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Additions to our Fraction Unit!

January 26, 2017, 2:14 pm
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I'm popping in quickly to share a few additions I've made to our fractions unit this year that have really brought some added depth to student learning.  Before (or after) you browse here, make sure you stop by my original blog post about all of my fraction unit activities.  It's HUGE and has so much information!  Click the image below to read all about it!
The Ultimate Collection of Activities to Teach Fraction Skills
Now, moving on to a few new ideas!

This year, I was looking at adding in more inquiry-based activities.  One of my big focuses this year is allowing students to draw conclusions themselves so that they are more meaningful in the long run.  Fractions are so conceptual, and sometimes I feel like student understanding is left so surface level.  This year, I wanted to make sure there was no chance of that happening.  I decided to invest in a great unit from Meg at The Teacher Studio.  She has a great constructivist approach to teaching fractions, with a lot of hands-on activities that really get kids thinking!  You can see the unit HERE, and I highly recommend it!  Many of the activities I talk about today are straight from her unit.  It's SO worth it!


Since I teach fourth grade, most students already have a basic understanding of fractions.  I started by asking each student to find something circular, square, or rectangular to trace.  Then, they traced and cut out their shapes 3 or 4 times (they all had to be identical, of course).  I put these small posters up all over the room with different fractional amounts of them (halves, thirds, fifths, eights, etc.).  They had to FOLD their shapes into each of these amounts, then they traced the fold lines and glued it on the page.  It yielded SUCH a rich discussion, especially about forming fractions and what is/is not a properly formed fraction-- check out some of those totally inaccurate thirds!


The next day, I gave each student this prompt (also from Meg's unit).  They discussed their answers with a partner and each pair wrote a written response justifying their response.  We recorded their votes, and then had another huge discussion about it.  It was so eye-opening!


It's no secret that I'm a HUGE fan of Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6.  Her ideas are always so meaningful, and they have very little "fluff," which I always appreciate.  She posted on Instagram about creating a concept chart for specific units, adding to it each day as they reveal new learning.  I absolutely LOVED this idea and got started on ours right away.  We can even record misconceptions to be figured out later.  It's amazing how full this chart got over the course of the unit!


I always love to incorporate some Skittles fun into our lessons!  When we were working on equivalent fractions, I used my Skittles Math activities in combination with Meg's Skittles activities from her unit, and we had a blast!  It's always so hard for them to wait to eat the Skittles, but when they have successfully completed their activity, it's such a sweet treat and feeling of accomplishment!

 

 Last year, I created these free fraction concept exit tickets (you can download them from THIS post).  Most of the time last year, I used them just as they were intended-- as exit tickets.  This year, though, I decided to use them for some reflection time.  Instead of just having them turn in the exit tickets, we shared several different ways of constructing answers.  All of these students are solving the same exact problem, but look at how different their explanations were!  I have done this with three different exit tickets, and I just LOVE hearing them explain their reasoning and seeing how excited their peers get, too.

 These next two activities are also from Meg's unit and provided such great practice!  The top one they are working on comparing and ordering numbers.  They had to make a "train" as big as possible.  They LOVED this and begged to do it again.  Success!

This was another activity that was very telling.  I could see very quickly which students were successful in reasoning about a fraction's relative size and which were still struggling.  They loved this activity as well!


So, this activity LOOKS so lame, I know!  BUT, it is the activity that my students have loved the most so far this entire unit!  Isn't it funny what kids end up loving?  I dreamed it up about 13 minutes before my plan time was over (right before math), I typed it up quickly, and off they went.  The room was completely silent as they worked on drawing their bakeries, writing the fraction of each goodie that they had drawn, and then ordering the fractions.  I spruced it up a little bit when I got home, and you can download the differentiated activity for free HERE.  The first page is significantly more difficult than the second, so take a look and see which students can handle the first page!

This was a great stepping stone to starting our HUGE fractions bakery project, which is coming up soon in our unit.  I can't wait to kick that one off with some chef's hats and goodies!


As we had finished practicing all of these skills (ordering fractions, comparing fractions, modeling fractions, equivalent fractions, etc.) I wanted to be sure to review them all together.  So often we teach these skills in isolation and once we move on, kids just seem to forget all that we had done!  We decided to have a slumber party day, and I put together a sleepover fraction challenge to review all of these concepts.  It was so much fun!



You can purchase the Fraction Sleepover Challenge Review Project HERE!

That's it for now!  We are only about half way through our unit, so I'm sure I'll be updating more soon. :)
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Using Topple Blocks with Task Cards

January 31, 2017, 7:00 pm
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Remember back in September when I bought several sets of Topple Blocks for my students?  THIS post might jog your memory!

Since then, we have used the Topple Blocks to increase engagement time and time again.  They never seem to get old!

Yesterday, we started adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators.  Today, I wanted something for my other students to work on while I worked individually with some small groups to reinforce the concept and with another small group to show them how to add and subtract with unlike denominators.  I didn't have time to create an entire topple blocks game dedicated to the skill (like I did for Elapsed Time, Long Division, and Factors & Multiples), but I did have a set of task cards to use!  I quickly copied them onto different colored papers to correspond to the colors of my topple blocks.  Then, I set them off to work their way through the set of task cards while playing the game.  SUPER simple set up for me, copious amounts of skill practice for them, and high engagement for all students.  Win, Win, Win!


While I do plan to create more of the games that follow the original format, this is such an easy adaptation that you can do with ANY task cards! Have fun!

You can purchase the Topple Blocks HERE. (Amazon Affiliate Link)

You can purchase the Fraction Task Cards HERE.

You can view ALL of my task cards HERE.

Happy teaching!
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Going Digital with Student-Led Conferences

March 27, 2017, 10:57 am
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Happy spring!  I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by.  Before we know it, we'll be prepping for the end of the year.  It seems like just yesterday we were gearing up for the beginning of the year.  Isn't that always how it goes, though? :) 

In our school district, spring also means another round of parent-teacher conferences.  I've blogged about those before (HERE), but during spring, we are required to implement student-led conferences.  We've done this for years and years.  

In the past, we have always done paper versions of student-led conferences.  The students end up with a reflection sheet for each subject, for their specials classes, and for their behavior.  We spent hours upon hours preparing these sheets.  They put them in a folder with a sweet little self-portrait on the front.  When their parents arrived on the evening of conferences, they would share their pages with them, then show them a few sample pages from their math journals, learning logs, or writing binders.  Students were always pretty proud of themselves, and it worked well!

This year, in 4th grade, we implemented BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) in our classrooms, and we also started using Google Drive as our portfolio systems.  We knew that we wanted to ditch the "old" paper way of conducting student-led conferences and use our devices to document our learning.  I spent an afternoon converting much of the information from our original paper documents to a fun Google Slide document.  It was met with such great success that I just had to share it!

We started our reflections by working in groups to brainstorm what we have learned, what our strengths are, and what our challenges have been.  We made a chart for each subject (math, writing, reading, science, social studies, and specials).  This really got our juices flowing and thinking about all we had done this year so far!


After we had a lot of different ideas on our charts, we were ready to begin working on our own individual reflections. 

I used Google Classroom to give each of my students an individual copy of their reflection document. There were several pages of the document, including a page for them to reflect on each subject.  In between each reflection page was a Work Sample page.  On this page, they could either take pictures of work samples they had created throughout the year (like math journal pages, anchor charts, etc.) or they could include links to items they had created in their Google Drive or on Google Classroom.  This is what most students chose to do!


**Note: You can access a copy of the document I used HERE, but please note that it is not editable, and we are an IB school, so all of our behavior reflections use IB Attitudes and the IB Learner Profile. I am sharing the document here so that you can get some ideas.  When prompted, click "Make a Copy" and a copy will show up in your Google Drive.  This document is copyright 2017 Teaching With a Mountain View,  Ltd. and you may not share or sell anything based on this document. Feel free to create your own similar version to use in your personal classroom! HERE is a link to the sticky note clip art I used!

