I am the first to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of worksheets. Too often when students are working independently on worksheets they are not fully engaged in their learning. They are going through the motions or mimicking what the teacher just did in the lesson. The assignment is not memorable. The worksheets are normally… Continue reading First to 5
The start of a new year is a time where a lot of people take time to create “New Year’s Resolutions” as they reflect on how their prior year went and changes they want to make going into a new calendar year. That’s a BIG task for adults let along some of our young learners.… Continue reading Reflection Journals
Throughout my career I enjoyed doing activities and projects with my students that got them thinking and problem solving. I knew they were learning when there was progressive struggle. The students enjoyed this activity by the end of our time allotted for it, but there were moments of frustrations for sure. In many of my… Continue reading Puzzling Tree
As I have talked with my teacher friends and teachers that I work with, a common consensus is that the weeks between Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break are some of the roughest weeks of the school year. Procedures and routines need reviewed coming back from an extended time off, whether you had the whole week… Continue reading Holiday Shopping Project
I had a friend who teaches 5th grade recently reach out and ask how we can help students who struggle with dividing by a 2-digit divisor. I made a quick 9 minute video to help her make the connection between a 1-digit divisor. While we were going back and forth with our messages it was… Continue reading Division continued…
This may be an unpopular opinion, but the traditional algorithm for division is outdated and needs to go away. Let me explain. The traditional algorithm for any computation (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) is a procedure and when taught alone does not make math meaningful and make math make sense to students. We as adults… Continue reading Division with Multi-Digit Dividends
When I get asked the question, "What is one, quick activity I can do with my students to build number sense?" my response just about every time is Steve Wyborney's Esti-Mystery. The Esti-Mystery activity is a FREE download from Steve's website that is leveled to reach all of your mathematicians. You can sign up for… Continue reading Esti-Mystery….
Decorating classrooms is either a perk of being a teacher or just something else on our never-ending to do list. Some teachers love going into their classrooms over the summer months and creating some of the most magical spaces for student learning. Some teachers would rather not decorate their classrooms to look Pinterest worthy, and… Continue reading Mathematical Vocabulary (Anchor Charts)- Part 4
When I first started teaching back in 2005, I personally, did not have a conceptual understanding of fractions. To be honest, it wasn't until about 2010 ( I was 27 years old) and I attended a professional development in Columbus, Ohio that I started to really comprehend what a fraction truly was. I was never… Continue reading Mathematical Vocabulary (Fractions)- Part 3
Primary friends, this is for you! I'm going to keep this short and sweet... I was asked by a teacher for some basic number sheets that have students working on a few things... Tracing the spelling of the number Number tracing What comes before the number? What comes after the number? Fill in the ten… Continue reading Number Sheets
