Bringing Earth Day into the Classroom

Happy Spring to all!

Are you on the hunt for creative ways  to bring Earth Day into your classroom?

I have a few ideas to share with you.

My absolute favorite activity is doing Litter Bug projects, a yearly tradition in my classroom.

Students use recyclable material to create zany litter bugs.

This is a fun writing activity where students share ideas about having the power over trash.

Yuck, a trash shower ought to teach everyone a lesson!

This Power Over Trash writing is available in my store.

And finally I have a Earth Day writing freebie for you.

Enjoy~
Denise

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Guest Post Lucy Ravitch: How Decimals and Fractions are Related

Hi, I'm Lucy Ravitch and I blog at kidsmathteacher.com!

I'm excited that All Things Upper Elementary is having me as a guest today.  I am currently a stay-at-home mom with a degree in Elementary Education and I LOVE to teach math.  I also write children books with math concepts too, but they are not yet published (believe me I've been trying--for four and a half years now).

Today I'm blogging about a concept that I feel can be confusing or unknown to fourth and fifth graders.

Decimals and Fractions can represent the same numbers!

I remember as a young kid (probably 2nd grade) thinking--Are fractions and decimals related?  My teachers are showing me fractions.  But I know 1/4 is a quarter and a quarter (coin) equals $0.25.

It wasn't until I was in fourth or fifth grade that decimals were finally introduced, but I think it could have been introduced earlier (but not every kid was or is as math inquizative as I was).

As a teacher now, Common Core puts base ten and fractions both as Numbers and Operations but does separate them (at least they are next to each other).  I want to show you a way to teach your students so they can understand how these two concepts (base ten and fractions) are related.

I have a book I've written titled Maurice's Mozzarella: A story of tenths, hundredths, and thousandths (yes, still not published) that I'll summarize the concept of the decimal place value system.  With this story you use base ten blocks, starting with the large cube (typically identified as the thousands).

You can tell your students.... Maurice (a mouse) is a master Mozzarella maker and one day he needs to make an order for a customer that will be given to 1,000 students.  One of his big balls of cheese will need to go to 10 schools, which each have 10 classes with 10 students each.  He discovers if he cuts the ball into a square block it will be much easier to divide.  He cuts the block into 10 equal slices (tenths), then each of those into 10 equal sticks (hundredths), and then the sticks get cut into 10 equal mini-cubes (thousandths).

I made a quick little video showing the base ten representation...


So, this story displays the base ten system.  But still, how does that relate to fractions?  Wait, there's more...

Now that Maurice knows how to make slices (tenths), sticks (hundreds), and mini-cubes (thousandths) he can use this strategy when he has customers come in that want to share or not have a whole block.  Students can make up their own stories and figure out their answers.  I still have to write the sequels to the book, but here are some ideas...

Triplets come into the shop and each want an equal share of one of Maurice's blocks.  They will each get 1/3 right?  Here is what it looks like when the kids show it with their base ten blocks.  Of each three pieces, one will go to each sibling...



What if one customers only wants half of a block?  1/2 equals 0.5 (and you teach the kids how to say the decimal correctly as five tenths)

Then you could try something challenging... A large family comes in and wants it divided equally for all eight members of their family.  Can your students figure out what 1/8 in decimal form is?  Here's another video in case students are stuggling...



Once your students understand how to find fractions in their decimal forms you can also show how equivelant fractions all equal the same decimal.  1/2 also equals 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/10, 6/12...  They all equal the decimal 0.5 or 0.50 or 0.500 which can be simplified to 0.5.

FYI: I used the base ten papers from this site with blackline masters.  I also have a place value book reinforcing the ones through millions place.  It is a printable book on my teacher stores at TpT, TN, and BST.  Additionally, I founded a Google Plus community for Elementary School Teachers (feel free to join if you want).  On Facebook you can follow my author fan page if you like : )  and if anyone has math posts they would like to share I have a weekly linky called Math activity Thursday (with a different elementary grade focus each month).

