Be the Teacher

One thing I try to instill in my students is that many times, they learn better from each other than from me. I find that this is easily displayed when teaching math. I love teaching math. It's my favorite subject to teach and if I could teach my students math all day, I would! As the year progressed, I saw my students grow and mature enough to be able to teach the entire class. I started by giving them a word problem.

While I had the problem on the board, I had printed it for the students to glue into their notebooks. This was the best thing I did this year (and obviously, I don't have a picture!)! It helped so much because students weren't spending time copying down the problem and perhaps not writing it correctly. They were able to highlight/cross out things as we went through our five step problem solving method. I am definitely continuing this next year!

I would show the problem on the board, give students time to glue it in, and start working on it, and then pick a stick to have a student come up to the board and be the teacher. This took lots of practice and modeling because the students just wanted to come up and solve the problem. I didn't let them do that. They had to step by step either explain and/or ask their classmates what to do. It was definitely a learning curve, but they truly enjoyed it and the students loved being able to help each other.

Leave a Comment 4th Grade, Math

Fractions with Legos

When I first introduced fractions this year, the students seemed to catch on quickly. In order to check where they were at, I split them into groups. I gave each group a generous handful of "Lego's" (Target Dollar-Spot!) and told them to sort them. They had to count how many pieces they had total and then how many of each color. 

Once sorted, they wrote a number sentence showcasing the sum of the parts equal to the total number of parts.

I found that once my students completed this activity, I was able to help them connect other concepts about fractions. They understood that fractions are a part of a whole and the whole is dependent upon the number of parts. This year, I plan to do this activity earlier in the year and then continue to use the Lego's to build upon their understanding of fractions.

Leave a Comment 4th Grade, Math

Writing on the Desks

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest while browsing many moons ago. With division, my students needed more space to show their skills, so I thought what better way to have them show me division than by writing on their desks? I partnered them up and each pair was given a word problem. They each had to solve on the desk and then I came around to check. They LOVED it! Now, everything we do, they want to write on the desks! It's such a fun way for them to show me what they can do and they love it because they are writing on their desks.

We use DMSB for the steps to long division. This year, I had them write each step. It has been a great help to me because I can instantly see where they went wrong. Now that we have been working on long division for over a month, many students are able to do long division without that help. I still have some students that need the reminder and it's fine with me!

Leave a Comment Math

Math Anchor Charts

My favorite subject to teach is math. I love sharing this with students and coming up with new ways to present information.

We make this poster in the first few weeks of school. Students have a math notebook and take notes during math. We don't usually open our math books until homework/classwork problems. With Common Core, so much emphasis is placed on word problems that students need to know the key words. While we write this at the beginning of the year before they have learned division, I still give them the key words so that they have them. I constantly refer to this chart and the students are able to recognize key words on their own. I also add to the chart if new key words come up that we don't have.

We also go over problem solving steps with word problems. I model this every time we do a word problem in class. The students love to highlight the facts and the question! They have also improved at being able to go through these steps on their own. I love the confidence they have when they can understand the problem and aren't intimidated by the words! 

I put this poster up when we were talking about metric units of measurement. It is still up, just not on my math wall as we are now talking about division. Below each unit, there is an example of something that would be measured in that unit. There are also the conversion numbers to use when converting. 

This isn't an anchor chart, but I wanted to share it because I was so happy with it! I was teaching my students to multiple by powers of 10, 100, and 1,000 and Engage NY had me show it using a place value chart. My students nicknamed this the "Magic Chart" because they loved it and understood the concept. I have been using so many place value charts this year to teach math and have been so impressed with how my students are able to understand the concepts more. I even taught division using a place value chart and it clicked with so many students why we regroup.

Leave a Comment Anchor Charts, Math

Random Things from this Year

I'm trying to take more pictures of things I do in my classroom to use as a portfolio of sorts. Really it's so that I remember what I did that worked next year! :) 

I used to have these old posters on the back of my classroom for the parts of speech (Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb). Partway through last year, one of the posters fell and I never replaced it. That's how I started the year. One morning, I was thinking of something to do to get the kiddos to review the parts of speech and thought to have them make part of speech posters. Best. Idea. Ever. 

I wrote on a sticky note which part they were doing and told them they needed to have a definition and example. They could use their Grammar books if they wanted to. They worked so well together and were on task trying to make it all pretty. They are constantly referencing these so I am a happy teacher! 

My fantastic mentor teacher that I worked with a few years ago in 4th grade does a great spelling routine that I copy. On Monday's, the students cut out their spelling words and sort them into groups. We discuss similarities and then I choose a word and the students have to guess which word it is based on the clues I give. On Tuesday's, they get these letter tiles (Lakeshore Outlet purchase), and we build words. Once they build them, we chunk it, say each letter, blend it, syllables, etc. They use the word in a sentence and then mix up the word and re-build it. I really like it because the students that need more hands-on work benefit from this. It's also interesting how the students get their letters ready. Some put them in piles, others just have them in whatever order, and some sort them vowels (red) and consonants (blue).

In Social Studies, we are all about California. I had this same map last year, but this year, I upgraded my labels. I have the regions outlined and then multiple things labeled: the Missions, major cities, rivers, etc. I am hoping to add more to the map as we progress through the year.

In math, I have been using EngageNY and I could not be happier! I love the order of the topics and how they have me teach the concepts. I am using it as a guide and using many of their methods and word problems in my math classes. This was one thing I LOVED. It is a visual representation of multiplying by 10. I heard a lot of "a-ha's!" during this lesson and it made me very happy! I still refer to this chart when students get confused.

Leave a Comment 4th Grade, California, Curriculum, Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Spelling, Teaching