Halloween Number Stories

This isn't anything fancy, but I created a Halloween worksheet of number stories.  For those of you not in the habit of Everyday Math jargon, It is a worksheet of Halloween story problems.  I'm not sure why every few years they feel the need to give math stuff new names. Oh well.

Click on the picture of my beautiful daughter and it will take you to the Google Doc.

Enjoy!!!

The Creative Apple is having a great giveaway. 

Hurry on over there and see if you can snag a freebie!

UH-OH OREO!!!

Welcome to our O.R.E.O. Project Fall 2011!
(Our Really Exciting Online Project)

I love this time of year.  Each year my class and our first grade learning buddies stack Oreo cookies and gather data.  This is a online project hosted by Project By Jen.  I have done this project for the last 6 years.  The kids have a blast collecting their data.  They also like eating their results.

These were the guidelines we were required to follow…

You will measure the COUNT of cookies used to stack --
NOT height of stack.

Each participating class needs at least
1 bag of Nabisco's Oreo® Chocolate and
Crème Sandwich Cookies.
(classrooms need to use the REGULAR Oreo cookie --
not double stuf or triple double for their average.)

Students will observe how many Oreos
they are able to stack before the Oreos® tumble.

Students are encouraged to predict
how many Oreos® they think they will be able to stack and then compare actual results.

Students are NOT to use anything to stabilize the cookie and they are NOT able to adjust cookies as they stack. (i.e....once they have placed the cookie and their hand has left the cookie, they may NOT adjust that cookie again.)

Each student will have TWO attempts to stack Oreos® and
will record the highest amount they were able
to stack before tumbling.

Teachers will need to explain to their students that this is a project with schools all over the world and also explain what information this project is attempting to collect. They also need to discuss that at the end of the project, all results will from their classroom will be averaged and posted!

Once the entire class has stacked their Oreos®, they will average all their results to turn in ONE class amount.

Click below to see all of the classrooms across the world who have joined in this project and posted their results online.

map

The link below will show you the results of all of the classrooms that have participated.

results

Enjoy some pics of my kiddos and thier learning buddies.

You Know You Teach Third Grade When . . .

Let me start by saying, I normally teach 5th grade.  This year I am teaching 3rd grade.  As part of our state's curriculum, I have to teach fairy tales and fables, so I started this last week by reading a different fairy tale each day.  On Thursday, I read Puss in Boots.  I would have never been able to read this to my 5th graders and say the main character's name 15 different time without hearing snickers and giggles.  The 3rd graders were enthralled, without so much as a strange look or a giggle.

On Friday, I read Rapunzel.  It talked about how the prince climbed up Rapunzel's hair, they fell in love, and performed their own marriage ceremony.  After a few months Rapunzel's dress began getting tight around the middle and her step-mother became angry with her and cut off her hair and threw her out of the tower.  One little boy looked at me and said,"I don't get why was her step-mother so angry?"  Holy cow! I didn't know that sex-ed was part of Fairy Tales 101.

Put Down the Pencil and Walk Away

Somebody should stop me before I volunteer again.  Please!  I swear I need an intervention.  The note goes up on the board in the office, you know the one, "We need someone to volunteer for ________ (you fill in the blank)  please let me know if you are interested. "    I am like a crack addict and volunteering for a committee seems to be my fix. 

I will say I have gotten better.  Now instead of outright putting my name on the list I say,  if you can't find anyone else I will do it.  Who am I kidding.  Once I say that, they stop looking and Bam! another serving for my plate.  It's called boundaries and apparently I seem to lack them.  Does anyone else out there have this problem?  Or am I alone? 

Happy Tuesday!!!

Yay Me!!!

Ok, first let me say I am soooo excited to be awarded with this Versitle Blogger award.  However, I am not feeling like I derserve it this week.  I have been stressed to the max and have not been decent enough to thank Patti over at "A Series of Third Grade Events"  The thought of needing to tell you all 7 things about me and pass the award onto 15 others seemed daunting.  After a day out of my classroom for meetings today, I feel destressed enough to sit down and blog.  So here goes.  Thank you so much Patti!  I am honored that you have bestowed this upon me and my little blog.  (Let's just say I started this post on Thursday and now it is Saturday and finally I am actually going to post instead of saving as a draft.) 

Now for the rules.  When you receive this award, you must thank the person who gave you the award, tell seven things about you, and pass this award onto 15 blogs that you feel deserve this award.

Thank you again Patti!

1.  I love to sing.  I was in concert choir in college.  I was part of my churches worship team for several years.  I sang, and got paid I maight add, in several weddings.  However, the moste memorable wedding I sang in was my own.  I held my husband's hands, looked into his eyes, and sang to him.  It was awesome; not a dry eye in the house, except for my husband, I told him if he cried while I was singing, I would kill him.  He didn't cry and 17 years later we are still going strong.  Then I was given the opportunity to sing the same song when my mom and dad renewed their vows on their 25th anniversary.

2.  In that same vein, I always wanted to be a rockstar.  When I turned 40 is when I realized that was probably not going to be my reality.  Oh well.  I am a teacher, and isn't that kind of the same thing?

3.  I love to watch television, and my guilty pleasure show is America's Top Model.  If you tell anybody I will have to deny it.  Holy cow, I don't know why I love it so, but I do.  Deep down, I probably always wanted to be a model too.  I did take a modeling class when I was 12 and got to model clothing while I walked around a department store encouraging people to visit the girl's department.

4.  My sister owns her own custom cake business, Stephanie's Sweets, and I get to help her make these edible creations.  I  very much enjoy spending time with her and getting to explore my creativity in this way.

