What's for Lunch?

Hey, everyone! It's Cyndie from Chalk One Up for the Teacher and I'm here to tackle one of my very least favorite things about back to school. Grading papers? Nope! Meetings? Nope! Lesson plans? Nope! Nope! Nope!  

It's trying to think of something quick and yummy to pack for lunch!

 Do you feel my pain?  

If you have some great ideas for lunch, I'd love to hear them, so please feel free to comment below.

I'm bringing back one of my most popular blog posts ever. Simply click on the picture below to head over to read it. The giveaway has ended, but there is still a freebie lunch planning sheet for you to grab.

I hope it helps if you're like me and dread that lunch-packing routine.

Games To Teach Place Value

Aloha friends! Corinna here from Surfin' Through Second.  I want to share with you some fun math games that I use to teach and reinforce place value in my classroom.

Students learn best when they are engaged and having fun.  I always try to incorporate math games into each lesson to reinforce concepts and practice important skills.  Place value is such an important concept. These 5 games are fun and easy to implement in your class.  You can use dice, cards or spinners for each of these games.

I'm The Greatest

Students use number cards 0-9.  They pick a card and have to decide whether to put it in the ones, tens or hundreds place.  The object is to make the greatest number possible. They can play with a partner or you can do it as a whole class. Click {Here} to Download the cards and template.

Place Value Battle

Students use cards or dice.  They can play using 2 digit or 3 digit numbers.  The first card is placed in the hundreds place, the second in the tens and the third in the ones.  The greatest number wins.

10 More 10 Less

Students create a number using cards or dice. Then they write a new number that is 10 more or 10 less.  They can play with a partner. Partners can check answers and then create their own numbers.

Expand It

Students use the spinner templates to spin a number.  They spin on the hundreds, tens and ones. They can write it in expanded form and standard form.  The person who spins the highest number wins.
Click {HERE} to download the spinners.

Money Trade

My students love this game!  You need one and ten dollar bills.  Students choose a banker.  The banker hands out the money.  Students roll the dice.  If they roll a 6, the banker gives them 6 dollars.

Once the students have 10 or more dollar bills they can trade in 10 ones for 1 ten.  The first person to get 10 tens is the winner.

This last game is a lot of fun to play with your class. It's a great way to get those minds thinking!

Some of these games might be something you already use, but hopefully you've come away with some new ideas for your classroom.  Happy Teaching!!

Math Talks are Fun!!! Plus a FREEBIE!!!

Hi Everyone! Its Latoya of Flying into First Grade!!!

 

 

I am here to share with you some resources about Math Talks also known as number talks.

 

I am a new math coach and this is one big initiative that I am pushing to my teachers.  I have been modeling number talks left and right. 

 

I love number talks because the students are engaged with each other and they are thinking mentally.  They are also responsible for explaining their thinking and coming up with different strategies to solve.  It is working wonders for our EL students.

 

 

Here are some slides from my PD and a number talk planning sheet so you can plan your own!

 

Enjoy!!!

 

 

 

 

 



Alyssha here, from Teaching and Tapas. Hi!

I am shy.

Yep, it's a part of me that I feel like is so obvious when you are around me in person. I feel my cheeks warm up and heart racing when talking to new people. So much of that shyness is internal. I say this because I have had people tell me they would never describe me as shy. That's me covering up a lot of my weird nervousness :)

As teachers, we are all trying to tune into our students. I remember 3rd grade clearly and at the end of the year I realized I had never once raised my hand to talk in front of my class. Yikes!

I've had teachers who tried forcing me to talk in front of groups. Some of my teachers were helpful and could coach me in a gentle way. Other teachers made me feel humiliated and where I wanted to hide deeper in my shell. Both of those models helped shape the way I interact with my students today. Here are a few tips to keep in mind with your own students...

1. Don't tell the student they are shy. 
When someone would point it out to me, I always felt more embarrassed and like everyone was staring at me waiting for me to speak. Yuck. The feelings of sitting there, anxiously worrying that everyone is going to notice me feeling super uncomfortable. Bad feeling. It's better to just acknowledge the shy student when the speak up just as you would acknowledge every other student. Make it seem like no big deal. Of every student/teacher relationship is different and if you have an open line of communication with a shy student, your judgement is the best.

2. Give your students plenty of options to interact with silent signals.
This does not have to be a special trick reserved only for some students. Re: Tip#1, when you point it out, shyness and anxiety may become worse. So just give ALL of your students the options to use silent signals such as sign language (thumbs up, thumbs down, "I understand" signals, etc.). Not only does this get more of your students interacting in your lessons, but you are able to check the understanding of even your quietest students.

My signal for "I agree"

My signal for "I made a connection"

3. Give a silent sign before calling on a student.
If you are confident that one of your shy students has something to add, give a little warning such as place a finger on the corner of their desk or give them a wink beforehand. It can take away that deer in the headlights feeling :) With a little warning, the student may be able to find their words and think of what they want to say. This means giving them plenty of wait time.

4. Strategic buddies.
Be sure the student is sitting near someone they can relate to and feel comfortable with. This can make such a huge difference when it comes to partnership activities, turn & talks, etc.

5. Assign special jobs.
Do you have a classroom job that requires someone to interact with individuals, but not in front of everyone? In my classroom, I had a job for someone to check book bins and make sure everyone had between 3-5 books. If they had too many or too little, this person would go remind the student to adjust their book bin. A job like this is perfect for a shy student if they are willing to talk to classmates.

So there you go! I hope my perspective gives you some more tools for your toolbox when it comes to doing all the great work you are doing with your students!

The 5E Model: Engage

Hi everyone!  I'm Ari from The Science Penguin.  This is my first post on Primary Chalkboard and I'm excited to share some science ideas I use with elementary students.  

