Running the Math Block ~ Part 4: Organizing

This is the last part of how I run my math block. You can catch up with part 1, part 2, or part 3.

This is all about how I organize it all!

(Although, to be honest, some days I'm more on top of it than others! :)

One of the key pieces of my math rotations is task cards.

Some of the task cards I get off of Teachers Pay Teachers (Teaching with a Mountain View, The Primary Gal, and Jennifer Findley to name a few), and some I make myself.

When I make them myself, I make them in PowerPoint, and I use papers from I Teach! What's Your Superpower? and clipart from Melonheadz (when I can add them in! :)

Right now, I'm storing my task cards (all of them-literacy included) in a shoe box, but I forsee them being divided into chapters/skills and stored in Sterilite latching containers (with pretty labels, of course!)

 When I'm prepping for the week, (and I'm actually prepped ahead-which doesn't always happen because I like to take it day by day), I store everything in a bucket on my desk-exit slips and task cards.

This way, it's easy for me to access and find, and I can quickly set up.

For rotations, I store the task cards in another bucket, with the recording sheets underneath.

If we are working on more than one set (and we do, since some of our skills build upon one another, I'll leave the cards out for most of the chapter-this also allows kids to work on what they need to throughout, and they don't feel rushed), I just add another bucket!

Sometimes the kids will need manipulatives to work, and they can easily pull what they need from my new and beautifully fixed shelves ;), since I've made toolkits for the major sections (here and here)

Just in case, you missed a look at my new, beautiful shelves ;) (ICYMI, they fell off the wall last year-and needed to be reanchored-it took some time, but they look so pretty now!)

When we do an exit slip, I don't have the kids turn it into my in-bin - since sometimes I leave things in there for awhile (plus, I don't want them to get lost!), I have them turn it into a bucket.

They fit nicely into the bucket, and it is easy for me to grab and sort through to see what I need to address.

Hopefully/Eventually, I hope to get some iPads or Chromebooks (we have both in my district-but in limited amounts), and work them into our Math block as well (and find some nice storage for them!)-but they're not quite ready for us (plus, I don't know how many we'll be getting for the school)

So that's my revamped Math block! I'm definitely happier with the way it is going, and how I'm reaching more kids. It's taken a few years, and a lot of thought, but I got it to a happy place. :)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Running the Math Block ~ Part 3: Practice, Practice, Practice

Welcome to Part 3 of how I run my math block-click on over if you missed part 1 or part 2.

This post is going to be all about how I introduced the students to the tasks.

I started by introducing their Math Journals.

We talked about how sometimes they would do an entry with me, and sometimes they would be doing an entry on their own.

(Our first entry was Math About Me-which is always good for the first few days of school!).

To get them used to what the journal entries would look like on their own, I created a little prompt slip!


I helped scaffold how I wanted them to answer by giving them sentence stems to use. (This mirrors how I taught them to respond to reading-what's good for the goose is good for the gander!)

Then, I let them loose!

I walked around, helping focus kids, and having them elaborate on their ideas, but with the sentence stem help, most of them were able to do it on their own!

Of course, some of their answers were funny!

I also wanted to introduce them to task cards- something that we use a lot of in my room!

I grabbed a set from Teaching with a Mountain View that was on Back to School Math {free!} 

I spread them around the room, and had the kids wander around with a clip board to answer the questions.

While 'writing the room' isn't how we normally do task cards, it was a good way to introduce what they were, and get the kids used to working off them. It also had them get out and about, and for some of my wiggly friends, it was perfect!

I didn't introduce them to their workbooks-I figured they could handle those :)

Each activity took a math period (the journal entry took a little less), but the time I took helped introduce the kids to some of the things that we'll be doing during our math block, and left me free to observe them the first few day.

I'd like to think that it also help set the tone-that math can be fun, and there are going to be lots of different ways to practice and show our work!

Stay tuned for part 4-how I organize it all!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Math Center Organization- Stage 2

Happy Veteran's Day!

I just finished the majority of my report cards (except for a random comment here and there), and all I have left is some grading and research on Weathering and Erosion.

I promised I would keep you updated on my center organization...and I have moved to the next stage.

I still have the cards separated into three small coin envelopes.

Except now, they are all in a bigger manilla envelope:

And the directions to each center are on the front.

And for now, they are being stored in one of my blue baskets.

This makes it a lot easier to flip through the centers and find the ones I want.

I've also reminded the students on how to clean up and take care of the centers, and this week, they have done a wonderful job with making sure they leave it nice and neat.  Hopefully they'll continue to do so!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Science Lab

So for our science curriculum, the 4th grade teachers in my school focus in on one or two topics and our classes rotate through each of us for them to get the whole curriculum.

My specialty is Weathering and Erosion, and States of Matter. Since we have just finished our Rocks and Minerals unit (we had a teacher brought in from a local naturalist center), I decided to start with Weathering and Erosion (since it should be fresh in their minds and everything ;).

