An App A Day Linky Party

Kelly over at Thirsty Firsties is hosting an App party because her school just purchased an ipad lab and she is looking for some great apps to download.  Her linky party works like this:

1. Share your favorite FREE app that you use in the classroom.

My favorite FREE app that I use in the classroom is: Flash to Pass .

It is basically an electronic set of flashcards, but my kiddos love it!  I have used it in small group instruction as well as during those extra sets of minutes you find such as waiting in line, or the end of the day.

 

2. Share your favorite app that costs that you use in the classroom. (If you don't have one, share another FREE one).

 

My favorite paid App is probably still Confer. 

Confer is the main reason why I wanted to get my ipad.  I use it as a digital pensive for Daily 5 and Café and I would honestly be lost without it!  You can view a how to video here: 

3. Share your favorite app for personal use (Instagram, Candy Crush, etc.)

 

My favorite app for personal use is LoseIt. 

After 6 kiddos I definitely have some poundage that needs to hit the curb!  I find if I keep track of what I eat and when I work out I tend to be more accountable. 

Then grab this button and link-up. 

 

She's also giving away an iTunes gift card as part of the linky, so be sure to check out her blog and join in the fun!

 

Teacher Toolbox Trio Linky Celebration

 

I am linking up with Eberopolis for her Teacher Toolbox Trio Celebration! It is basically a celebration of all things Teachers Pay Teachers!  I know that my teaching has been greatly improved because of it, and I am sure most teachers would agree!  Here are the basic rules of the link up:

 

1. Share a product that you've made that you couldn't live without.
2. Share a product that you've purchased that you love.
3. Share something from your wish list that you're hoping to get for next year.

If you're not a seller on TpT, no worries -- just share two products you've purchased that you love!

1. Something I've Made

 My Third Grade Math Journal Prompts - I love my kiddos writing about math - it really helps increase their understanding when they explain why they know what they know. I have four prompts for every standard along with answer keys.

 

And... because I will most likely be rolling up with my kiddos next year, I just finished the Math Journal Prompts for 4th grade!

 

2. Something I Purchased

 I don't know about your kiddos, but mine certainly had a difficult time with fractions this year.  That is why I couldn't wait to get my hands on this Hands on Common Core Fractions Unit.  The unit includes lessons, exit tickets, word problems, and more!  I can't wait to use this more fully next year!


You can follow Meg's blog: Fourth Grade Studio here. (She is amazing!!)

3. Something on My Wish List

Now this is where it gets a little dicey for me - I have 211 items on my Wishlist (Don't judge!)! How can I narrow it down to one?  I guess I will put the item that is most recent on the list...

 We give out common assessments at our school, but I like knowing ahead of time where my kiddos are at and what I need to work on with them.  I have a similar set for third grade which I LOVE - so this one is definitely on my list! Common Core Math Assessments Test Prep Fourth Grade.

The Linky Celebration

Now, I bet you are wondering why it's called a celebration - well Eberopolis -- is celebrating nearing 150 followers ,so if link up , you'll be eligible to win a $25 gift certificate from Teachers Pay Teachers -- enough to possibly clear off some items from your own wish list! And I am not judging you if your list is as long as mine :)

clip art from KPM Doodles

 

Can't wait to discover some new products and see some of your favorites! Be sure to link up !



Summer Vacay is Here! June Currently

Friday was our last day of school, so summer vacation is officially here! Woo Hoo! And what better way to celebrate than with Farley's June Currently?

Using T-Charts To Solve Elapsed Time Problems

My kiddos have been REALLY struggling with elapsed time, and we have finally made a breakthrough thanks to the video below:


The video shows how to use a t-chart to solve elapsed problems and my kiddos loved it! Especially the part where he sings, "Stop in the name of math!" My kids were singing that all day long!

First, we watched the video:

 

A little close-up:

 

Then I had the students solve the amount of time we spend in school. We start at 8:30 and are released at 3:15.

 

Next, I put up two sample problems, and I had the students work in pairs to solve them using t-charts.

 

 

I decided to share, because it was so successful!  After partner work, I gave them an additional problem to solve on their own and ALL of them got it right! I just wished I had found this video earlier!

 

What do you do to teach elapsed time?

 

 

Can You Poke a Stick Through A Balloon Without Popping It? Learning About Polymers

During our morning meeting I asked my kiddos what would happen if I poked a bamboo skewer through a balloon.  Of course they said it would pop.  Are you sure? I asked them and then showed them the balloon above. Oohs and Ahhs abounded along with, "Mrs. Malloy, how did you do that?"

So... in my best teacher bribery way I told them that if they worked really hard and productively all day, I would teach them how to do it (of course I planned on teaching them how to anyway since it was in my lesson plan, but they didn't have to know that right?).

When the time for science finally came around, I told them that we were going to practice their skills of observation.  I was going to SHOW them how to do it, but I wasn't going to TELL them how.  I silently demonstrated and then handed out supplies.

Balloons were blown.

And then they attempted to poke.  A few balloons popped, but most of the students were successful on their first try.

And once they tasted success, they had to add a challenge - let's see who can poke the most sticks into the balloon without popping it!

 

Eleven was our class record!

 

 

The trick? Put vegetable oil on the stick to make it a little easier (optional) - then insert the stick at the bottom part (where the balloon is tied) and exit through the strongest part at the other end.

 



We then watched this video to learn about what polymers are:


And finished the lesson by making our own human polymer chains!

 

We will be learning about how scientists use polymers to clean up oil spills using a kit from Steve Spangler soon, but I wanted to give them a brief introduction before.  They loved it!

