Five for Friday

I had today off!

It was FABULOUS!!!  It was scheduled bad weather make up day. Sorry, northern friends, we don't have snow days here!
Looking back, I am thinking this week was pretty quiet. Really, did I just say that??!!! Is that even true???

ONE: Last weekend, we had a win win! My son's baseball team won! Then, later that afternoon, his soccer team won!
 


                           

                                 

TWO: At school we started our two week review before the big test. I am trying so hard not to just do worksheets. I am trying to keep it fun, upbeat, motivating. I am working my butt off. My students though, NOT SO MUCH!!! It has been frustrating. I will keep plugging away though, SIX more days!!!!

THREE: My son turned 16 on Wednesday. Having a hard time with that concept! I can get older, his brothers can get older, but for some reason, him turning 16 just seems outlandish. I told him not to take a silly picture because I would still post it. He obviously doesn't care! Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory does that to him!

FOUR: I am doing a homework challenge right now. The second day, all of my classess were +90% for completion.

FIVE:  FRIDAY!!! I enjoyed today sooo much! My younger boys and I slept in and they were able to wake up on their own. They were in such good moods. They helped me out at work for about an hour. Then we headed to Wal Mart and bought a few things for school and for my sons best buddies birthday party!

Once again, our weekend is jammed packed. Two sporting events and a birthday party. Plus, my husband, is making two cakes. Yes, my husband bakes! Can't wait to show you his masterpieces next week!

Cookbook Conversions Project- FREEBIE

I have shared about our Cookbook Conversions project before. But, now that it is over, I want to share one last time and post the freebie, which I have been meaning to do for a while.

Students had to prepare a food item to share with their classmates. The students did really well. They brought in a variety of items.


Pasta salad! They gobbled it up!








Didn't want them to eat this one! It was too cute!



Gotta love Math and gummy bears!!!



Serious overload one day!



I had so many great projects turned in. I couldn't take pictures of everything.

There were some days that we had an abundance of food. I tried to limit for each class, but I was just glad they participated.

The main part of the project was to learn conversions. That was half the grade.

Our Math consultant from our Region Center created this projected. She gave me permission to share it for FREE!

I love the clarity of this project. Rubrics are clear and students know what is expected. For me, parents knew what was expected and that was a huge plus for this project!

The magnitude of this project was a first for me, but I am so glad we did it and it is definitely a keeper! Hope you can have some fun with it too!

Tuesday Tried It- Proof read your lessons...

It's Tuesday, so its time for Tried it Tuesday with Fourth Grade Flipper.

I created a lesson for review this week. I wanted to have a "hands-on" activity for comparing and ordering numbers on a number line.

Students would be identifying benchmark fractions to help them. This is so important. 1/2 = .50, 1/4= .25. They need t o have these memorized. They would need to convert a few, but that is good practice too. For example, 3/5= .60 They do this by dividing.

I gave their groups 7 problems, their recording sheet was the number lines.

First period found an error. No problem, we fixed it.

3rd period found another error. Fixed again.

I posted it in my store yesterday, with the errors. Ugh, I hate that!!

I reloaded it twice already! Ha! I hope its right now.

The activity was good. Students are reviewing a lot of math they need to know. They are cooperative working. There's a lot of math talk going on.


Click here for this activity!

What I learned? Proof, and then proof again!!!

Monday Made It- April

It's Monday Made it with 4th Grade Frolics! I love this link party because it keeps me productive. I can't just download stuff. I actually have to make it and of course I'm gonna use them! 

I have been making a lot of hands on, station activities for my students. Some I am making myself, some I am getting from fantastic bloggers I stalk, I mean follow.

I made these last week to review mean, median, mode, and range.
Early Bird Cards here.
Mean, Median, Mode Range cards here.

The Order of Operation Cards (right) came from here.

The Fergie the Nerd fractions cards (left) came from here.

The decimal and fraction match (top) are mine, get them here.

 Go Fish cards from For the Love of Teaching Math. I love her stuff too! Always super cute!

Miss Math Dork is super talented and I have been printing and laminating her super cute stuff! Recently, I have made a lot of her products.

 

I recently started my own TpT store and have been making some things for it as well.
During the month of March I made some game boards that can be used for any subject, any grade level.

These are a few holiday ones I made and used in my class recently.

I also finished some task cards for my 6th graders.

and you can see I have much laminating to still cut

This past week, I made two new activities for my students to complete while we are reviewing for our big test. (which is only 2 weeks away!!!!)

 The game boards, task cards and the two below can be found at my store.

I think this month I also decided I absolutely must buy my own laminator. Our school laminator breaks weekly! This week it stopped working with MY equivalent cards match activity. I was bummed. Still doing it of course, but I will have to reprint them because after six classes use unlaminated cards, they will be worthless.

Test Prep

Teaching Is A Gift is having a Linky party for test prep.

This is my life right now. We are TEN school days away from the state test and  honestly, I am freaking out!

The next two weeks are all review. I am trying to review everything, which is impossible, I know. I am also trying to keep away from worksheets and boring myself and my students to death.

I created two activities for this week. One is comparing and ordering rational numbers on a number line. I am hoping my students will really practice changing fractions and remembering all the different things we have done with them all year.

The other is a equivalent fractions activity. I made it like a card game. There is so much math I want to recall in it. I am hoping to "trick" my students into enjoying converting fractions.

Be sure to check out all the great links, there are a lot and for every subject!

Potato Head Combinations

It's Tuesday, time again for Tried it Tuesday with Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper.

Last summer I found a lesson using Potato Heads to teach combinations. I thought, how stinking cute! I hoped I would remember it when it was time.

I did, but couldn't find it.

Thank heavens for Pinterest. I searched and it came up!

Thanks to Middle School Survival Guide and her awesome ideas!!! I don't think its an active blog right now, but the archives are still there.

I adapted my stations because of the potato head pieces I had. I didn't buy anything special for this activity. My kiddos have an abundance of potato heads. I am kind of embarrassed that we have so many, but thankful that I do because it was a fun activity!

 I started with this!

We apparently have a lot of potato heads! 

I sorted, sorted again, and resorted.
I really had to think this through. I actually took it home the night before as well, revamped it and gave myself a headache. It truly isn't that difficult, I just wanted to have my ducks in a row.

These were my 6 different stations. My students would be working on three, so I had 3 different combinations to be found.

    

Students received a bag and a card with directions. They had to create a tree diagram and use the counting principle to find the combinations.
The pictures really helped to have included. It helped them, but it also helped keep all my pieces together.

They sorted their bag.

They had to write what was in the bag. 
They had to draw a tree diagram and then write the counting principle equation to go with the diagram.

Then they had time to create the potato heads. They were so silly with their creations. If they had their work done, I was fine with what they created, all in good taste though.

For logistical purposes, my students stayed in their seats and the bags moved. I also set an online timer for them to see so they stayed on task. This is a very visual motivator for students.

Students used this recording sheet to prove their work. I made it very generic. Click on the picture to get a free copy of it.

I will definitely be doing this activity next year. I probably won't change it much because happily, I can say IT WORKED!

Currently, April

Wow, April!!! Such mixed emotions about how fast things seem to be going.

Time for Farley's Currently though, which I love, love, love!!!

Seriously, the blogging world is awesome and linking up to create a community for yourself is amazing! Build relationships with other bloggers. Get to know people, not just school stuff. It has kept me motivated during the rough times this year!

Happy April!!!