Part of my 'focus' is to introduce them to some of the materials, as well as going through the experiment process with them. So I thought that the perfect way to do that would be to do Science Rotations!

First off, we reviewed the vocabulary from yesterday. (I made a PowerPoint to project on the SMARTBoard). Then, I used the document camera to introduce how to read a graduated cylinder (from the bottom of the meniscus) (woot! I spelled that right the first time!)

Then they moved into their Science rotations. One center was reading the graduated cylinders and recording their observations on the rotation sheet.

(I used the bigger one with the document camera). I colored the water to make it easier to see the level. I made a big deal about having to get to eye level to read it correctly. They seemed to do a really good job with it!

The next center was using syringes to draw water out to a certain amount, and fill something with it. This is a skill that we are going to be using in our experiment, so I wanted to make sure that they had practice.

I had them draw different mL amounts, and then  fill the cups and record how high the water level was in the cups. We need a little more practice with this one. :)

The next center I had them playing with balances. I told them to fill one side first with pattern blocks, and then they had to make the balance level without taking any blocks out.

They had a lot of fun with this one!

In the last center, I put out magnifying lenses and rocks and had them draw the rock sample they had using lots of details.

Since this is a new class, they aren't as aware of my expectations as my kids are (I did go over basic rules, and will reinforce them each time...this class is known as a 'handfull'). Soooo, they didn't quite get the center idea and how to fill out the paper. So I did an example paper (see below) to show them what my expectations for their work is. We did again today, while I pulled one group at a time to start the experiment. They did a much better job!

I'm creating a lot of things for this unit, and am thinking of opening up a TPT shop to sell it (although I'll still offer plenty of freebies!). Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Yesterday's Outfit

Sweater: Kohls
Tank: Target
Pants: Gap Outlet
Shoes: Endless

So now that the colder weather is here, you will probably be seeing a lot of the same sweaters...as I don't have all that many. Although I'll do my best to mix it up for you :)

Today's Outfit

Sweater: JC Penny
Tank & Shoes: Target
Pants: Kohls







Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Math Center Organization-Stage 1

I recently moved to a Math Workshop model for my class (and another 4th grade teacher also moved to a small group model).

As part of my Math block, the kids rotate three times. One station is me, one station is their Math Workbooks, and I needed to come up with a third.

Step into a center explosion! (I've used a lot from 3rd Grade Gridiron's Math MegaPack but have been working on some of my own, and shopped different TPT shops) Now that I have Math Centers, I needed a way to organize all the little pieces.

This is stage one of my organizing, and I fully expect to go through many stages while I figure out how to handle, store and organize my new math centers.

First off-I print, cut, and laminate (cut out again) the centers cards

I always print out more than one set, and the cards-so far-have fit nicely into coin envelopes

Then the smaller coin envelopes went into a bigger envelope.

The envelope is labeled with the name of the center.

Those cards that didn't fit into a coin envelope automatically went into a larger envelope.

 These are just the cards to the centers. I have stored the paper copies of everything in...what else? a binder.

I divided the binder into the 5 sections of Math CC, so when we are working on a particular skill from the area, I can flip through that sections to see which of the centers I have fit.

Everything so far has been stored in a clear plastic shoebox (the same kind that's in my library), but that will probably change as I get more centers.

When it's time for the kids to use them, I pull the center directions and recording sheet out of the binder, make a copy, and place them on my back table with the cards.

This way, the kids are mostly independent which their center work, and I can focus on my groups more.

The system has worked okay so far, but I see modifications in my future. As I find a better organized process, I'll keep you in the loop!

Hope you remembered to turn the clocks back!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Laminate: Tamed

Remember my miles of laminate from yesterday?

Well, I tamed that beast. It only took 5 hours. 3 episodes of Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids, Haven, Sandy telethon thingy, 2 episodes of Beverly Hills Brides, and 1/2 of Fashion Police.

Finished Product:

That's:
1 set of Monster Boggle Letters by 4th Grade Frolics

10 Math Centers by 3rd Grade Gridiron
      I got these from her Math MegaPack but she also has a separate Fraction Pack

2 Math Center Envelopes (cards are already laminated and cut out previously) from 3rd Grade Gridiron's Math MegaPack

5 Verb Center Envelopes (cards are already laminated and cut out previously) from 3rd Grade Gridiron's Verb Mega Pack

So I now have Math Centers for the next two weeks, and then I'll have to start over again. One of the teachers was looking at all my things, and was surprised at the amount of time I'm putting in (in addition to the Math Center explosion, I'm also creating weekly task cards for Literacy Rotations based on the series).

My feeling? It's a lot in the initial outlay, but once it's done, it'll be done for years. Plus, I'm single and have no kids, so I have nothing but time! :)

Happy Saturday!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Tuesday? or Thursday?

