Saturday Motivation: Donors Choose

It brings me so much JOY to see kids excited about books.  I love reading, but I know not every kid is wired the same way.  We all have different passions, interests.... but when even my reluctant readers are engrossed in books I know there is something to be said about the book. 

Not that all these kids are my reluctant readers.  They aren't.  They are my kiddos that finished their work on time this past week and I gave them the opportunity to read the new books from Donors Choose.

I started pushing our research center this week (we were learning about Abe and George for our mini books).  The kids made up their own folders and got so involved in their research.  They kept asking to research.  They want to learn about something that interests them.  That makes me happy. 

My Donors Choose project was for 30 biographies.  I found even more titles over at Scholastic in their bonus point section, so now I have a full class set.  Mainly men and women, some specific events in history... the kids don't care, they just want to read (and learn).  

My research station is just a basket to hold their folders and file folders that hold my research book pages (I turned my papers into half sheets - less paper).  I stressed that they are NOT to put the folders in their desks.  It's just a 2 pocket folder that they wrote "done" and "working on" on the pockets.  On the done side they have a piece of binder paper with a list of animals or people they have finished, and any of the completed research pages.  I'll take the pages out when I check the folders and give them research points.  The working side holds the pages that they are interested in that they are working on at that moment.  I'm planning on checking them every 2 weeks (since we go to the computer lab every 2 weeks) to give them time to get some work done.  They will eventually form a separate research booklet (per child) that will be on their desks for Open House. 

  

This week I added the research option to our ELA workshop time, though many kids asked me if they could do it during our writing time too.  I might add that in the future since they are so motivated.  They need to be done with the daily assignment to be able to jump on the computer or read a book though.

We have done a lot of research lately whole class.  Every day we have been learning about a different country (ties into the Olympics) in our What a Small World booklet.  They have seen me use Google to find specific information.  On Tuesday we went to the computer lab and I walked them through learning about Abe & George, and from there they created an entire booklet of writing.  Now having these new books will continue with their love of learning.  I'm so excited!!

It sometimes is the little things that get kids excited (and teachers too).  Thank you so much to the donors that helped fund this (and other) projects for my sweet class.

 Do you have a Donors Choose account?  What is a project that is working great?  

    Linking up with Joanne and her Saturday Student Motivation Linky! 

Have a great day!

PS - The Tricky Math Bundle is still LIVE over at Educents.  It's helping kids with multiplication, division, and fractions.  Only $10.99 for 14 downloads - games, task cards, and activities that reinforce key concepts.  Have you picked it up yet?  

Learning New Math... UGH! Links That Help

California is just starting to transition over to Common Core.  My district is in the process of adopting new curriculum, and our trainings are all Common Core related.  It's a little overwhelming picking through the new standards and trying to see exactly what is changing...

I have to say that I am excited about the new curriculum.  I'm excited about the fact that I won't have to create every lesson myself.  My district is leaning toward My Math.  We'll see what the board decides, but it does look pretty cool.  

The other week I went to a special 4th grade training that involved us going through the possible new curriculum.  The kids will be able to write on everything - which I'm excited about.  No more heavy textbooks, it will be all workbooks.  There are a bunch of extras that are included too - foldables and vocabulary cards.  It seemed doable and something NOT overwhelming.  

In one of the past trainings there was a document that was brought up that I'm extra excited about.  The link that has come in handy is this PDF from the Sacramento County Office of Education.  They also have an ELA one available too.  It breaks it down by standard with both sets of standards and how it has changed, if it has changed.  Wow!  What a lifesaver.  :)

I know this may not help other states, but it's helping me wrap my head around the changes.  Maybe it can help someone else too!   

Have a great day!

Math Workshop: Teacher Time - Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions

I guess this week is turning out to be a Math explosion type of week.  Yesterday my class reached the dreaded renaming of fractions lesson... I haven't figured out if I'll be teaching it again next year when we transition to Common Core, but for a second it seemed a little brutal (and I started hoping and praying that this would be my last year teaching it).  

How I set it up changes a little bit every year.  Yesterday I started by drawing a rectangle on the whiteboard for my small groups.  The rectangle represented how I wanted my small group to set up their whiteboards.  I drew a vertical line down the middle to show the transition between the Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions (which I guess are now just called Fractions).   We started on the left top corner with a Mixed Number and wrote the symbols x and + in the top corner.  It was a reminder for the kids that the only operations they are allowed to do over on that side of the board were multiply and add.  After they found the fraction they placed it on the right side of the board with an arrow to show the transition. 

The right side showed how to transition from an Improper Fraction (symbols for division and subtraction) back to a Mixed Number.  On the right side we had the improper fraction, and then showed the division problem underneath- working to the point when we had the whole number and remainder.  At this point the kids got the connection between long division (which they all now grasp from a few months ago), and saw where the numbers came from to make up the Mixed Number.  Oh, it was a huge lightbulb that went off with all my groups!!!  I wanted to get up and do the happy dance when that happened (I think I actually did).  

Then we continued on with more examples and the kids were able to do it every single time!!

If the number came out the same going through the 3 steps (Mixed to Improper to Division back to Mixed) then we celebrated knowing we had checked our math correctly.

How do you teach the relationship between Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions?  Jivey is having a math linky today - so linking up with her to share what my class did!