Math Vocabulary Cards & Wall

I posted a few weeks ago about my math word wall cards.

Click to view that post.

I didn't plan on putting these by the door, but I think it is going to work out well. I finished decorating my walls and realized that I didn't leave a place for those cards. I am only going to display the vocabulary cards for the unit we are currently working on. I am thinking about arranging them on a piece of chart paper and clipping it to the math anchor chart wall. That may change.

I really like that the others are housed beside the door. I can grab one for review whenever we are lining up! Not a bad plan.

Now I need to focus on planning and getting resources ready for the first week and beyond!

I have loved seeing everyone's classrooms. It has to be one of the best things about #backtoschool!

Monday Made It: Math Word Wall Cards

I saw a pin... I start way too many conversations with that phrase. Do you?

I love this idea! Click the picture to go to the original post.

I wanted to have a better way to focus on math vocabulary this year and this seems like a great solution! I have cards ready for each unit I will teach this year. I will put them on a ring and hang them under the unit name. They are available for easy access for review whenever we need. 

Great, right?

I'm not going to use the yard sticks. I will just staple the cards for the current unit after we discuss them. I will probably put the unit title and cards underneath the current stapled cards. I will put a picture up in August when I get it set up in my classroom.

I didn't want to pay for the cards, so I did some hunting around the internet. I found a great resource.

Link for A-L cards.

Link for M-Z cards.

These are great, but I wanted mine to have a border. I decided not to color code them by unit because of the wall color and my color scheme. My classroom will be aqua, black, and gray with some white. So multicolored word wall cards wouldn't look too great on my aqua wall...

The unit titles have gray chevron backgrounds and the vocabulary cards have a dark gray background.

You can download all 86 pages of my math word wall cards HERE for free!

Units include:

Place Value

Adding & Subtracting Whole Numbers

Multiplication & Division

Patterns

Fractions

Measurement

Geometry

Big G - Teaching Customary Capacity

It is that time again. Time to teach conversions. It is not a fun time for a 4th grade teacher...

We will make it through this unit. That is my mantra!

Last week I introduced Big G to help my kids remember and visualize the relationships between a gallon, quarts, pints, and cups. This is the story I tell them:

In the land of G, there are 4 queens. Each Queen has a beautiful princess and a handsome prince. Each princess and prince has 2 cats!

(I am not a story teller... I love reading stories, but I am not an actress.) This is just a little thing I say as we draw out Big G. I am sure there are other more well thought out version you can find out there.

This year I wanted my kids to come up with their own story for Big G. Here are a few. I don't know if The Zoo or Goosh the Boat is my favorite.

Land of Geneses

The Zoo

The Garner House (I think it was inspired by Among the Hidden)

Goosh the Boat

What do you think?

Do you have any fun things your kids do with capacity?

Mixed Numbers & Improper Fractions videos

Good evening! I just wanted to pop in and share my student's videos from today.

Assignment: The students were directed to go to our Edmodo page, save the 4 photographs to their camera roll, import them onto different pages in Educreations, solve the problems, and record their reasoning.

It was a major success! Only 3 kids didn't get a 100. Love it!

Click on the links to watch a few. Let us know what you think.

Veta

Corvirious

Amber

Andrea

What do you think?

Math Journals

We survived the first week of school!

Starting the year on Monday makes for a really long first week. It was a good one, but we were all tired by the end.

We accomplished:

• setting up classroom routines
• began a little WBT (5 rules & Class; Yes)
• students applied for classroom jobs
• I assigned jobs based on applications
• the kids got on their MyKidsBank accounts
• we started XtraMath
• I introduced the kids to our iPads and my expectations (they were all over it!)
• we set up our Reading & Writing notebooks, Math notebooks, and Socials Studies notebooks
• we got on Edmodo for the first time
• I made a positive phone call to all the parents
• my kids did the pledge, thought of the day, and joke on the morning announcements
• we got a good start on the Daily 4

I have a great group of kids!

We completed our bar graph unit in our math journals. The culminating activity was creating a bar graph without my help. We didn't have time for them to create questions, too, but we will get to that this week.

I love it when I am grading and I have stacks like this:

The far right stack are As, the middle are Cs/Bs, and the left need some reteaching.

I think we had a very successful first week. I always forget how slow we move the first few weeks! I have to get these kids back in school shape! We move quickly and efficiently in my room.  :)

Math Notebook - Bar Graphs

Well, the beginning of the year is creeping closer every day, so I have been productive. I have the first 2 units ready to go in my "teacher" notebook. I want to share the unit on bar graphs with you today.

I am not sure why we start with bar graphs, but we do.

Yesterday I shared my math journal set up. If you missed it, you can see it HERE.

So I have packed quite a few activities onto a few pages of our notebook.

Day 1: We will discuss and highlight the labels for page 1. Then we will talk about the steps in reading and answering a bar graph question. This will be on the first day of school, so I am keeping it short.

Day 2: Our class will pop in the other 4th grade classes to gather some data on favorite desserts. Then we will graph our results on page 2. We will do the first one as a class, I will help them set up their second graph and they will fill in the information with their group.

We will also work on page 3 of our journal. They need to hear the higher order thinking questions as soon as possible. I have also included a QR code to a video describing double bar graphs. This will be for review later on when we have our iPads.

Day 3: We will complete the graphs and questions on page 4 along with a QR code activity. (below)

Day 4: We will work on pages 5 and 6 in our notebooks. The blank graph on page 6 will be an assessment. Either we will gather data in our class for them to use, they can use leftover data from the favorite dessert activity, or they can make it up.

