Division Concepts- Different Ways to Represent Division Concepts

Division is not always the easiest concept for students to master.  While we have been diligently working on this at school, my students have also been practicing at home.  Here is a quick (2 min) video I made for students to reference if they can't remember the different ways to represent division.  Note- This is nothing fancy & was created just for study purposes.  Just thought I'd share it! :)

(Sorry it's sideways---not quite sure how to change that!)

Brain Break

Brain Break time is one of my kids' (and my) favorite times of the day!  We work hard in my room, but we definitely like to play hard too!  I fully believe that giving those brains a break is so important to keep them going! Finding brain breaks that are quick to access and don't require going through YouTube (because who knows what garage will pop up on the screen with that) has proved to be challenging at times.  Thankfully, one of my wonderful co-workers shared a fabulous site with me that I now use on a daily basis called gonoodle.com.  You can sign up (It's free!) and access fun brain break videos in seconds!  We especially love the Koo Koo Kangaroo videos.  There are some fun zumba videos on there too.

Our favorite Koo Koo Kangaroo video is the Dino-Stomp!  You can check out my sweet babies doing it in the video below! :)

You can check out this and other Koo Koo Kangaroo videos by going to gonoodle.com

It's Getting HOT in Here! HEAT Activities!!

So, I'll be the first to admit that science is just not my subject....I think I'm fairly decent at teaching it, but I just don't love it.  Fortunately, I think I'm pretty good at tricking my kids into thinking otherwise by acting so excited about all the "neat" things we learn about.  One of our units we do each year is heat--fun! fun! :)

If you haven't noticed already, I am ALL about flipbooks and foldables!  I LOVE them!  It allows the kiddos to take notes without the torture of....well, just taking notes.  It's amazing that you can just fold/cut paper different ways and add a few pictures and note taking becomes fun!

There are 2 main concepts we cover when discussing heat:
1. What are the different ways heat can be produced?
2. How does heat move?

Heat Production:
For heat production, we created the foldable below.  These are perfect little organizers to add to science notebooks, or just keep on hand for review.

This is the front of the foldable:
It covers friction, electricity, mixing matter (chemical change), and burning
We put the way and a picture on each. 

INSIDE:
Under each flap- on the top, we wrote the definition or description

On the bottom- we wrote 2-3 examples

BACK:
On the back we wrote & answered 3 Essential Questions: 

1. What is heat?
2. What is thermal energy? 

3. What are the 4 ways to produce heat? 

Heat Movement:
Below is the foldable that we made to cover the movement of heat.  It talks about radiation, conduction & convection.

Front- you could definitely dress it up more! :)

Inside: We included the definition/description for each on the flaps & then on the inside drew pictures that showed examples of each. 

Hope you find these useful!  For more heat resources, check out my TPT store

I also have a Heat Unit Test and a study guide you can check out as well!

Long Time...No Write

Well, since I've been out of the whole blogging game for the last 6-7 months, I figured it was time to get back on it!  To say it's been crazy busy for me that last few months is an understatement.  In August 2013 (3 months after we found out we were finally pregnant with baby #2) we sold our house, moved into a rental, and began building our new home.  It was an exciting time, but definitely exhausting.

On January 25, 2014, my husband and I welcomed our newest addition: Beckett Sophia Marie Copeland.  It's a mouthful I know, but I loved the name Sophia and wanted to honor Chris' grandmother by using the name Marie too.  Here's a picture of our sweet girl.  Feel free to swoon! :)

Beckett Sophia Marie- within the 1st week

Miss Beckett at 4 months old! 

7 weeks later, we moved into our new home (Mid march), and we're STILL unpacking and trying to get settled.  I guess it just takes a little longer to do things with a 3 year old and newborn.  Now that the school year is done, I'm hoping to make a little more headway!

Along with catching up on my house and spending time playing with my precious girls, I'm hoping to get back on the ball with blogging and adding resources to my TPT store!  :)

Beckett & Tenley

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

CYBER SALE MONDAY....AND TUESDAY

Hey all!  I know it has been a while since I've posted.  I have been so busy moving and preparing for our 2nd little girl to arrive in January!  I just wanted to take a moment to tell you all about the huge sale that TPT is throwing for CYBER MONDAY!  Almost everything in my store will be 20%.  Then, when you check out, enter the code "CYBER" for an additional 10% off!

