Canadian Blogs!!

I love learning about other Canadian bloggers. We are slowly and steadily growing. I was emailed by a fellow Canadian and invited to link up to a Canadian linky party. 

I would love for you to pop over and visit my fellow Canadians...we are a friendly bunch!

Two Truths and a Lie Linky

I'm joining in for Flying into First Grade's Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party.

How it Works:

Think of 3 things about yourself or your life.  

You should make 2 of them truths and 1 of them a lie.   

You can list them on your post in any order.  

Do NOT give the answer yet in your post.  People will try guess your lie in your in the comments of your post.  

So remember to be very creative so that it is hard for people to get it right. At the end of the week you can share the answer in your comments from the post or include it in a post you make at the end of the week. 

Okay, here we go...

1. I went to summer camp for 19 summers! I didn't go to the same camp the whole time and I was a camper, a staff member and a camp director during that time.

2. I have two tattoos. Actually, three because I had one redone so technically I have gotten three tattoos but only have two on me.

3. I love cats. I have a huge cat collection (mugs, shirts, books, pictures, etc) and 2 cats of my own.

And now it's your turn...!

Organizing Calendar and Your Math Block

Do you follow Janaye over at Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes? 

Because if you don't, then you really should.

I mean, WOW!!

I started off this year organizing my math journals according to the setup she described on her blog here and now I love doing them. People are so impressed when they visit my class and I so wish I could take credit, but alas it is the impressive Janaye!

Now, she has posted about her morning math meeting time...and in such detail. I am in heaven and will be starting to integrate some her ideas into my morning math meeting as well. Can't wait.

Go here to check it all out.

Math Problem Solving (Freebie)- Mega Post!

A big focus in my math program this term has become problem solving. As we continue to work through the different strands outlined in our curriculum we are looking at and working on how to better understand problems, solve problems and talk about the strategies we've chosen to solve problems.

We started by creating this anchor chart step by step together. As we "mastered" (hmmmm?) each step we moved on to the next and added more to our anchor chart. 

Each morning when my students enter the room they have a math problem to complete independently in their problem solving books. This has replaced our math stretch time. In the beginning of the year, we met on the carpet every morning and completed a math stretch orally as a group. We still do this about once (maybe twice) a week, but the focus has moved to independent problem solving using the 4 steps outlined above and a variety of problems.

In Ontario, Grade 3's are required to write a standardize test in the spring and they will need to have a wide range of problem solving skills at their disposal. 

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Now that most of my students have improved in their basic problem solving skills we are moving towards improving their communication skills in math. This was determined as a greatest area of need by my grade team and we will be focusing on this skill over the next weeks as a professional learning community.

Since my class had already begun working in this area I needed to change the team plan just a little. My class started by co-creating this anchor chart to show the difference between "Show Your Work" and "Explain Your Thinking" in math.

I was super impressed...both of the success criteria on the Show Your Work side were volunteered by my students and it's in their own words. 

They are listening!!! (LOL)

From here I modelled what Explain Your Thinking would look like using a math huddle focused on division. 

Minds on activity

Lesson Problem- We have been looking at division problems- by grouping and by sharing. As you will see in the sample problem, it is the same problem just asked in a different way!

The board ready for their work!

Here's the updated Minds On and Lesson Problem. I have been modelling how to underline, highlight or circle the key words in the problem and then choose a strategy that works best for the question. 

This is normally where I display student work after they have had a chance to solve the problem with a peer. For this math huddle, however, I wanted to focus less on the strategy chosen to solve and more on the communication delivered by the response. So for this math huddle we worked through the problem together and I modelled how a student could display their knowledge of division/multiplication and communicate their thinking about the problem. 

And we did complete the anchor chart pictured above...but in my rush to start Spring Break(!!) I forgot to take a picture. So I made it into a poster for you instead! Click on the image to get your copy. 

Finally...here's the freebie! This is a problem solving mat that can be used to solve any problem. It's designed to help students move through the steps and communicate their knowledge as much as possible.  I found the original here when I was researching online. I basically just typed it up without too many adaptions...it was so good it didn't need very much!

I hope you find it useful too and if you download it, please visit the original site and leave your thanks there!!

And that's that...we are going to continue working away on different types of problems. I will be back soon (I hope) with some students examples and a checbric for you to assess student problem solving. 

Here is a great link for math manipulatives. 

A Peek Into My Day Book

Sometimes I like to go back and look through my day plan/ day book. I noticed one thing....I make a lot of changes! So many arrows, post-it notes and cross outs! LOL

Here's the past 5 weeks. Oh dear. 

Wow, that's a lot of post it notes! 

This is my first time using a "pre-made" day book, I've always made my own in the past. I must admit...I kinda love it!

What kind of day book do you use?

Bonus...here's my two-year-old daughter joining in on my yoga session today! (Don't be fooled...this is the only pose she did!)

Happy Sunday. 

A Look into Our Literacy Workshop

So many things have been going on in our Literacy Workshop classes...we are just a whirlwind of activity these days!!

This is the first anchor chart/activity we did for inferring. We read "The Little Red Pen" and inferred the character's traits based on their actions and words.

We are also working on answering reading comprehension questions using evidence and details to support our ideas. The Grade 3's in Ontario all write a standardized test in the spring and this is part of the process in getting them ready. I cut up four possible answers (an A, B, C and D graded answer) and then had the students decide what grade each answer should get. You can see the votes for each question on the right hand side, with the actual mark being highlighted in orange. It provided some great discussion as the students really had to give a reason for their grades and we took some time to dive deeper into what makes a B a B and an A an A!!

