Exploring Ten Frames

To help me remember things that I have learned and why I created certain products, I decided to write some more informational posts.

What is a Ten Frame?

Ten Frames are graphic tools that let you "see" numbers. Researcher Jon Van de Walle recommends that all students have a strong foundation in understanding 10s and 1s. This is the beginning of place value and being able to do mental math.

Without this foundational understanding, students will struggle with basic operations and math in general. If you skip over this foundation and rush the student onto the next thing, Van de Walle says you have a great chance of confusing your student.

How to use

Ten frames can be used as another way to model the number of wins and losses. Use the Overhead Ten Frame or draw a ten frame on the blackboard. Ask students to tell you how many marks are in a bundle on a tally chart. [5] Ask what each bundle of tallies will look like on the ten frame. [One row.] What will 2 bundles look like on a ten frame? [Two rows.]

An important concept for kinders to master is 5 and 10 as a group that also contains 5 or 10 individual items. Show students that if there is one bundle, they automatically would place 5 circles on their ten frame. The extras would go on the next row. Show how easy it is to see how many more you would need to make a bundle on the tally chart.

Wins:

Losses:

Students could practice modeling wins and losses on the Ten Frame Work Mat by drawing circles or using counters. This can be used as a formative assessment.

Common Core Standards for Ten Frames

Kindergarten 

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.2 Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1).

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.3 Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4 Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

First Grade 

CCSS.Math.Content.1.NBT.C.4 Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten. 

That's a lot of standards! 

I have to admit, I had to go and research TEN FRAMES! I usually teach upper elementary. They are past the ten frames stage. However, after all of this.... I have some upper elementary review coming out soon using ten frames. I can't wait to share it with all of you!

I found games, products, videos, smart board presentations, and freebies galore. Just take a look at my pinterest board all about ten frames! I also found this powerpoint on using ten frames as an intervention.

I would love to add your ten frame ideas to my board!! Just leave me a comment with a link to your information on ten frames and I will add it in.

From Worksheet to Art Project

Wanna hear one of my new teacher confessions?

I hate worksheets. Despise them actually. I remember completing all of those worksheets as a kid or the mountain of papers my kids bring home and I wonder why. Why in this day and age are we still asking students to complete copious amounts of worksheets?

Sure they are easy to make copies, use them, and grade them but do they have a high engagement value, is there a high value of information conveyed, and if we send them home do they ever come back and/or get looked at?

Here's a picture of one of my littles working on a math worksheet. If you notice the red at the top of the page you will see my notes. This is suppose to be a review activity but a majority of my kiddos don't get it.

(If you read my previous post you saw their grades! YIKES! Yes, this post is backwards as this came before the test but I hope you will forgive me.)

I spent the entire class period running around the room offering 1:1 help on how to complete this. My cooperating teacher is a genius at turning things into art projects/anchor charts. So after we checked to make sure everyone got it right...

We had them cut the chart into pieces. Yep... it became a giant puzzle!

The students had to match all of their answers up again. For an additional challenge and skill... we had them but the decimals in order from greatest to least, glue those ones down first and then recreate it the rest of the chart.

Brilliant! Now this... this type of worksheet project I can handle! We hung them up for a few days in the hall to show off our latest student-made anchor charts.

Oh and before I forget to tell you, BEFORE we cut it out the students had to complete the backside of the worksheet and get it approved prior to starting the project.

Guest Post: Thematic Work Stations (Weather)

Author Bio: Today’s guest post comes from Toni, an elementary school teacher with a specialty in differentiated instruction and designing hands-on lessons that incorporate the multiple intelligences. You can often find Toni writing for TeacherLingo.com, where teachers can buy and sell their original lesson plans, worksheets, and more. She is married to a middle school math teacher and is a mom to a mystery loving 7 year old sweetie-girl and a quirky little light saber toting 3 year old.

There never seems to be enough time to fit everything into the school day! By developing weekly workstations, or centers, around a common theme you can, ‘kill two birds with one stone”. What does this look like in practice?

Each week whatever topic your class is studying in the content areas becomes the theme for your student workstations; like weather or elections. As students move from center to center they will review the week’s content area topic while simultaneously practicing the five essential elements of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Let’s look at a week of weather unit thematic workstations to see how this would look in practice.