Click HERE to check it out!

While you're there, be sure to check out some of my best selling and/or newer products too! :)  Happy Shopping!!  Click on the product name to view it in my store! :)

If you're looking for Nonfiction Text Passages/Assessments:
Nonfiction Text Features Assessment #1
Nonfiction Text Features Assessment #2
Nonfiction Cold Read: Dolphins
Nonfiction Cold Read: Abraham Lincoln

Language Packs:
Adverbs Mega Pack
Nouns Mega Pack
Parts of Speech Pack

Math:
Common Core Assessment Bundle
Place Value Task Cards
Rounding Task Cards
Addition & Subtraction Word Problems Task Cards
Multiplication & Division Word Problems Task Cards
Multi-Step Problem Solving Task Cards
Elapsed Time Task Cards
Line Plot & Measurement Task 

Social Studies:
Ancient Greece Mini Books Pack
Paul Revere Mega Pack
Frederick Douglass Activity Pack
Susan B. Anthony Activity Pack
Mary McLeod Bethune Activity Pack
Historical Figures Task Cards
Local & State Government Test & Study Guide
National Government Test & Study Guide
Local, State & National Government Test & Study Guide

Science
Rocks & Minerals Mega Pack
Rocks Mini Book
GA Habitats Assessment Pack
Pollution & Conservation Mini Book

It's the Little Things that Make Life Fun!

It never ceases to amaze me how the simplest of things sometimes catch the attention of my third graders.  There are times I feel like I'm up there teaching my heart out, and I feel like they're off in space somewhere; and then there are times I throw something together in a second and they are absolutely enthralled with what we're doing!

So last week, we were full swing into review as our state tests are coming up in a couple weeks.  We were working on Main Idea, which is not a particularly fun topic, and not always the easiest thing for them.  After we worked in small groups to review what main idea was and do some mundane passage practice, I wasn't quite ready to leave the topic. 

I didn't want to do anymore more "read the passage & answer the questions" at the moment because by then, they were just done with that.  I had some task cards saved on my computer that I had purchased on TPT that I thought I could pull up on the active board for us to go over.  I knew that with how hard we had been working, I was already at great risk of losing them though. 

So, I decided to make things a little more interesting for them (& SO simple for me).  I put them into 3 teams. Each team got 4 pieces of construction paper--each one had a different letter on it: A, B, C, or D.  They would use these to show their teams answer choice for that particular question.  I gave them a print out of the answer choices for each passage & question that would be on the board, and I gave each group 20 cups.  Yes....cups.  This is what made it so intriguing for them.  (Like I said, it's the little things.)

What we did:
1. I would show the first task card on the active board (as you can see in the background of the picture above).
2. I would read the passage on the card, ask the question, and read the answer choices aloud (they had the answer choices printed out as well so they wouldn't constantly be asking me to repeat the choices).
3. Students then quietly discussed it with their team & chose the corresponding letter card (construction paper).  They laid their answer card face down on their table. 
4. When all teams were ready, I had them all reveal their answers at the same time.
5. For every question they got correct, they got to add a cup to their "structure" they were building.  They weren't allowed to touch or move that added cup anymore once the next question began. 

The goal: To see who could build the tallest structure by the time the first team ran out of cups, or we ended the game (whichever one came first).  If any of their cups feel in the process, those went back into their original stack of cups to use and were no longer a part of their existing structure.  Teams could also lose a cup from their structure if they had team members not participating, if they touched one of their cups after they were allowed to, or if they were talking while the question was being read.

They LOVED it!  They all worked closely together to both answer questions and build their structures.  They had so much fun, all while working on the mundane skill of main idea. 

All it took were some task cards on the active board, construction paper, and cups....Simple!

The Winning Team:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Getting Back to Work

Wow!  This time of year always seems to wear me out!!  Writing scores are due, CRCT Testing is coming, we're in the final crunch to get everything in and review, and for whatever reason, this seems to be the time of year where there is some personal trial in life that I'm also having to handle during all this. 

After going through some stuff for the past couple of months (I've blogged about it here: Choosing to Count ) I am hoping to get back into the swing of things.  I want to get more things made, especially my science mini books, and I want to start blogging more frequently.  We've done some really cute things in class lately, and I want to start posting what we do.  So, here's to April and May being more productive months! :)