We are working on narrative writing and so...we had a funeral for said! I was very surprised by the amount of coaching my students needed for this! It took a lot of time to coax the ideas out of them and even then some really struggled with giving a different way of saying "said"...something to come back to for sure. 

This is our narrative writing anchor chart. The small paper you can see to the right is a sample story that we colour coded according to the 4 elements on the chart.

We have been continuing with our Book of the Week, but a lot of the work has shifted to the students. We are no longer working in small groups and answering orally but working towards writing our answers out on paper. A big jump for some of my little 3's.

Here is some great predicting/inferring my students have been doing as well! I was so proud with how much they came up with before we even read the book. Just from the cover and the title. 

Here's the beginning of our chart showing how we add our evidence to our schema to create an inference. For this we used the book "No, David!" (always a favourite!). The rest of the chart will be filled in by the students in small groups which I will then assess to see where we are and how much more teaching is needed. From there I will be moving into more independent inferring activities in order to assess this reading skill. 

Whew!! And that's that.

What are you working on in literacy?

Have any great inferring lessons/activities I should try?

What are some great picture books for inferring??

Code the Text- Reading Strategy

I pulled from waaaaaay back in my bag of tricks for this strategy! It's something I used to use all the time with my 7's and 8's but hadn't had the opportunity to try it out with Grade 3's yet. I have been noticing that my students read through assigned Social Studies and Science articles very quickly and don't seem to really understand what they are reading. Using the "Code the Text" strategy is a great way to get your students to slow down as they read and to really think about the words and ideas they are reading about.

The basic idea for this strategy to create a series of codes, or symbols, that your students can write on the paper as they are reading. This way they are slowing down as they read and making a decision about their understanding. The basic set of symbols I use include the following:

- I knew that!

- That's new information for me.

- Uhhh? I don't get it.

- I think this is very important.

Based on what you want your students to learn from the reading you can always create other codes as well. Perhaps you could have code that they use to compare and contrast a previous reading, or to show character traits? It really could be anything you want.

As the students read through the text you have given them they draw the symbols right on the words/sentences that correspond with the symbols you have created. As you walk through the room it only takes a quick glance to see if a large number of students are having trouble in the same part or if they are really getting it. Or you could also collect the readings from the students and assess their understanding that way. 

I created a poster for this strategy using the great clip art from Scrappin Doodles and fonts from Miss Tiina Fonts.  Just click on the image to below to get your own copy.

Patterns Flipbook (foldable)

As we just finished our Patterning unit in Grade 3, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the culminating task I did with my Grade 4's last year around this same time.  I wanted to comment on my student's progress on their reports so we created a flip book in class where the students could show what they know about patterns.

The first pictures show the example I made as a template for my class. They were asked to create geometric and number patterns that repeat, then growing patterns using both addition and multiplication. Finally, I asked then to make 2 different shrinking patterns. Once they had completed this part of the flip book we went back through the book and I asked them to extend and predict a term for each of their patterns. In some cases it was a term that was quite high..the 42nd term... sometimes it was much closer...the 10th term, but what I did ask is that they use at least three different methods in their flip book to extend their patterns. We had already discussed skip counting, T charts, multiplication, a hundreds chart and they were also free to use any other method they felt would work for them.

I am super proud about how they turned out!

A jumble of letters and patterns...

These are the finished Name Art Projects my students completed last year when I taught Grade 4. I originally posted about it here and I am super excited with how they turned out!

Here are a few of my favourites!

I am going to have my students complete a reflection of their own artwork and the projects of others posted in our room as a way to start developing some art appreciation. Here is the reflection if you would like to see it or use it in your own room.

AND.... don't forget about the Fantastic Finds Linky Party. What have you uncovered this week?

Hot Writing

Some where along the way I learned about this great writing activity that really gets your student's brains moving. 

Materials:
- lined paper or writing notebooks (whichever you use for your class)
- pencils
- imagination

Activity:
Tell your students that today they are going to be such "hot writers" that their paper may actually catch on fire! (It really grabs their attention...lol)

The basic gist of the activity is that students will write for a length of time and they are not allowed to stop writing at all. If they run out of ideas they just keep re-writing the last word they wrote. The idea is NOT to create a cohesive piece of writing but to see how much writing you can get done in the time limit.

Start with 30 seconds- any longer is too long, even for the older intermediate students until you have done this a number of times. Have the students place their pencil on the page and start the stopwatch. The students will write for 30 seconds until you yell "stop!" They should count up their words, write the total beside their writing and draw a line underneath.

Repeat! You can slowly up the amount of time students are writing by 30 second increments. Every once in awhile you can also have a student share their writing with the class for a fun giggle. "Apple, apple, apple, balloon, monkey jumps, piano, dog, dog, dog, dog..."! The idea is that the students are trying to increase their word count each time. Students will love the challenge of this, just check every so often that they are writing REAL words!

Once your students are pretty comfortable with hot writing start to encourage them to write a mini-story each time you time them, probably once you are up to 1-2 minutes of solid writing. It's interesting to see the types of stories that come out of the hot writing.

Other ideas you can try are to have a writing prompt and everyone writes on the same topic- just wait and see the variety that happens! Also, once students can write for 4-5 minutes you can introduce a new word at every 30 second interval that they must incorporate into their stories!

Mostly, have fun with it! Hot writing is great to break through writer's block, as a quick review of a previous science or social studies lesson, and just for fun.