In the phonemic awareness thematic workstation your students will work with the distinct sounds in spoken words. This workstation should include poems, rhymes, and songs about the weather along with task cards to go with each. Task cards may have them complete various activities like highlight the words that rhyme in the poem or clap the syllables in all the weather words mentioned in the song. The phonics thematic workstation should give your students the opportunity to examine and manipulate the sounds between letters as well as phonemes, or individual sounds.

You may set up a weather chart and have students focus on weather words with the ‘y’ ending like stormy, sunny, and rainy by writing and giving weather reports. Students may spell their weather words using magnetic letters or dry erase boards while awaiting their turn to give the weather report.

The main objective of the fluency thematic workstation is for students to practice reading text accurately and with proper prosody. Even the most fluent readers often struggle to read nonfiction text effortlessly. A weather reader’s theatre can be used in this station with each student in the center being assigned a part. If the equipment is available allow students to record themselves reading the reader’s theatre. Give each student a fluency checklist so they can self-assess as they watch their performance. Students may also buddy read both fiction and non-fiction books to practice their fluency.

Students will review weather unit words and their meanings in the vocabulary thematic workstation. A flannel board with each weather vocabulary word labeled and displayed gives students the opportunity to interact with the vocabulary as they tell and write stories using their weather words. Weather projects that reinforce the weather vocabulary are also a fun addition to this workstation. Students may review cloud vocabulary by making each type of cloud with cotton balls or puffy paint and then labeling and describing each. You may also have students make weather vocabulary booklets or complete weather word graphic organizers for further vocabulary practice.

The comprehension thematic workstation should allow students to practice both literal and inferential comprehension. This is a perfect workstation for students to reread or listen to the science textbook or weather themed picture books and then answer comprehension questions. The comprehension workstation may also be set up as a research station where students can study a weather topic of interest and show what they have learned by creating a weather game, writing a report or giving a presentation.

Simple weather experiments may also be set up at this center to allow students the opportunity to make predictions and inferences. While the workstations should keep students busily learning while you work with small groups, there are always fast finishers.

To keep everyone busy you may assign a larger project at the beginning of the week that students may work on independently at their seat each day as they complete their work station activities. You may also set up an area of the room with some extra weather themed books, games and activities for speedy students to choose from.

Halloween Math Facts

Here is a great idea I found on Pinterest last year: Pumpkins and popsicle sticks!

So here are my pumpkins. I have yet to unpack this so you are gonna have to be good with just this picture for now.

I changed the idea on pinterest to fit my needs. I have 20 mini pumpkins and 1 big pumpkin. The mini pumpkins are numbered 0-20. In the bottom I put the little glass rocks from Dollar tree. This makes sure that the popsicle sticks stay inside the pumpkins.

The big pumpkins hold the math facts. One end in black is the problem. I mixed up my sticks so that way there are a wide variety of basic facts in there to help my kiddos review. Addition, subtraction, and multiplication... answers up to 20.

Working with a buddy, they set the timer for 3 minutes. They have a recording sheet to record the date and how many they were able to answer. The buddy checks to make sure that they are all answered correctly. The goal is to beat your highest score.

Shh! I may even have a pumpkin surprise for the kiddo with the most answers in 3 minutes or the biggest improvement. This will be one of my math centers all month long so they will have plenty of time to beat their high score. I set this up on top of the book shelf holding my centers. So it doubles as a Halloween decoration. =)

Here comes October!

I am so excited... October is almost here. A few more weeks of 100 degree temperatures and we will finally hit the 90s. By Halloween... we should be in the 80s and if we have any kinda luck by Thanksgiving we will be in the 70s. That's fall in Arizona peeps!

I remember a story several years back from my youngest son. He came home crying from Kindergarten because he thought his teacher lied to him. When I asked what she lied about he said she kept telling him about all these seasons where leaves change and snow falls but that only happens in the movies. After I stopped laughing, I had to explain where we live is different then planned a trip to a nicer climate to prove his teacher didn't lie afterall.

From that moment on, the child never really like his kindergarten teacher or trusted her despite getting proof that she told the truth. It is one of my favorite memories of fall....

Since I am always HOPING for fall to arrive, I always end up in full decorating mode. You should see the amount of decorations stored in my garage or maybe you shouldn't..... This has carried over to the classroom. I have files and files and files of Holiday STUFF!

