Creating Diagrams in Interactive Notebooks

If you are like me there are times where creating a diagram is necessary to show how something works. When I was teaching fifth grade we had so many diagrams and they were up all over our classroom because I didn't know better. This made it really hard for my students to actually use the diagrams to retain the knowledge.

Now that I have been using Interactive Notebooks for the past four years I wish that I had been using my students lab books (composition notebooks) better back then. I remember we had a lab where we talked about weathering, erosion and deposition and my students used their pencils and drew pictures. HOW BORING! Color is so much more fun and can add to their learning.

I love using the Tri-Fold Mini Book Template to create flowing lessons that build upon each other or diagrams with room to identify things.

The front section allows me to title the flippable for Weathering, Erosion and Deposition while also being a little creative. Most of the time my students only do the extra creating when they are at home and studying. Inside class time is used for the actual diagram creation as well as labeling. 

The extra side on one of the flaps allows the students to keep definitions for each of the terms that are involved in this flippable. I love that we can also color-coordinate them with the title words and areas in the diagram.

When you open up the Three-Flap Mini Book it gives plenty of space for the diagram for the process of Weathering, Erosion and Deposition. I only wish this was how I taught my fifth graders (who have now graduated) because I think it could have really helped. Believe me, I have sent it on to quite a few friends who still teach as 5th Grade is a testing grade for Science and any visual the students can use will help!

Do you love using Flippables as much as I do? Would you love to add three more templates to your arsenal so that you can use them as needed? Click the picture below to join my newsletter and you will be given a link to download three new templates in PDF (easy printing) and JPG (editable) format!

Would love to hear from you and see you over on my blog so check me out at

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We Are Thankful!

Here at All Things Upper Elementary, we are so very THANKFUL for all of our loyal readers who have become our friends. Today on this day of Thanksgiving (in the US) we want to take the time to share what we are thankful for with you. 

Check out our posts on each of our blogs as we share the many things that we are thankful for this year. If you feel like posting as well, leave your blog link in the comments so that we can check you out as well.

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"When are we EVER going to use THIS?!"

"When are we EVER going to use THIS?!"  This statement... this one little statement has caused fear and panic to run through MANY a math teacher's veins!  It's not like you won't use math in the real world... but sometimes as soon as that question is uttered we have a mind-melting-moment and cannot come up with just the right words to say.

So to help give you some real world, possibly out of the box thinking type ideas, my Book Blogging Buddies and I have come up with an idea that we think will be
 A-MAY-ZING!!

Presenting..... math IS real life!  A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by 4mulaFun, Fourth Grade Studio, Teaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork,

So here is how this will work.... on the FIRST Wednesday of every month (starting next Wednesday, August 7th!) all four of us will create a blog post about how we have RECENTLY used math in our real life - not just counting or time.... but topics that your kiddos will be able to relate to at various level of upper elementary and middle school.  Then at the bottom of all four of our blogs we will have a link-up that will sync between all four blogs.  This means you link up to one of us and it will be visible on all 4 blogs!  

So... what are you waiting for?!  You have 6 days to decide what math topic has happened recently in your life and to create a blog post about it!  If you have a product you want to link that APPLIES to the post, go for it, but freebies are more than appreciated too!

We are so very excited to see what everyone comes up with!!
 Let the MATH NERD-INESS BEGIN!!!

 

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Using Time Wisely- Planning for A New Year of Interactive Notebooks

I am so happy to be back with you this week to talk about Interactive Notebooks. I am also thankful that my friend, and fellow ATUE Collaborator, Meg of Fourth Grade Studio, was gracious enough to let you know where I was two weeks ago. I definitely had a blast while I was at CAMT 13 and did a full recap over on my blog if you are interested.

Many of you have asked me, "Where do I start? How do I know what comes next? Where do I put things?" and I'm here to help you as I continue to develop new ways to implement INBs in my classroom. This coming year will be no exception as I m looking forward to integrating them with my new classroom of students of all levels in various subjects all at once! Definitely will be blogging about those quite a bit!

So, if you are still looking for where to Start the New Year with Interactive Notebooks, feel free to check out my most recent video over on my YouTube channel.

I am continuing to film videos regularly and have some ideas for some more that are coming up as well as some interactive sessions this fall once we get the new year started! :)

If you are interested in the INB Starter's Pack that I went over on the video, feel free to grab it over at my Teacher's Pay Teachers Store. It has been flying into people's carts and I have been receiving feedback daily from teachers who are excited about being able to start the year right with INBs!

So, until next time...

Mathematically Yours,

Jennifer Smith-Sloane

aka 4mulaFun

@4mulaFun

4mulaFun on Facebook

4mulaFun on Pinterest

P.S. The Interactive Notebook Linky returns on July 28th over on my blog! Get your posts ready!

