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Welcome to my math blog! The purpose of this blog is to help you stay informed about our learning and experiences that have taken place during our math class. I have also included links your child (and you) may want to use in order to supplement math learning in 5th grade.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Substitute and Merry Christmas

My Christmas break is beginning a little early.  I have a meeting today and then I will be out due to my daughter's surgery.  So, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!  See you in the New Year!



Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Fractions: Speed Review with Kahoot

Lesson Frame

  • We will review the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions.
  • I will work on a speed review to solve problems involving fractions along with a partner.
Activity

We completed another round of speed review today.  The kids really enjoy this!  They seem to like being mixed up and there was even more discussion today as they worked through the problems!

Assignment

We completed another Fifth Grade Builder today.  

Monday, December 12, 2016

Fractions: Speed Review with Kahoot

Lesson Frame

  • We will review the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions.
  • I will work on a speed review to solve problems involving fractions along with a partner.
Activity

I was looking for a fun review game, when I came across this blog post:  Math Can Be Fun?!?!?  Basically, this activity uses "speed dating" as a kind of review.  I took this idea and tweaked it.  

I placed "stay" and "move" cards on desks creating groups of two.  The student at "stay" took out the chromebook and logged on to Kahoot.  I created a Kahoot that did not keep track of points, so speed was not an issue.  I gave two minutes per question.  

So, I began the Kahoot.  First, the students worked with the partner they had to answer the question.  Then, they put their answer into the game.  Once time was up, or all groups had entered their answer, we were able to see how the groups did.  I was not able to tell which group(s) answered incorrectly, however, any time there was an incorrect response, we corrected it before moving on.  Then, before the next question was posted, the "move" students moved to the next station.

Overall, this was a huge success.  My goal was to make sure students talked to each other about the question and came to an agreement on the answer.  The kids loved this kind of review.  There was constant movement, they were able to work with ten different people and get different view points, there was a high level of success because my "stay" students were my strongest students and this allowed struggling students to be successful in a positive environment.

We will have another speed round tomorrow.

Assignment

We were finally able to get back to our Fifth Grade Builder today.  I was glad to see that the kids got right back into a math mindset after such a crazy week.

Friday, December 9, 2016

Science Benchmark - Crazy Day #5


Science Benchmark

Final benchmark!  


Math Class

With 45 minutes for class, I chose to do Lexia and Think Through Math.  I have students who will finish Lexia this week and we are down to 7 students who do not have 15 lessons passed in Think Through Math!  We should have our goal by Christmas break!

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Reading Benchmark - Crazy Day #3


Reading Benchmark

We began our benchmark by 8:30 and continued until 12:00.

Math Class

With 45 minutes for class, I chose to do Lexia and Think Through Math.  I have students who will finish Lexia this week and we are down to 10 students who do not have 15 lessons passed in Think Through Math.  I wanted them to have opportunities to be successful.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

UIL Competition - Crazy Day #2


This was our second crazy day this week.  It began with completion of a GT portfolio item.  This will be one of many items that will be used to determine the need for GT testing at the end of the year.

Benchmark/UIL

I personally needed any students who had not completed the benchmark yesterday or were absent to stay with me during PE and Band/Music to finish up.  So, I had about 10 kids with me.  Then, any students leaving for UIL at 10:00 remained with us as well.  They were able to get in another practice before heading out.  My UIL Spelling team is participating today.  Can't wait to see if my new procedure works!

Think Through Math

In each of my math classes, I lost kids to UIL.  So, it was a day for Think Through Math!  My goal is to get all of my kids to 15 lessons passed before Christmas Break.  Today they had about 40 minutes to work.  

Coordinate Graphing



Finally, we spent the last 20 minutes working on Christmas Mystery pictures.  I chose this activity, (1) because coordinate graphing is part of my curriculum (2) it will be easy for my sub to continue as I leave for UIL on Thursday, and (3) well, it's just fun!  I found two resources on Teachers Pay Teachers and am mixing up all of the pictures so that I have a variety happening at each table.  The first resource is:  Coordinate Graphing Mystery Picture Bundle.  The second was  Christmas Tree (Middle School), Coordinate Drawing & Graphing, Mystery Picture.  