But I admit, I forget the digital files exist. I need something all in one. Click... print... go! That theory is what prompted my new line of products. Each month, I will be introducing a new packet with lots and lots of resources.

So this guy here has everything that I need in it for the month of  October. I will probably add to it later but for now it is 39 pages and has everything I need as a teacher to prepare for the month ahead!

Calendar numbers (in both formats!) and letters for my classroom boggle board. Boggle is one of my early finishers options for the month. I have a wide variety of things they can do if they finish early but they are all grade-level common-core aligned activities.

Interactive notebook pages. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my interactive student notebooks... known as Brainy Matters in my classroom. It keeps both me and my students organized, it doubles as a portfolio and review tool. You will notice that a lot of my products are now including these pages as it is what I need and use.

There are also writing prompts that cover retelling, inferencing, and creative writing, 2 sight word lists with words that pertain to the month of October, and 2 word hunts.

Math review worksheets. Again, these are core-aligned and skills that all students need to know. My fourth grader was using this one tonight as he needs a refresher on basic math facts. I use these for my students who finish early during math. This way I know they are still getting those instruction math minutes!

There are also 2 roll and cover math game boards. I use this in multiple ways... matching numbers, creating a problem equal to that number (have students record in math journals), and use that number in a problem and have you buddy solve it (mental math). 

Now while all of the above stuff is awesome... Teachers need things too! So I created a 2 newsletter (1 Halloween & 1 Columbus), labels for this months centers, 2 letters home, and 4 pages of books to read (picture books and chapter books!) for the month.

There are also 3 October calendars which I use in my classroom. I have a plain calendar for behavior and a math calendar that we use with our circle time. None of the calendars are dated as I have my students do this to help reinforce counting skills. On the math one... the right the digital date as part of our calendar time on their math calendar.

The one pictured here is the reading log. Students record minutes on the calendar and books to the right. The rubric is on the bottom. No daily minimums are listed on this calendar so you can use it as you wish. This goes home in our file folders which stay inside out binders. The left side has the instructions and the right the calendar.

We worked on this bundle for 3 days solid and I wanted to get it to you before this weekend so you would have time to use it for the upcoming month. In future packets, I am planning on adding the Family Zebra Quest Challenge and our monthly book project. I just ran out of time and steam this month.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this project. This includes clip art from 5 of Melonheadz Illustrating sets as well as exclusive pieces made just for TWT. Each month's kit will be created in a similar fashion and cover two different topics. This kit covers Halloween and Columbus Day. I will do Fall next month when it kinda feels like it here.

Leave me a comment and I will randomly select a winner!

Khan Academy, Homeschool, & Chaos

I had to make a difficult decision on Monday that has been brewing for weeks. What do I do with my teenage son? In our area there are no school buses... it is all up to the parents to get kids to and from school. His carpool has been flaky since the beginning of the school year. He would have to cross 2 freeways to get to school so biking or walking was out.

There is another school down the street within walking distance. But its less than stellar (read horrifying) reputation has most parents shipping their students an hour and a half away to another school. We missed that bandwagon by agreeing to the carpool.

So I decided that despite doubling up on my grad school classes for the next 16 weeks.... I would homeschool him as well. YEP... I AM CRAZY! He is in 8th grade but tests at 11th grade so yea... I have a challenge ahead of me with him.

The high school here is better and in walking distance so next year, we are good for all kids being in school. The little two are still in school so that is at least a relief there!

I totally forgot about Khan Academy until my homeschool friends reminded me! It is all about science and math and its free! There are some amazing videos on there that I have used often but I did not know about their math practice section which includes calculus and trigonometry! SCORE!

While there are videos that provide information on the subject they are more of a refresher or a starting point to jump off of the topic and delve deeper. So it can't be used alone. The teacher's section allows you to add a whole class of students to it so yep... I am adding this as a resource for my classroom website.

My teen thinks it is fun. The graphics aren't top notch but they are much better than I have seen before and the fact that he adds a new star to his galaxy every time he masters a concept is exciting for him. My littles also practiced basic math concepts yesterday and loved it.

Now I just need 3 more computers so they can use the program and I can do my homework!

Calendar Time

I remember calendar time or circle time from when I was a kid being the time of day when we discussed the date and the weather. It was a quick 1 minute lesson.

I remember when my first son entered Kindergarten and I found calendar time to be more in depth and included colors, numbers, letters, and sounds of the week. A quick 5 minute lesson.

