We've moved out of nonfiction for a little bit and are focusing on making inferences.  This is a hard skill for so many kids and I wanted to make sure I introduced and explained the skill well and gave my kiddos ample opportunities to apply and practice it.

We started by making this anchor chart to explain what an inference is and some sentence stems to use when discussing our inferences.

After that, we played "What's in my purse?" which was inspired by Abby from The Inspired Apple. 

The next day we worked on some pages from this freebie from Have Fun Teaching.

click the pic to snag it from TPT

My kids were good at determining who the narrator was and where the story was taking place thanks to these worksheets.

Next, we continued inferring with task cards.  I used this differentiated set from Teaching with a Mountain View:

I started with the picture cards with question prompts.  We went through the first few together, then I gave each table group 2 cards.  As a group they discussed the cards then scooted around the room.

 They loved explaining what they thought was happening and why.  I love that there were leading questions for some of my reluctant friends, while my super enthusiastic kids were off and running with what they saw.

By this point my kiddos had a good grasp on the skill so I wanted them to apply it more to text.  I broke out these task cards from Rachel Lynette:

We worked on writing responses as a class then I put the cards in a literacy work station.

This is a skill that we'll constantly refer back to during Reading Workshop, but I feel like my kiddos have a good foundation in this important skill.

Read more »

Brandi

One of the things that I love about the blogging world is getting great ideas that I can implement in my classroom.  One of the great ideas that I wanted to get back into was math work stations.  Since this is something new I'm doing this year, I thought I'd link up with Holly for Tried It Tuesday and with Kristen for her Math Centers linky party!

I've often had a variety of fast finisher activities that my students could choose to do after they complete their independent practice, but there was no real structure to it and some kids would pick the same activity day after day.

When I took over my current class in January, I was determined to implement work stations.  I began by teaching some of the basic activities that would be in work stations every rotation.

Math Journals: I purchased this fabulous product from Tara West:

I print off the journal prompts that are aligned with standards that we've already covered extensively.  I put all of the pages into sheet protectors and students use whiteboard markers to complete each sheet.

FACEing Math: I blogged about FACEing math a while back.  You can read up on that HERE. I think it's one of my kiddos favorite work stations.  I made 3 copies of each lesson and put them in sheet protectors. Then I put all the lessons into a binder.

When they go to this work station, they just find the lesson they're on and take it out of the binder to get to work. My kiddos solve the problems using their whiteboards.  I don't need to see their work, since I will be able to tell if they got it right based on their picture!

Facts: I use timers from the Dollar Tree and SuperSpeed Math from Whole Brain Teaching for my kids to practice their facts.  I also have flashcards they can use.  In the next few weeks I'll introduce Math Power Towers from Teacher Tipster.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Once my kiddos had these 3 stations down, I introduced how our work stations would run on a regular basis.

I have 8 rotations that we get through in about 2 weeks.  I split my kids up into groups of 2-3 and they stay in this group for the entire rotation.

In addition to the 3 work stations that I talked about before, I have a teacher work station where I review specific skills that each group needs, and 4 math bags.

Now I know this isn't the cutest organization, but it's working for me right now.  Since we started this so late in the year and I don't know what grade I'll be in next year, I went with function over style.  This summer I'll get something cuter I promise!

Anyway, I use these 4 bags for review activities.  During each rotation, I try to include an activity that reviews place value, measurement/geometry, money, and 2 digit addition/subtraction, because those are the areas my kiddos need to strengthen and keep practicing.

Well this post is long enough.  I'll blog another day about how I actually run my work stations and manage student work.  Thanks for reading through it.  I'd love to hear how you set up work stations/centers in your room.  

Read more »

Brandi

I'm almost done with report cards, but instead of finishing them, I'm going to share what I'm teaching this week!

 

We're going to continue working on inferring.  Last week we did the "What's in my purse and what does it mean?" activity.  This week we'll be using some task cards that I picked up during the TPT sale.

 

 We're beginning 2D and 3D shapes this week.  I'm excited for this unit because there are a lot of fun activities to do involving food and my kiddos love when we do things out of the box. I'll be using toothpicks and marshmallows to make 2D shapes and pretzels and gumdrops to make 3D shapes!

Here are some of my favorite pins for geometry:

We'll also be adding to our math notebook using these pages from Jaime's Interactive Notebook pack:

With St. Patrick's Day quickly approaching, we'll be writing a how to piece about catching a leprechaun.  I teased this idea on Friday and my kiddos were so excited.  I can't wait to see what steps they think they'll need to catch a leprechaun!

 

Work stations is quickly becoming the highlight of my day!  This week in math we'll be reviewing measurement, place value, line plots, and money.  For our literacy work stations we'll be doing my March sentence scramble, a text features game from Courtney's Smart about Text Features pack, Brenda's I Spy Word Work, spelling spinner to practice this week's spelling words, partner reading, writing journals, and Teaching with a Mountain View's Fact and Opinion Task Cards.  I'll be blogging more about how I set up and manage my work stations this week.

Only 3 weeks til Spring Break then 9 weeks after that til summer...so much to do in such a short amount of time!

Read more »

Brandi

I'm linking up with 3 of my favorite linky parties to show off what's been happening this week.

Here's my week in review:

My new blog design!  I absolutely love it!  Megan at A Bird in Hand Designs is fabulous.  I love everything about it! I also love my avatar from Shawnna at Lovelytocu on Etsy!  She was great to work with as well!

I love linking up with Farley for the monthly currently.  Everything is pretty self explanatory.  Spring Break isn't for another 3 weeks, but then there's only 9 weeks until summer after that...not that I'm counting down!

I'll post my question tomorrow, but think it's an easy one to figure out.

I took my daughter to the dentist yesterday and she had a blast....crazy right?  She loves going and I love that they take the time to answer her questions and tell her what they're going to do.  They make going so much fun for her which is great for me!

Work stations are in full effect in my classroom which has been wonderful!  I plan to blog about how I set things up and where I got my inspiration in the upcoming week.  But for now, here are pictures of my kiddos engaged in Math Work Stations

FACEing Math

I Spy Addition Facts

2 digit addition task cards

 

Finally, to celebrate Read Across America we had our first Flashlight Friday and it was such a hit!  I was inspired by Joanne's post a while back and figured that a Friday in our pj's with some 5th grade friends would be the perfect time to begin this weekly activity. 

I ended up with 5th graders reading from their science books to my kiddos for 30 minutes.  My kids were so engaged and asked a ton a great questions that the 5th graders were easily able to answer.  Teaching and learning among the kiddos was flowing!

When the big kids left, my kiddos continued reading from their book boxes with their flashlights!  It was great to see the kids engaged and sharing their love of reading with others!

That's some of the fun that happened this week.  I'm off to gymnastics with my daughter, then it's movie day while we both relax and unwind. 

Happy Saturday everyone!

Read more »

Brandi