Thanks again to All Things Upper Elementary for having me as a guest!  And thank you for watching and reading!  How do you teach fractions and decimals?  Do you use any manipulatives?

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Test Incentives and Motivational Ideas

It is that time again...time for state testing! In order to get my students motivated and ready to ace the test, I always spend time prepping for their incentives. A few years ago I began to keep a log of the incentives I would use with my students. I finally compiled them into a fabulous go-to resource to make my prep time shorter. 

Here are some examples of incentives I have given to my students. 

Because my students begin to test next week, I am going to give this resource to one lucky winner. The rules to enter...(1) You must leave a comment on this post with your email address and (2) Share this on either Pinterest or Facebook (if you don't have either, tell a friend). I will choose a winner on Sunday at 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. I will post the winner, and I will email the winner the resource. Make sure you comment with your email address and spread the word. 

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Guest Post from The Brown Bag Teacher: Augmented Reality for Book Talks

Hi, friends! I am Catherine Reed and I am a first-year 5th grade teacher/blogger. You can find me at my corner of cyberspace at The Brown Bag Teacher.
Reading is a HUGE part of the culture in my classroom. From book displays to book blurbs to book raffles, I've worked hard to help my 5th grade friends see themselves as readers.

One of the key components in creating a community of readers has been giving students the opportunity to share their favorite books with their friends. 5th graders are SO social and so talkative. Harnessing these 'talents' for reading have been crucial. In the fall, we hosted our first Book Museum using Augmented Reality.

Before creating our own Augmented Reality book talks, we pull dozens of chapter books from the shelves and took turns reading the back of each book. We asked ourselves: Which books would we want to read? Why? What strategies does an author use to 'hook' a reader? What key components do all of these book blurbs have in common?

At this point, I sent my friends off to plan and write. As students finished their initial drafts, got feedback from a friend, and revised their writing, we began video taping. Using the Augmented Reality app (Aurasma), students created a video of their Book Blurb. Then, students used their book cover as a "Trigger Image" and embedded the video in the book cover (this is SO cool!). Voila! After we created a classroom Aurasma channel and created their videos, we were ready to set up our Book Museum.

Walking into our classroom museum during the Fall Open House, our patrons (parents, family members, younger students) were invited to pull out their mobile device or borrow one of our class iPads. By scanning the below QR Code, patrons could connect to our Aurasma channel and have access to our book commercials.

Using plate holders from Hobby Lobby, students displayed their books along the desk perimeter of our room. As each patron perused the books, they hovered their mobile device/iPad over a book's cover and magically a Book Blurb video showcasing one of our 5th graders popped up! (Note - with 8-10 iPads/mobile devices playing at the same time, we ran into the problem of volume. If you try Augment Reality, I would encourage using a microphone to boost student's volume as they record their videos!)

To cover our desks, I rolled out black bulletin board paper and placed metallic markers from School Outfitters (these are THE best permanents makers I've ever used) on the desks. As patrons visited our museum, they could leave feedback and encouraging words for each reader! The next morning, we took the time to read the feedback and celebrate our success.

Once we deconstructed our museum, we placed the books back into our classroom library with a purple arrow in the corner. This symbol tells my friends that another student loved the book enough to create a book talk for the book. Students know they may grab an iPad and check out the commercial....a perfect avenue for peer recommendations!

How do you encourage students to recommend books to one other? Have you ever used Augmented Reality in your classroom? If so, I would LOVE to hear your tips.

Thank you so much for stopping by and thank you All Things Upper Elementary for hosting me. I would love to connect with you using our favorite social media platforms! Happy day, friends.

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Easter Grammar Packet GIVEAWAY!