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What Do I Need for INBs?

If you are a teacher looking to implement Interactive Notebooks, you are going to need some supplies.

When you care compiling your supplies, you need to know that starting off with a sturdy notebook that will stand up over time.

To decorate and use in the sturdy notebook, you are going to need various types of pens, pencils, colored pencils, markers and highlighters.

And because you aren't only going to be writing/drawing in your notebook, you will need colored paper to be able to create Flippables to hold your notes.

To be able to create those Flippables, you will need scissors to cut on the dashed lines as well as glue sticks to stick them in your notebook. Sometimes you may use tape to create a hinge or for special types of Flippables that need to be sealed on one edge.

Once you have your notes all together, you may want to add in other things like Post It Notes, a handheld pencil sharpener, or some washi tape.

And to keep track of all these supplies, it would be best to put them all in a tub at each table.

And as a Structure Sergeant, those tubs will be your lifesaver at the end of each day to wrangle up the supplies for your students to be prepared for the next day.

So, until next time...

Mathematically Yours,

Jennifer Smith-Sloane

aka 4mulaFun

@4mulaFun

4mulaFun on Facebook

4mulaFun on Pinterest

P.S. The Interactive Notebook Linky returns on June 28th! Get your posts ready!

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Taking Time for Interactive Notebooks in the Classroom

Whew, time sure does fly at the end of the school year when you are literally cramming in all the last minute activities to make sure you reach all of the necessary standards, completing paperwork (my nemesis), attending last minute activities and meetings, etc.

Last month I brought up planning as what I think is the most important factor in implementing Interactive Notebooks into your classroom. After that blog post I received numerous questions and comments asking, "How do you fit everything in during each class time?" What a great question! After giving a few quick responses, I decided that I had to share with all of my friends here at All Things Upper Elementary just how I fit it all in.

What is your time frame?

Do you have a 45 minutes class? a 90 minute class? a rotating schedule? a self-contained class that has rough timelines? As soon as I saw on my schedule of classes last summer that each were between 48 and 52 minutes long, 5 days a week I knew that my time frame for fitting in all the necessary components of my lessons was a magical 48 minutes.

How do you plan for your time frame?

From day one in my classroom I was notorious for being a "Structure Sergeant"; yep, that's a nice way of putting it.

When students walking into my classroom they quickly gather all materials needed for the daily lesson. Once they are at their desk they spend NO MORE THAN 3-5 minutes prepping their Interactive Notebook for that day's activities. This includes updating the Table of Contents, writing the date on the page, and cutting out anything and everything and gluing down the bones of the lesson.

I always post a skeleton copy (bare bones, nothing completed) as a picture on my computer to project for all students to see as this gives me the necessary time to complete those teacher tasks such as attendance, etc. before getting stated.

Once the prep time is complete, we move right into our intro of our lesson. This is when I have a student read the "I Can Statement" for the day and we talk about what we will be doing as a component of that statement and break down some key vocabulary that might be in it and if one of those words happens to be a vocabulary word, we complete our Frayer model at that time. We are now roughly 7-10 minutes into class.

Rocking right on it's time to get into the "meat" of the lesson for the day. Typically I did a flippable version of notes so that I could have something interactive to draw my students in for the lesson by keeping them on their toes. There are different ways to do this such a cloze notes, sort and stick (gluing notes that were already typed), or even having groups break into parts of the lesson and report back.

The most important part of this is to keep things flowing so that students are engaged. Doing this in my classroom made my off task behaviors virtually non-existent. Once I had done significant modeling with each individual class of students, I began picking a teacher helper during each class. This teacher helper was my INB Vanna during lessons and uncovered areas or completed their lesson under my document camera while I was monitoring and assisting while also teaching around the room.

There were days that I picked a student who was on the more active side and they were typically the BEST at modeling how a "Structure Sergeant" models a lesson. It's amazing what they had picked up non-verbally from me over time.

After roughly a 15-20 minute mini-lesson it was time for practice and application of skills. I am a huge proponent of not drilling and killing my students but rather relating it to a real-life problem that they may face sometime in life as well as making it interesting to them in some way. This lends to word problems so well. There were days where we only completed 2-3 problems and that was perfectly fine because then there were other days where we were able to complete a lot more through whole group practice, workstations, small group work, etc.

By this time we are ready to wrap things up. This is when I would pull in an Exit Ticket or my favorite, a "Post It, Prove It." These two strategies give me immediate feedback on what each student has internalized and connected with in the lesson for the day which in turn allows me to determine students who need extra support, are on target and even those that are ready to move on to the next step.

So, until next time...