When it was finally time for conferences, they were so proud of the work they had done and parents were so impressed with all of the skills their students were able to cover in such a short period of time.  These were definitely the most successful student-led conferences we have had!


During student-led conferences, we allow up to 3 families to be conferencing at once.  I usually opt to let my students lead the conference on their own, then sit down with them and chat for 5-10 minutes at the end.

If you've never tried student-led conferences, I can't encourage them enough!  They are such a great way for students to take responsibility for their learning and really SHINE!
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Teaching Students to Dissect Responding to Reading Prompts

March 28, 2017, 10:35 am
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I have a list a mile long of activities and concepts that I want and need to blog about, but I just HAD to take a few minutes today to share this one. It truly is a game-changer for those of you who are tasked with the daunting job of teaching kids to respond to texts-- especially multiple texts!

In the upper grades, students are expected to be able to read two or more texts on a similar topic, then write a short essay or paragraph responding to a specific prompt about those texts.  Sounds easy enough, right?! Wrong!  In my experience, this is one of the most difficult writing concepts for students to grasp.  After all, they have to combine their reading skills with their writing skills-- analyzing multiple texts, referencing text evidence, making sure they completely answer the prompt, following writing formats, etc.  There is so much that goes into this skill!

For the past 8 years, I've worked with an incredible team of teachers in a wide variety of grade levels. This school year and last, I have been so lucky to be teammates with one of the creators of our phenomenal writing program, Write Now Right Now.  The program has changed me as a writing teacher, and all of these ideas come right from the program.  You can learn more about it HERE!

I begin teaching this skill by creating an anchor chart with my students, which we title "The Three Ps of Written Response."


We always encourage our students to go straight to the prompt before they even begin reading.  After all, how much easier is it for students to read when they know what their purpose is for reading?  After they have read the prompt, it's time to dissect it.  They cloud the format, they box the topic, and they underline the big ideas.  Then, they make a plan.  This is always a little bit confusing for students because they can't quite grasp how they can make a plan without reading! BUT, they can, AND if they do, it's going to ensure that they fully respond to the prompt.

To show them how easy it is to dissect a prompt and make a plan without reading the text, I give them a bunch of prompts without the accompanying texts.  In fact, none of these texts actually exist!  These are just examples.  We dissect all of the prompts first, looking for the format, the topic, and the big ideas.  Then, we make a plan for each of the prompts.



 Above, you can see all of the different prompts we dissected.  Some of them are more tricky than others.  Below, you can see the plans we made together for each of the prompts. Remember, there were no actual passages, and the kids knew we had no intention of completing the plans, so it wasn't completely overwhelming for them.


After we had done a bunch of practice, we applied it to an actual prompt with actual passages.


We used the two poems The Land of Counterpane, and Sick, and the short story You Got Me Sick for this one.  Again, we read the prompt first and made our plan outline BEFORE we read the poems and story.  This was so critical because then the kids never forgot that they had to mention EACH of the stories, and they didn't forget about the extra prompt at the end.  As we read, we underlined our text evidence as well.

We will continue to practice with basic prompts (and no passages) as well as do a few here and there that do incorporate passages.  This really has empowered my students to be successful with such a difficult skill!
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No Homework Policy: One Year Later

July 16, 2017, 11:15 am
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Last school year was a really big year in my classroom.  We started flexible seating (you can read more about that adventure HERE), we implemented a Bring Your Own Device program, and we did away with homework.  Like I said-- BIG year!

While each of those three changes contributed to a very different feel in my classroom than years prior, I was particularly nervous about doing away with homework.  I know that homework has its place, and I know there are concepts and skills (especially in 4th grade!) that require repetition to really grasp.  Yet, I still felt like the reasons to do away with homework were more important than the  benefits of homework itself.

Throughout the school year, I had many colleagues pop in and ask how our no-homework policy was going.  "It's going well!" I would respond, but I wouldn't give many details.  Now, after a full school year without it, I definitely have some reflections on how it went, what changes I would make, and if I would do it again!

First of all, here is the homework philosophy that we presented to parents and students at the beginning of the school year. (If you'd like to use it, I've added the full text at the end of the post so that you can copy, paste, and edit as you wish.)


You can see that we didn't COMPLETELY do away with homework, but we did do away with 99% of it.  We still STRONGLY encouraged students to be reading each night, and they were required to have a novel in progress at all times.  We also continued our weekly letter writing, where students had to respond to us in letter form by the end of the week.  You can read more about that idea HERE.  I'll never have a classroom where I don't do it!

We also had a disclaimer that if students did not complete their classwork in a reasonable period of time or were excessively off task during an assignment, they would need to bring it home to complete it.

Of course, when we first told students about this change, there was hooting and hollering and cheers galore! I let them have their moment and then gently pulled them back together.  I reassured them that it was totally possible that they wouldn't have homework, but that it would mean they had to give me their all every. single. minute of every. single. day.  Their eyes got big, they sat up taller, and an air of confidence washed over them. "We've got this, Mrs. M.!" I remember one kiddo saying.  In the beginning, it was as if they would do anything to keep this privilege.  We floated on clouds of no-homework bliss for a solid week...

And then here's what really happened when I did away with homework...



I expected more from my students than ever before. 

When I was planning my lessons this year, I packed in more than I ever had before.  While that might send like a negative effect of this little experiment, it was actually one of the best parts for me.

In math, in particular, this was a game changer for me.  I knew that my students needed to deeply and fully understand these concepts and be able to compute with automaticity.  I also knew they wouldn't be going home and doing 20 extra problems each night like they had in the past.  This meant that 1) I had to make sure they understood the concept like the back of their hand and 2) They could apply that understanding to a wide variety of problems.... Of course, these are two non-negotiables that any math classroom should have, but I was going to be doing it with less practice and repetition than before.  Therefore, when I was planning, I ended up with FAR more inquiry-based lessons and practice (so that they would really get the meat of the concept), and far less direct teacher instruction.  I jammed as much as I could into my whole group time (10-15 minutes a day) and then jammed even more into their workshop time.  Kids were collaborating, practicing, and learning more than ever... Simply because I had this sense of urgency that I was missing before.

A few people have asked about spelling and how this worked without homework and studying at home.  We use a word study philosophy, similar to Words Their Way, which means that students are studying patterns in words rather than the words themselves.  I incorporated this into my reading rotations and would occasionally devote some of our writing to it, and I would highly recommend it!

Another option to fit in what would have previously been homework is to rethink your morning routine.  I usually use my Think It Through critical thinking packet as morning work, and when I did away with homework this year and had to give them some more "intense" morning work, I started using the packet during Morning Meeting instead.  I used our morning work time this year to review and reteach grammar concepts some days and math skills other days.  It was the perfect balance!

This brought out the best in some kids

When I say it brought out the best in them, I mean it changed their study habits permanently.  They created habits that I hope will continue on with them for years and years to come.  They knew that in order to continue having no homework, they truly had to give me their all during the day.  It wasn't easy.  They had to not only complete their assignments, but complete them well. We had very, very little down time, and I expected more from this group of kids than ever before.  Some rose to the challenge and THRIVED under the challenge...

...and some kids didn't care. 

I did have a handful of students who were not at all motivated by a lack of homework.  These were the kids who repeatedly ended up taking work home because they weren't completing it in class (usually due to them being distracted and not on-task).  Some kids learned quickly that this isn't what they wanted, and a few kids never did quite learn.

Some parents loved it. Some parents hated it. 

On Back to School Night, when we handed out this homework policy, the general consensus was all the praise hands in the world! Parents thanked us for giving them FREEDOM in the evenings to take their kids to gymnastics without worrying about homework and some parents thanked us for eliminating the nightly homework battle they had fought for the past few years.

We also had a small number of parents who wanted their kids to have homework.  They worried that they would become accustomed to not having homework and have a difficult time next year when their teacher required it again.  They worried they wouldn't get enough skill practice.  These were valid concerns, and we reassured parents that, if they requested it, we would send home supplemental practice.  Not one of the parents who initially expressed concern over the policy ever ended up asking for homework.

