"O Geome-Tree" Activity UPDATED

Happy December! I can't believe ANOTHER year is nearly complete. WHERE does the time go??!

I just revisited and updated one of my math activities that I posted about a loooooooong time ago (from 2011, to be exact). My 4th graders helped me create an interactive bulletin board for Christmas. Here is the original post:

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Our bulletin board for the month of December was entitled "O Geome-Tree" (after the ever-so-popular "O Christmas Tree" song). This was a good opportunity to talk with my students about what geometry is (since, for whatever reason, my students said they had never heard the term). Geometry is something that students have had experience with all the way back to when they were learning shapes. Don't be afraid to introduce the term to them in the early grades! Anywho, here is the board!:

This was a very simple introductory activity. We actually will not get into geometry until late March (other than reviewing what was learned in past grade levels) so I kept it simple. All the students had to do was make a polygon, write a fact or two about the shape and decorate it. They then got to staple it to the board as an ornament for the tree (this was their favorite part). Here is the sample I made for them:

The activity gave me a little insight into what they already knew about polygons; it was NOT a good sign that half of them had to ask what a polygon was :/. Anyway, some students did a really great job while others decided to do a very basic job. Here are some student examples:

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Activities like this make me miss being in the classroom! :)

Anyway, I updated the file today--all activity directions and a grading rubric are included PLUS a set of task cards and recording sheets to use with your bulletin board.

This activity is PERFECT for this time of year! Enjoy the freebie!! :)

Plants, Plants, Plants!

This is a JAM-PACKED plant post--are you ready?!?

Plants unit, week 2 ended yesterday! We have had some GREAT fun so far and have learned so much about plants! The kids have just been so excited about it all--makes a teacher feel pretty good!! ;)

In this unit, we are covering not only plants and their parts, but also some ELA objectives, such as main idea, making inferences, compound words, expository text, parts of speech, research, letter writing, revising and editing, and media and its purpose/techniques.

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LAST WEEK
2 weeks ago, I introduced our new unit (we had just finished penguins) to my students by doing this:

Before the unit introduction, I checked out some plant books from our school library and displayed them on one of the counters in our classroom. I also put the plants book box from our classroom library on the counter next to the library books. Here are just a few selections of the many great plant books that we will be using during our unit!

The kids noticed the books early in the day.

I also picked some pieces off of the bushes outside my classroom door and put them in a tote bag to use for our lesson. We passed the tote bag around and felt inside the bag without looking. 

The students quickly started making inferences about what we would be learning about next! The plant books around the room (which they know I do for every unit) and the familiar feel of the items in the tote bag led them to believe that we would be studying plants--and they were right!! :)

Below is a little freebie page for recording inferences that would work well with this lesson that I used in a previous inferencing lesson.

We made a schema chart that we add to/adjust daily.

We will also keep track of new words that will eventually move to our vocabulary wall.

After we made the schema chart, we grabbed some hand lenses and our journals and went outside to write/draw about the plants at our school.

We used a classic book, Chrysanthemum, to review main idea. Main idea is SO hard for most of my kids. We have been working at it for a few months now and are getting better and better! Here is an image of the flipchart I made to go along with the book based on a lesson plan I found online.


We did the flipchart together across 2 days and then spent the rest of the week reading/studying short fiction and nonfiction passages about various plants for main idea. Again, we are getting better and better at it.

We also briefly discussed living and nonliving. I used this fabulous PBS video to kickstart a discussion about what those words mean.

We then did this super-fun activity that I posted about on Instagram a few days ago!

We made little cards that said "living" and "nonliving", went outside, placed the cards on living and nonliving things, and took pictures using an iPad. This was great fun! The kids then shared their photos with a partner and the whole group.

I wanted to print some of these pictures so we could add it to our living and nonliving anchor chart, but we (currently) do NOT have an easy way to print photos on the school iPads. We also had to turn them in right after this activity. Oh well.