Mathematically Yours,

Jennifer Smith-Sloane

aka 4mulaFun

@4mulaFun

4mulaFun on Facebook

4mulaFun on Pinterest

P.S. The Interactive Notebook Linky returns on June 28th! Get your posts ready!

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One of those Weeks...

Yep, we all have them. Just one of those weeks where everything is on your plate and something has to give. Well this week it had to be my scheduled blog post about "Making Time for INBs". Quite fitting if you think about it.

Some of you may know my mother was recently diagnosed with Lymphoma. Last Friday she had her second round of chemo treatments and the week after is always the "bad time". Since my father is a teacher as well, and I am able to work remotely (benefit of virtual teaching), I volunteered to come over and stay during the week so she would have someone to help care for her.

Well, my focus hasn't been on writing a blog post and here I sit at 9:34 pm on Wednesday night to let you know that I'm not forgetting about you all but I wanted to let you know.

I will be back with the blog post about Making Time for INBs in your Classroom in 2 weeks but for now, please jump on over to my blog where I have an Interactive Notebook Linky Party going on! It's for all subjects and all grades! There are so many new people jumping on the INB wagon this summer and we all need inspiration!

Feel free to share a blog post, pictures and/or video for Interactive Notebook resources for others! No product links please.

So, until next time...

Mathematically Yours,

Jennifer Smith-Sloane

aka 4mulaFun

@4mulaFun

4mulaFun on Facebook

4mulaFun on Pinterest

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Thinking about INBs...What's First?

After my last post about Interactive Notebooks for All, I fielded a lot of questions like, "Where do I begin?" My friends, I am so excited that you are joining me on the journey of continual Interactive Learning in your classroom!

The first step for anything for me is the planning stage. I must take my time and think how I want things to layout cohesively to make them make sense. 

So, I have a FREEBIE for you! I just loaded my Interactive Notebook Planning Sheets for you to use in your planning! They go from page 1-199 and offer you room to plan your concepts and I even had enough room to add in the standard as I am planning some for a special project right now.

And if you are looking for a FREE checklist to go with the Common Core State Standards, MissMathDork has some awesome ones out (you can barely see her logo in my picture up above). You can grab the K-2, 3-5 and/or the 6-8 for FREE from her Teachers Pay Teachers store as well!

So, who's with me on the Interactive Notebook Journey for 2013-2014?

Mathematically Yours,

Jennifer Smith-Sloane

aka 4mulaFun

@4mulaFun

4mulaFun on Facebook

4mulaFun on Pinterest

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Interactive Notebooks for All!

Interactive Notebooks have such great potential in the classroom and can truly be individualized to meet the needs of not only each subject but also each learner.

Over the past three years, I have totally changed how I teach in my classroom through the use of Interactive Notebooks and today I want to share a little bit of that with you.

I filmed the two videos below of my Interactive Notebooks earlier this school year. They are way beyond this now and I plan to take some time this summer to film each unit to share with you.

There are some items in each that are similar and others that aren't. The first video was for my Resource Middle School Math classes that were typically working on a 4th-5th grade reading and math level.

The second video was my 7th grade math class that was Rockin' and Rollin'. 
Now that I teach in a virtual school, we still work each week on an Interactive Notebook. I send the resources to them, I give them directions, I teach the lesson and then it is up to them to complete their notebooks. It's a bit more of a challenge but so well worth it!

Weekly I received pictures of completed Flippables and Interactive Notebooks from my students and I totally love it because it shows me they are taking ownership of their learning.
If you are interested in seeing any more of my Interactive Notebook resources, feel free to check out my blog for various discussions and examples as well as my Teachers Pay Teachers store to find all of the various activities that I have created for Interactive Notebooks (with many more added all the time).

P.S. This Summer I am planning to add to many videos to my YouTube account. You might want to go ahead and follow me to stay up to date on new videos a they are posted. I'd love if you left me a comment of any math video you might like to see so I can add them into my list that I am already planning. 

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Angles, Angles Everywhere!

Good morning! As many of you know I am a lover of anything and everything to do with an Interactive Notebook (INB). I am here today to share one of my latest flippables with you that my students have recently.

We just finished up reviewing the four different types of angles as part of our Geometry Unit so we had to create a fun flippable to use as a resource.

When my students walk in the door, they know to grab what is laying out for them and as part of their bell ringer they cut out and prepare everything for their INB for the day. First things up, the page title and the I Can statement.

I always show my students a completed example so that they can see what it will be looking like when they are finished. They know not to start "decorating" because they never know what the directions will be for the day. (Today's directions given at the end were to draw an item that has each given type of angle: heart- acute at the base, right- house at the base, clock- the hands are in an obtuse angle, flag pole- the pole is a straight angle).