...but some KIDS asked for homework!

I'll never forget the first time one of my kids ASKED for homework! It was about a month into the school year, and we were working on Error Analysis in small groups.  One of my students looked up and said, "I LOVE this.  Can you PLEASE give us some more to do at home!?" How could I deny them that opportunity!? :)  The rest of the kids in the small group chimed in that they wanted to bring some home too.  During my lunch break, I printed a few more tasks out for those kids, and guess what? Every single student in that group brought it home and returned it the next day-- BY CHOICE!

This happened multiple times throughout the year, primarily with my math projects and error analysis tasks.  I never, ever denied them when they asked to bring something home for homework.

Some kids NEED homework. 

Usually, these aren't the kids who were requesting the extra homework, but I had another handful of students who needed homework.  They needed skill practice, they needed reading fluency practice, and they needed fact practice.  I talked to each of those students individually and contacted those parents privately.  They (both students and parents) understood why I needed to send supplemental work home.  Once a quarter, I put together packets based on those kids' needs.  I gave them free reign to complete it at any time throughout the quarter, and every single packet came back completed by the end of the quarter.

I would do it all over again. 

At the end of the year, I had parents come up to me and thank me for this policy, telling me how they had enjoyed a better relationship with their student this year without the nightly homework battle.  They had taken more walks, participated in more after school activities, and were generally so thankful for the reprieve.

As a teacher, I saw happy kids coming in every day and relaxed kids leaving every afternoon.  There were no battles over missing homework, and kids worked hard to keep the privilege.  I had no noticeable (anecdotally or with data) drop in achievement or growth over the course of the year.  I felt like a better teacher because I worked even harder during the school day to make sure they were getting exactly what they needed while they were with me.

...Oh, and I had a lot less grading to do, too! :) :)

I would do it again a heartbeat!

Homework Policy

We strongly believe in the power of play and the importance of letting children be children. Further,  research does not indicate significant benefits of homework at the elementary level. We believe that when students give us all of their day, they deserve to have all of their night.  Therefore, we have eliminated the majority of our standing homework assignments. Eat dinner as a family and ask them how their day was, enjoy your child’s extracurricular activities without worrying about homework, and know that your child is working hard at school each day and has earned their evening playtime!


To foster community and self-reflection, your student will have a weekly letter from their teacher (more about that below!) to respond to, and we highly encourage you to read a book of choice with your child each evening. Please Note: If a student exhibits off-task behaviors during the school day and fails to complete an assignment, the assignment will be sent home for completion.

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Meet the Teacher Night Made Easy!

July 27, 2017, 1:17 pm
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It's almost time for Meet the Teacher nights to commence around the country, and it has always been one of my very favorite nights of the year! I get so excited to meet all of my new students and their families.  This first impression is so important, and it can sometimes be a little bit overwhelming for everyone-- teachers, students, and parents!  I have written before about how important it is to instill confidence and build rapport with parents and students at this first meeting.  You can read about how I do that HERE.


I've never really addressed how I actually set up my Meet the Teacher Night, and it's always a little bit different from year to year. Last year, I tried my best to make Meet the Teacher night as simple and easy as possible. Here is how we set it up!

I met each family at the door so that I was able to interact with each family for a moment right when they walked into the room.  When nobody was walking in, I would roam the room and chat with whoever was already there.  When I met them at the door, I explained to my students that they would need to go to each of four stations and follow the directions there.  They did not have to go in order, but they needed to stop at each one. Here are my four stations:

First, they picked up the 7,000 papers that the school provides. :)


Then, they (really, their parents) head on over to the information table.  There were three forms to fill out-- a volunteer form, a student information form, and a "how are you getting home the first day" form.  Most parents sat at the desk you see and filled these papers out while their students went on to the next step...


Next, they had to put together their supplies!  Our school has started implementing a system where all of the students pay a fee and we buy all of their supplies for them.  Since they don't have desks, each student had a book box.  There was a paper next to the station that had their name and student number next to it, and they grabbed their book box.  We had pre-filled it with all of their folders and notebooks.  The only thing they needed to do was label them all so that we could avoid doing this as a whole class the first few days of school.  It worked out so well!

We set out a sample book bin (number 30 that you see here) so that they could see exactly what it should look like when they were done.  There were label sheets for every student and Sharpies so that they could write their name.  I made a little sample page on how to label their bins (which label went on which color folder).  

99% of my students did a fantastic job with this task.  There were a few who needed a bit more support, and it was a good experience for me to see how the students followed directions.  I'd do this again in a heartbeat to avoid the chaos of doing it as a whole class on the first day of school! 


Finally, they did this little prompt (I think I got this idea from someone on IG last year! If it was you, please please let me know so that I can give you credit!).  They each had to write one thing they were excited about.  I left it up the first few days of school so that they could all read each other's responses.


This Meet the Teacher Night set up was one of my favorites that I've ever done!  Kids and their parents had plenty to do while I greeted everyone, and they were there long enough that I had a chance to sit down and chat with all of the families.  It was very minimal set up on my part, too!  I'd highly recommend it.

Looking for more Back to School inspiration? Check out these Back to School posts!

 


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Complete Sentences and Beyond!

September 19, 2017, 2:14 pm
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Even though I teach fourth grade, I still find that, at the beginning of the year, I have many, many students who struggle with writing complete sentences.  It's usually a pretty quick fix to remind them what a complete sentence looks like, but then we have to go beyond that, too.  We have to teach them how to restate answers in complete sentences (I have a HUGE blog post about that HERE.)  Then, we have to move on to teaching them to expand on their sentences.

I have written before about how amazing our writing curriculum is, but I just have to say it again! We use Write Now Right Now and it is just wonderful.  The lessons featured here are based on lessons in the curriculum.  Seriously, if you need an amazing writing curriculum, go check it out!

We start out the year with a review of the five requirements of a sentence.  Here is the notebook entry that we use.


And here is the super fun chant we use to remember the requirements:

One thing that I added to my instruction last year was the Superb Sentences flip book.  It covers all of the requirements of a sentence (nouns, verb, capitalizations, etc.) in a step by step manner.  We used this flip book for several weeks while we were reviewing sentences, and it was perfect! 


This is also a great time to start pulling out my Using Pictures to Teach Parts of Speech lessons!  The nouns and verbs versions definitely come in handy here.


Once my students are comfortable with all of the elements of a sentence, we move on to our Team Complete lesson.  This one is always SO much fun!  I encourage you to really get into the act-- put on a jersey, maybe a baseball cap, and throw on a whistle.  The kids get such a huge kick out of it and remember it forever.

The idea of Team Complete (a clever idea from Write Now Right Now) is to really take your complete sentences up a notch.  I begin by telling the students that they are currently all on the pee-wee team, since they are writing wonderful complete sentences with all the requirements.  BUT! If they add more detail and more information, they can join me on the Junior Varsity team.  We talk about ways to write a JV answer and how it is different from a pee-wee answer.  Then, I ask them what the ultimate goal is in high school sports-- most of them know it is to join the Varsity team.  We chat about how they can make their answers a member of the Varsity team, and they all LOVE this challenge!

Here is the anchor chart I created with them while teaching the lesson.


After we complete the lesson, they each get miniature jerseys and glue them into their notebooks.  Then, they get to write their own sample sentences.  It is always fun to see what they come up with!


After this lesson it's amazing how excited they are to challenge themselves to write Varsity level answers.  It's rare that I see a pee-wee team complete answer after this point, and I leave the anchor chart up in my room for quite some time and we refer to it often!

If you'd like to teach this lesson, it's super quick-- maybe 15 minutes-- and you can grab the jerseys for free HERE.  I printed my big anchor chart jerseys on colored card stock.

