Friday, January 31, 2014

Five for Friday and Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Aloha Friday and Chinese New Year!!
I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share what I've been up to this past week. 


I had a fun and relaxing girls night out with some of my favorite Hawaii Blogger friends!! Unfortunately, there was too much catching up going on that we forgot to take a picture :(  We were all so excited though because Nicole from Teaching With Style came to Oahu for a PD course. It's always a treat when we get to see her since she lives on a different island from us all. 


All this week our entire wireless network was being upgraded which meant people walking in and out of our rooms drilling, measuring, talking, etc. The drilling was a HUGE distraction and it was SO LOUD I couldn't even hear myself talking. SO we took class outside onto our porch, did a lesson on summarizing and here the kids are working on their summaries. :) 


We've been having a ton of PD on our Wednesday meeting days and are expected to create 'quality' entrance and exit exams to turn into the complex. They are then going to turn it over to the team of 'professionals' to rate and provide feedback on our assessments. I've been busy this week trying to get a head start on my assessment making since they're due before spring break. 
 
Here the kids are waiting patiently in the theater on our very first field trip of the year. We went to go and watch a play this week- Aunty Martha and the Nene Goose.


Today is Chinese New Year and we are lucky enough to get a team of performers to make it out to school each year to perform the traditional Lion Dances. The kids are always so entertained by this and look forward to it each  year :)

What have you been up to this week?! Head on over and link up! :)





Sunday, January 26, 2014

Multi-Step Word Problems, Math Skits, and a FREEBIE


This past week, we started working on multi-step word problems using the 4 operations. My students always have a hard time with this concept because they get overwhelmed having to incorporate and figure out which of the 4 operations they need to solve for as well as having to perform two different operations in one problem. 

Too often I see them just guessing rather than really thinking each problem through about what is actually happening in the problem. 

This week, we did some math skits. The students were broken up into different groups and were assigned to either addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. In these groups, students were to discuss what it means to add, subtract, multiply or divide and come up with example situations. They were then to choose an example which clearly shows what the operation means (what we are doing) and perform it for the class. 

Here is a group of students planning out their skit.
After each performance, the audience was to decide which operation they were performing and they had to explain how they knew. As a class, we then went and wrote a description of what each operation means and then listed some key words to look out for in our word problems. 

Another group actually practicing


Our multiplication group performing..

Can you guess which operation this group was acting out? 


Have a great week!




Wednesday, January 22, 2014

$1.50 Task Card Sale!

I'm having a $1.50 Task Card Sale in my TPT Store until 8 PM Tonight-Hawaii Time. 

Pick up these task cards to review Rounding numbers, Multiplication and Division Word Problems, or Elapsed Time. 

Monday, January 13, 2014

3NBT3 Multiplication Freebie for Teaching in Paradise Facebook Fans!

I decided to whip up this freebie early this morning while planning what I will do as a 'time filler' in case my students were done early with testing. 
3NBT3-Multiplying by multiples of 10 was a skill that we covered right before Christmas Break. You never quite know how much actually sticks with them in those last few days before break...so I wanted to give them a fun little activity to review this skill.
I came up with this-which I whipped up in about 10 minutes.


 I didn't realize how stinking adorable it'd turn out once it was all colored in and complete.  Once I saw the finished product, I just knew I had to have more of these (great practice of this skill) and I knew I had to whip up more for my wonderful followers!!

SO-if you'd like to pick up a few of these cute practice sheets head to my Facebook Fan Page, {Make sure you 'Like' the page} and click the tab for "Facebook Fan Freebies". Click the image and it will let you download the product from Google Docs.

*I'm in the process of making more pages-so be sure to check back (I'll make a note of it on my Facebook Page for followers)..but until then-you can pick this one up today! 

If you aren't 'Liking' the page, it will just show a picture and you will not be able to get to the direct download link. 
Hope you have a great rest of the week!
Courtney

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Differentiated Elapsed Time Task Cards!

Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a productive weekend and are ready for this first long week back at school! This weekend I was busy finishing up a set of Differentiated Elapsed Time Task Cards!

Elapsed time is always a difficult concept for my third graders to understand-so it is helpful that we work on this skill later in the year. Students need a ton of practice with elapsed time-especially with solving their problems using a number line. 

So far, we've spent a week on introducing and practicing with this skill…and like all other concepts, I have students that are at all different levels. I decided to create these task cards so that my students can practice elapsed time and be working with problems that are doable for them. I love to use task cards in my classroom because 1) it saves on copies. To have all of these problems on worksheets would be a bajillion copies for my class of 25 students. 2) My students LOVE Task Cards!!

No Joke-when I tell my kids that we will be using task cards…they actually cheer! Some ways we use task cards in our class are: 

1) For whole class reviews. I will usually do some type of review game and award points to different teams.

2) A game of SCOOT. To play SCOOT-each child gets one task card to place on their desk along with a recording sheet. They solve the card that is at their desk and wait quietly until the teacher calls out 'SCOOT'. At this time, all students will scoot to the next seat and answer the card at that desk. All they take with them are their recording sheets and pencils. The task cards stay at the student desk. Continue this pattern until students are back to their original seat. My students LOVE to play this game!

3) To pull up quick problems to give to kids while working with small groups

4)Centers. Sometimes the students just take a few cards at a time and then head back to their seats to solve the problems. Other times I might set up a math scavenger hunt. I will post cards up throughout the room and students will need to find the card then solve it on their recording sheet. 

As you can see- there are a ton of different ways to use task cards in your classroom. These are just a few ideas of how we use task cards in my classroom :)

This set contains 12 beginner level cards for those who still need extra reinforcement/practice with the basics. All of these cards have problems that are very basic and work with 30 minute, 15 minute, and hourly increments. 




There are also 24 on-level cards (pink set) which have a variety of problems that require students to solve elapsed time in 2 different ways to the nearest minute. One way they may be asked to solve is to figure out the elapsed time when given the start time and end time. Another way they may be asked to solve is to find the end time when given the start time and elapsed time. 




The last set is for those students who need an extra challenge. These cards are multi-step and require students to figure out the elapsed time when a break is taken, or to work backwards to find the start time. 



Each of the 3 sets come with 2 different recording sheets. One sheet will require students to show their work and number lines in the boxes provided. The other sheet will just require students to write their answer (if solving on a white board or piece of paper). 
Option 1
Option 2

This set of task cards will eventually be included in my Telling Time Unit

..which is still a work in progress. This is turning out to be a much bigger project that I initially intended  but I hope to be done soon. 

If you're interested in purchasing my new Elapsed Time Task Card set..they're up in my TPT store and will be marked down for the rest of this week! 

Now I leave you with some photos from my Winter Break in California :) 




Yummy In-N-Out Burger. We don't have this in Hawaii so this is always a must stop!

I couldn't believe how cheap the lettuce was! 

Every time I go to California, I always need stop to get some THRIFTY's Ice Cream!!

We made homemade dinner for my Grandparents

Tako (Octopus) and cucumbers with Kimchi paste

Hamachi sashimi (yellowtail)

2 of my Bridesmaids and I out to dinner :)

First time rolling sushi for New Years day :)

Pretty manju

Went on a hike in Laguna Beach with my cousins and sister-in law

Yummy lunch out in Laguna

This was our beautiful view during lunch!

Cousins and I prepared a home-made Italian dinner night

Filling for our ravioli.

Add caption

prepping ravioli


Mushroom pasta. Did I mention this was homemade pasta?

Head to my Instagram Page to watch a video of us making the pasta!

Our yummy feast!