Spicing Up The End Of The School Year

Hey friends! I wanted to take a minute to chat about our last few weeks! The last two weeks, we've done Cara Carroll's Camping Unit! My kids LOVED this unit. I actually didn't even get to my favorite part--the skunk creativity! I wanted to take this time to review all our writing traits that we've learned this year. 

We made these adorable little camping books! My kids LOVED doing this. It was a win-win because I gave them several prompts and they just had to pick three to include in their books! You can get your free copy here

 I left a few pages blank so that you can use this product to fit your classroom needs better :) 

To spice up our guided math centers-- I whipped up these easy bottle cap math mats. I used different colors for odd and even numbers for spiral review. I have the students draw their math sentences in their journals and write a sentence telling me which numbers are even and odd.

Click HERE for your guided math freebie!

What are some ways you spice up the end of the year??

Guided Math: Word Problems and Spiral Review

The end is near friends! We have about 15 days of school left! I'm currently in that review status..but I wanted to talk a little bit about guided math and the benefits.

We have benchmarks twice a year. Our first one was in the fall (pre-guided math). My kiddos did not do well at all! It was very sad. I hadn't yet started my "guided math". In fact, I'd only had the kiddos for about two weeks (remember, I started in November). But I still hated seeing them struggle so much. So around Christmas, I implemented a full guided math program. 

I have five or six stations: technology, math literacy, manipulatives, spiral review, puzzles and hands on centers are just a few of the staples I use. 

 For one of my spiral review centers, I used my data to decide which centers my kiddos needed more of. I went with word problems. This is an area that my kiddos struggle with consistently.  What I loved, is that my kiddos were reading and doing math at the same time! I love being about to combine the two subjects! You get more bang for your buck that way! My kiddos loved using my word problem cards in guided math!

These cards are a great tool any time of the year! I'm working on a second set that I intend on sending home for summer review :)

Using Literacy in ALL Content Areas

So my husband has this hobby--it's called HUNTING! He spend countless hours in the woods...tracking, preparing and hunting animals! His hobby costs a few bucks here and there!! Many ask me "Why do you let him do that"...well, friends, this is a marriage, I'm not keeping him hostage! But don't think I don't get something out of it return haha!! My "hobby" is my classroom! Specifically, my classroom library. This year, I'm determined to add more content area books to my classroom library. I've found a few good deals on e-bay and amazon! I've searched garage sales, but my BEST deals were found at...the Goodwill!! They ALWAYS have children's books 2 for $1.00!! I've also been saving up my Scholastic Bonus Points. Somehow, I still do not have enough books! How is that possible?!?!? haha! 

I've started making a few of my own so that my students could have literacy in ALL content areas. I may not always be able to get the books here in time, or find them *after* the fact of teaching that subject.  The good thing about these as I can print as many as I need! I like to put them in math centers and have the students create questions after reading. It's a good way to kill two birds with one stone! I don't know about y'all but I'm constantly struggling to get in the amount of read alouds I need too. This is a perfect way to help with that! A math read aloud is something you can do almost DAILY!!!

Interactive read alouds are a great way to introduce a new math skill. Not only are they getting the math skill, but this is huge for literacy development. It's like killing two (or maybe five) birds with one stone! Since I've started doing interactive read alouds in all content areas, my little friends comprehension is improving so much! It's such a great time to model fluency as well. 

So far I've created a book on fractions and money

These little books are on sale, hurry over and check them out! 

Happy Sunday Friends! 

Primary Guided Math & Freebie

At the beginning of the year, I  was working as a long term substitute in 4th grade. I have always been addicted to "Guided Math", but for some reason, this year my addiction intensified!!!

I have been working on amping my guided math supply kit. I basically needed more hands on centers and had little time (and supplies) to make them! I am not used to being ink deprived, and it's a hard adjustment! In TX, I could get all the ink I pretty much desired! I know that most of you are in the same boat so I apologize for preachin' to the choir. So I decided to do what everyone else does who gets no ink---use colored cardstock! haha! 

My kiddos are practicing telling time to the hour and half hour this week. We had a blast practicing. We use these student hand held time boards over and over again during whole group instruction! 

My kids LOVE these!!

We read the book "If You Were A Minute"

Then, we made a chart of our three favorite things they did in the story and tried to beat the time the characters completed them. 

It's a good thing I've been working out, because 70 jumping jacks in a minute is no easy task ;) haha!!!

After a whole group mini lesson, we break up into small groups for our guided math. I have several "staple centers" I use:

*One bin of Math books. I try to pull as many books related to the subject we are working on!

*Lakeshore Match Up Puzzles

* Math Work Station Cards

*Fold & Solve Math Cards- The Mailbox

You can check out the centers shown here!

We are also using Cara's Time Packet! Which provides so many hands on matching centers for the kiddos! We still haven't finished all the activities in that packet! I'll post about it once we finish!! 

One of my weaknesses is making cute anchor charts! My kids have really struggled with types of sentences, so I made these charts...no judgment okay?? I am NOT very good at these :)

I also created a quick and simple Listening Center Recording sheet--click HERE For the FREEBIE

Quick and Easy Math Centers

I don't know about y'all but this time of year is so crazy! I am spending this week pretty much re-teaching skills from the last six weeks! 