Have fun!
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Mastering Multi-Step Word Problems

September 28, 2017, 9:57 pm
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How many of you cringe at the thought of teaching your students multi-step word problems?  (RAISES HAND!)  I get it. I know.  It's tough.  It is overwhelming, and it's not necessarily something that just "clicks" for kids.  They need practice, they need time to think through problems, and they need to start really thinking like mathematicians in order to become proficient at more difficult problems.  Luckily, over the years, I've come up with a few different ideas and activities for helping students master multi-step word problems!  There are TONS of freebies in this post.  Enjoy!


I always begin problem solving (not just multi-step) by teaching my students CUBES.  This has been around for years, in many different variations.  An oldie but a goodie, if you will!


I REALLY, REALLY emphasize the "E" because this is where kids get stuck.  I created the three "What" questions that they need to be able to answer before they can move on and solve the problem.  Before they try to solve the problems, they need to ask themselves:

  • What label will my answer have? (This helps them narrow down exactly what they are doing with the problem, and maybe, just maybe, it helps them remember to include a label!)
  • What information do I HAVE to answer the question?
  • What information do I NEED to answer the question?
I have found that kids are almost always able to figure out the answers to these questions when they are required to stop and think about it, and this step ALWAYS helps to set them up for problem solving success! 

I also teach my students to use a pretty specific format for showing their work and solving word problems.  I have been using some variation of this for years, and it has evolved the more and more I have used it.

The sample problem I used in this anchor chart is a SINGLE-STEP problem, and I would highly encourage you to teach this format using a single-step format, then move on later to using it for multi-step (hang tight! I will address using this format with multi-step problems soon!).


Now, do I recommend you use this format for every single word problem students use? Absolutely not.  However, we do at least one or two a week this way simply because of the "answer" section and how important it is for students to be able to explain their math process.

Students always have to begin their written answers with "To solve this problem, I..." and they always have to end it with "Therefore, I know..." Students are always very tempted to say, "To solve this problem I added 1,098 and 530.  Therefore, I know the answer is 1,628 calories." Is this right? Sure! But is it the best answer and explanation they could have given? Nope.

I always encourage my students to be VERY specific about what the numbers are that they are addressing when they write out their answer.  This helps them really evaluate their thinking and see if it made sense.  There is a big difference between telling me which numbers you added and what those numbers represent.  This also encourages students to restate the question in their answer and make sure they have actually answered the question that is being asked.

**THIS IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE!** It takes my students several examples to catch on to explaining their answers in this way, but it is so, so worth it once they truly understand.  Here is another student sample:


Now, before I have them use this model for multi-step problems, there are a few activities we do to prepare for that challenge and to get them comfortable with multi-step problems.

First, I have them do a little sequencing sort.  I give them a completed multi-step problem with all of the steps out of order.  The steps are written in the same format as described above, with very specific instructions walking the reader through how they solved the problem.  The students put the directions back in order and make sure it all makes sense.  They aren't actually having to do any math here, so it frees them up to simply think about the process. (These sorts are free! See link at the end of my blog post.)



Once I feel like students understand the basics of solving multi-step problems, we move on to some scaffolded practice using these handy little foldables that I created! (I have created ten pages of varying levels, and they are FREE for you to use with your students!  Click the link at the end of the post to access the freebies.)

Each page is split in half.  Students fold the paper in half, cut across the dotted lines on the right side, and fold the right flaps under.  They always start with the left side, where they read the problem, following the CUBE steps (with a special place for the Examine step, because I think it is SO important), and then they open the flaps to reveal step-by-step how to solve the problem.  The flaps give the student hints about what step they need to complete and sometimes how to do it.  It serves as a scaffolded guide for solving these tricky word problems. 

The purpose of the flaps is to guide students through the steps, but to also give them time to think about what the next steps are and then see if they are correct.

Now, the only tricky part about this is that students might solve problems differently (and possibly in a different order) and get the same answer and THAT IS OKAY.  These are meant to be used as an introduction to multi-step problem solving only!  There are so many ways you can let your students use them.



Once we have done several of these together, I let them start working on their own with task cards and our four square format I mentioned above.  I have them glue task cards in their notebooks and work through each problem.  Once they have done a few like this, I let them move on to working on them without the four square format.

Some students even like to create their own foldables (like those that I showed above) with the task cards!



When kids are ready, we then move on to multi-part problems.  Kids LOVE these, and they seem to really thrive on the challenge of not only having a multi-step problem, but also a multi-PART problem. 



...and when your students are really ready for an even bigger challenge, it's time to present to them... Math Detectives!  This is a new spin on Error Analysis that requires students to really analyze solutions and see which solutions and problem solving steps are the most reasonable.  Each card has a task on it (usually multi-step) and there are two different explanations for a solution.  The students have to figure out which explanation is correct and then solve the problem.  This is such a fun activity for my students!  They love being detectives.



Well, there you have it!  All of my ideas and resources for teaching students to love solving multi-step word problems!  It doesn't have to be (too) scary.

If you'd like to download the THIRTY pages worth of freebies featured above, please click the image below.  This freebie includes the two tasks mentioned above as well as anchor chart templates and printable posters. 

ENJOY, and please share your multi-step word problem tips in the comments!


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Skittles Math!

October 16, 2017, 2:05 pm
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There are a few reasons that I always keep Skittles on hand in my classroom.  First of all, they are one of my favorite sweet treats.  Second, I never know when I am going to need them for some math!  My students always get so excited when they see the big bag of Skittles come out, and anything that gets my kids excited and engaged is worth it to me!

Over the years, I have found dozens of ways to use Skittles to reinforce math concepts.  If you do a quick search of my blog for the word "Skittles," you'll see just how many ways I've used Skittles to teach math!   Most of the time, it goes really well.  Then, sometimes, it goes really poorly (like the time I tried to use them to teach algebraic expressions to my 6th graders.  That did not go well, and that's an activity that won't ever be published on this blog! Ha!)  Hands down, my favorite way to use Skittles is when I am teaching students about circle graphs.  Kids LOVE making Skittle circle graphs and it's a great introduction to the concept!  If you have a bag of Skittles, you can easily recreate this activity!


Circle graphs can be SO hard to create and understand, but when you add in Skittles, kids just really seem to get it!  The lesson shown above is actually related to multiple intelligences.  The kids have to do a multiple intelligences quiz to find out their strengths.  They earn points for each of the different strengths, and the number of points they get corresponds to a Skittle color.  They then create circle graphs with the Skittles to show their distribution of strengths.



You can also just give kids a handful of Skittles to do this and they can graph how many of each color Skittle they have.  So fun, so easy, and so meaningful!

You can even take it a bit further and use Skittles to teach percent, decimals, etc.  I wrote more about that in THIS blog post.

This is an older picture, but it shows all of the possibilities!
Here are a few more ways that I've created to use Skittles...  All of these can be found in my Skittles Math packet available on TpT HERE!  I love using these around Halloween time, too!

I've used Skittles to teach factors and mutliples, place value, perimeter and area, money, measurement, decimals, fractions, arrays, and SO much more!  I have included all of those ideas in my Skittles math packet so that you can use them all throughout the year.



Do you have a favorite way to use Skittles in your classroom? I'd love to hear about it!




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Thanksgiving Writing Activity

November 14, 2017, 3:22 pm
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Hi there!  Can you believe there is only a week until Thanksgiving!?  I am in total disbelief that it's already November 14th... Time sure does fly.

I'm popping in to share an always-popular Thanksgiving writing activity!  This activity was inspired by my wonderful colleagues at Write Now Right Now, and the kids always ADORE it.  You can do it before or after Thanksgiving!

To start, I draw a picture of a table and I tell the kids to close their eyes and imagine their Thanksgiving table.  There are a lot of smiles and sounds of "yumm!!" And then I tell them to imagine their Thanksgiving table...AFTER all the food has been eaten!   We talk about all the different foods that are on their table and how the "after" picture isn't nearly as pretty!  I get pretty dramatic about this, drawing turkey bones laying next to the platter of turkey, cranberry sauce is spilling out of the bowl, mashed potato remnants are on the table, etc.  It's not a pretty picture!