5.  I love to travel and have visited many interesting and diverse locations in the past, present, and even the future through the pages of books.  One day,  I would actually like to travel to some of these places in real life.  I have two fantasy vaction spots:  Australia and Japan.

6.  I have written 2 grants in the last 2 years and have received $1700 to use for technology in my classroom and to go on a field trip.  This year I plan on writing a grant to see if I can get ipod touches or ipads to use in my classroom for "Listen to Reading".

7.  I love to cook and try new things in the kitchen.  I have been working on a recipe to submit to the Pilsbury Bake-off next year.  I think it would be fun to compete in food contest.

And Now My Winners Are. . .

I have to say, picking just 15 was hard.  There are soooo many great blogs out there who have sparked enthusiasm and creativity for me.  I feel blessed to have found this community of teachers to collaborate with this year.





Delightful Daily 5 Cafe

Doing the Daily 5



Daily Five is the Bomb-diggity!

For the last 7 years I have been teaching the 5th grade in some form or another.  Sometimes straight and sometimes in combination with a 4th or a 6th.  Guided reading for me consisted mostly of passing out the same  book to a group of about 6 kids who were all at basically the same level.  I would then try to meet with as many groups as possible in one day, which was usually 2, while trying to keep the rest of the kids busy.  This was usually achieved with worksheets or if I had an exceptionally well behaved class, I may have tried using centers.  Lets face it, it was all busy work.

We would sit at my kidney table which I later upgraded to a U-shaped table and would take turns round-robin reading.  I thought I was getting fancy when I would give them post-it notes. They would look for new words, ask questions or make text connections and they may even make a prediction or two.  I would give them a set amount of pages to read for the next time we would get together and then I would send them on their merry way.  I would expect them to write a summary for me in their reading notebook, which I later upgraded to writing friendly letters back and forth with my students.  (I am not saying that this is a bad idea, I'm just saying after a while all of that reading and writing or summaries and letters was too much for me to keep up with.)  My ultimate goal was to make sure everyone got through their books.  

I thought that what I was doing was what I should be doing.  We would DRA test our students at the beginning of the year and then again at the end of the year.  My students always showed growth.  Our district judges us on how the kiddos do on the DRA.  They have to achieve a certain fluency speed, have a certain accuracy, and write a good summary.  We did this well.  I didn't give much of the rest of reading a second thought.  All that one on one stuff was for the primary grades.  Right?

Then two things happened.  My second grade daughter was an entire grade behind in school and was really struggling in reading.  She hated it.   Then, I really analyzed how my students were doing on our state tests.  That's when I really began paying attention to what my first grade teacher friend was doing in her classroom for reading.  I asked her many questions about how she taught and assessed reading.  I took a graduate class on teaching struggling readers.  I learned the difference between running records and miscue analysis.  This is when I realized I wasn't really teaching reading. I was creating good word callers that could write a summary that passed the mustard.  They could not, however, go beyond the text and answer deeper meaning questions like authors purpose or inference questions.

That's when it happened, I discovered "The Sisters" for myself. I had heard of them before, but never gave them much thought for me the upper elementary teacher.  I attended their Daily 5 and CAFE in the Classroom workshopes.   I have to say they have helped me put into place a real reading system for my classroom.  It all makes so much since.  It was like, "Duh".

This year I moved to third grade and jumped into the pool with both feet and I am swimming in the warm waters of Daily Five and the CAFE in the Classroom.  My kids love it, and I love it.  By day 7 we have made it to 29 minutes of stamina for  Read to Self and we have introduced Word Work.  I know that the sisters suggest Work on Writing next, but I had to get spelling going.

By the way, my daughter is now in 4th grade.  She still has some reading issues, but she is reading right where she should be for her grade level and she enjoys books now.

Paper Timmy or Tommy or Tina

Every year I lke to start off my year with some character education along with my procedures.  This year so far I have read Crysanthemum, Lily and the Purple Plastic Purse, Don't Laugh at Me, and Have you filled a Bucket Today? 

After I had read all of these books I did a lesson that I call Paper Timmy.  I Draw a stick figure of a child on a sheet of chart paper and I usually call it Paper Timmy.  I usually make a big deal out of the fact that we have a new student in our class and his name is Timmy.  This year I have a Timmy, so we have a Paper Tommy.  We discussed how in each book someone said mean things to someone else.  I asked the children to think of a time when someone said something mean to them or that they said something mean to someone else.  I have them share these out loud.  As they say each mean thing, I begin to crumple up Timmy.  I say do you ever feel this way inside, all tight or crumpled when someone says something meanto you?  Eventually I have a tight wadded up ball.  The kids relate to this and say that they have felt this way inside when they get made fun of.  We all agreed that this is not a good feeling.

Then I tell them that it takes many positive compliments to ofset (not the word I used with them.) just one negative comment.  Then we begin to say nice things to Timmy and compliment him.  As the children say nice things or fill Timmy's bucket, I begin to undo the tight paper ball.  We continue complimenting Timmy as I continued unfurling the wad until he is flat again.  I try desperately, with lots of flair, to get Timmy to look perfect .  This is when I point out that no matter how many nice things we say to Timmy, you can't erase the effects of the mean words.  You can never take them back.

I hang Timmy somewhere in the room and when we begin to experience times when kids are being mean, I point to paper Tinny and remind them that they ned to say nice things and they cannot take back the mean things.

I have had former studetns come back to my room at the beginning of the year and they will point and say "There is paper Timmy.  I remember him,"  I love that. Be prepared however, one year I had a student tell me that it made him feel bad when his step-dad told him he would never be anything when he grows up.  That's when I realized that when he left my room he would believe he could be anything when he grew up.

This is one of my favorite activities!  I hope you use and enjoy it.