I've talked before about my guided math routine. I need to do another post on that as a first grade teacher! Maybe during the break! The reason I LOVE guided math is because the instruction is tailored to each and every student. It is a lot of prep work, but I use several staple centers that are easily differentiated. For example, I use my Number-Order-and-Skip-Counting-Fun- as a staple center. I printed the pages on bright cardstock and laminated them. Some charts only go from 1-50, some 1-100. I also have different variations of skip counting so that my higher students can go above and beyond what our grade level expectations are and my lower students can practice in the areas they struggle with. 

This packet makes several very quick and practical math centers! 

You can check it out HERE

Guided Math Tips and Resources

Hey Friends! If you haven't noticed, I've  really been enjoying our guided math routine this year! We've had so much fun while learning all at the same time! If you are not familiar with Guided Math, it follows the same routine as Guided Reading! Students are working in cooperative learning groups while the teacher pulls students who need remediation or intervention. This gives you a chance to see where each and EVERY student is.

I typically introduce each topic in a whole group setting, then we start our stations. Students are practicing the skill the first day. I will also sometimes give a pre assessment.  The first day, I am rotating around each station to see where students are struggling. I group my students by how they did on the pretest. The groups will change, depending on the skill. My struggling students for money, might be different then the students who struggle with word problems. The following day, we start off with our stations again and I pull each group to re-teach the skill. We follow this routine for several days. About the fifth or sixth day of instruction, I will give a mini assessment to see where our struggles are. Using this data, I might re-group my students for intervention.

While I'm working with my intervention group, my students are completing centers. The skills are a combination of the current SOL and previously taught skills. This way, the students are working on skills all throughout the year, not just when the pacing guide says to! I don't have my kids rotate. Just the math tubs rotate. You can read more about that here

Reasons why I *LOVE* Guided Math:

*Students are doing engaging, hands on, interactive math activities

*Teacher meets with every student in a small group setting

*It's not BORING! Kids LOVE IT!

Here are my FAVORITE Resources for Guided Math:

                               

That's the reasons in a nutshell! I have SEVERAL posts on guided math and resources to use! My blogging friends also have tons of ideas so I decided to do a little linky party!

If you have a post about guided math, feel free to link up, just be sure to add my image to your post and link back to this post!!! Don't have a blog? Leave a comment of what you would like to know about guided math or your favorite guided math tip!!!

Till Next Time!

Guided Math and More Guided Math

Hey friends! We've been slammed the last few weeks, so I'm so sorry that I haven't had much time to stop by.

We've been hitting some major skills the last few weeks. From Problem and Solution , Main Idea and Author's Purpose, Text Features..AND Cause and Effect! We've been jammed packed! On top of all of that we've been working on our guided math routine. I know y'all can relate to the crazy life we call teaching! Sometimes I can't even believe we are able to teach our little ones so much! With all the workshops, meetings, and trainings, it makes prep time super precious!! I know I'm preachin' to the choir here ;)

Guided Math Centers

So let me tell you how I've adapted to the lack of planning time. I HAVE to teach with hands on centers, it just has to happen. For the first time, I'm at a school where colored ink is like liquid gold..LITERALLY! So I've had to change up my centers a bit. I'm no longer blessed with AS MUCH ink as I wanted (like in Texas). 

So I've been using quick and easy centers. These Math Stations are so easy to put together. I've made them so that I have to spend little time cutting, and I just laminate, hole punch and go! Some centers do not even have to be cut out.

I am absolutely love giving my kiddos an option of their learning centers. So these Multiplication Choice Boards are perfect for that! And they are differentiated so that you can use them for all of your students, no matter their level! 

The students complete these and record their answers in their math journals. 

I made three versions, a full page color version, a full page B&W Version and a half page version.

I also use these math centers in my guided math routine. Each basket has a centers on a previously taught skill. The skills we've been working with is Place Value, Multiplication, Rouding, Addition and Subtraction. All of these skills are in my Fall Math Center Packet for Bigger Kids

I have these work station cards in addition, subtraction AND multiplication. They are easy to assembly and the kids love how they are themed. 

You can check out all of these centers right here.

Story Elements Anchor Charts

We've also started story elements this week. I've always created and used anchor charts, but now that I'm in  4th grade, we create them together. I create one as I introduce the lesson. Once I've introduced the concept and thoroughly instructed it, the students create one in their Reading Binders. I found these binders on TpT and absolutely LOVE THEM! So the kids really have enjoyed creating their own anchor charts and making them different from mine :) It's also nice to see them reference their anchor charts during the week..that's what we make them for, right :) Now, I haven't posted any pictures of my anchor charts for one reason...and one reason only..I do not have the pretty handwriting we see all over pinterest :) This is why I do EVERYTHING on the computer!!! 

Here are a few examples of our anchor charts:

For the skill Story Elements, we read "Crickwing"! What a cute book! I will have more from that lesson in a few days :)

Till next time!