A Fun Alternative to the Vacation Work Packet

Next week we have the week off for Thanksgiving. While I am excited to have the time off, I worry about my students losing all of the momentum that we have built. In order to help them keep their momentum, I am assigning Thanksgiving homework. However, I didn't want to send home a bunch of worksheets. Instead, I want my students to do fun, yet educational things. Basically I wanted them to have a better alternative than watching Cartoon Network and playing Call of Duty on the XBox the whole week. So I created this Vacation Homework Bingo for my students.

Using this Vacation Homework Bingo, I am able to encourage my students to read, write and do math. I am also able to introduce them to educational t.v. shows like Cyber Chase and educational websites like Code.org. The hope is that the students enjoy some of these things enough to do them simply for fun, allowing them to learn and have fun at the same time. The Vacation Homework Bingo also encourages kids to do things with their family, like visiting a zoo or talking to a grandparent. If you'd like to use this Vacation Homework Bingo with your kiddos, it is a free download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I hope it works well for my class and yours!

Common Culture Stories vs. Multicultural Stories

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cubboard to get her poor dog a bone. I'm willing to bet that 99% of you reading this can finish that rhyme. However, many of our students can't, especially if they don't come from upper SES, mainstream culture American or British backgrounds. Many of our students come to us not knowing nursery rhymes, folktales, fables and other common culture stories. However, when they get to those standardized tests, it is assumed that they grew up with these stories and rhymes. That's why every test I've ever administered had at least one or two nursery rhymes or folktales on it. Test makers figure everyone's heard of these so they're great to use for vocabulary questions or compare and contrast questions or even just straight comprehension questions. Plus most are licence free, so they're cost free to use! 

The problem of course is that not all of our kids have heard of them, which sets low SES students and students who come from non mainstream cultures at a disadvantage. This is why I make it a point to teach nursery rhymes and common folktales to every class I work with. In fact my students just started using my Nursery Rhyme Comprehension Sheets (free download at my Teachers Pay Teachers store) to disect one nursery rhyme a week. Students need to know these stories and rhymes not only for standardized tests, but because they are referenced in other stories, in movies, in songs and just in general "common culture" discussions.

Recently, I had a discussion with some other teachers about how these rhymes and tales have historically been used as "educational colonialism". Because we think that students NEED to know these stories, we teach them. But often teaching these "common culture rhymes and stories" means that many other great stories, often with a more multicultural cast of characters, which would connect better with these students, don't get taught. John Henry, for example, didn't make a big impact on my current population of students (85% hispanic), but they loved Dona Flor because it had huge floating tortillas like they ones their moms and grandmas make.

And I can see the point of colonialism argument. Why for example to do we teach students in New Mexico the rhyme about how "April showers bring May flowers" when the majority of rain here occurs in the winter? Ummmmm..... because the majority of our common culture rhymes and stories come from England or the Northeastern United States. 

So what's the answer? How do we find balance? I'm not sure I have a tried and true answer. But in my classroom I try to:

1.) Be aware of the bias - Sometimes just knowing can do so much to change our behavior. We as teachers need to know that our kids need both "common culture" and "multiculture" so that we can always be on the look out for ways to include both in our classroom.

2.) Use as wide a mixture of both "common culture" and "multiculture" as I can find - Because I know this is an important topic, especially with my population of students, I try to expose my kids to both, constantly. We definitely do story, rhyme and book overload in my classroom because I am trying to make sure my students are exposed to EVERYTHING I can put in front of them. 

3.) Explain the concept to the kids - Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. I often explain to my students the concept of common culture. I want them to be aware that there are things that are generally accepted as important for them to know. I also want them to know that there are lots of other cultures out there which are equally important, especially their own! This also makes it easier to explain to kids why things like "April flowers bring May flowers" make sense to some people, even if it doesn't to them.

So what's your take? How do you balance common culture stories with multicultural literature? Does your approach change depending on the make up of your classroom? Let's have a discussion!