NOW... with all the things that students are expected to know this simple time now takes 20-30 minutes to do. This is the time we use to get in all of those things that students should know but aren't really taught anywhere in the curriculum.

Someday I will share with you our routine but for today... I wanted to share just our calendar.

What makes this calendar so unique? Look under the cute number squares... do you see it? Its the date in digital format!

Each day the student goes over the date saying the day and the year just as always but so often we see dates as a code of numbers and expect one to know what it means.

You can't tell me you are not silently reciting the months and counting to see what month 9 is are you? It is kinda like the alphabet song we all sing it in our head when alphabetizing. This helps students learn the months are equal to numbers and reinforces it every day of the month!

Genuis!

My mentor teacher shrunk down regular calendar numbers in order to leave room to write. I carry several versions of calendar numbers in my store. I LOVE calendar numbers. Yes... I know I am strange.

So what is my obsession with these things?

I love using these as an easy seasonal decoration. I have to take all the numbers off the calendar to change out the month anyways. It is not so difficult to switch from one design to another. I can also use it for patterning as I can use multiple sets to create the pattern of the month. This is a great way to get in another skill students need with minimal work.

I am all about easy!

I decided to offer two versions of my calendar numbers in all of my new sets but still keep the same price!

One is the traditional format and the other has space for you to write in the digital date. Simply print on card stalk and laminate as you would normally do. Then you can use a dry-erase marker to add in the date. They are still reusable year after year.

Added bonus - the size remains the same so these numbers will still fit on a calendar of your choosing. The size is perfect for both pocket chart and poster calendars.

All my new calendar sets are made with Melonheadz Graphics. If you need something specific, feel free to leave your request in the comments. As always, I will be giving away a free set of your choosing to one of my amazing followers!

Number Line Fun & Winners

This morning, I was updating Honey Bunch Blog Design with a few new blogs we completed over this weekend when I ran across these pictures at Perfectly Primary.

I instantly had an idea of how I would use this brilliant idea!

1. Customized number line. I am so excited by this idea. I could go to the store pick out any border that matches my classroom and create an adorable, cheap, unique number line. All I would need is a sharpie!

2. Addition center: Make the first star say "0" to start with. Then roll a die. Add it to the number you are on. Use Starbursts for game piece. First one to 100 (or 120 if using CCSS) wins. Either way you get to eat your Starburst when done. And to make it trickier - you can set up the rules to where the file roll has to be one to get you to that point exactly. So if you are on 98... you would have to roll a 2 to win!

3. Subtraction center: Instead of starting at 0 start at 100 (or 120 if using CCSS) and then subtract you way to zero!

If you wanted to make sure your students were adding/subtracting correctly then you could make a worksheet or have them write their rolls on a sheet of paper.

To make it easier you could make your number line shorter. Oh there are so many different ways you could use this idea. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Allison is a preschool teacher and so her use for this is completely different. Stop by Perfectly Primary to see what she did while I allow my mind to continue running wild.

WINNERS! WINNERS!

I had two giveaways this past week and it is now time to announce the winners. I love giving stuff away!

Giveaway #1 

The Winner is

 

Giveaway #2 

The Winner is

I sent you both an email with information on how to claim your prizes. Thanks again to Lilcookies and Maria Dismondy for your generosity!

Cuz I know you are all dying to find out... as I am sure you heard the yelling coming form our house yesterday... Opening game of the season... BEARS WIN BY 20!

Introduction to Polygons

For my last class, I had to create an entire scripted lesson plan for use with ELL, ESS (SPED), and G&T students. As I have been focusing on creating a framework from which to base my lessons, I decided to create a math lesson plan to use for this assignment as well as for use with my plan.

I decided to open my lesson plan with an amazing book that my youngest son loves. The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns is a reference utilized by many teachers. I found it on YouTube! 

After each shape is introduced pause the video or stop reading. Using a Chinese Jump rope have each table group recreate the shape. If you prefer to have your students do this independently use a geoboard.

To help students remember the names of the various regular polygons. I found this song on YouTube. My seven-year old is still singing this in the background as I write this blog. He loves it, he asked me to print out the words to it and it is hanging up in his room.

I next used this amazing kit from Laura Candler which was available for free during the Teacher Appreciation Jackpot. I only used the polygon sort for the lesson plan.