Then, I ask them to tell me something to describe the picture.  We write a REALLY HORRIBLY BORING sentence to describe what we are picturing.

Then, we start brainstorming adjectives and verbs to spice up our writing!  We brainstorm different ways to begin our sentences, and it's just a fabulous way to work on sentence fluency and word choice.

Here is what the paper looked like when we did it together in class...  I'm warning you, it's a totally non-Pinterest worthy chart! I almost misspelled Thanksgiving, I'm not sure if it's spelled 'boney' or 'bony,' and my drawings are that of a three-year-old, but my students love it nonetheless!  I should have taken a picture of their version of the drawing because it was FAR superior!



Here is a copy of the "final" version that we end up hanging in the classroom.  I take a bit more time to make this one look nice and presentable!



Finally, they add a topic sentence, transition words, and a conclusion sentence to complete the assignment. It is SO much fun, and I highly recommend it!

If you are looking for a fun math activity to go along with this, check out my popular math project, Thanksgiving Dinner Digits!  Kids love planning and executing their Thanksgiving dinner.


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Top 10 Educational Holiday Activities for Big Kids

December 5, 2017, 8:44 pm
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I know the feeling.  The holidays are coming!  You want to keep things fun and festive, but you also have to keep things rigorous and academic.  Finding the perfect balance can be tough, so I've compiled ten of my favorite academic yet incredibly festive and engaging activities to get you through the next two weeks!  I've blogged about great holiday activities before HERE, but this is a new compilation! This list contains a variety of my own activities as well as some other activities from some of my very favorite teacher authors!


Do you have a favorite holiday activity?  Be sure to share it in the comments!

Trapped in a Snow Globe
(Writing)
If you have never tried this writing assignment, it's a MUST DO!  The premise is simple: your students have become trapped in a snow globe, and their writing must detail their adventures while they are inside.  I used THIS freebie to help my students plan their writing.  Then, I took pictures of them to place inside of their snow globe and decorate.  This is always such a huge hit.


Using Pictures to Teach Reading Skills: Holiday Version
(Reading)
This freebie includes SEVEN pages of winter reading tasks using pictures!  This was inspired from my best-selling resource, Using Pictures to Teach Reading Skills, and I decided to make this little freebie to get your students into the holiday spirit!  Whether you have used the original version in your classroom or this is your first time using pictures to teach reading skills, your students are going to LOVE these pictures and accompanying activities!
You can get this for FREE when you subscribe to my Teaching With a Mountain View Newsletter! This is a newsletter subscriber EXCLUSIVE freebie and you can't access this content anywhere else! It's easy, and I promise to never send you any spam!  Sign up below and you will immediately receive an email with your freebie!  Just enter your name and email address and click, "Get my Freebie!"

FREE Holiday Edition of Using Pictures!

Enter your email address below to subscribe to my newsletter. You will automatically receive this free resource in your inbox!


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Holiday Read Aloud Literacy Activities
(Reading)
This post has a TREASURE trove of literacy activities to accompany beloved holiday picture books.  Jennifer from Teaching to Inspire has created printable activities to go with each book she features, and each activity is rigorous AND engaging!




Snowmen at Christmas
(Math: Division)
It somehow always happens that I am teaching division right before Christmas break. (You can read more about that HERE.)  This is hard.  Really, really hard.  I am always trying to find highly engaged activities to practice division, which isn't always easy.  A few years ago, I created this division companion to Snowmen at Christmas, and my students just adore it!  We read the book, and then they complete the tasks that go with it. 



The Multiplication Gingerbread Village and The Division Tree
(Math: Multiplication & Division)
These two are also math activities, and they cover multiplication and division!  I started creating math pictures with place value, and my students totally eat them up!  For these math picture, students use numbers in their life to come up with an answer.  Then, they use their answer to draw the picture.  The answer might tell them how many trees they have, how many peaks their gingerbread house has, etc.  I love these pictures because they all come out differently, and the students are still completely engaged in the math aspect of it!

Download the FREE Multiplication Gingerbread Village HERE.
Download the FREE Division Tree HERE.


Perimeter and Area Christmas Trees
(Math)
Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 is one of my absolute favorite teacher bloggers because the activities she shares are always SO academically focused while still being fun!  Just look at how sweet these perimeter and area trees are!  If you have older students, this is a great review for them, and if you have younger students just learning about area and perimeter, it's great practice. 




To Grandmother's House We Go
(Mixed Math Review)
My students always look forward to math projects, and this one is no exception!  Students review a plethora of different math skills with this project while planning a trip to grandmother's house.  This is a multi-day project, and it is great for the days leading up to break because it reviews so many math skills and keeps kids super engaged. 




Simile and Metaphor Task Cards
(Writing)
I created these FREE task cards to make it really easy for you to adapt them to use!  There are 32 simile and metaphor task cards with a holiday theme!  You can use a few a day, do a scavenger hunt, etc.  The possibilities are endless, and now is a great time to review figurative language skills!



Christmas Science & STEM Labs
(Science)
There isn't much that engages my kids like a good STEM activity!  Ari from The Science Penguin has created some of THE COOLEST Christmas science activities I've ever seen.  I love that Ari always creates resources that don't require an excess number of supplies, and you can implement them right away.




A Holiday Craft Full of JOY(Writing)

This activity from Michael at The Thinker Builder is both educational AND artsy, and it's the perfect holiday gift for parents.  Grab the book that Michael suggests and download his freebies, and you will be well on your way to a fantastic holiday activity!



.

..and finally, number eleven, for good measure! :) 

The Ultimate Christmas Activity Bundle

If you are looking for even more holiday activities that have a HUGE educational bang for their buck, I have a bundle of all of my Christmas resources.  It is guaranteed to get you through those long days before break!



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Reading Skill Review

January 16, 2018, 12:37 pm
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I don't know about you, but I absolutely love coming back to my classroom in January.  By this point in the year, our routines are solid, and it is a great time to really dig in to content.

By second semester, I have usually taught most of the reading skills in isolation, so this is the point in the year when I can really dig in deep and apply those skills to our novels.  (You can read more about when and how I teach reading skills in this blog post. ) 

Even though second semester is always full of novel study,  I still find that my students need a bit of review about all those different skills that we have worked on, especially with state testing coming up.  I have blogged many times before about how I review reading comprehension, and I'll link to those posts at the bottom of this post.  But today, I have a couple of new ideas for you!

While I explicitly teach all of our reading skills and we review them at length, there is something to be said about the students knowing exactly what each of the reading skills is asking them to do.  I cringe when I see students struggling on tests because they can't remember the difference between a text feature and text structure or what exactly they are looking for when prompted for a theme vs. a main idea. 

This year, I created a fun review activity to help my students revisit all of the different reading skills.  

With this little game, the students have to find the definition for the reading skill AND match the key word/examples to the reading skill.  It's a fun, quick way to review all of these different ideas with students!  I like to use this type of activity in a small group setting so that we can discuss the different definitions and key words.

I printed the two boards out and laminated them so that I could use them with multiple groups.  Then, I printed the definitions on one color and the Key Word/Samples on another color.  I cut velcro squares in half and put them on the boards and the backs of the definition/samples.  Super easy!


You can grab your FREE sort by signing up for my newsletter below.  If you already subscribe to my newsletter, enter your email address, and you'll receive the freebie in your inbox!

Get your FREE Reading Skills Sort!

Subscribe to my newsletter (No Spam. Ever.) and immediately receive your FREE copy of my Reading Skills Sort.


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Year after year, I have searched and searched for a great way to incorporate a daily review of all of these skills.  I never found anything that fit the bill and was super engaging for my students.  Most of what I found looked the same as what I already had-- long passages followed by multiple choice questions or open-ended answers.  So, I decided to create it this year, and I'm so tickled with how it came out!!  Introducing... the Reading Skill of the Day Weekly Journal!



