Back to School - Math Edition

It might be time to think about renaming my blog, because I'm really excited about teaching math this year! It all started when I read the book Number Talks over the summer.

I've always understood the importance of mental math and computation strategies, but I'd never really understood how to teach it. It felt like something kids either had or they didn't. This year, however, I decided that we'd start doing number talks from day #1, and I'm already blown away by how my students are developing as mathematical thinkers. They're able to solve complicated addition problems in their heads -- no paper allowed -- and they're articulating their strategies well. I've been introducing a new strategy every 2-3 days, and it's been awesome. We'll be moving on to subtraction strategies in a few days, and I have high expectations for that to.

To help students with the mental math strategies, I made a set of posters that describe each strategy with an example of how it works. There are 20 posters in all -- one for each strategy described in the book.

The complete set is available in my TpT store, and they'll be on sale for 28% off this weekend as part of the Teachers Pay Teachers back to school sale if you use the code BTS13.

As I've been working on order of operations and number sense with my fourth graders, I also introduced the four fours problem. The premise of the problem is this:

Using some arithmetic combination of four 4's, can you write an equation for each of the numbers from 1-100? Here are the rules:

• You may use any combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division
• You may combine numbers, e.g., use 2 of the fours to make the number 44
• You may insert decimal points
• You may use a four as an exponent
• You may use square roots
• You may use factorials, e.g., 4! is equivalent to 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24
• You may use overbars to make a decimal repeat
• You may NOT use any digit other than a four
• You MUST use all four 4's in each solution

Before I go on, let me give two caveats. 1) I didn't expect all of my students to be able to handle all of these rules. Square roots, exponents, and factorials are WAY above my fourth graders heads generally, but I did have a handful that could handle it. And there are plenty of solutions to be found that don't require those operations. 2) This problem freaked out the parents more than it scared the kids, I think. I had a few panicked parents that I had to talk down while we were working on this, but in the end, it was well worth it. My students were so excited about math and problem solving as we worked through this problem. It was homework each night to try to find a few more solutions, and then we'd add to a chart during math class. Look at all that my students accomplished after just two days!

We've filled in a bunch more solutions since then, but of course I left my camera at school this weekend...

Finally, in honor of the big back to school sale on TpT, I've bundled four of my favorite math resources into a back to school math pack for this weekend only. 

Sold separately, this is $17 worth of products that I'm selling this weekend for $10, but after Monday, the bundle will no longer be available in my store. So if you've had any of these on your wish list...

Hope everyone had a great week! I'm still learning how to juggle grad school with teaching, but I'm hopeful that I'll still be posting at least once a week.

Off to start catching up on blog reading and filling my cart for the TpT sale! Have a great weekend!

Word Walls

I devote a fair amount of wall space in my classroom to a word wall. I know that not all teachers do this, and I've read plenty of criticisms in the past about why word walls are impractical (too large and overwhelming to students, not used by students, etc.). But I want to share how I use a word wall in my classroom to counter some of those criticisms.

At the beginning of the year, I put up a large empty word wall.

Each week, on a separate area of our whiteboard, I'll introduce some content-area vocabulary on word wall cards that are color-coded by subject. For some -- like the math vocabulary -- I have QR codes linked to each word so that students can look up the definitions. Others are just the word. We'll do a variety of vocabulary-related activities throughout the week, and then once the words are learned, we'll move them to the big wall. Here's an example of that with some of our math vocabulary words (green & blue background with QR codes) and an International Baccalaureate Learner Profile Trait (green and polka dotted background).

The big wall serves a couple purposes. First, it acts as a record of all of the learning that we've done. It's exciting for my students to see all of the new words and concepts we've learned throughout the year, especially since the board moves from being completely empty to practically bursting at the seams by May. I think that's valuable affirmation of our hard work, and it's worth dedicating the space to me.

The second way that I use the wall, however, is even more important. We use it as a source of constant review throughout the day. During many of our transitions, I'll choose a word, share the definition or a related concept, and the students have to use the wall to figure out what word I'm referring to. I'll have students do this to earn spots in line, transition to get materials, or as a sponge as we wait for other teachers to arrive, etc. As students get better with this routine, I have them start to give the clues to each other so that they're remembering the vocabulary and using it regularly. I hardly ever do test prep throughout the year, and by constantly revisiting these words, I don't think we need to. The word wall is a great visual reminder to me about the words they need to know and the concepts we've talked about.

Don't get me wrong. I think there's a lot of value to having personal word walls and smaller, focused word walls for particular units. But in the best of worlds, I think kids benefit from both.