Hi Peeps!

Well, I went through most of today thinking that it was Tuesday (I guess that's what happens when you have two days off...), and was wondering why most of my class wasn't there in the morning until one of my friends reminded me that it was Thursday and they were at chorus. Ooops!

We did another walking field trip today, to a local cemetery. We were looking for the oldest gravestone that we could find, and how weathering can affect different types of rocks. They were so well behaved and did a really good job trying to draw all the detail in the tombstones. That took up all of our afternoon, so no Literacy. Actually, because of the storm, I don't have any Literacy time this week. Yesterday was the parade/party, today was the field trip, and tomorrow we have a whole-school meeting. My Lit. plans will be done for next week, since all I had to do was copy this week's!

I just spent a couple hours cutting out math centers for the students (I like Dana's at 3rd Grade Gridiron), and I plan to laminate tomorrow. I love these, and the kids seem to be really enjoying them as well. The centers always reflect concepts that I have already taught, so (hopefully) the kids can accomplish them on their own.

A lot of time, I'll send my higher group there first, while I pull my lower group and the middle groups works on practice pages from the previous day's lesson. Then I'll send my lower group to the center table while I'll pull my middle group and the higher group goes to their workbooks. I pull my higher group last (since things go more quickly with them).

This way, if the students are unsure of the center, I can review the concepts in small group before they go and do it. For the most part, the higher group gets some enrichment on the day's topic, and ways to solve the problem that are ahead of the other groups.

Today's Outfit:

Sweater: Gap Outlet
Tank: Old Navy
Pants: Kohls
Shoes: Burlington Coat Factory

I have to say, I really like taking pictures of my outfits. So far (looking at my pictures), I haven't repeated an exact outfit. I may have repeated elements of an outfit, but it's November and I have had different combinations of tops/bottoms. I guess my wardrobe was more versatile than I thought!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Literacy Rotations

So Sandy is coming closer, and although she isn't supposed to officially 'land' up here until later tonight, there have been some mighty strong winds and rain coming done for most of the day. Fortunately (knock on wood), I have power and everything. And there was no school today...who knows about tomorrow!

Recently, I've switched the way we do our literacy rotations. I asked the kids what they thought, and they wanted to give it a try without the bookmarks that I made.

I found the kids were staying too long at one station with these, and thought we would give it a try without, making sure the kids knew that all three centers needed to be completed.

So far, it's been working great! I feel like they are a little more engaged, getting to pick the order that they do things in. I'm still thinking about the accountability factor, wanting them to complete some sort of self-reflection or something (especially on days when there aren't any turn in papers).

I have managed to find some time to update Reader's Notebooks (first time since early September!). Like the Math Notebooks, these are a work in progress until I figure out exactly what I want to do.

We've updated them with some new things we've learned...Marking Inferences and the 4 types of sentences. They seem to really enjoy foldables (which is good, 'cause I use them a lot!)

Hope that Sandy is treating the rest of my East Coasters okay!

Smiles and Sunshine (though a little wet),
Kaitlyn

My Math Block

Hi Peeps!

Today went very well...except by the end of the day, I had four kids out, which brought me down to a very small 10 (so no guided reading groups today! I did individual check-ins instead). Tomorrow we star almost 2 weeks of testing in the morning, so I hope everyone is in, because make-ups are a pain.

I wanted to share how I do my math block, and how it is going we the transition to rotations/centers. First thing I did after I had MAP data was to split my class into three groups (high, average, lower). I have three rotations, with 15-20 minutes at each rotation.

One of their rotations is me, where I teach the lesson from the book (it's supposed to be a whole group lesson, but I was losing kids when I did that, so I thought this would be better and I could target kids easier). I modify the lesson based on the group, which means some get enrichment and more questions with less teacher direction, and some get focused instruction on what they need to pass the test (sad, I know, but this is a very language-based math program (weird I know), and I'm more concerned about their calculation skills than them being able to read all the problems), with more teacher direction.

For example, today we worked with place value and writing standard form, word form and expanded form. I walked by lowest group through it three time, and started out with a number in the hundreds before slowly raising the expectation to ten thousands (which was the expectation for the day). With my middle group, I went through it twice, and we started in the thousands. With my higher group, I went over it once, and they were able to do numbers in the hundred thousands. Yay differentiation! (Big buzzword in my district this year-and keeping kids in the classroom to teach, with them possibly going to different classrooms to get on-level instructions.)

Another rotation pages in their math book, usually practice from the previous lesson (tomorrow they will practice today's lesson). They have some 'must do' pages, and some optional pages that are in a different color.

The last rotation is a hands-on center, usually something I've bought off TPT (FYI, Dana's math centers are amazing!!)

Here is what my rotation board looks like...

