Please check out my Donor’s Choose project, here. It’s called My Mom’s Ears and My Dad’s Nose. I’m asking for resources on heredity for the 5th graders. I would greatly appreciate any help you can give. Any donations made by November 22 will be matched up to $100. Use the promo code SPARK during checkout to double your donation.
Thanks so much for looking at this project for our school and library!
I need to buy some spirals and pencils by the case.
Got suggestions for the best place to start this time of year?
Well, I’m only a quarter slow in getting a blog for 5th grade math started. The thing I really hate about getting a set of powerpoints going for the lessons is that I ALWAYS find mistakes in them that have to be fixed!
OK, in secondary math, they came to me with this knowledge. Oh, I wish I’d had a camera.
My one day lesson will now be two.
The workshop I went to last week was for a program called CHAMPS.
C – conversation
H – help
A – activity
M – movement
P – participation
There is a routine for everything during the day. Well, I already had a routine for everything during the day, but I hadn’t written them down much less in this form. So that’s what I’ve been doing this evening.
Each chart spans two pages (+ the line for S which is at the end of the document) and I’m going to cut and paste them onto double sized construction paper and have them laminated. I keep thinking I’ve forgotten something . . .
Do you ever look back over a week and wonder where it went? I had one of those this week.
Monday was a continuation of Parent Conferences from Friday.
Tuesday and Wednesday were a continuation of testing. That’s four testing days for 5th graders which seems a bit of overkill for me.
Monday afternoon (as I was exiting the building) I found out that I needed to be at a conference on Wednesday, so a lot of time was spent changing plans. We have a lady that does copies for us. I found things that would work for review while I was out, but the copy lady was out too! Luckily, someone put the key in the copier so that I could get have something simple for the sub!
Thursday and Friday I was supposed to be at a two day math conference. BUT I pleaded that if I were gone on Wednesday, the kids would lose three days of instruction and got to stay in class.
The students do not do especially well with a sub and they’d been off schedule for days. All kids need routine and consistency. Some need it even more. Thursday, they just didn’t want to buckle down. Friday we were back on track.
It’s also taking longer to write lessons still since this is my first year in 5th grade in over a decade. The lesson plan overviews (what I turn in to the principal) don’t take so long, but each lesson has to be written out, problems found, activities prepared. I write next week’s plans on Wednesday, but the whole lesson may not be pulled together until the night before. Yesterday, I spent two hours cutting out laminated cards for various activities next week and only got about half way done.
Now, having said all that, I am really enjoying where I am. I like my co-workers and the students.
Friday morning was game day for a prize student’s had been working for. We played Yahtzee in pairs. Everyone was playing. The rules were being followed (for the most part), and the conversations were all about the game. What a great way to start the last day of the week!
I was looking for math games this morning and came across plans for a homemade abacus. Having never used one, I was curious as to how this might be helpful in a classroom. Here are some instructions for using one:
I don’t think it’s quite as simple as the narrator keeps saying.
We’ve had approximately 25% out. That has been true for my class too. I hesitate to say anything about H1N1 because the only things I’ve heard have come from other teachers and not administration, but apparently it’s out there.
ICK!
unless you are sure they know how to handle manipulatives. Of course, it being an early release day didn’t help. They walked in excited and I gave them beans.
There was purpose. We are working on metric estimation. If two beans are about a milliliter, then we should be able to make some approximations. Should being the operative word.
Tomorrow, I’m giving them tape measures. No beans.
Jack Of All Trades 