I've spent a lot of time working on creating durable word cards for my word wall this year, and on Monday and Tuesday, all of my word wall sets at TpT will be 28% off with the code CMT12.

These card sets are normally priced between $3 - $8, and I have them available for the following topics:

Math - All Common Core aligned and embedded with QR codes linked to the definitions:

• Grade 4
• Grade 5
• Grade 4 & 5 Combo Pack 

Science 

• Ecosystems
• Force & Motion
• Light
• Sound 

International Baccalaureate PYP

• Learner Profiles and Attitudes (FREE) 

I'm working on some new sets for additional grade levels in math, more science units, and some new Social Studies cards with QR codes. Stay tuned for those.

Do you have a Word Wall in your classroom? I'd love to hear how you use it in the comments section!

Have a great weekend!

Grade 5 Interactive Word Wall is Done!

Just wanted to share that the 5th grade set of math vocabulary with QR codes is done and posted at my TpT store. Let me know if there are other sets that people would be interested in having!

Have a great weekend!

Friday Freebie - Interactive Word Wall Cards

I report back to school in about two weeks. Yes, you read that correctly...TWO WEEKS, people! Technically teachers have to be there on the 25th, but that's a Wednesday, and you know how it goes. Pre-planning isn't really for much of planning. It's for sitting through meetings, catching up with colleagues you haven't seen all summer, tracking down the garbage can that mysteriously vanished from your classroom when the room was cleaned...You know how it goes. So, I expect that I'll be there before the 25th, trying to get my room in some semblance of order while I still have the time to do so.

And while I haven't done anywhere near as much lesson planning this summer as I'd set out to do, my room is going to be cute this year, gosh darnit! Thank you, Pinterest... At least, I hope it is given how much time I've spent putting together new things to hang up in my classroom.

Today's addition to the classroom decor is my set of math vocabulary words for my interactive word wall.

The idea started when I had my students write geometry riddles based on the properties of different shapes and then attach the solutions on a QR code. My kids loved that, and I'd frequently find them wandering over to the display with their iPads to read the riddles and check the solutions. I figured if they were interested in working with that display, maybe they'd be interested in having an interactive word wall, too.

Thus, I set to work on making a set. I scoured the CCSS and various other curriculum docs to try to come up with a vocabulary list, and I found about 125 different terms for fourth grade. I was able to match most of them up with kid-friendly definitions and tutorials at the website Math is Fun. I turned those into QR codes, and voila -- my interactive word wall was born.

I decided to share the "Property" cards as my freebie today because a) those show up in many of the upper grade standards -- not just 4th grade, and b) I need help remembering which is which each year, so I know these could probably be helpful for a lot of students (and their teachers!). To get your copy, you can click on the image above, or click here. The definitions include the various properties for both multiplication and addition where applicable.

I'm selling the complete set of 4th grade cards over at my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and I'm hoping to put together a set for 5th grade and maybe 3rd as well. I'm getting ready to head out on vacation in the next few days, however, so I make guarantees that they'll be done before I leave. I'm also thinking about making some for other subject areas as well -- I'm pretty excited about the possibilities.

Have a great weekend! Another tech tutorial will be coming soon!

Geometry Riddles and Interactive Word Walls

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about using QR codes for differentiation in the classroom. Today I want to share another example of how we've been using them this year.

We were studying polygons and their assorted properties, so I had students write riddles to describe a particular polygon. The riddles could only have one possible answer, so they had to be very specific with their clues.

Once the riddles were written, we went to the Math is Fun Illustrated Mathematics Dictionary and looked up the term that was the answer to the riddle. We checked our riddle for accuracy using the definition, and then we made QR codes that linked to the term and its definition in the online dictionary. (QR code tutorial here).

The end result was an interactive word wall that really entertained my students.

Every chance they got, my students would come over to the display with their iPads, read the riddles, and then try to solve them. They could then check their work by scanning the QR code to see if they'd solved the riddle correctly. It was the most engaged I'd ever seen my students when it comes to learning vocabulary, and it made me think that next year, I'd like to create QR codes for the words on my word wall. It could be a fun way to review terms and make the displays more interactive. After all, if my word wall is going to occupy valuable real estate on my wall, then I want to get the most out of it. 

This was another activity that was pretty quick to put together. I think getting them all hung up on the wall took me longer than actually writing the riddles or generating the QR codes! But it was a fun activity, and I wanted to share it.

Have you seen any other examples of using QR codes in the classroom? What are some of your suggestions for doing so? Feel free to share in the comments below!