Next up, it was time to match the definitions to each flap. I let my students work together on this and gave them a few minutes so that I could walk around and hear their conversations and how they were justifying it within their group. Hearing them using mathematical terms makes my day.

Next it was time to start creating our examples. I gave each student 4 stars in three different colors. They were to create an example of each angle and then label the angle according to their sticker color names. You can see this is angle BGR (blue, gold, red).

After the students went through and created their angles and placed their stickers, I had them check a neighbors. More mathematical talk that made me swoon.

The last part of this flippable was when I passed out the protractors. Each student had to use their protractor and write a complete sentence demonstrating why the angle that they created for each flap was that particular type of angle. 

When they were done, I let students go around with their protractors and measure various things in the room and stick a small Post-It in that spot that labeled the measurement of that angle. I even had some that were adventurous and asked for my painters tape and made their own angles on our tile floor. 

This Flippable, and many more, are available with all of the resources in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

I hope you have a great day and I can't wait to share another math adventure with you next time around here on All Things Upper Elementary!

Mathematically Yours,

Jennifer Smith-Sloane

aka 4mulaFun

@4mulaFun

4mulaFun on Facebook

4mulaFun on Pinterest

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Another day, Another set of goals...

As many of you know, I have changed positions recently and with that came a whole new way of making things work for not only myself but also for my students. Let me give you a little bit of background.

I work with Texas Virtual Academy as a Special Education Teacher. I have a caseload of 25 students (19 7th graders and 6 8th graders) who all are in Special Education for one reason or another. It is my job to make the virtual education work for them and meet their needs of their IEPs as well as meet the standards for our state testing. Easy, right?

Well, as many of you are aware Special Education students have varying needs and are all at varying abilities. It so happens I have a few that really need my organizational skills to help them get through their day. Enter our PLAN OF ATTACK.

There are 10 different assignments on the Plan of Attack and this is my student's plan for the day. I include any assignments that he/she must complete. I made sure to give them a place to be able to mark the assignment as DONE as well as a place for them to write notes about the assignment.

Since I have implemented this with a few of my students there has been a miraculous turn around in what they are able to accomplish. The numbers don't lie! We are going from getting maybe 1 activity a day complete to now getting between 80-90% complete each day!

What happens to what they don't finish? It goes on the next day's list as an assignment all lumped in one! Yep, sometimes we have to catch up but the success is paying off ten-fold!

And as an added bonus, I am sharing a blank Plan of Attack for you to use! It's a great way to accommodate for learners who just get frazzled by too many things incoming. I know that I made lists when I was in school just being the OCD self that I was and marking them as complete made me feel a sense of accomplishment.

Click here to download your own Plan of Attack!

So, how can you use this in your classroom? What is an accommodation that you use with your students that has proven to be successful?

Looking for more? Check out my blog, my Facebook Fan Page, or my TpT store for more items related to Math, Special Education and More!

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Groundhogs, Graphs and a Freebie.. OH MY!

It's already Sunday? Where has the weekend gone? Guess it's time to get down to business and get prepared for a new school week.

First, did you enjoy the Free for All Linky Party yesterday? If you haven't checked it out yet, what are you waiting for. At the time of writing this post there are already over 50 items linked up and it will continue to grow through tomorrow so keep checking back!

Well, onto today's topic of Groundhogs, Graphs and a Freebie! It seems like it's always around this time of year that I need something to pull my students back into their learning despite just getting back from Winter Break. I blame it on the weather and the longing for a snow day which just doesn't happen that often in Texas.

So this year when I knew I was going to be introducing graphing with points in all four quadrants, I wanted my lesson to also have a component they could continue to practice on after we had put our Coordinate Plane Flippable in our Interactive Notebooks.

Enter Groundhog Graphing! The learning goal for Groundhog Graphing is for the student to locate points on a coordinate grid.

Now, I know that lower grades only teach coordinate graphing in one quadrant so I couldn't leave you out and I made this a set that includes One Quadrant as well as Four Quadrant coordinates! Easy differentiation right there!

 

There are 12 Task Cards for each Level of Coordinate Pairs (One Quadrant and Four Quadrant) and all I simply do for these is laminate them and cut them out and then give my students either a dry erase marker to mark the point or a small counter where they can manipulate it around on the graph.

This is also great to then use when you are working on Transformations as you are able to physically slide, flip and turn the point around on the graph from the original point!

Now, you can go grab this for FREE in the 4mulaFun Teachers Pay Teachers Store! Don't forget to leave feedback if you use this and I'd love to see links to how you used it in the classroom or what your students thought.

Don't let Graphing and Coordinate Pairs send you (and your students) screaming for the hills! Make it fun and interactive and they will love you forever!

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