Doubly Thankful – Birthday & 3,000 Follower Giveaway

Feeling blessed cannot even begin to explain how thankful I am this week. First I was chosen for a resource in last week’s Teachers Pay Teachers Newsletter. Then I was reading my time hop and read a post from 5 years ago about being excited to have 7 followers in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. So imagine how excited I am now to have almost 3,000! I’m only 4 followers away and ready to give away those 3 products for free. Also, Monday is my birthday. I’ll be 33 and it’s the first birthday in awhile that I’ve actually been excited about! When I feel this happy, I just have to share my happiness with other people!

If you’ve been a follower for awhile, you know that I always do a big “pick your own present” giveaway on my birthday. This year I have decided to combine the 3,000 Follower Giveaway and the Birthday Giveaway together. So here’s what I’m doing:

1.) The following 3 resources will be changed to FREE from the moment I hit 3,000 followers until November 11th, double the time promised since I’m doubly excited!

2.) My entire store will be set to 20% off from the moment I hit 3,000 followers through November 11th, also double the time promised!

3.) We will begin my birthday celebration a little bit early. For my birthday, I always give everyone who leaves me a comment (here on this blog post) one resource as a gift. Nothing that comes in a .zip folder and no bundles, because it clogs up my email. However any of the other resources are fair game and with 628 listed resources in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, there’s sure to be something for everyone! In the comment be sure to leave a link to the resource you’d like, as well as an e-mail address that you’d like me to send it to. All resources will be sent out the morning of November 12th, so be sure to leave your comment by the evening of November 11th.

4.) Finally, by leaving me a comment asking for a resource, you will automatically get entered into a contest to win a $20 gift card to Teachers Pay Teachers, which could be very helpful with Cyber Monday coming up!

Okay, time to help me celebrate! Stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers store and start deciding what you want for free. Leave me a comment and cross your fingers that you’ll get a gift card on November 11th with your present.

Thank you for all the support. I hope at least one of my resources or blog posts have helped make your job easier.

What is Everyone Saying About Math Tiling Puzzles

When I was in the classroom, tiling puzzles were my absolutely FAVORITE math activity.  I started out each trimester giving each student a stapled packet of 10 tiling puzzles, which they worked on whenever they finished work early.  If they finished the entire packet before the trimester was done, there was a no-homework pass available as a prize.  Not only did this keep the kiddos focused and prevent management issues, but the tiling puzzles forced students to work on math facts, math concepts and critical thinking all at the same time.  Plus, because I had puzzles for each operation, I could easily differentiate by simply giving different students different puzzle packs.

   

I am not the only one who loves these packets.  Here are some comments that I pulled from the various packets I have available:

“I absolutely love these! The students have to look at multiplication in many different ways to solve the problems. Sometimes they have to reverse the process. Sometimes they must think of possible multiples and eliminate the ones that won't work. Excellent for encouraging them to think "outside the box". Taught them to eliminate as many choices first with reasoning skills and using guess & check with the final possibilities. Thanks for an excellent resource:)”

“Great for students who finish early!”

“High praise from students... I tried your freebee and was impressed with how it kept my more skilled mathematicians engaged. One of them just saw me printing this packet and said, "Oh I love those!"

“I downloaded the sample version and I love it! I have 6th grade students who are having difficulty with multiplication so this is a great tool to have them self-check!”

“This is great! Just challenging enough to work as a math center yet not too challenging that they will give up. What a creative idea! Thank you for providing.”

“This will be a great bell activity and refresher after the long weekend. Thanks”

 “This is genius! I love how critical thinking is needed to only use each tile one time - along with the addition practice! Thank you for a great product.”

 

At my Teachers Pay Teacher store, I have 50 Addition & Subtraction puzzles and 50 Multiplication & Division puzzles, but I also have 10 different puzzles available completely FREE, so feel free to grab some free puzzles and see if your kids love them as much as mine did.

 

A New Look at Astronomy

Last week was the last week of our trimester, and thereby our Astronomy unit.  Here’s a brief look at what we did during this unit:

1.  We read some wonderful children’s literature, including the Magic Tree House book Midnight on the Moon and the nonfiction companion book Space.