I began by looking at all of the different reading skills I needed to incorporate... I knew that Main Idea and Inference were skills that I wanted to cover every single week, so Main Idea Monday and Inference Wednesday were born!  The rest of the skills (and the sequence in which they appear in the resource) can be seen in the calendar below.


Each week covers a new skill in a fun and engaging way for students.  The variation in skill practice allows them to see the skills differently and get oodles of valuable reading practice.  Best of all, almost all of the tasks can be completed in five minutes or less, making this a super easy resource to incorporate into your literacy block.


Each week also includes a bonus activity for your early finishers and as another learning engagement to keep your kiddos excited about reading! 

There are twenty weeks total, and you can use them in so many ways.  You can bind or staple them all together, put them in a folder or binder, or distribute a single page (front and back) each week.  Here are a few ways you can use the Daily Reading Skill Review journal:
  • Morning Work
  • Literacy Block Warm Up
  • Small Group Review
  • Whole Class Daily Review
  • Daily Homework
  • Intervention
  • ...and so much more!
If you'd like to see even more about this journal, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking HERE!




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One Reading Game: Five Ways

January 29, 2018, 10:50 am
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I'm popping in with a quick post to share a few new ways to use my Reading Games for reading comprehension review!  I get a ton of questions about different ways to play this game, so here are a few ideas!

I originally designed these games to be used with Jenga-style topple blocks, but I wanted to give teachers other options just in case they didn't have topple blocks, if they wanted to change the game up a little bit, or if they wanted a quicker version of the game.  I have blogged about using topple blocks as math games HERE and HERE.



For each of these game play samples, I used my Text Structures Reading Game!


Points Tracker 

The easiest way to play and have kids complete ALL of the questions is using the points tracker.  I like to incentivize this a little bit and use it as more of a "time tracker."  Students get points for each of the questions they answer correctly, and then at the end, the number of points they have is the amount of time they have to complete some sort of STEM challenge.  Kids LOVE this, and it only takes an extra 5-10 minutes at the end of the game!

Board Games 

Have some extra board games laying around?  This is another easy way to use the game.  I have my students complete one question (of their choice) each time it's their turn to make a move.   I make BOTH students who are playing the game answer the same question at the same time so that there is never really any down time.  They check their answer using the answer key and get to make the move if they get the answer correct. The board game above is a mini version of Connect Four that I purchased for $5 at Staples.

Topple Blocks

This is the "original" inspiration for the design of the game, and kids LOVE it!  I purchase my block sets on Amazon HERE. (Affiliate Link) The sets include a multi-colored dice that the students roll, and it tells them which colored block they need to pull from the tower.  Before they can pull their block, everyone on the team answers a question with the corresponding color.  

For example, if Jackie, Tim, and Bella are all playing, and Jackie rolls the dice and gets a pink, ALL THREE KIDS will choose the same pink question on the game and answer it.  Then, they check the answer key and discuss. If Jackie got the answer correct, she gets to pull that color block.  If she didn't get it, she does not pull any blocks and it's Tim's turn.  Play repeats until they topple the blocks! (Then, they set them back up and start playing again.)


Colored Dice

This is a super inexpensive alternative to the Topple Blocks, and kids still love it!  I purchase these colored dice on Amazon HERE. (Affiliate Link)  Then, they roll the dice to see which color question they complete.  Simple as that!

Game Boards

Finally, I created these FREE game board options to use with the reading games!  There are multiple options for using the game boards that make them all super engaging!  

Click the image below to check out all of the different versions of the game I have!  Happy playing! 


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Analyzing Math Errors: Conceptual vs. Computation Errors

February 5, 2018, 9:39 am
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It's not secret that I'm a huge fan of error analysis.  I have blogged extensively about explicitly teaching error analysis (you can read more about that HERE) and find that it increases student understanding of individual concepts in incredible ways!

I am often asked how I teach my students to identify errors, especially when they just don't know where to begin.  Teachers also ask me about teaching students to find errors in not only the tasks I have created, but also in students' own individual work.  Teaching kids to see the difference between a conceptual error and a computational error is the best way that I have found to get students well on their way to analyzing errors!


Although I use this to teach kids to complete error analysis tasks, I also HEAVILY rely on this skill as students work through their own errors.  I can have very high-ability students constantly making silly computational mistakes, and it isn't until I point this out to them that they finally slow down and stop making them.

Teaching the difference between conceptual and computational mistakes is also a great way to prepare for state testing.  Not only will students probably have to do some sort of error analysis on the test, but they also need to examine their work to find errors.  It also gives them a great strategy to use if they get an answer that doesn't match up to any multiple choice answers.

There are two main types of errors that I teach my students to look out for in their own work and when completing an error analysis tasks.  Almost every single error will fall under one of these two types.

Types of Math Errors Students Make

Conceptual Errors:  These are errors that students make when they don't have a complete understanding of the math concepts, and they end up making errors in the process.  These errors are so common when you get into multi-step word problems, multi-digit multiplication, or long division.  There are just so many steps in the process of completing these problems that students tend to have a really hard time not missing a single step.

Computational Errors:  Computational errors happen when students understand the concept but make careless errors in computation.  These are mistakes made when multiplying, dividing, adding, or subtracting.  The process was completed correctly, and the student usually has a solid understanding of the concept, but somewhere along the way, they miscalculated.  These may seem like more simple errors, but they can really trip students up.  How many of us have ever had a student swear up and down that 6 times 7 is 36? *ME!*

So, how do I teach my students to figure out which type of error they've made?

First of all, it is very rare that I will tell my students what error they have made in their work.  I want to challenge them to figure it out on their own, so when I see that they have a wrong answer, I ask them to go back and figure out where something went wrong.  Because I resist the urge to tell them right away where their error is, my students tend to get a lot more practice identifying them!

Along these same lines, I know that the vast majority of my students are capable of completing a task I assign.  This give me confidence that they should, then, also be able to find their mistakes.  However, if they aren't completing it accurately AND they can't find and fix their own errors, I probably need to rethink whether or not it's appropriate to be assigning them this type of work to complete independently.

Second, when I introduce a concept, I always, always, always create anchor charts with students and complete interactive notebook activities with them so that they have step-by-step procedures for completing tasks right at their fingertips.  I have them go back and reference their notebooks while they are looking at their errors.  Usually, they can follow the anchor chart step-by-step to make sure they haven't made a conceptual error, and if they have, they can identify it.

Third, I let them use a calculator.  When worst comes to worst, and they are fairly certain they haven't made a conceptual mistake to identify, I let them get out a calculator and start computing, step-by-step to see where they've made a mistake.

IF, after taking these steps, a student can't figure out their mistake (especially if I find that it's a conceptual mistake), I know I need to go back and do some individual reteaching with them because they don't have a solid understanding of the concept.

If you want to read even more about explicitly incorporating error analysis into your classroom, click the image below!


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HUGE Back To School Giveaway!

July 22, 2018, 10:08 am
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I wanted to let you in on a HUGE giveaway I'm having to celebrate the Back to School Season!  I know I'm a little bit early, but I wanted to have plenty of time to send out goodies to the winners before school planning started.  I'll make this quick, since I know how much you have on your plate right now (and I hope you are spending plenty of time relaxing and enjoying your summer).  You can enter here and then read on to learn more about what you can win:

There will be SIX big winners with this giveaway!

The grand prize winner will receive:  

  • A FULL task card storage box filled with all sixteen sets of my Fluency Task Cards printed in full color and laminated.  
  • A Teacher Care Package with "essential" teacher school supplies.
  • A Teaching With a Mountain View flash drive filled with over $150 worth of digital resources from Teaching With a Mountain View.
  • A $25 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers


FIVE additional winners will receive:  
  • A Teaching With a Mountain View flash drive filled with over $150 worth of digital resources from Teaching With a Mountain View.
  • A $25 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers
I am so excited to share some of my favorite things with all of you through this giveaway!  Have fun. :)


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Reading Skills Quick Reference Guide

March 12, 2019, 9:58 am
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Well, to say it's been a while since I've posted would be an understatement!  Although I haven't posted a new update here, I've been busy sharing ideas on Instagram and Facebook.  I am also constantly updating old blog posts as well!  Did you know that I don't typically create a new blog post on a topic I already have a post about?  Instead, I add to it so that all of the information is in one place! Enough about my lack of an update... It's TIME for an update!