THIS WEEK

This week's plant fun was motly about main idea (still) and the parts of a plant. We read this WONDERFUL Eric Carle book to jumpstart a discussion about parts of a plant (seeds):

This book is also for teaching about the life cycle of plants.

We drew what we already knew about plant parts...

...and then studied the parts of a real plant! The kids really picked them apart--they wanted to see and know everything about them.

We concluded the lab with drawing another diagram of the parts of a plant, in case they learned anything new.

The next lesson was about comparing the parts of different plants. Does every plant have a stem? Does every plant have roots? Does every plant grow the same way? This is a great book to start with:

We headed back outside to compare the parts of flowers to other kinds of plants, like grass, trees, and bushes.

Friday's activity about parts of a plant that we eat was fantabulous--we had a Plant Tasting Party!!

We sorted several types of plants by what part of the plant they are and then got to eat them! They did an AMAZING job at this and were obviously elated to get to eat and learn at the same time! :D

We concluded thew party by watching this book on TumbleBooks and discussing why the bear kept feeling cheated. We will read it again next week.

Finally, we planted some grass seeds and are hoping that they turn out as great as these ones did last year!

NEXT UP

Next week we will start a big plants research project that will include some wormy fun! I made a little journal for us that I will share after I get it just how I want it...

Soooo, what fun things are you up to in your classroom?

Math Stations: Logistics

You may recall last year when I walked you through my math block in a mini-series. Well, this year I have math set up much differently than before. I use a station rotation system (like Guided Math) to deliver my instruction. Part 1: Logistics.



Math is split into two blocks this year (instead of one big chunk of time), we have added a supplemental program called Excel Math to our daily activities, and I have a TOTALLY different bunch of kids. Different bunch of kids = Different bunch of problems. :/

This year, I have math from 11:05-12:20 and 1:05-2:10. The second part of math includes of a restroom break, Excel Math, and calendar time, and also includes a computer class once a week. So, basically, all of the great instruction/important stuff needs to occur in the first block.

During this time, we do math videos, ten-frame games, or hundreds chart activities usually taken from this book:

I pull some of our ten-frame activities from this unit:

And here are some of our favorite videos to use as a warm-up:

 This is the beginning part of our core lesson, directed to all students. This lesson is meant to get the students ready to focus on the day's skill that will be taught. This can include a story, game, video, hands-on exploration, or simply just a discussion.

After the focus lesson, we begin rotations/math stations. I then continue the core lesson with small groups of students, which is much more effective than delivering the lesson whole group.

Our stations are:

 

Ahem. Excuse the mess of the buckets...... ;)

If you love the labels, grab them below for FREE!

After the focus lesson, we are ready to use this handy-dandy rotation board: 

If you can't tell, this is displayed on my Promethean board using ActivInspire. This is the EASIEST rotation board I have EVER had: 

• The students' names are at the top inside the shapes, which are my five groups (it usually doesn't say "name", hahaha. I did that to protect my students' privacy!). I have divided them into 5 similar-ability groups. I do this so that I am able to target specific needs of my students. I can meet the low ones where they are at and challenge my high ones as appropriate. Don't have a cow--the groups are fluid, so a student may move groups several times throughout the year based on his/her needs. ;)

• The numbers going down the sides represent the round number. Each group (shape) looks below the group's shape to see their rotation order. I tried to make it super easy for students to understand. :)

• The stars in each group represent the person who will be using the iPad during Math with Technology. The rest of that group will use the classroom computers. The only thing I have to change daily is the little star--I move it to the next person so everyone will have a chance to use the iPad during the week.

Rotations are like so:

As you can see, each block is 10 or 15 minutes long. The timing may be shorter/longer depending on how long/short my "Math with Teacher" group is. I typically am able to get through all stations in one day. If time becomes an issue, I combine my last two teacher groups into one and deliver the lesson to both at once (9 students is still better than the whole group!).

Our math block concludes with calendar time, followed by another fun and favorite math video to close us out (usually an up-on-your-feet video).

Stay tuned for the next post, which will explain/show the station activities and, of course, include more freebies! :)