Football Themed Decimal Math Centers for Fifth Grade {with a freebie!}

Hey everyone :-)

I wanted to share my latest set of math centers with you all!  I'm a huge believer in math centers.  Math center work is critical to my math workshop.  I use math centers to give my on-level students additional practice while I work with students who really need small group instruction to master skills.  I also find it useful to have centers available for students who need a review later in the year, say around testing time.

These centers are designed to be used at any point during the school year.  While I LOVE seasonal centers, I'm not sure many students want to revisit Halloween centers in February!  These football themed centers focus on three decimal standards for fifth grade math: 5.NBT.3a and b, 5.NBT.4 and 5.NBT.7.  Each center has 6 cards, a recording sheet and an answer key for the teacher.

Take a look:

 In this center, students add and subtract decimals.  They can match their answers to the answer cards provided.  This makes the center self-checking!  There is also a multiplying and dividing version included.

 In this center, students work with decimals to the thousandths place.  They round to the underlined digit and record their answers on the sheet.

 On each card, students read two similar decimal numbers.  They compare the values using <, > or = symbols.

In the writing decimals center, students practice writing decimals in word form, standard form and expanded form.  You can grab this center for free right HERE or by clicking the image above.

And one final center: problem solving.  Students apply their operation skills to word problems!

As always, new products are listed at a discounted price!  You can get the full product HERE.

Keeping Track of Reading Conferences

Hi all!  I just wanted to pop on to share how I keep track of my reading conferences.  I use a really simple form which you can download at the bottom of this post!

I write the student's names in different colors to indicate their reading levels.  Red pen is for students who need frequent reading conferences.  {Truthfully, you can have a higher level reader who still needs frequent conferences but that's another post!} Yellow/orange pen is for students who are approaching grade level expectations.  Green pen is for students who are reading at or above their grade level.

My struggling readers need the most support, so I try to make sure to check in with them every few school days.  I particularly like to check in on Mondays to make sure they have been reading over the weekend and that they have the books they need for that day.

Ideally, I try to confer with every reader once every 10 school days.  The dates that are circled in red above are when it was longer than 10 days since our last conference.  Since I don't like seeing those red circles, it keeps me on track with who I need to see and when.


It's a simple form, but it works!  You can grab the PDF HERE and the editable PowerPoint HERE.

I try not to over plan my conferences.  I know some teachers really thrive on schedules, but I like to indicate a reader or two who I plan to confer with in my plan book and then leave myself some flexibility with conferring with other readers.  The more conferences you have, the more likely it will be that a reader will request a conference with you.  This is how you know your conferences are on the right track!  When readers find them to be helpful and valuable, they will ask for your assistance!

Don't forget that today and tomorrow are the back to school sale at TpT!  My entire store is on sale, including the bundles!  Don't forget to use code BTS15 at checkout to save an additional 10% off.

The Crossover

Let's all just pretend that I've been updating my blog regularly and it hasn't been sitting, getting dusty in some corner of the Internet, okay? :-)

An apology: new evaluation system in NYC nonsense/first grader involved in too many activities/dissertation length lesson plans/marathon training/death of my doggie/adoption of a puppy/maintaining a marriage = something had to give.  And now that it's summer I hope I'll be able to blog more regularly (although my soon-to-be second grader is still involved in too many activities!).

Photo from Amazon

I did, however, have time to read the best book I've read in years.  The Crossover by Kwame Alexander won the Newbery Award this year and it is fabulous.  The book is written in free verse and in the vernacular of today's kids.  When I read the book aloud to my class at the end of the year, one of my students kept remarking that she could tell the book was "modern" because of the way it was written (love that!).

The story is narrated by Josh, aka Filthy McNasty, an African American boy who loves LOVES basketball and is great at it.  He is the only seventh grader on his team who can dunk.  His father played professional ball for a European team and won a championship ring before he was sidelined by an injury.  Josh is also a twin.  His twin brother Jordan, or JB, also plays basketball, but develops a new interest in girls, leaving Josh feeling alone.  The text brings you through the changes that Josh unwillingly experiences because of the choices of people around him.

My students loved this book.  I had so much fun reading it aloud to them.  It's filled with basketball trash talk and rhymes (See, when I play ball,/ I'm on fire./When I shoot,/I inspire./The hoop's for sale,/and I'm the buyer.)