Test prep season is upon us, and for many, testing season has already arrived.  Last year, I created my Reading Skill of the Day resource with the intention of it being used during the second half of the year as a test prep of sorts.  It became very popular quickly and before I knew it, people were requesting a second set of them because they used the first set during the first semester!  I recently released the second set to go along with it, and now I'm releasing a brand new FREE resource chock full of information that will accompany it!  Now, even if you don't use the Reading Skill of the Day, this Quick Reference Guide is still an INCREDIBLY valuable, must-have resource for your classroom.  It gives your students access to quick reminders about so many reading skills, right at their fingertips.


Students learn so many different reading skills throughout the year that it can quickly become overwhelming for them to remember each of the skills.  I wanted to create a quick reference guide for reading skills (I already have a FREE one for language skills!) so that students could put it into their reading notebooks or keep it handy during close reading.

For my students, I created a close reading toolkit, and when I shrunk the quick reference guide down to a booklet size, they slide perfectly into their toolkits!  Here's a closer look at what I put inside their reading kits:


Their close reading kits are used for ALL kinds of reading, not just their Reading Skill of the Day work.  They can be used when you are doing a close read as a small group or whole group, when they are in novel groups, etc. Inside, they have everything they need for annotating and responding to text (including their handy quick reference guide)!  I have also found that these kits come in handy with my newest resource, Rapid Read and Respond, as there are several opportunities for students to use colors.

Inside of the close read kit, I include some sticky note arrows, some emoji stickers for responding to text, primary color (plus green) colored pencils, highlighters, a Flair Pen (see note below!), and a mechanical pencil.  Most of these items come straight from student supplies at the beginning of the year, but here are all of the Amazon Affiliate links to the specific items I put in the bags.

Close Reading Toolkit
I searched high and low to find the least expensive option that was sturdy enough for everything (including pencils that may poke through the bottom) AND fit the reference guide.  These are perfection!
I decided to try these since they are SO much less expensive, and they're great! Kids love them.
I got mine from Big Lots, but these are similar in pricing and style
I like these because you can see through them and use them as highlighters, too!  Plus, there are 30 separate packs, which is perfect for a classroom.
Basic, but Amazon has a really great price for them.

Here is a closer look inside of the Reading Skills Quick Reference Guide and more information on how you can grab yours for FREE!




I hope you absolutely love this free resource!  To get yours for free, simply enter your email address and click "Get it now!" to subscribe to my newsletter (don't worry... I will never spam you!).  Then check your email for your FREE Quick Reference Guide.


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    I'll be back soon with a fun blog post with videos you can use in your classroom to engage your students!  Happy Spring.
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    Brain Break Videos that your kids will LOVE!

    March 12, 2019, 12:21 pm
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    While GoNoodle has always been a staple in my classroom, I've found that the older the kids are, the less enthusiastic they tend to be about getting their groove on in front of the rest of the class.  I've tried to encourage them with my own excitement and dance moves, but alas, there are always a few who stare awkwardly from the back row.  I have a fair amount of brain break tricks up my sleeve (check out this post about how I use precious extra minutes in the classroom), but I wanted something else fun!

    A few years ago, I was having my students work through a fairly long Power Point.  They were working in pairs and they had an interactive study guide to accompany it, but I still felt like they needed something that would break up the monotony of it.  I decided to insert a few "surprise" videos sporadically throughout the presentation as mini brain breaks.  They LOVED IT and begged me for more!  I am finally getting around to sharing a few of those videos.  They are all short, slightly educational, and 100% kid-approved.


    I've watched every single video all the way through, but be sure to double check and make sure they are suitable for your class.  I'd also recommend using Safe Youtube to stream them and avoid ads.

    Video #1: Kid President.  He will never cease to amaze me, and students really gravitate toward his videos. 


    Video #2: Little Big Shots is a hoot to watch!  Steve Harvey can get a little bit snarky sometimes, so I don't like to choose random clips to show, but this one is great!



    Video #3: This musical video is mesmerizing, and there are so many to choose from!


    Video #4: Rube Goldberg videos are some of my kids' favorites.  This one is particularly fun because he eats dinner and dessert throughout the video!  You can also use these videos for cause and effect.


    Video #5: Two words: Optical Illusions.


    Video #6: There's just something about watching thousands of dominos falling in sync that captures students.  I also love to show them that kids can do hard and wonderful things, too!


    Video #7: Don't do this at home! My students always beg me for more of these videos.


    Video #8: If you aren't familiar with the Ron Clark Academy, check them out!  They have so many master teachers on staff and offer so many great ideas to incorporate into your classroom.  Ron Clark also has some sweet dance moves that he does with his students, which always gets my students up and dancing, too!



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    Amazon PRIME DAY DEALS for Teachers!

    July 15, 2019, 6:59 am
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    I don't know about you, but I've always been so overwhelmed by Prime Day! Where do I find the deals? How do I know what's a decent deal? Do I have to buy it right away?

    Well, this year, I'm hoping to take some of the guesswork out of it for you.  I'll be linking the best TEACHER RELATED deals here all day long.  You can also follow my Facebook feed on my PAGE or in my GROUP to get Facebook notifications when I find new deals.

    Please note: All links are affiliate links, which means I get a small commission for every purchase you make. Be sure to click the links to view the Prime Day deals, as most of the prices listed here won't reflect the sale price.

    Let's get shopping!

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    Supporting Student Learning at Home

    July 16, 2019, 6:00 am
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    At the beginning, middle, and end of every single school year, I always have parents ask me for tips about how they can support their child's learning at home.  Sometimes they are looking for worksheets or workbook recommendations, but oftentimes, they are much more interested in how learning can be integrated into their daily lives.  Learning opportunities are literally EVERYWHERE, but sometimes it takes a minute to stop and realize just how many ways we can enrich students' lives academically, even outside the classroom.


