Origami - Learning So Much More Than Paper Folding

Have you ever used origami in your classroom?  I have been amazed at the lessons my students have learned!  So much more than just paper folding!

This year, we have been blessed to have a mom of one of my students come in to teach origami.  If it were not for her, my class would not be learning origami because I am definitely not blessed with the talent of being able to intricately fold paper.

She and I have both joked about how we could "justify" the origami lessons - the students are learning about symmetry, angles, following directions, etc.  But, truthfully, the students and I have learned some important life lessons.

I have always been blessed to be "book smart".  School was easy to me and I have easily scored in the top 10% of just about every standardized test I have ever taken.  However, back in high school when I took the ASVAB, I scored at least two standard deviations below the lowest possible score on the spatial reasoning section ( well, not seriously, but I was definitely in the bottom ten percent).  Origami lessons are the time when I REALLY identify with my struggling learners! I have to have the directions repeated OVER and OVER again.  Often another student has to take my project to re-do the errant folds I have made.  They love being able to teach the teacher.

But, I am not the only one with this experience.  Most of my higher students have learned that they also struggle.  But... just like me they persevere!  They try it again and again until they get it.

My struggling learners have also learned what it feels like to be GOOD at something!  Many of these students are naturals at hands on learning.  Some of them don't even need to hear the directions, they just know how to do it!

The origami lessons have even inspired my students to become teachers!  A few of my boys have been reading the Origami Yoda series and taught us all how to make Origami Yodas!

And... even though I struggled and needed after school tutoring - I FINALLY made my own spinners!

 Updated: Since this post was originally written a few years ago, I obviously no longer have this parent coming into my classroom.  Luckily for me, and for you, I just found these amazing videos that teach kids how to make origami animals. You can find them at Art for Kids Hub. They also have lots of other great art projects as well! I can't wait to try them with my students this year!

Comparing Water and Land on the Earth

Today we started our unit for Common Core Standard RI.3.3 - Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

I decided to create a unit that revolved around Earth Day since that is coming up soon.

We started with a scientific and mathematical exploration of how much land and water there is on the Earth.  To simulate this, I threw an inflatable globe for the students to catch.  They had to tell me where their thumbs landed, on the land or on water.

A student then kept a tally of the results on our new Smart Board.  (YES! I am super exicted - we just got it two weeks ago, so I no longer have Smart Board envy!).

After a few rounds, I had them make predictions about how many times it would land on each if we threw it 100 times. I needed to remind a few that their totals needed to equal 100 - a fun little mini-math lesson! We continued on and finished with the results below:

I let them look at the globe and answer how close their predictions were, and why they thought we came up with the results that we did. 

Here were some responses:

I Wanna Iguana - Lessons in Opinion, Persuasion, and Point of View

We have been working on Common Core Standard 3.RL.6 - Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.  While we are doing this, we are also working on writing opinion and persuasive writing pieces.  Last week we read I Wanna Iguana.

As we read the story we talked about the two characters in the story and their points of view.  Alex, the little boy, is trying to convince his mom to let him keep his friend's iguana, while mom is not sure that he is up to the responsibility of a new pet.

Afterwards I asked the students to pick a side.  Should Alex's mother let him get an iguana?

Here are a few of their responses:

We already had experience writing persuasive letters asking for a class pet, but I really wanted them to focus on using details from the text.  

Have you been working on point of view?  What resources are you using?
  

Hands on Standards - The BEST Way to Teach Math Giveaway

If you have ever worked at more than one school, you know what it is like to leave a must have teaching resource behind because it was purchased by the school.  That is exactly what happened to me.  My previous school had ordered ETA's Hands-on standards books for 7th and 8th grade math as well as algebra.  Well, let me tell you that book became practically my Bible for hands on math lessons.  I learned math in the dark ages - many years ago, when lecturing at students and forcing them to memorize the formulas was the norm in math instruction. Needless to say, I had no idea how to use the manipulatives that we had available at our school.  Once I got my hands on this book, I became a hands on enthusiast and dare I say expert?

Enter this year, I have moved down to third grade and no longer had my book to rely on.  I managed to fumble along ok so far, but, then the math Gods intervened, and I was contacted by ETA to review a product.  They even let me choose!  YES!  I knew exactly what I wanted - the 3rd grade edition of my coveted book! 

My husband's ear drums were not prepared for the squeals of excitement when the book arrived in the mail.  And he was not the only one subjected to who got to share in my happy news. I brought the book into our weekly PLC and shared with my team.  We were fortunate enough to have some extra money in our budget, so we ordered a few more of the books plus a few more manipulatives to be able to implement the amazing ideas.

One thing that I love is that there are pictures!  I am a visual learner, and if I don't see the manipulatives in action, I sometimes don't get it.  This book tells you what to say, what questions to ask, how to let the students explore, how to assess.  Everything for each and every math standard.  I could even leave this for a sub and wouldn't have to worry that they couldn't teach the math the way that I want it to be taught.  YEAH! No more boring review worksheets!

You can check out sample pages for the third grade book here.

And now, the best news - I get to giveaway one of these books to one of my lucky readers!  Woo Hoo!  Trust me - you NEED this book!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Third Grade Common Core

I had been super jealous hearing about and reading about the first and second grade common core state standards workbooks that were available.  But, luckily for me and third grade teachers everywhere, I no longer have to have common core envy because the third grade book is finally available!  YEAH! 
The book features over 840 pages full of worksheets, activities, centers, and posters with just about everything you need to teach both Math and English aligned to the Third Grade Common Core Standards.

The activities are all full color, ready to print, laminate and use.  Perfect for the busy teacher, because really we could all use anything that saves us time

You can download a small (81 pages!!!) sample to see if it will work for you in your classroom.  The book retails for $39.99 for a single use, but their are additional pricing options as well.

Testing Craziness

My poor kiddos have been subject to a crazy amount of tests in the past two weeks.  Last week we had MAPS testing as well as our common assessment pre-tests.  Our district has common assessments that we use before and after teaching a unit.  Our upcoming unit is on fractions. 

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get the craziest of answers from my kiddos!  Here are a few of the highlights:

I have no idea where this student got the idea of ice cream from the given question, but she sure knows how to write her own problem when she doesn't know the answer!

Food was a common theme - as they all wanted to add food to the number line problem.  This student was into pizza.

This kiddo decided, when in doubt, just copy the question - that has to be worth at least 1/2 a point right? LOL!

At least I figured out where the pizza came from!

I am usually really good at figuring out what to do with student errors and misconceptions, but in this case I am almost at a loss.  I know this is just a pre-test, but almost all of my students didn't even read the problem (or couldn't understand what it was asking).

Any suggestions for reading test questions and following directions?

Researching - Learning About The Things We Are Interested In

Ever since one of my students brought in a tomato horn worm, my kiddos have been begging to do "Research" as one of their Daily 5 Choices.  I love the idea that they are self-directing their learning and that they are seeking out informational non-fiction text (you know, one of those biggies in the New Common Core Standards).

But... (and this is a big But) I am finding that a lot of my kiddos really love watching videos about their topic of choice.  I am really ok with this, but these are some of the same kiddos who really need to work on their comprehension and writing skills.

Luckily I stumbled across this 3-2-1 Reading Strategy Sheet from Teaching With Love and Laughter!


I printed a ton of these off and have placed them next to my computer station for them to complete when they conduct their research.  A win win for both teacher and student!

I will probably also use this for reading informational text later on in the year as well.