Entwined into the story, the author wove several vocabulary words that have their own chapters and Basketball Rules, which are really rules for life.  My favorite rule is #3: "Never let anyone lower your goals.  Others' expectations of you are determined by their limitations of life.  The sky is your limit, sons.  Always shoot for the sun and you will shine."

While this is a text that refers to basketball (A LOT) I don't think it just appeals to kids who are interested in sports stories.  This is a highly engaging text that will appeal to many readers in your classrooms.  I especially think that this is a book for your most reluctant readers.  Kids who are entering their tween and teen years will relate to the drama of young love and the chapters are short and easy to digest.  Pertinent vocabulary is explicitly defined within the text as well.

I'm currently planning a novel study for my fifth graders next year using this text.  I've posted a comprehension booklet on TpT:

 This packet includes 22 pages of higher order thinking questions, a project choice board and a full answer key with teaching ideas for the teacher! I've also included a CCSS anchor standard alignment, which you can see in the preview.  As always, this resource is posted at a discount from today until 7/10 around 9pm.

I also wanted to share a free resource: a vocabulary trifold for The Crossover.  You can use this download to help students define the vocabulary from the text or to write sentences using the words they've acquired.  Click on either image to download from Google Drive:

Tell Me: Has anyone else read The Crossover? The next book on my list is Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson.  I have quite a few books for older readers, but I need more current books for third and fourth graders.  Any suggestions?

Classroom Reveal! {Pictures and Freebies!}

Our first mini week of school is over, so I wanted to pop on and show you around my room!

This is the view from the door.  You can see my {only} window and the garbage cans I forgot to move!  Oops!
Right in front of the door, you can see a polka dot table cloth that covers up two really hideous filing cabinets.  I use this space to store my materials.  I also have our pencil sharpener in this space.

I also keep my lesson plans on this cabinet so they are available to any one who pops in.  I moved the cart on the right because it was obstructing traffic into the room.  That cart holds my math and literacy centers.

The never ending pencil struggle.  My first grader came to help me set up my classroom and over the course of two days he sharpened a TON of pencils for me!  He hated the electric sharpener, and used the cheap-y target sharpeners for each pencil!

Right next to the entrance, I have a welcome board.  This area has our calendar, homework club, daily attendance and "Flow of the day" - our schedule and learning objectives.  I write my objectives on a dry erase sentence stripe that has magnets on it.  You can find the Homework Club Sign {Free} Here.  The calendar numbers, welcome sign, schedule cards and labels for the 10 drawer center cart are in my Bright Animal Print Decor Pack {Editable}.

On the same wall, behind the file cabinets, I have four bulletin boards: math, college, concept board and literacy.  Above the boards, I made  a simple cursive bunting.  You can download the cursive alphabet HERE. You will need to edit the font to be KG Eyes Wide Open (or your favorite script).  I printed on colored card stock; the file is just in black and white.

Yikes, blurry!  But you can see the full alphabet and all of the boards.  The college board shows where I went to school and the concept board is for ReadyGen, our literacy program.  We display the anchor and supporting texts, big idea, essential questions, enduring understanding and the vocabulary from our current module.  On the left of the bulletin board, you'll see Kristine Naninni's self assessment posters.  These came from her Student Data Binder Pack.  The banners on the bulletin board (not the concept board) are in my Bright Animal Print Classroom Decor Pack as well.

On the south facing wall, I have my word wall.

 My homework board is really on its last legs.  It won't hang on the hooks any more and I don't know where to put it!

The bottom of the board is covered now, so please ignore the sloppy cutting!  You can grab the word wall sign HERE.  The letters are in my classroom decor pack.

On the floor, under the SMARTboard, is where we will keep our literacy book boxes.  They aren't ready yet, so I just have a box of journals and text collections waiting there.  Storage options in my room are very limited.  There is NO built in storage at all!  No cabinets or closets to hide things.  I have one metal closet that is P A C K E D.

I don't have a desk, so I keep a round table by the SMARTboard for my computer and document reader.  I also keep my teacher toolbox there.

I made this last year and I still really love it :-)  {Also, I originally had green backing paper on the word wall but I really didn't like it, so in the last twenty minutes of our PD day I decided to change it!) You will find the labels in my classroom decor pack or you can get them for $1 HERE.

The next corner of my room, under my only window, is our library area. We have a TON of books, collected over twelve years of teaching. The mess in the corner is me trying to keep my literature circle books separate.  The mess isn't there any more.  And I added a few pillows from IKEA!