Right now I am using the SMART Board as the rotation board, but I hope to make my own eventually. Once in awhile I tell a student to shake the mouse so it comes back up :)

Today it took an hour to get through all three rotations (perfect timing! and my goal :)

After we finish our regular work, I have them get their snacks and we do calendar. While they are eating, we go over the calendar, which is an AMAZING resource that I purchased here. It has a core component that we do and build on everyday, and a daily component that changes. It's common core aligned for 4th and 5th, and it takes 10-20 minutes. I've started having the kids do things, and eventually, they'll be responsible for the whole calendar.

I hope this helps you if you are thinking of switching to a Math workshop model. I recommend it, I and feel like my kids are doing better in Math (we've only been doing it for two weeks, but I feel like I've seen a small improvement). I just decided to jump in one day, and I'm glad I did!

Friday's Outfit (a day off!)

Sweater: Maurices
T-Shirt: Target
Tank & Skirt: Old Navy
Shoes: Burlington Coat Factory

Today's Outfit (a little cooler!):

Sweater & Pants: JC Penny
Tank: Old Navy
Boots: Endless


Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Picture Day! and a Reader Request

Y'all, today was picture day (which I think about a 1/3 of my kids forgot about), so you know I didn't have a normal day. :)

First difference at this school- we had to sign up for times to get our class pictures taken. Oops. Guess who didn't know about it and all of the times left were in the afternoon during our literacy block.

(I took the last slot possible for littlest disruption)

Second difference- an all school picture that took about 30-40 minutes to set up and complete. In the middle of math. We had a test today. Since no one knew about this picture until THIS MORNING!

Third difference- an all staff picture after school (and yes, I was stuck in the front row with the vertically challenged...even though I was wearing 3 inch heels :). I've had all staff pictures done before, but always before school started (during teacher workshop days), and never after school. Our PLC meeting today was cut a little short :)

What I wore:

Top and Pants: JCPenny
Tank: Old Navy
Shoes: Payless



The kids though it was a little funny that I was getting my picture taken, but then I reminded them that all teachers got their pictures taken. Now I can finally have an ID badge like everyone else!

Now onto the Reader Request. I had a reader email me, where she told me that she loved my task cards and was wondering if I would be willing to share. Well, I couldn't share the ones I had, because of some of the fonts I used were for personal use only. I asked her to give me a little time and I would see what I came up with.

Now, I couldn't remember when I had gotten all of the frames/borders, but I had a pretty good idea, so I went scouring one of my favorite design sites to make sure that I could give proper credit.

My next problem? Making it editable for you guys while preserving all the graphics and frames I used. Thanks to Google and some helpful searching, I found a way to do it.

So let me present....

Click on the picture to download the cards!

There are 4 days worth of cards for each rotation in the packet. You can add text boxes to type in instructions, or just print them out and hand write it in.

I hope you enjoy these!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Blown Away, Task Cards and Outfits

Yesterday was a really good day. My kids are almost fully independent through their rotations (except for some focusing issues :) I'm all set to start Guided Reading groups on Monday, especially now that I have most of the data! (Still waiting for some...but I have enough to start with.) I actually just set up my GR Binder (which I'll show y'all at a later time).

One of our Special Ed teachers also came in yesterday...to see how I was doing, introduce herself, familiarize herself with my room (she is going to take my lowest reading group, since half of them are identified and her kids :). She was looking around, and she saw the task cards that I had made and started asking me about it. She was super impressed!  : D

She was asking me how I made them, and I told her that I used Powerpoint, and if she ever wanted to make worksheets, she should use Powerpoint....and then she asked if I would be interested in giving a WORKSHOP! Holy guacamole batman! I said I would be interested, but was unsure if I could fill an entire hour. I was also blown away because, as y'all know, this is my first year at this school...and we've only been in school for 15 days! She told me that she felt that she could learn a lot from me this year...People, this is a teacher who has been teaching for awhile and she felt that she could learn from me! Blown Away!!

Here are the task cards that I made...they are numbered so all I have to write is the task card number on the board. Some of them will stay from week to week (the earlier numbers) and the back half will change each week based on the LBD series instructions for that week/theme. The fonts are Janda fonts from Kimberly Geswein and Gingersnap Handwriting from Gingersnap's Treats for Teachers. The graphics are Melonheadz Illustrating, and the frames are all freebies from a variety of people (who I don't remember so can't credit :(  (actually, almost everything I use is a freebie! :)

We do EEKK Reading (elbow elbow knee knee) instead of Read to Someone

And now, my outfits from yesterday and today :)

Wednesday

 I had the gray sweater on for part of the day...but got too hot and took it off.
Gray Sweater and Pants: JC Penny
Shirt: Marshall's
Tank: Old Navy
Shoes: Payless










Thursday

Shirt & Pants: JC Penny
Tank: Target
Shoes: DSW





Have a wonderful Friday!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn