Christmas Math Carnival

You guys!  It's the most wonderful time of the year when I get to wish for snow and drink hot cocoa that has a candy cane as a stirrer.  YES!  Please don't hate me for being a winter-obsessive.  I love the snow - skiing, coats, boots, scarves, and NO WEEDS GROWING IN MY GARDEN!  Y'all.  Do you even know big my gardening/yard work struggle is?  Ask my neighbors.  They'll tell ya. 

PS, I just purchased Photoshop Elements.  The bottom picture is a free program, the top is Photoshop.  It's a JUMBO learning curve, but I'm liking it so far!  Any tips and tricks, send them my way!

 

My old teaching friend and I came up with the idea to host a math carnival during December as a way to review some key math concepts before the long break.  We picked out 4 topics that students had struggled to master so that we could reteach and review them, but we wanted to do it in a fun way! 

We set up 4 different stations in each of our rooms and mixed our kids and split them into 8 groups.  (By the way, they thought this was AWESOME to do math with the "other" 6th graders.  Ha!)  I also enlisted some parent volunteers to help out, though it's totally possible to do without them (though if you CAN get them in your room, DO IT!  It's so great to build great parent-teacher relationships). 

At each station, students earned a sticker on their carnival "ticket" for participating.  At the end, they could cash it in for a math homework pass.  This, my friends, is like winning a Golden Ticket into Willy Wonka's factory in our class because homework passes do NOT come easily.

This year, I'm replacing a station that I've used in the past.  My class really struggles with making simple mistakes with their math facts & remembering Order of Operations.  #pleasetellmeyourkidsdotoo  They know the ins and outs of the algorithm, and they can tell you why it works.  But they just go too gosh darn fast, and they mess up in one little place, and I worry about equations after the break because little mistakes like that just make or break a formula.  Ya know?  So, I'm throwing in this tasty booth.

What you need:
Hershey Kisses
Hershey Minatures
(you really can use whatever you'd like, I just like these)
Sharpie
Label/Post-it

Optional:
Those cute little Avery circle labels.  I didn't have them when I came up with this, but next year if I'm feeling like I want a cute booth, I will use those!

Put a number on each Hershey Kiss.  For differentiation, some groups can have fractions while others have simpler numbers.  I'd stick with 0-14 and use each number several times.  Maybe like two times with 8-14 and three times with 0-7.  This is a very careful set-up....can you tell?  On your Minatures, put a label or Post-it note on the bottom with a number.  These are the target answers.  Students take 5 kisses and 1 miniature to create their problem.  It plays just like Krypto, so if you've never played that, check out this video below...thanks random nice man for saving me time! :)

Here's a free PDF of the recording sheet for your kiddos!  I usually only give them 15-20 minutes at the station, so they generally get through 4-5 problems in that time.  It's a blast for them!

Elf on the Shelf in Your Classroom: 25 Days of Problem Solving

December is SO magical!  I remember my first year of teaching, I was just itching to get the Christmas season started in my room.  As soon as Halloween ended, I couldn't wait to implement all of the fun Christmas traditions I'd been dreaming of and planning all through college.  I waited as long as I could, but I didn't quite make it to Thanksgiving.  *ashamed, I know*  By the time Christmas actually rolled around, we were SO OVER IT!  Even my students were tired of Christmas music!  I was a total humbug that year, and I vowed to never EVER do that again.

And yet, here we are before Thanksgiving talking about CHRISTMAS!  :)  Don't worry, there's a reason!  I'm hosting a giveaway for a fun, new product for December, but I want the winner to have it BEFORE December begins!

The other morning I was in the shower getting ready for the day.  I have a love-hate relationship with showers (love them, HATE drying/curling my hair, and air drying looks like a lion got electrocuted), but I seem to get my best ideas for school in there.  So this little idea popped into my head of a way to do a "middle school/grown up" version of Elf on the Shelf and actually make it fun and educational.  As soon as I got out, I had to just dump all of my ideas out before they got away!  Click HERE to get this product on sale!  It's on sale through 11/20/15!