Many teachers use the 5E Model for teaching science.  I've mostly used a variation of that to incorporate stations and notebooking.

What does Engage mean?

The first "E", Engage, is your hook...it's fun!  Teachers elicit prior understandings and pique students' interest in the topic.  They ask driving questions and identify misconceptions.  This can be a fairly quick activity (in the teaching real-world) or a longer activity that lasts a whole class period.  I often do this part informally, but it sets the tone for the entire mini-unit.

To decide how you will engage your students, you have to know them.  Every class will be different.  I don't believe there is a one-size-fits-all activity that every teacher should use to engage their students for any particular unit.

Engagement Ideas

So what can you do to engage students in your unit?

1. Use discrepant events.

2. Read a picture book.

3. Do a short activity that exposes students to the concept you will be talking about.  

4. Talk about a relevant, real-world example.

5. Combine video clips and discussion.

Example

When introducing relative density to 4th graders, we made density bottles.  Before I even uttered the word "density", we made our bottles.  Once we had our bottles full of blue water, vegetable oil,  a plastic sea creature, and a bead, we made observations.  What floats?  What sinks?  THEN, we brought in the new vocabulary.  If an item sinks, it's more dense.  If a substance floats, it's less dense.  We practiced using the new vocabulary to describe the substances in the density bottle.  It was the perfect "engage"!

Here are some more ideas for quick and easy science engagement on my blog, The Science Penguin.

"Accountable Talk"--but are they ready?

Many of us are familiar with the term "accountable talk" as it refers to discourse in the classroom.  Many districts have been implementing "accountable talk" initiatives where teachers are working hard to explicitly teach students how to engage in quality educational discussions.  I think most educators will be in agreement that this is a good idea.  After all, we know that academic discourse can lead to amazing learning--and can improve engagement and interest.  Many teachers have accountable talk "stems" or sentence starters posted and use these to help guide students through more and more sophisticated discussions.  I'm a huge fan--really!

But I sometimes stop and look at my own students and realize that, for some, we may need to back up a little from this.  It's all well and good to teach students the ins and outs of a quality discussion.  Students may know WHAT to say and even be able to explain why.  But there is one thing I think we sometimes forget--some students just lack the confidence to apply these new tools we are teaching them!  By engaging in these discussions and saying things like, "I disagree with you because..." or "I would also like to add...", it requires a great deal of confidence and risk taking.

One thing I have started to do in recent years is give students a lot more opportunities to build their oral language skills in pairs and trios...to get them used to sharing their ideas, piggybacking off of other ideas--and even disagreeing with others.  By doing this in much smaller groups, the risks go down, and confidence can increase dramatically.  

I start small...by having partners share stories that I have on these cards.  I have a whole range of topics--things that ALL students should be able to talk about for about a minute.  We practice with our pairs making a comment about what the other person says...they might just compliment them...or ask a question...or make a connection...but it's all very relaxed.  I may then invite some students to share ideas with the whole class.  I love to make the connection to writing--about how learning to TELL stories is the first step in WRITING stories.  This practice accountable talk is fun, relaxed, and builds comfort in a much safer environment than in front of the entire class...and allows me time to walk around and "coach" and make suggestions.

 Sometimes, too, it's fun to just throw a word or phrase out there and let the students talk!  The other day, I presented this card to the class...and we practiced agreeing and disagreeing with each other in groups of three.  We had people talking about their opinions about roller coasters...about personal experiences about roller coasters...and even about how they work and how dangerous they can be.  What do you notice?  That's right--writing genres!  This was the perfect time to talk to students about how a simple topic like homework...or snakes...or losing..,can lead to countless discussions or pieces of writing.  In fact, after they had their roller coaster discussions, we did some whole-class sharing and then I sent them off to their writer's notebooks to free write on the topic for about 15 minutes.  Their pencils were furiously scratching across their pages--and I know it's because they had some amazing discussions before  they wrote.  

 So...my students are having a lot of fun with language these days, are getting to know each other, and are building their confidence daily.  As we move deeper in the school year, I know that more and more of them will be ready to chime in to class discussions and really use those accountable talk stems I have hanging there!

Because I use these so often in my class (these are great fillers when you have 5 minutes...while you wait for a special class...to transition in from recess...), I did make a nice laminated set for my class.  I have put them in my store as well--I know this would be SO easy for teachers to do on their own, but sometimes just having them done is so nice!  I have informational topics, opinion topics, and cards geared for personal narrative stories--so I can use these with every genre of writing I teach.  Here is the link if you are interested.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Meg

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Organizing Math Centers in the Upper Elementary Classroom

 Hi,everyone! It is Jennifer Findley from Teaching to Inspire, and I am very excited to be writing my first blog post here! I wanted to share with you a quick tip for organizing your math centers.

I don't know about you, but I LOVE math centers. I love seeing the students working together in small groups or with partners. I love hearing the math conversations all around the room. But, I don't love the mess that can come with centers, recording sheets, answer keys, and all of that! I recently helped another teacher with a math lesson, and I loved how she was storing her math centers from my Math Center Bundle. It was pure genius. I immediately snapped some pictures to share.

She uses folders that way she can easily (and quickly) place the directions page and the recording sheets in the front pocket. The students can actually keep their recording sheet in the folder until they are completely finished with all the problems and ready to turn their work in. The answer key could also be stored in this pocket to allow the students to check their work and make necessary corrections. The center pieces are placed in bags and stapled to the other side of the folder. I love this organization method because you can easily store the recording sheets with the math center and you don't have papers flying around. You can also easily label the centers by writing the title of the center on the front of the folder.

If you don't use recording sheets (and use only a piece of paper--like me), check out my blog post about how I organize math centers by clicking here or on the image shown.

For more ideas about teaching Upper Elementary, check out my links below:

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