Day 5: This will be more of a worksheet practice day. Ugh. I hate that, but it is a necessary evil.

Nothing too fancy, but I think it will anchor our learning. We will use our textbook and a few other resources in class. There are some great games online that I will have them play when we go to the computer lab.

So, there you go!

Click HERE to download all the notebook resources!

Click HERE to go to the post where you can download the QR activities.

My next unit is place value. I will post about that next week!

Let me know what you think about my bar graph unit!

Math Notebook - Set up

I am starting to shift my focus from decorating to lesson planning. 

Lesson planning is not as fun... Oh well.

I have decided to step up my math notebooks this year, so I have been planning. I really want to tackle our math notebooks (the planning process) unit by unit. This gives me a broader perspective. Now that I have a year under my belt, I know where they need to be in the spring. This knowledge is really influencing my planning. Last year I "knew" what they needed to know because I knew the TEKS, but I didn't have a working knowledge of the types of questions and level of understanding my students would need.

So when I sat down and began planning out our notebooks, I wanted to keep a few things in mind.

1. How do I want the kids to decorate their covers to personalize it?
2. How detailed do I want the Table of Contents to be?
3. Will I follow the customary notebooking rules?
4. Where will I give the students feedback on their notebooks?
5. How will I "grade" these?
6. How should they be organized?

I do want my kids to personalize their notebook covers. This is a great beginning of the year activity. I found these awesome content area coloring pages that will be perfect for their covers! Go check them out.

I will also be adding duct tape to the spines for extra reinforcement and to color code. This makes it easier for students to grab the correct notebook out of their desks.

Now on to the inside...

I am not artistically inclined, so I made the "My Numbers" page on the computer.

My kids last year loved reading my comments. They would get their notebook from me and read the comments on the way back to their seat. 

I will try to remember to find my math chart from last year. It is covered in math information. I had my kids practice adding the information to this sheet. We will be focusing more on it in the fall this year, than we did last year.

HERE is your copy of the pages if you want them!

So, nothing too special, but I do think they are going to be very organized!

I will be posting my first unit, Bar Graphs, tomorrow!

With freebies, of course!

Math Anchor Charts

Do you use anchor charts in your classroom? I started using them this past year and really like it. I have more work to do, but here are a few of my math charts.

Happy Wednesday!

FREE Place Value QR Code Activities

Good morning ladies and gentlemen!

I have more goodies to share with you today. I am slowly working my way through our 1st six weeks math curriculum making QR code activities. I want these to be review activities before we take our mini-assessments.

Click HERE to download your copy!

This includes standard form, expanded notation, and word forms of numbers. It has kids practice making the three largest numbers possible when given 4 digits. It also asks the value of a single digit in a large number.

Click HERE to download your copy!

This packet includes ordering numbers from greatest to least and least to greatest. Students will practice finding inequalities and word problems.

These are FREE resources because I believe in sharing among teachers! 

Please leave me a comment if you download the activities. I would like to know if you like them or not.

Thanks!

Bar Graph QR Code Activities

Hello all!

I am linking up. Go check out all the great ideas!

I have 2 resources to share today. I am going to be working on QR code activities all summer. You can download these and use them in your classroom! My resources are always free.  :)

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Click to Download

Click to Download

Here is what you will be getting:

Anchor Chart Saturday (a day late)

You haven't seen this in months! I have a lot of pictures I need to take. My goal is to get a picture of all my anchor charts before the Christmas break. Here are the ones currently hanging in my classroom.

Anchor Charts on PhotoPeach

Inspired by Pinterest ~ Look up!

Source: firstgradeblueskies.blogspot.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

After I saw this picture on Pinterest, I decided to utilize my ceiling for review of some math concepts.

Here are a few files for you!

Transformations Posters

Measurement Posters

Lines Posters

I added scrapbook paper to group concepts together. Then I spread them around the room!

Enjoy!

Anchor Chart Saturday

The week in review...

Monday ~ No school. Labor Day.

Tuesday ~

In reading, we are working on listening to our inner conversation to monitor our comprehension. We discussed the different kind of connections we make while reading.

We all added a heart map to our writing journals.

Reviewing place value and adding the millions period.

After our assessment today, I see that we need more place value practice! I will be adding a few things to our daily routine. I know that they need a million or so repetitions before they master a concept, so.... that is what we will be doing over the next several weeks!

 

We did this one last week, but I wanted to share it anyway! Mrs. Hewitt is a wonderful teacher that comes in to help us with math.

Wednesday ~ no charts

Thursday

We talked about narrowing our topics. We started with large subjects and got smaller. Our third step was to choose a few things to write about from the topic/subject we chose. This was my example and the students chose their own. 

We are starting our weather unit, and boy do we get in detail! On Friday we talked about warm and cold air masses, fronts, weather changes, temperature, humidity, and air pressure. We are really learning a lot about the atmosphere.

I came up with some movements to help us remember the definition of weather.

We say, "Weather (arm out in front of you with your fingers forming a W) is a condition of the atmosphere (use both arms to form a large A) in a certain place (point down the the ground my your feet with both hands) at a certain time (hold out your arm and pretend to point to your watch.)

Friday ~ no charts

I think I am doing good with my charts so far! I didn't prepare my charts for this coming week, because I haven't decided what I am going to be using yet. That is on the agenda for this weekend!

I hope you have a happy weekend!