This set of problems features 25 problem solving and critical thinking problems!  (Mostly 25 because 12 just was NOT enough!)  I thought it would be fun to hide a problem somewhere in the school each morning (nice and early) and students can find and solve it each day.  If they turn it in with a good effort, they get a point.  If they get it right, they get a prize!  I've also thought of incorporating this into my behavior management system where the kids earn letters to a word throughout the day and if they get the word, we get to solve one of these the last 10-15 minutes and then they are entered into a drawing.  I haven't decided yet! 

 

 

There are 6 different varieties of student response sheets to fit the needs of you and your students.  I am going to be giving only 1-2 problems a day, so mine will be a quarter-sheet sized paper for each day so that the students have some space to work out their thinking!  Then they can just fold that paper up and enter it in the drawing.  I'm all about making December easy!

Anyway, take a look at some of the sample problems and be sure to enter the drawing on my Instagram account!  @6thgrademarksthespot  Along with the digital file for you and your grade-level team at your school, you'll also receive a set of COLORED questions that are task-card sized that are laminated and cut.  I am so thankful for all of you, so here's my way of saying THANKS to you!

 

**Please see terms & conditions for entering on Instagram**

A Long, Long Time Ago I Can Still Remember

I know that I'm a day late in getting this posted...since Veteran's Day was yesterday and all, but it just wasn't going to happen.  Sorry y'all!  Fortunately, this is an activity that isn't necessarily a Veteran's Day only activity.  It's terrific for all of November as we turn our focus to gratitude.

When I was getting my arts integration endorsement, we had a few classes on technological arts.  We were challenged to create a video with technology that our students had access to so that we would be familiar with it.  I've made a few movies in my day, but our school has Chrome books, and those don't come preloaded with video editing software.  There WAS an online program called Mozilla Popcorn that is an online video editing program.  And it's my favorite four-letter f-word: FREE!  Unfortunately, they no longer support this service, so...it's not available to make new videos.  :(

It's pretty basic, but, hey, when you're teaching video and movie creation to 11 year-olds, basic is okay!  Our other challenge was to become familiar with Creative Commons licensing for pictures & music.  When I was in junior high, I was in a choir that sang the song "In Flanders Fields."  I loved the song because it was gorgeous, but it wasn't until years later that I understood the meaning.  I decided to create a video that featured the song along with pictures and to use the original poem as a close read for my students to launch a more thoughtful essay on gratitude.  I was worried that my students would totally miss the point and think it was weird, but I should have learned to NEVER EVER underestimate 6th graders.

I had my kids read the poem first without any background.  (At this point, we had done a lot of close reading, so they knew the drill of highlighting, writing, notating, etc. and writing about their first read.)  We talked about it and I asked them what they thought it was about.  The first read most of them said, "I'm kind of confused...what's a lark?"  Ha!  Gotta love kids.  Anyway, I slowly introduced more information before each respective reading: history of the author, the story behind the poem's authorship, and where/what Flanders Field is.  I honestly struggled to hold back tears by the end of the third read as students where pulling out some SERIOUSLY DEEP MEANING!  They were so moved by this short poem.

For the fourth read, I asked them to watch the video and write down their thoughts as it went along.  As the video ended, not a soul moved.  They quietly left my room for lunch, and they frequently talked about how much they enjoyed the lesson.  It's one that I've used again and again because it is so powerful to instill deep gratitude in our students.  After all, we have SO much to be grateful for.

This would be a powerful way to begin a class project of sending letters and packages to troops overseas or to begin a social studies unit on WWI & WWII or The Revolutionary war (or any war really) so that students have a little more respect and understanding for those who have given their lives fighting for freedom.

I'm including the links for the background info and the video I used.  Because of the CC licensing, you are also welcome to use this video and edit it as you wish, so long as you are not seeking financial gain for the video, pictures, etc.  I'd LOVE to hear how it goes in your class!

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields-inspiration.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE!

Ohhhhh my lanta.  This was the project that just wasn't meant to be...according to fate that is.  In the course of my attempt to complete it, I have had to recreate it due to computer (user error, ha!) issues and I had to solve every card twice because I accidentally shredded the first one when I was anger-cleaning.  Yes, that's a thing at my house.  When I get really mad, I clean frantically, but it's usually in haste.  I was tired of the ghastly amount of junk that comes into our mailbox each day, so in anger I went to shred it.  Along with my SHOWN WORK!  Sigh.  But!  It's done!  And I love it!  And it's posted!  If you're interested, click any of the pictures or HERE and they'll link you to my TpT store where it's currently on sale for this weekend! 