Hi, everyone! It's Blair from One Lesson at a Time. I've always been a lover of words. Reading them, writing them, putting them together, taking them apart....I just love words. So, teaching grammar has never been a chore for me - in fact, I love finding ways to make grammar fun for students! I've even been known to sneak a little grammar work into a math lesson. {Insert evil teacher laugh here.} You can click on the picture below to see more about how I incorporated parts of speech and sentence construction into a multiplication lesson:

Over the course of this school year, I've been working on a series of grammar packets that I am kind of in love with. :) They are aligned with Common Core standards for 3rd and 4th grade and go along with holidays/seasonal events throughout the year. I just finished my Easter grammar packet and I am going to give one away to an All Things Upper Elementary reader!

                 

Here's a peek at what's inside:

-Student cover page

-Easter Adjectives

-Easter Traditions (Identifying Singular/Plural Nouns)

-Hunting for Prepositional Phrases!

-A Basket Full of Possessive Nouns

-Easter Around the World (Mixed Grammar Review/Parts of Speech)

-Decorating Abstract Noun Eggs

-Cracking Down on Plural Nouns

-Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

-A Collection of Collective Nouns

-Color by Code: Present and Past Tense Verbs

-Easter Scramble (Create Your Own Sentences)

-Answer Keys for ALL Pages

If you want to score your own copy, make sure to enter the Rafflecopter down below! There are a few different options for entries - choose one, or choose them all to increase your odds. The Rafflecopter will be open until Thursday at midnight. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today! Until next time...

One Lesson at a Time

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Poetry Mentoring: Guest Post, Elizabeth Stavis

Writing and interpreting poetry requires heavy lifting of key skills we want students to know: interpretation, synthesis, attention to detail, language, analyzing author's purpose, etc. But while students love Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, they sometimes shy away from the more subtle poems, confused by what they mean and lost in the language. It can be tough to guide them through the dense works.

Lucky for us, Sharon Creech has provided a kid-friendly guide. Love that Dog is a deceptively simple story about a boy, Jack, who gradually changes from a student that rejects poetry to one who not only works to understand poems, but writes them himself to share his life. The story is written as a series of poems, and famous poems are sprinkled throughout as Jack's teacher, Mrs. Stretchberry, introduces them. Jack begins the story with a clear stance:  

Sept 13th

I don't want to

because boys

don't write poetry.
Girls do.

 But as the book progresses, his feelings slowly shift until he is writing to authors and sharing his poetic works with the class.  

Love that Dog can fulfill many roles in the elementary classroom--as a novel to teach poetry or character change, as a tool to engage reluctant readers and writers in a difficult subject--but what I love is its ability to model how to mentor off of a great writer. As Jack reads famous poem after famous poem, he tries writing a version for himself. One of his most frequent models is William Carlos William's "The Red Wheelbarrow" poem:

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

Throughout Love that Dog (and the sequal, Hate that Cat) Jack is constantly re-inventing this poem.

So much depends

upon

a blue car

splattered with mud

speeding down the road.

He models what mentoring off of an author looks like, as well as the idea of re-writing and revising.

Jack does this with numerous poems, and by the middle of  Love that Dog, students can recite the original poem by heart and immediately connect his work. Jack mixes and matches pieces of different famous poems, and they can trace the source of where each piece comes from. They learn to identify great works of literature, to read closely, to notice repetition and realize it's important.  

While we had been reading Love that Dog as a whole class read aloud, we had also been studying poetry during reading workshop. We focused on three main ideas: poem techniques help us to visualize the world in new ways (sensory details, similes, metaphors, personification, etc), poetic techniques help poems to have an interesting rhythm or sound (line breaks, alliteration, repetition), and poetic techniques focus the reader on the meaning or purpose behind the poem (all of the above).

Towards the end of Love that Dog, we combined the work students had been doing in Reading Workshop and Love that Dog and create poems that were inspired by the poems in the novel. We played around with different subjects, word choice, and line length, using the famous poems as a guide, but also thinking about meaning and sound.

What was amazing is how fluidly students were able to write these poems after all of the models they had read in Love that Dog. Even some of my most reluctant writers were successful. And they were proud--so proud--of their work.

"Inspired by" Poems

 

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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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