Monday, December 5, 2016

Math Benchmark - Crazy Day #1

So, our craziest week (so far) begins!

We started with having students pulled for UIL Ready Writing.  We had a schedule in place, but there was a hitch in the get along, so we had to revise the revised schedule!  We are able to see all three classes for 45 minutes before lunch!

Class-time

So, what to do with 45 minutes?!?  Well, we began with 20 minutes on Lexia and my UIL Spelling team worked on their last set of spelling words before the competition tomorrow.

Next, we worked towards completion of the GEMDAS leaf, UNLESS you are a UIL team of mine (those students took a Number Sense Practice test) OR you don't have 15 lessons passed in Think Through Math (those students spent time attempting to pass a lesson).  Our goal is to have everyone at 15 lessons passed before our Christmas Break.

Math Benchmark

After lunch we spent the remainder of the day completing our Math Benchmark.  We used the released STAAR test from Spring 2016.  My students who have an accommodation to have their test read aloud to them used their Chromebook and my Screencastify videos (I did 10 problems per video) to meet this need.  My Special Ed students were also allowed the use of their calculator.    I will use the information gleaned from this benchmark to determine curriculum to teach, small group remediation, and tutoring that is needed.

Friday, December 2, 2016

GEMDAS - Day 2

Lesson Frame

  • We will simplify numerical expressions that do not involve exponents, including up to two levels of grouping.
  • I will use GEMDAS to simplify numerical expressions that do not involve exponents.

GEMDAS Leaf

As a student, I learned the order of operations using PEMDAS.  However, brackets tended to confuse the issue because the "P" stands for "parentheses" and a bracket is not a parentheses to an elementary student.  So, the mnemonic device has changed to GEMDAS.  The "G" stands for "grouping symbols" which covers both parentheses and brackets.

I found a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers that is perfect for today:


This leaf has 24 problems that involve GEMDAS, but do not include the use of exponents.  The answers are given, which helps students know they are on the right track, but also is a color code for coloring the leaf.  I did include a response sheet on the back, so that I know that they did the work and got the correct answer and didn't just color.

We worked for about 30 minutes on it and then we worked for about 30 minutes on Think Through Math.  We spent the final 10  minutes of class redeeming our points by either donating to a cause or updating avatars.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Let the crazy schedules begin! (GEMDAS)

Lesson Frame

  • We will simplify numerical expressions that do not involve exponents, including up to two levels of grouping.
  • I will use GEMDAS to simplify numerical expressions that do not involve exponents.

So, now we will have all kinds of scheduling changes and loss of students for the next week and a half.  It begins today with the practice of our "all school" musical.  I will lose my 1st period music students, so I wanted to do something that was a review, but also something that was a little fun.  I did not want to include a Fifth Grade Builder, as those students would not benefit from class time.  I chose to review GEMDAS.

Number Sense

  • Before beginning their "leaf", I needed my team to take a Number Sense practice test.
Think Through Math Benchmark
  • Some students did not complete the benchmark yesterday, so before beginning their "leaf", these students had to complete the benchmark.
GEMDAS Leaf

As a student, I learned the order of operations using PEMDAS.  However, brackets tended to confuse the issue because the "P" stands for "parentheses" and a bracket is not a parentheses to an elementary student.  So, the mnemonic device has changed to GEMDAS.  The "G" stands for "grouping symbols" which covers both parentheses and brackets.

I found a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers that is perfect for today:


This leaf has 24 problems that involve GEMDAS, but do not include the use of exponents.  The answers are given, which helps students know they are on the right track, but also is a color code for coloring the leaf.  I did include a response sheet on the back, so that I know that they did the work and got the correct answer and didn't just color.

This activity was not intended to be completed today.  We worked for about 30 minutes on it and then we worked for about 30 minutes on Think Through Math.