Two for Tuesday!

What a fun linky! Thanks to The Teaching Tribune for hosting!

Here are my two products! Both are math related because I just looove teaching math!!

The first is a super-fun measurement and graphing activity! Bubble Gum Olympics! It was a great activity for the last week of school.

The next is my Math Rotations product. It includes everything you need to get started with Math Rotations. 

There you have it! Two $1.00 math products!! 

Make sure you check out my freebies while you are visiting my store!

Teach On!

Rachel

Keep Calm and Teach On

Monday Made It - Math Poster!

Today I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!

I was inspired by Elementary AMC to make a "What's the Question" board recently, but I wanted to take it a step further! 

I started with the plain board (I plan on sprucing it up with some border once I get it to its permanent spot). First one to spot my mistake gets a virtual cookie. :)

Next came the Answer & Question pages:

After that I came up with a few other open ended questions that I often ask my student as a warm up or to add in their journals. 

The beauty of this poster is that you can write anything you want on it for your students to respond. I often use it as a "Exit Slip" board and have them answer one question as a quick assessment. This poster could carry across into other subjects as well!

I have made these into a free product on TPT. 

Teach On!

Rachel

Keep Calm and Teach On

New and Improved! Flash Freebie!!

Many of you have read about how I teach math in my classroom. Math rotations are my favorite part of everyday! Well, my rotations are now new and improved!! I have added a fourth rotation for 2 reasons. Numbero uno... the new rotation is write about math because explaining and proving your answers is such an important aspect of common core and of student understanding! I want my students writing about their math problems and using math vocabulary each and every day. Numbero dos... unfortunately we are having a little money crisis here in Oklahoma... any one else?... and my district had to cut back on teachers, which means.... bigger class sizes. Booo! So with 26-28 kiddos in my room next year, I have to have more groups so that they are still effective. But even with a smaller class size, can you imagine how wonderful even smaller groups could be??

Math Rotations

I am lucky enough to be presenting at a district workshop tomorrow on this very topic! Wish me luck! My btf (best teaching friend) Darin, who is A-MAZ-ING is presenting with me. I wanted to share our slides with you all in case they could be of help!

Math Rotations: A Strategy for Teaching Math from rachelrhorn

I also want to give as many of my new product away as possible!! So... flash freebie! Ready... set... go! It will be free through Friday evening... so don't wait!

Countdown Clock

Teach On!

Rachel

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New Products and GIVEAWAY!!

Well this ended up being quite the project! But... it is complete! I have created simplistic, easy to read, I Can Statements for every 3rd grade standard. This includes all ELA and Math standards. I have also created them for the Science and Social Studies standards for my Oklahoma friends! Here are a few shots of the product:

I wanted them to be simple so that they were easy for my students to read with no distracting pattern or design. They could also be customized to your classroom decor by printing them on colored paper. Printing each domain on a different color would work too! Here they are at work in my classroom:

I also love my organization system. When trimmed, they perfectly fit in a small, expandable file folder, like this one from office depot. I have included the labels I used here in the product. When I take out a standard, I put a sticky in its place. When I return the standard, I know exactly where it belongs!

I really enjoy the simplicity of this product and how it helps my students take ownership of what they are learning. You can find this product in my TPT store, but since it is new, it definitely needs to be given away... so... here comes a GIVEAWAY! I will be giving away the ELA and Math Bundled I Can Statements! If you win and you are from Oklahoma and would like the Science and Social Studies as well, please just let me know when you get your winnings! The giveaway will be open now through Thursday night! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teach On!
Rachel

Measurement and Data Collection Fun!!

The end of the year is upon us! Summer time... or as we teachers know it... the time to catch up on all the things I want to do through out the year and don't have time for. :) My list is long for sure!

Well, in these last few weeks I wanted to have some fun and make some memories with my kiddos. I was inspired by a great product I stumbled upon last week. Sabra over at Teaching with a Touch of Twang, posted her Fiesta Balloons idea! I loved it!

One of the activities is to have a Bubble Gum Contest. I decided that I wanted to take this fun idea a step further and incorporate some math skills. Out came Bubble Gum Olympics!

I've design this to be a fun, hands-on activity to review organizing and analyzing data as well as measurement. It's a way to have fun with your kiddos at the end of the year, while doing some much needed review!

Click on the above picture or head to my store to check it out! Remember there is a sale going May 6-7 and my products will be 28% off. Take advantage of the discount!

Remember, as we near the end...

Keep Calm and Teach On!

~ Rachel

{Math Rotations}

*** This product and post have been updated here! ***

Math is not my favorite subject.

oops

I don't think I am allowed to say that.

But there is it, and when you don't love to teach something, your students are not going to love learning it. So this is what prompted my need to make a change in the way I taught math. I went and searched the web for a cure to my math woes and yet again, I found inspiration in Beth Newingham.

We use the EverydayMath program, but I believe this way of teaching math can be applied to every curriculum out there.

So during my 75-minute math instruction, I have a mini-lesson time of 10-15 minutes followed by 3 rotations of 15-20 minutes, lastly I have a 10 minute checking time to check any work necessary as a class. Here is an explanation of my mini-lesson and 3 rotation times:

Mini-lesson – a quick overview of our lesson, usually consist of explanation and modeling

Teacher Time – re-teaching to my below level students and practicing the skill taught that day together with all groups

Seat Work – independent work that reviews previously learned skills and/or skills taught in that days lesson

Game Time – games that review previously learned skills

Fact Practice – games or computer programs that practice previously mastered facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), this station is visited only if students finish seat work early

I have a smartboard lesson in which I write the assignments for that day. It looks something like this:

We came up with the expectations together and then I typed them into the Smartboard file.

So as you can see I divide my class into 3 groups. These groups are based on skill level in this lesson or unit. I use a pre-test to determine who belongs in each group. I try to make my lowest group very small so they can have as much one-on-one time as possible. I have our rotation schedule and who is in each group posted in our room so my students can reference it as we are rotating. It looks something like this.

The names are printed on sticky notes so I can switch up groups quickly and easily as often as I would like. Here is the link to download the above printables: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Rotation-Guide-and-Board-869440

Please let me know if you have any questions about how you could implement this in your own classroom or if you already use this model and would like to share something new! I hope this can help differentiate in your classroom and make math meaningful and enjoyable for your kiddos!

Teach on!
Mrs. Horn

{Scoot Activity}

This is a very popular activity, so I'm sure that many of you have used or seen it. But I really wanted to post it because of how wonderful it is! My students LOVE it and after you do it once, it is a quick easy way to review in ANY content area!

This week we are studying place value in the hundreds place, so I whipped up a version of scoot for review before our test.

All you need to do is cut this sheet up and put one square on each desk.
place value scoot

Each student will get one of these sheets.
Scoot

When they get to a desk they match the number on the paper to number on their own paper. I use a timer to countdown 30 seconds at each desk (time depends on the difficulty of the problems.) At the end of the 30 seconds we say "3,2,1 SCOOT!" This cues the students to move to the next desk and repeat the process. The first time you play you will want to practice just the scooting part without doing any problems first. They tend to take the problems with them and leave their pencils and such, haha. After you play once, they have the hang of it and it's such a simple process!

I use this game at least once a week. Most recently for sentence editing practice, homophones practice, and compound words.

Try this activity. I'm sure you'll love it!

TEACH ON!!