I followed this up with my BUILD Math Masters Interactive Notebook. Where we took notes and drew pictures of the various polygons. Once I finish completing my unit on polygons, I will have the complete set of materials for sale at my store.

To help further support this I used some of the WBT techniques I have been sharing with you. Class-Yes, Switch,  and Teach-Okay. This lesson was my first with WBT and I can't wait to do more! (During this class, I discovered WBT for the first time so have been learning about this while studying.)

I am so excited about how this came out! This unit is aligned to the Common Core Standards (CCSS) 3.G.1.

After introducing this concept, we will move onto more complex geometry concepts. The items introduced will then be moved into BUILD so that students can reinforce this less by repeating various parts of it.

B - Polygon Sort can be added to the games section.
U - The geoboards can be added here along with cards asking them to recreate a shape. Answers on back of the card.
I - Having an iPad or computer set up so students can re-view the video "The Greedy Triangle." Also include this in book format and other books on polygons.
L - There is no "L" for this lesson plan.
D - Worksheets from our curriculum.







I have included my wishlist for use with introducing polygons.Many of these I have already read, I just need to purchase them for my class. As the unit continues, I will add additional books on this topic.

What are your favorite books about polygons? Do you have other resources you use for teaching this?

BUILDing Math Masters

I have been trying to pull together a format for how I want to teach math. Part of my final project for grad school is to explain how I would teach various subjects. Math is the subject I fear teaching the most. Why?

1 ~ Most kids either hate math, find it boring, or are afraid of it
2 ~ It is fundamental for everything in life
3 ~ I hate worksheet based curriculums
4 ~ I struggle with how to make math come alive, to make it fun, exciting, and engaging.

So this is the area that I have spent the most time on. The one thing that I want each of my students to know and be able to do by the time they leave my class is to have a foundation in math and to know how they best learn math concepts.

To do this... I need to create a multidimensional environment in which to teach the subject. I need my students to have a way to organize their thoughts on this and be able to reference them if needed. I need to be able to teach to the whole as well as to unique individual levels. I need to make it fun and real and exciting. I need to not be bored when teaching it.

The first thing I created was an interactive notebook. I took my brainy matters idea and improved it. Brainy Matters is a type of interactive notebook only I didn't know that at the time I started working on it. I will use this primarily for whole group lessons. Students will end up creating their own math textbooks. It will be AMAZING!

Second... I discovered this great idea!

The name of my math program and interactive notebook will be BUILDing  Math Masters! Each of my students will become a Math Master in their own right! Go to the link above or click on the picture to read more about this great idea!

I will be changing this up a little of my classroom. I love how this is organized so will be setting it up to where my centers for the week or set up as above and I will store all my math centers below. I will work on figuring out how to do that better later but for now. I am so excited to have a format to build off of!

B - Buddy Games (with partners or small groups)

U - Using Manipulatives (exploring the concept!)

I - Independent Work (The original focused on reading math books independently. Mine will primarily be working on completing worksheets or other assessments for the unit. I will include a book scavenger hunt if I have a related math book available.)

L - Learning (The original was titled Learning about Numbers. Mine version is small group lessons and working on deficient skills at independent levels. I want my students to have those basic facts mastered and we will be doing a lot of that here at this stage.)

D - Doing Math (This will be our actual curriculum materials. So whatever the district requires will go here. I will also use this time for teaching the whole group lessons, working on interactive notebooks, and introducing new games, manipulatives, activities, etc...). 

Mrs. Thompson created this great free hand-out to go with it to help keep track of the which centers her students choose. 

Soooooo.... why do I like this method so much?

1 ~ Lots of flexibility. I can add in great things I find from other teachers, things from my district, team teachers, etc... all within this one easy to use format.

2 ~ Reminds me of the daily 5. I love the thoughts around this set up. I am planning on implementing my own version of this for language arts and perhaps science/technology as well.

3 ~ I love the freedom the children have to choose what they want to learn. We all get bored, there are somethings that excite us more... this gives the students the power to choose what works best for them

I will be creating labels for baskets, tubs, etc... as well as posters in the black,white, and red them for this in my store soon. I will also be sharing soon my interactive math notebook as I create those for each unit. It will take time but eventually I think this will be AM~AZ~ING!

I will also create additional posts on what I will include in each category for various units as I sort through things and get them ready for class. 

Don't forget!