wednesday! - Back to School Shopping!

This is my first time linking up with Christina from Sugar and Spice for Wordless Wednesdays. What took me so long?

Anyone can join. The rules are simple.

Have you started back to school shopping yet? 

I would love to hear what you purchased. And more importantly, was it on sale?

Kim

Monday Meet Up! (June 30th)

Now that the school year is finally over and things have slowed down a bit, I am hoping to get back to blogging. I am excited to link up for the first time with The Teaching Tribune for Monday Meet Up!

Here are three things I am grateful for.

It was difficult to pick just three. So much to be grateful for.

Kim

100 TpT Followers and a TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Woohoo! I have reached 100 followers at my TpT store. I will be sending a special e-mail out to all my followers tomorrow morning. You are not going to want to miss it. In some ways it is going to be better than the TpT sale on May 6th and 7th. What could be better than getting 28% off all your purchases? You have to follow my TpT store to find out!

It's not too late to become a follower of my store so you can find out how I will be celebrating my 100 follower milestone. And don't forget to stop by my store on Tuesday or Wednesday for the big TpT sale. 

Kim

Teaching Volume and a Freebie!

Yesterday I grab the snap cubes and had my students start to investigate volume of rectangular prisms.

They were each given 20 snap cubes and the worksheet below. You can get a copy here

After reviewing examples and non examples of rectangular prisms, I had the students work in groups to come up with as many rectangle prism as they could using all 20 cubes. 

The students sketched the prism and figured out the length, width and height of their creation.

They continued to manipulate the cubes until they had created several different prisms with their 20 cubes.

Most quickly realized that the volume was always going to be 20 cubic units. By the end of the lesson, many felt confident that they had figured out the algorithm. 

In other exciting news.............I am very close to reaching 100 followers at my TpT store. When I do, I am going to have a very special sale that only my  TpT followers will be notified about. Head over to my store and become a follower so you too will be notified when I hit 100!

If you download and use the freebie, I would love to hear about it.

Enjoy!

Kim

Tried It Tuesday - Math Monsters - Part 2

Polygons and Persuasive Writing.

As we wrapped up our math monsters project I decided to try a new way to help the students improve their writing that went beyond pairing up with another students. So I am linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for her Tried It Tuesday. 


But first let me share a few completed monsters. 

 You can see part 1 of my Math Monsters post here

In addition to creating a polygon monster, the students had to create a title that used alliteration. 

This guy is "My Magnificent Math Monster"

Here is "Wacky Withering Wilfred

And finally "Dippy Doggie"

Next, I took the assignment one step further and had the students write a persuasive paper to convince me and the other 5th graders that their math monster was "the best!"  The monsters and the essays will be hung in the hallway and voted on by the other two 5th grade classes.

Before that happens, we have some work to do. I decided to try something new. Instead of having the students pair edit, I decide to let everyone in the class give their two cents. 

Each student read their essay aloud. Using  post-it notes, the other students wrote down one thing that they liked about the essay and one suggestion as to how to make it better. 

This took a long time to do but it was so worth it. Each student came away with a stack of post-it notes that contained praise for their writing and some great suggestions to help them improve.

This math monster had super protection powers. 

This monster can do your homework. (Can it also grade papers? I can wish, can't I?)

Although this activity was too time consuming to do on the regular basis, I will definitely do it again. I loved that we were able to share everyone's writing. Since they were not finished products I think it was a lot less threatening for the students who are not confident in their writing ability.

 I was shocked when one of my lower level ELL students, who rarely completes any assignment and who I struggle to motivate, was eager to share his writing. He was so excited to receive his post-it notes from his classmates. He then poured over them and immediately got started on improving his essay. 

Definitely a success!

What new writing strategies have you tried?

Kim

Math Monsters - Part 1

On Friday we finished the second and final day of our state ELA testing. After giving the students a good chunk of free time as a reward for their amazing effort during testing, I realized we still had quite a bit of time before lunch. 

I really needed to spark my students motivation after all that testing! So I am linking up with Joanne from over at Head Over Heels For Teaching,

With our state math testing coming up in May, we still have a lot to cover. Between assemblies and snow days we are a little behind in covering the curriculum. 

I love this particular activity because it incorporates art, math, and ELA.

We started by using pattern blocks to discuss the attributes of polygons. The students then used the pattern blocks to create a math monster. Hexagons, trapezoids, rhombuses, and triangles were available to the students.

Here are a few examples.

They really enjoyed having time to create with the pattern blocks.

The designs were so creative.

After creating their monster, the students traced the shapes and add details.

The details added must be polygons - no circles allowed!

This is as far as we got on Friday. Next week we will finish the monsters. After completing their monster, they will label the number of each polygon on their paper. 

This activity can be taken further by having the students calculate the number of sides, edges, and vertices in their drawing. Back when symmetry was in our 5th grade standards, I would do a similar activity but would stipulate that their design have at least one line of symmetry.

When the monsters are completed and polygons identified, we will use the drawing to assist us in a persuasive writing piece. I will share how and some examples when we finish.

How do you spark your students motivation after standardized testing is over?

Kim

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale - February 27th and 28th!

Teachers Pay Teachers is having a site wide sale to celebrate 3 Million Teachers Strong! Everything in my store will be 20% off and TpT will take another 10% off (use promo code TPT3) for a total of 28% off your purchases!

Many children enter my classroom in September with a dislike for math. It can be a struggle to get these students to let go of their math phobias and enjoy math class. That's were my math games come in.

My Fraction Bundle contains three of my most popular math games. Clicking on the picture will take you to my TpT store where to can check out a preview of these items.

Click here and check out my other items that are on sale Thursday and Friday.

Join me in linking up with Pinkadots Elementary for the big sale.

I currently have 78 items on my TpT wishlist. This site-wide sale gives me a great excuse to finally purchase some of those items. 

Do you wait for a sale or do you just buy items when you see them?

Happy Shopping!

Kim