This is my favorite spot in the room.  I love how the Brown Bag Teacher's Subway Genre signs look!

In the next space above the library, I have the outline for our vocabulary chart.  I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, but I heard about it at a training this summer, so I wanted to try it out.  I envision that the students will write the information on sentence strips and we will hang them for the module.

Next, you'll find my writing and media area.

This space has characteristics of narratives and papers for student examples.  Below the board, there is a listening center and writing organizer.  I keep dictionaries and reference materials on the cart below the organizers.  The mess is mostly covered by the table skirt.

I have a little table right in front of the coat rack and writing area.  Right now this is student seating, but it will become our small group work area.  The crates of text books will be distributed next week and I won't have that eye sore under the table.  The dots on the table are vinyl and dry erase.  I bought them on Amazon for under $10!  I'm pretty in love with them.  It looks even nicer when I don't have my lunch and coffee on the table!

So that's it for now.  I'll post the rest of the room - it's just one wall and the kids' desks left.  

Tell me, what's your favorite spot in your classroom?

Teaching Students how to Organize {Freebie! and Giveaway!}

Upper elementary aged students NEED to be organized.  They have so much on their plates, what with the number of assessments, projects, and deadlines they need to complete in a school year.  Some of our students are naturally able to handle multiple assignments and demands at a time.  These are the students that dutifully copy the homework, word for word, from the board without reminder and probably without need.  These are the students that don't really need to look at their homework logs to know what needs to be accomplished each night.  And these are the students that remember those little reminders we blurt out that we ourselves often forget!  And then there are those other students.  The ones with the disastrous desks.  With rumpled, stained (ugh!) homework.  With missing folders and half eaten pencils.  These students need organization in their lives.  They need some system for keeping all of their responsibilities straight.  And they desperately need this help before they head off to junior high school!

Last year, I had a simple homework log that I used for all of my students.  It was mostly successful, so long as I remembered to make my photocopies before Monday morning.  All the students needed to do was copy the homework into their log under the correct day.  Simple.  Every Monday, they'd receive a new log and throw out the old.  Great.  Except for long term assignments.  Or deadlines that might fall on the next week.  I did include a "special reminders" box, but I still noticed some students having no concept of time and how close next Tuesday really is! So for those students, I started working on a student planner.

Truthfully, I was also inspired by the Erin Condren planner that just shipped today (exciting!).  My instragram is filled with teachers loving all over their new organizational pieces for the school year, and I thought it would be great for my students to have something similar to begin the school year.

I started out by creating calendars:

These two page calendars will be great for students who need a visual reminder about time management.  Also, the boxes are big enough for students to copy a few lines of homework assignments, as long as their handwriting is reasonable!

Then I created one page calendars for students who might still need a traditional homework log:

All of the pages are available in color and in grayscale.

Generic, I know.  But will get the job done if you have students who need more space to write or need to have their homework copying monitored daily.

From the calendars and the log, the planner started to grow.  I thought about other areas in which I want my students to be more responsible.  A huge focus in my school is on having students monitor their progress and self assess.  So I created some easy to use data collection sheets:

Students can slip this into a page protector or keep in their binders/folders.

I also want them to track the number of books they've read.  Our school sets a goal of 25, and I know many bloggers who participate in Donalyn Miller's 40 book challenge. This is a simple sheet to keep students on target.  (Also, RL5.10 CCSS is "By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.")

Of course goal setting is also super important, so I made two goal setting sheets.  The first one allows space for students to list three goals. The second allows room for an action plan and perhaps a deadline down at the bottom. 

And a few additional forms for kids to keep track of birthdays, long term deadlines and events and a weekly reflection.

  

 After taking filling this "Important Dates" page in, I realized it should begin at the beginning of the school year rather than the calendar year.  The file has two versions: one beginning in August and one beginning in September.  Of course, both versions are in color and in grayscale.

That's my three year old!  She won't need this binder for many years!

I think you can see from these pictures that it isn't just for those kids that really struggle with organization.  I had more than a few girls last school year that would really swoon over a little binder or folder filled with these sheets!

You can take a look at the listing on TpT: HERE (It's on sale for the next week!)

And you can grab the goal sheet with action plan sheet HERE

So what started out as a quick calendar project ballooned into about 60 pages of color and 60 pages of grayscale forms!  Want one?  Leave me a comment below with one awesome organizational tip and your email address before 7pm on Friday August 22, 2014.  I'll choose two winners and email you the file :)