Four 4s--Week of Inspirational Math

I did this activity with my students at the beginning of the year two years ago. It was part of the Youcubed week of inspirational math. This is a week of activities that promote growth mindset in math and thinking of math beyond word problems but as relationships between numbers.

I had a great time doing the week of inspirational math with my students. There are now even more lessons then when I first started this.

This activity was called Four 4s. Students had to create expressions using only four 4s that equaled numbers 1-20. They could use any expression and any math they wanted. They loved it and I think it would be a great before a holiday activity. Students wanted to learn new math to keep creating expressions. I taught them square roots and exponents and they just gobbled that stuff up.

There is nothing that says this has to be done with only fours. If your students find expressions for all these numbers, move onto a another number!

The Flash Mind Reader

This was a fun website to show my student and have them figure out what is really happening behind the "magic."

I was very much freaked out that first few times I used this. Especially because I had headphones on and it makes a pretty creepy noise. 

My students liked trying to figure out what the rule was. I did it as a whole group this year and asked students to pick a number and try out their theories on what was happening. 

For this next year, I think I will make it a small group activity. 

The Flash Mind Reader

Anybody have anything similar to this to share? It is different way to get students thinking mathematically and start seeing patterns in numbers.

Would you Rather? Math Edition

Math. Love it and hate it.

It can be fun. But I find I love math when there are interesting problems to solve and not boring worksheets. I know my students feel the same way. 

I found this blog last week called Would You Rather?

John Stevens posts would you rather situations that require mathematical thinking to solve. 

Today I turned this one into a station. 

I changed it up a little so the students had to do more math with it. They had to answer the following question:

Would you rather...

Have a stack of quarters from the floor to the top of your head? OR

Have a nickel for every day you've been alive?

Students had to measure themselves, convert years to days, multiply decimals, divide, use fractions...etc. They had to take things they had learned and apply it to this problem in unique ways. 

The students didn't leave the classroom proclaiming it was the best day ever! (yet) But their attitudes were better, they didn't complain, students who grudgingly do math were excited to multiply decimals to find out how much money they would have. When it was time to go, they wouldn't stop. It was fun for me to talk to them about the work they were doing and they had fun explaining their choices. 

Look at all that math going on! I am excited for more students to tackle this problem tomorrow. 

Rules, Post-its and First Week of School

The first week of school is one of my favorites. It goes by fast, everyone is hopeful and there is so much excitement. It is a perfect time to talk to students about what they expect for the year and what they need. 

You've probably seen this activity on Pinterest. It isn't new and I've been doing it for at least three school years. I love getting the students opinions on how the year should go.

The students answer questions on post-it notes and then place their answer on the butcher paper I've put up. 

Here are some of the questions I have asked:

What kind of teacher do you need?

What do you need from your classmates this year?

What do you need to be successful in math this year?

Our classroom should be _____________ every day. 

The after is the interesting part. I take their answers and make a world cloud out of them and then present it to the class on other day. We can make classroom rules from the patterns we see. It is also something I get out after long holidays and as needed to remind ourselves what we expect from each other throughout the year. 

What do you need from your classmates this year?

Our classroom should be _________ everyday. 

What do you need to do to succeed this year?

To make the clouds, I have used Wordle and Tagxedo. These were made with Tagxedo.

Newsela

I like trying to bring science current events into my classroom but I want the students to be able to read the articles I give them.

I found this website after a lot of googling. 

Newsela.com is what I found. It takes articles from different newspapers and lets you change the reading level on it. Here is the same article in 8th and 4th grade reading levels. 

I've seen it go down to 3rd grade reading level. Some of the articles have short quizzes that go with it to. There are several categories. I have used the Science most often. It is a great way to make what we are learning in science seem more real life. 

So after a night of googling, I found I great resource to use the the classroom. What are some things you have found scouring the internet?

Science Notebook Resources

I think my favorite thing about science are the science notebooks!

The student's worksheets, lab sheets, observations, foldables (lots of foldables) all go in there. This is my 4th year doing the notebook and it just gets better every year.

I always hope that by the 3rd day of school, all students have their composition notebooks purchased and brought to school. If not, I always buy extra and they replace mine later on. (Sometimes, but I am particular enough about it being a composition notebook that I will pay for it. My first year, composition notebooks weren't even on our school supply list, so I bought them for the entire class.

For those who do notebooks, you probably already have a process that you use. I want to share some of the resources I have found that might expand what you already do. And get those of you started who haven't done it yet.

Middle School Science has lots of ideas for the Science Notebook- and the actual worksheet to add to the notebook available for download. The page I linked to is mostly 5th grade resources, but I believe I saw 7th grade notebooks there as well. And everything can be adapted to fit what you need.

Another website I found was from the East Bay Educational Collaborative located on the east coast. There are several resources for activities (especially science process skills), rubrics, setting up notebooks, etc. I haven't explore the whole thing yet, but I've already added several things to my lesson plans.

My favorite things here are the Index Master (because after 3 years, I still have not mastered the science notebook index) and the the "Let's be a Scientist" Checklist that students can make sure they are hitting all their steps in reflection and experiments.

Are there any other websites you've found that are great notebook resources? I would love to hear about them!

Planbook

I have been looking for a digital plan book for while. Something I could share with other teachers. Last year I used Google Docs, but it did not have all the features I wanted.

Last week, I found Planbook.edu. There is a free version, but to use the features I want it cost $25 a year. Unless I find one that does the exactly the same thing for free, it looks like the one.

Most importantly, I wanted to be able to attach documents to my days. This does that. I can also share it. But I am guessing those teachers will need have a subscription too.

So far, this is the best option. If anyone knows of another digital plan book, please let me know. But, I have started making plans, which makes me happy.