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?

February Currently

Yep, it's that time of the month again - time for another one of Farley's Currentlies!  It seems like it was just yesterday when I completed January!

I have been a Dallas Cowboys fan since I was in first grade - well, specifically a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader fan! I love watching the behind the scenes view.

I am so glad that taxes are done! Prior to teaching I worked for a CPA firm doing taxes, so I usually am really good about gettting them done early - you would be surprised how many people wait until the last minute. We are getting a refund, but it will be delayed due to the new tax laws - grrr!

Our family will be rooting for the Niners this year because we are big Kappernick fans.  We are big Wolf Pack Fans (my alma mater) and were able to see him play when he was here. My boys also got to work with him during football camp and he is a great person!  Right after he signed with San Francisco a local store had a fan signing, and even though it was only scheduled for two hours he stayed until every fan had an autograph!

I ALWAYs want Starbucks  - major addiction :D

It seems like I always need to do something for the classroom.

And... last but certainly not least - my pet peeve - I hate whining!  I want to scream - Just fix the problem or move on, stop whining about it! GRRR!

Be sure to link up your own Currently here.

Super Sale At TPT and Teacher's Notebook!

Well, the Superbowl is almost upon us! While hubby and the boys will have their faces buried in the television screen, mine will be buried in my laptop screen hunting down some amazing bargains on TPT and Teacher's Notebook! They are both have amazing sales where you can score up to 28% off tons of items!

Send a Problem Mini-math lesson - SIOP Math Tip

This math activity was one that I had used back in my 7th grade math teaching days. I had learned about it in a SIOP training.  I decided to try it with my 3rd graders today as a mini-lesson

Here is what you do:

1. Place students into pairs or triads.
2. Distribute two index cards or pieces of paper to each group.
3. Tell students in each group to make up a problem to be solved (e.g., a math equation, a word problem, a short answer question on any math topic), discuss it, and write it on their index card. They need to solve it as well on a separate card.
4. Model a sample problem for the class before the groups begin their work.
5. As groups write, circulate to check work and provide assistance.
6. When all groups finish, have each pass its problem to another pair or triad.

7. The groups then discuss and solve the problem they received.
8. Circulate and assist as needed.
9. Have student pairs or triads share out the problem they received and the solution. This could be done by students writing on the board and explaining, or if the problems are not too complicated, they could be shared orally. The group that wrote the problem can confirm or correct, as can the teacher afterwards.

SIOP features highlighted in this activity:
* Peer to peer interaction
* Adaptation of materials by students
* Meaningful usage of key vocabulary
* Learning strategy: problem-solving
* Higher-order thinking
* Clarification of the concepts in the L1 if students are grouped homogenously by language
* Application of content and language knowledge
* Integration of all four language skills

Have you used any SIOP methods in your instruction?

Learning About Area and Perimeter- Snowball Style!

I had seen the idea of having a snowball fight to review material around the blogosphere, but when I saw this post from Looking From Third To Fourth who used the idea to review multiplication, something made the wheels in my brain to start spinning and I came up with a fun way to review perimeter and area which is the unit we are currently working on.

I had the students take a piece of paper and fold it in fours and rip them apart.  They wrote numbers from 1 to 10 on each of their papers, and crumpled them.

 On my call they threw all of their snowballs into the center of the classroom.  They again waited for my call to go collect two snowballs each to bring back to their desks.




Aim!

Fire!

Then they had to solve for the perimeter and area.  Once everyone had solved, we had another snowball fight returning their two snowballs and retrieving two more.  I had the students each solve 4 problems.

They loved it!

My Little Guy's Birthday and A Great Writing Idea

Today was my youngest son's 7th birthday! We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate together with his class and mine.  His class is our reading buddy class, so he wanted to share cupcakes with my class. We went to their room and enoyed some yummy Steelers (his team) cupcakes.  My class made him this giant birthday card.

While we were in his room I learned a great writing idea from his first grade teacher.  At the beginning of the year she gave each student a circle map to write about themselves and the things that they liked.  Luke's circle graph had: dolphins, nachos, Chinese food, and action figures.  On the student's birthday, she has all of the students write them a letter picking one of these items as their topic to focus on.  Many letters said things about dolphins and nachos, but it was a great way to teach the kiddos to stay on topic.

Here are a few of the letters:

Luke even wrote a letter to himself!

I think I will be stealing this idea for next year, although with my 3rd graders I might have them write a paragraph for each item.

Do you have any ideas for teaching the idea of staying on topic while writing?

Martin Luther King Timeline and Writing Activity

Like many classes across the US we have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. this week. Yesterday we read Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport.  Then I gave the students copies of the important dates and asked them to choose the four that they thought were most important in describing why we celebrate Martin Luther King Day. I thought it might give them a little practice in picking out main ideas as we seem to still struggle a bit with this skill.

The students colored in pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. and pasted them to the beginning of their paper.  They drew a timeline across and used speech bubbles to write down the events they chose.  Here is what the final product looked like:

Today we worked on our essays comparing our dreams to Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreams. We started with a graphic organizer that looked like this:

Then I asked the students to brainstorm the dreams that they had for their school, their community, and the World.  This is what they came up with:

You can tell that some of their dreams are related to recent news events :(

We used the brainstorms to write a paragraph about each of these dreams.  After the students wrote about their own dreams, we went to the computer lab to research Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreams.  They wrote a paragraph about what they found.  We put the two together for a cute craftivity.