2.  We spent a month observing the moon and drawing our observations.  Download this observation sheet from Google Docs.

3.  We watched multiple movies, including the Magic School Bus Out of This World, Citizen Sky, The Universe – Phases of the Moon, Eyes on the Skies, A Day in the Life of an Astronaut, NASA’s Our World Series and a great TED-Ed Video called Questions No One Knows the Answer To.

4.  We learned about the power and movement of the son and even created our own sun dials with a paper plate.  This was a fun project, although time consuming because it meant going outside each hour on the hour to mark our sun dial.  However at the end of the day, the kids had a great record of the sun’s movements over the course of the day.  Of course, I forgot to take a picture at the end of the day, but here’s a beginning of the day picture!

5.  We discussed the possibility of alien life forms and brainstormed an argument for or against these theories on this cute sheet.  (Download it free from Google Docs.)

6.  We took a field trip to the Observatory in Rabat.  The kids had a chance to use a large telescope to look at the sun spot, as well as experience a planetarium show and ask questions of the resident astronomer.

 

7.  We learned about famous astronomers who shaped the way that we think about the universe.  First, we learned about all of the scientists and added them to our community time line, which hangs out in the hall outside our classroom. 

Then, the students worked in pairs to research one of the scientists further.  They used the templates from my Historical Figures Research Project to do their research, using a combination of websites and books.

 From their research, they developed scripts of a mock interview between a t.v. host and their astronomer.  Using Puppet Pals and iMovie, they created videos with their scripts.  Here is one student example:

My students really enjoyed this look at astronomy and each and everyone of them came out with our enduring understandings:  1.)  Our ideas about space have changed over time.  2.) Objects in space orbit around other objects in set patterns that help us predict what conditions are like in far away places.  3.) Our universe is so vast we can’t understand everything about it yet.

What do you teach your students about space?

Cyber Monday Sale & A FREE Holiday Cookbook

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday, which means a big sale over at Teachers Pay Teachers.  My store will be on sale for 20% off – add the 10% you can get site wide with the code CYBER, and you get a total of 28% off total.  Here are some of the deals you can get:

In addition to all of these deals – you can now download a FREE Holiday Cookbook for Kids.  This cookbook is a compilation of recipes offered from a variety of bloggers – including Sally from Elementary Matters, Krystal from Lessons from the Middle, Debbie from Kids Cooking Activities, Caitlin from Learning Ahoy and Amanda from Maroc Mama.  The cookbook includes recipes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Ramadan and New Years and is a great resources for classroom teachers and parents to cook with their kids.

Collaborative Cooking Project to Teach Doubling & Halving

Last week all of the students from Year 1 (Kindergarten) through Year 6 (5th grade) worked on doubling and halving in math.  The Year 1 and Year 2 students worked on doubling and halving the numbers from 1 – 10.  The Year 3 – Year 5 students worked on doubling and halving larger numbers (2 – 4 digit numbers).  Year 6 worked on doubling and halving decimals and fractions.  On Friday, we combined all three classes and spent two hours cooking doubled recipes.  The students worked in multiage groups of 4 or 5 students.

 

First, the kids had to take there recipes and find the amounts needed for half a recipe and for double a recipe.  Each group had a different recipe.  Our recipes included – Orange Smoothie, Homemade Playdough, Ice Cream in a Bag, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark, Jell-O and Vanilla Cakes.  Feel free to download our recipes sheets from Google Docs.

    

     

Then, the students had to go through the steps of creating their recipes.  Although we had three teachers around to help, most of the groups were able to follow the recipes autonomously, generally led by their Year 6 students.

                            

               

Each of the recipes finished at different times, so those students who finished early – or who had a long amount of time waiting during a step in their recipe – received a piece of paper and some crayons to reflect on the cooking experience.

          

Once all of the recipes were complete – each group served their finished product to the other friends.  The students were also responsible for cleaning up the materials and workspace where they cooked.  Since many of our students come from homes with household help, this is an important skill for our students to practice.

   

The entire experience was a wonderful time for our students to work on cooperative learning skills, leadership skills, self – help skills, math skills, reading and writing skills.

How do you use cooking in your classroom?