 

Imagine me fistbumping you.  Because I am THAT excited that this is finally LIVE!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

 

 

I love QR codes!  They make immediate feedback so easy, and what middle schooler doesn't love pulling out their phone without fear?

 

These cards have multiple versions so that you can use one product with a variety of levels.  One version asks students just to explain how to break the shapes apart without the pressure of calculations.  The other version requires calculation and for students to decide which dimensions are actually necessary-some cards have extraneous dimensions!  It's good for them!

Every teacher needs simplicity in their lives without worrying about compromising the content.  There are multiple student work pages so that you can pick what works best for YOU!

The cards are designed on single pages so that you can pick you'd like to have them printed.  Work mats?  Yup.  Mini task cards?  Just tell the printer what to do!  Every teacher uses task cards so differently, so I want to make sure you get the options to do it just how you want without the hassle! 

I am stoked about these y'all.  Let me know how you use them in your room!  I can't wait to hear!

I Love Books and I Cannot Lie

It really is no secret that I love books.  I'm pretty sure most teachers do!  As I was doing a bit of book organizing in my library over fall break, I pulled out a few of my all-time favorites so I could share them!  I do this pretty regularly with my students because sometimes they just look at the library and think, "There's so many that I don't even know where to start."  I pull a few out here and there and talk about what I loved about each one.  Almost always those books don't go back in the shelf for a while.  Kids just need a little help sometimes, even the big kids!

The Giver and Wonder are two books that are talked about on nearly every upper elementary teacher blog, so I won't spend much time.  They are great, and you should read them.

Avi has FANTASTIC BOOKS!  However, I must admit that my favorite is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.  Do your class a favor and get a newer copy of this book (probably within the last 10 years?).  The old copy has a girl in colonial clothing and my boys were just not that into it.  However, they enjoyed the story line, but it took a LOT of chapters to get them convinced that it wasn't a "girl" book.  :)  Almost all of them liked the newer version's cover.  Yes, we all judge books by their covers despite the old adage.

My first year teaching 6th my fellow teacher friend introduced me to this book.  We both read it to our classes at the beginning of the year and the kids LOVED it!  A ton of my students bought the book at the book fair or the book order to read along.  Win-win there my friends!  I read the first book out loud and then had the remaining books in the series in my classroom library.  They rarely are found IN my library.  They're usually on a desk.  Ha!

I have read so many Andrew Clements books it's ridiculous.  However, Frindle is hands DOWN my all-time favorite.  It's such a great discussion for words and how "texting" and "selfies" didn't really used to be words at all!  It's usually a crowd favorite, though I have found that a lot of my students are love-or-hate readers on this book.  Andrew Clements book typically feature a manipulative and clever protagonist that overcomes some sort of school system or educational set back.  Most kids can relate, but every year I have a few haters.  :)

So many great books here.  The Giver is such a great book because it really gets kids thinking.  I often save this one for a read aloud towards the end of the year, but I think it could also be a terrific book for the beginning of a 6th grade year (in Utah we teach government systems in social studies, and I really think this could be eye-opening!).  I love that students begin to value the importance of making wise choices.  My reading groups love this book and The Unwanteds (not pictured because it's checked out!) and comparing the two.  One of my FAVORITE things to do with The Unwanteds is to tie the importance of art and creativity into it as a launch and selling point to get kids to buy in to our increased participation of the arts.  (I have an arts integration endorsement and I am a HUGE advocate of the arts and the kids love, love, LOVE it.)

I am not a scary person.  I hate scary movies and scary stories.  When I was in fourth grade, my teacher had a copy of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark in her room and I read about 4 of them.  Guys, it took me years, YEARS, to go into a bathroom and look in the mirror at night (even with the lights ON).  Wait Til Helen Comes was a book I had to read for a children's lit class in college and it even scared me then.  BUT!  I think her books are fabulous.  Her books are great mentor texts!  Some classes I've had can totally handle this as a read aloud in October, but some have a few more sensitive souls (like me!), so just be aware that some kids are legitimately terrified.  It's a real thing!  

What are some of your books that you swear by in the upper grades?