    With that in mind, I've compiled a simple list of ways that parents can support their children at home.  Keep these in your figurative back pocket during discussions with parents.
    • Read aloud, read aloud, read aloud.  As children grow older, many parents stop reading to their kids and listening to their kids read.  If I had one tip for parents, it would be to read with their child every single night.  They constantly need to hear examples of fluent reading just like they need to practice their own fluency. If they are younger, I always recommend You Read to Me, I'll Read to You books.  Otherwise, any book will do.  If parents really want to work on comprehension skills with their students, I'll send them home with these free question stems as they really promote discussion (Bonus: I use these in my class ALL year).
    • Mental Math Car Ride Game Show.  Okay, that sounds more fancy than it is.  I always encourage parents to find numbers on the road and make a math game out of it.  Speed limit is 65? What's 6+5, 6-5, and 6 x 5?  Did you just pass mile marker 165?  What's 16-5?  What's 1+6+5?
    • Step competitions! Everyone in my family has a pedometer of some sort, and at the end of every day, we have a step competition.  This silly evening routine singlehandedly taught my children how to read large numbers.  We practice rounding up and rounding down, we compare numbers (I lose every single day), and you can even throw in more advanced math, like figuring out how many total steps the family took or the difference between the number of steps for certain family members.  It's such fun, and pedometers are fairly inexpensive these days!
    • Story Time. Every night, my dear husband tells my girls a story that he makes up.  I'm not nearly that creative after a long day, so when he's out of town, my girls and I tell stories together.  I start a little bit of the story, one of the kids continues it, and we "pass it around" until we have a complete, but sometimes pretty silly, story.
    • Show me the Money. I remind parents that there are so many opportunities to teach not only financial literacy but basic math skills.  You can round numbers to the nearest dollar, determine exactly how many more cents until you reach the next whole dollar, check if the cashier gave you the correct amount of money, etc. 
    • Time challenge.  Not only do I encourage parents to discuss real-world elapsed time problems with their children, I emphasize how important it is for them to hear other time vocabulary such as "half past""quarter to" etc.  Instead of telling them it's 9:15 when they ask, I tell parents to say, "It's a quarter past the hour that comes after 8." I mean, that one is pretty complicated, but you get the gist! :)
    • Get cooking. It sounds so simple, but cooking with kids provides many opportunities for enrichment.  From reading recipes, navigating websites or search engines to find the recipes, to doubling or halving recipes, my own children have learned so much from our time cooking together.  Bonus: Be sure to let students read (and smell) all the spice labels!
    • Write me a Letter. I always have questions about spelling!  My best tip for supporting spelling at home (aside from studying spelling words) is to write letters back and forth to one another.  When mom or dad or aunt or uncle or BFF writes the letter to the child, they write 5-10 words at the bottom that the return letter MUST include, spelled correctly.  Kids love trying to figure out where to put the words in, and they get great writing and spelling practice!
    • Map It Out! Social studies skills are harder to hit in every day life (go to museums, of course!), but making maps and learning their neighborhood is so important.  I always have my students create a map of their street and surrounding areas, and it's always very eye-opening for them.
    • Pay attention to prefixes and suffixes.  We use them all day long, but sometimes it's hard to remember to point them out to kids.  Going to a POSTgame party? Talk to kids about what a PREgame party would be. 
    • Let's Talk About Our Day.  When my twins were little, I read that helping children recall small moments of their day is one of the very best ways you can improve a child's working memory.  After that, I made it a point to always talk about their day with them.  My two year old LOVES to do this every night, and I love hearing about the little tiny things she remembers about her day (Oh, those black dots on the lady bug were so cute, mama!).  My big kids still love this, too, and even say they have better dreams when they talk about all the fun we had that day.  
    Of course, that's not an all-inclusive list, but it will be a good start and get those creative juiced flowing!  I like to have something tangible to hand students as reminds, so I have also written out some specific tips parents have always found helpful.  I would highly recommend sending this FREE page of suggestions home early in the year, perhaps on Meet the Teacher night or during Back to School Open Houses!


    Just fill out the form below to grab your free page of tips and tricks! 

    Grab Your Freebie
      You'll be joining thousands of other teachers who receive periodic tips and ideas from Teaching With a Mountain View. Unsubscribe at any time.
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      Do you have any other ideas you share with parents?  Please let me know in the comments! I'd love even more.
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      My First Week of School Plans

      July 20, 2019, 7:00 am
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      Have you already started planning for the first week of school?  I've always spent hours upon hours upon hours perfecting my first week plans.  Then I usually get about half of what I planned done, which usually makes the second week a breeze!  Those first few days offer such a crucial time for building community among classmates, relationships with individual students, and setting the groundwork for classroom management and your routines.



      I have several posts about the beginning of the year, but never before have I provided my complete plans for that important first week.  Now, here they are!  Before you take a look at my plan, it's important to understand my thinking about the first week of school...

      I know my planning philosophy differs from some of the more popular philosophies and advice given in certain books, and I'm okay with that.  I tried taking that advice for a few years, and the first few days felt slow, my students weren't engaged or excited about what was happening, and I never really felt like it was setting groundwork for the rest of the year.

      Instead of baby steps, we dive right in to our normal schedule. As I plan for the first few days, I keep our schedule almost exactly as it will stand for the rest of the school year.  That means we have morning work, morning meeting, reading, math, writing, and science or social studies.  I infuse discussions about expectations as we move throughout the first week, we reflect on what is going well and what we need to improve upon, and we start to learn specific routines to be successful for the rest of the year.  While we do this, though, children are engaged in exciting and academically challenging tasks.  We are getting to know each other well, as humans and as learners.  My goal is that my kids leave school excited and are eager to come back the next day and the next day.

      Every single thing I do during this week is to prepare my class for the upcoming academic year.  They learn the procedures that we need to have in place to accomplish all of those rigorous academics that will be facing them. This set-up has always worked quite well for me, and I end the first week with solid relationships with most of my students.  Our classroom has a foundation of trust and expectations for the year to come.  They know what to expect from me, from our schedule, and from many of our daily routines.  Do we have moments where we have to stop, take a breath, and reflect on a little chaos? Absolutely! But we learn from those moments, and we understand why they don't work.


      You don't need to squint to read these plans! I have them compiled in a big document, complete with explanations of all the activities.  A few notes as you begin looking through all of these plans...
      • Plan Big! If you get through all of these plans in the first week, YOU ARE MY HERO!  I have this set up as what would happen in an ideal world, but keep in mind that there is a lot of front loading expectations that must go into this plan before it can all be implemented.  You can't expect your students to know how to function in centers, in morning meeting, etc. so anticipate needing to take time to set up expectations as you move through the plans.  I briefly touch on expectations and procedures in the plans, but you will need to fill in a lot of blanks that fit the needs of your classroom.
      • YOU DO YOU.  I mean it.  Please don't take these plans and implement them 100% into your classroom.  You have amazing ideas that will bring your own personal touch into your first week of school.  Some of these activities won't resonate with you, or they won't help set up your classroom routines.  For example, I use Topple Blocks and Task Cards during the first week of school because we use those a lot in my classroom.  If you don't use that type of resource, replace my plans with resources you DO use.
      • Expectations are Key.  I kind of sound like a broken record here, but please make sure that as you implement these activities, you are focusing more on setting up expectations than on the activity itself.  I simply can't stress this enough.  What you do during this week (and the following weeks) will set a precedent for the rest of the year.
      • If you don't do workshops/centers/rotations...  First, I'd implore you to do a bit of research into this style of teaching and see if you can perhaps implement it at least one or two days a week.  It is so beneficial.  BUT, if you are not accustomed to running workshops or you don't anticipate running a workshop model for the rest of the year, adapt these plans to work for your schedule and routines.  You don't need to spend time setting up a workshop model if you aren't going to use it later on.  Instead, just pick and choose some of the ideas to implement whole class.
      • Where's the Tech? We use a lot of technology in my classroom, but slow and steady wins the race on this one.  I don't introduce iPads or laptops during the first week for a few reasons.  To begin, it never fails:  The first time using iPads or laptops always results in a little bit of anxiety for some kids (okay, and teachers) because it's just never a seamless process. Second, I want us working face to face and building relationships without the distraction of technology.
      • On Differentiation: This is the one week of the year that I don't do a ton of differentiation.  I want this week to be accessible and exciting for all of my students, so I choose activities that most students can participate in and feel successful.  That being said, with some adaptations, these plans would work best for grades 3-6.
      • What You Need:  I have done my best to make a list of exactly what you need to have prepped for each day.  Some of the resources include products in my store or others' stores, or may include an Amazon Affiliate link to books or supplies.  Most links are clickable to make it easy for you to find what you need!
      • Still not enough? If you find that you still need to supplement some more ideas, check out this huge post about First Week of School Activities for Big Kids!
      • What's next?  After the first week is over, we really dive into our normal routines and academics.  This is when I begin my formal math and literacy mini-lessons, start our typical workshop/center routines, and get my curriculum rolling.
      • EXPECTATIONS!  Really, though.  The number one thing you should be focusing on during this week (aside from building stellar foundational relationships with your kids) is expectations.  My favorite saying is the 3As. Again and again and again until we get it right.

      The plans are FREE, plus you also receive a free Minute to Win It game, and TWO free sets of task cards that are for purchase in my store.  Sign up to receive all of this goodness HERE.  Please share all of your wonderful activities on Instagram or Facebook and be sure to tag me so that I can join in on the fun!  While I do include a blank planning template in the file, if you'd like an editable one to use digitally, you may download that HERE.

      Get Your Lesson Plans

      Enter your email address to gain access to my FULL First Week of School Lesson Plans, Free Task Cards, and Minute To Win it Game!

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