Five For Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the first time for Five for Friday!  I have always wanted to participate, but never could muster up the energy on Friday until this week!  Woo hoo!

1. Baseball, baseball, and more baseball!  Probably one of the reasons why I haven't had as much energy - between two boys and four teams (Little League and Travel Ball) they keep me hopping!

2. Prom - Well, not for me, but for one of my older boys.  Palmer is a Junior this year and went to prom!  He asked his date to prom in a very public way at Mr. FHS (think a school beauty pageant for guys).  He has got a lot of guts, but the girl was very surprised and pleased.

3.  Now that state testing has FINALLY come and gone, I have been able to have a bit more fun with my kiddos learning all things science!  My own kiddos had a blast with this polymer experiment poking sticks through balloons without popping them.  I will post how the activity went with my class this weekend.

4.  Luke put our weekly vegetable snack to good use.  I didn't have the heart to tell him it was zucchini! LOL!

5. And finally - this is one of those random pictures I find on my iphone after my kiddo is done playing with it.

 



And... in honor of teacher's appreciation week - I am participating in sales at both Teachers Pay Teachers  and Teachers Notebook - A great time to save and get those goodies on your wish list!  I know my wish list is overflowing!

 



May Currently

Where is this year going?  How did we get to May already??? Not that I'm not thankful that it is almost time for summer - but it has just breezed by!  And... that means it is time to link up with the always fab Farley for Currently!

The World Would Be More Awesome If...

To say that my students are obsessed with Kid President would be an understatement!  Because this week has been our state tests (the CRTs), I had them watch his pep talk.  They begged to watch the other videos he has, and I told them if they did their best during the tests, we could check them out in the afternoon.  When we watched the video below, I stumbled upon a writing assignment!  Gotta love that - best part? They WANTED to write!  Even better!

Here is the video we watched:



On the video, Kid President asks:

He originally asked the question on Facebook, and here was one of the responses he shared:

My students asked if they could respond as well.  I told them that if it was ok with their parents they could follow Kid President on Twitter or Facebook - a few said they would and a few said they weren't allowed to.  One of my gems asked, "Couldn't we just write about it?"  Love when they give themselves an assignment!

I made this quick brainstorm template on the Smart Board:

 

Then it was time for some turn and talk with their partners to fill in some ideas of what would make the World more awesome.  I listened in and had a few volunteers write their thoughts on the board.

 



Here was our final product:

Then I turned the students loose to brainstorm independently in their notebooks.  Here are a few brainstorms.  I love how they used a variety of graphic organizers to brainstorm.

 

 

We will use our brainstorms to compose an essay and also a tweet similar to the Facebook responses shown in the video - it will be a great way to work on summarizing!  I will show you their final work next week.

Have you used Kid President in the classroom yet?

Why We Shouldn't Waste Water - FREEBIES

We have been working on a unit 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.
We had previously compared the amount of water and land on the Earth.

Today we learned why we shouldn't waste water even though there is so much of it on the Earth.

I started by asking the kiddos to name all of the ways that they used water.  I had them come up to the SmartBoard to write their answers (for some reason writing on the SmartBoard has been a great motivator).

Here were some of their ideas (please forgive their misspelling - I wanted to get through this part without correcting them).

Then I had them look at the inflatable globe to remind me how much of the Earth was covered with water.  I asked them, "If there is so much water on the Earth, why do we always talk about saving water?" I used the inflatable globe as a discussion monitor.  They couldn't talk unless they were holding the globe which I threw to them if they raised their hand.

After we discussed their ideas (which included because water costs so much - in our town it does), I asked them to make a prediction about how much water on the Earth is drinkable. 

They wrote their predictions on index cards.





Then we talked about how much it really was.  They were surprised to see that we really have a small amount - just a drop really!

 Then I had them write a paragraph comparing their original prediction to the results from our model.

 I will be putting this unit together in a complete unit, but, for now, here is the lesson plan from today including how to model the amount of water on the Earth. 



Here is the lesson plan for this activity. 

Learning About Money

I always joke about my kiddos "hijacking" my lessons when they take us on a learning journey of their own, but secretly I love it, because the lessons are always richer, and they are always engaged.  It is real world learning at its best.  It happened again this week when one of my kiddos asked if he could share some foreign coins with the class that his uncle had given him. Of course, I said ok, and away we went.

We started passing the coins around and the students began making observations about where they were from and what they looked like.  One of them remarked that one of them looked like a Mexican peso.

This coin was from Uruguay.  They noticed that one of the coins was made in 1975  - I told them the coin was as old as their teacher because I too was made in 1975!  They were pretty impressed with that.  Then one of the students pulled out his ipod and I couldn't take it away because he was researching Chinese coins to see what they looked like.

Another student noticed that their was a French coin called a Franc.  He said, "Mrs. Malloy, my cousin told me that they use Euros in France, why is this a Franc?"  I told him that they did use Euros, but it was only just recently.  In Europe they decided to adopt currency that could be used in several countries because they are very close together.  I told them that it might be like having to trade money when we went from Nevada (where we live) to California (only 50 miles from here).  I couldn't remember the exact year that they started using Euros so we researched it.

As we read the article, some of them said, 1995, some said 1999, and some said 2002.  What a great tie-in with state testing coming up - let's do some close reading to figure out who is right.

We found out that the Euro was named in 1985.  It was introduced in 1999.  In 2002 it surpassed the US dollar in value.  A super fun day of learning!

We wrapped it up by playing my Missing Money Problem Solving Center.

I wish the kids would take over lesson planning sometimes! LOL!