Multiplication Madness

 Here are just a few things we've been doing to practice our multiplication facts.

Playing hopscotch with multiples

(click here to download the Google Doc)


 Using Bingo Markers to create arrays

Using poker chips to create arrays

 Using coins to create arrays

 Using Unifix cubes to create arrays

Multiplying numbers on playing cards ( 2 x 5 = 10)

Multiplying numbers on dice (2 x 5 = 10)

Multiplying coins (2 coins x 5 cents = 10 cents)

Our fifth graders made these adorable factor trees in December.

Check out other math posts (especially the famous "Nine Trick") here!

Check out my class website for more math resources.

Journeys Lesson 11 - Jump / Black Athletes

Our Journeys Reading story for Lesson 11, Jump! From the Life of Michael Jordan by Floyd Cooper, required us to write a descriptive paragraph about our favorite athlete. I challenged students to write about an African American athlete for a few reasons.

1) The teacher-dork in me loves alliterative bulletin boards...have you noticed?
2) It will be perfect for our February bulletin boards.
3) February is Black History Month.
4) Michael Jordan is a black athlete.

Others who were in our guided reading books or Projectables. include:

• Tiger Woods
• Hank Aaron
• Wilma Rudolph
• Jackie Robinson 
• Roberto Clemente

Other black athletes we didn't read about but knew about:

• Lebron James (basketball)
• Muhammad Ali (boxing)
• Leila Ali (boxing)
• Dwayne Wade (basketball)
• Venus and Serena Williams (tennis)
• Dominique Dawes (gymnastics)
• Derek Jeter (baseball)
• Alex Rodriguez (baseball)
• Pele (soccer)
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee (track and field)
• Florence Griffith-Joyner (track and field)
• Althea Gibson (tennis)
• Lisa Leslie (basketball)
• Sheryl Swoopes (basketball)

Of course, I also allowed them to write about other athletes, who were also in our reading, especially ones such as:

• Michele Kwan,
• Jim Thorpe
• Babe Ruth
• Mia Hamm
• Nomar Garciaparra

We created this anchor chart to show what we learned when we analyze the author's craft in Jump.

One of my students found this book in our library:



If you'd like to do the project but don't have our reading program, check out these links!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/340194-black-history-month-top-10-greatest-black-athletes

African American Athletes book

Google Search

Phonics, Word Family, and Sight Word Resources

Cherry Carl's Corner

SuperTeacher Phonics

Just Mommies Worksheets

Free Phonics Worksheets

KidZone

Boggles World ESL

Teachnology

FunFonix

TampaReads

MES English

PhonicsWorld

Flash Kids Sight Words Workbooks

Once you've spent tons of hours downloading and printing materials on these sites, make sure to come back and tell me which ones you enjoyed the most! :)

The Science Fair

Our reading story for this week is called The Science Fair.  It's about a student who is very negative about his group's project, especially because his parnter seems to be able to explain things better than he can. It's great to teach scientific terms, but the lesson that the child learns is even better.

We created this anchor chart to show how the main character's feelings changed over time and to summarize the story.

Since my class hasn't taken a turn at displaying our work in the display case, I decided it would be a perfect time to have students complete their own science fair projects! Here are the project requirements (adapted from another source I can't find again!) Click to download the 5 page document.

Here's a header I used for my "Journeys into the Scientific Method" bulletin board...and the Scientific Method rap song!

 

If your students can't quite understand the scientific method or define what science is about, check out this book:

Check out my Create a Graph post to help you out with graphing data collected during the project.

I'll be posting some of my students' projects here, so check back and see them!

January Book Picks

I'm linking up with Learning with Mrs. Parker's January Books Linky Party and the Snowy Day Linky Party! I didn't want to repeat, so here are just some of the books I love:

The Family Under the Bridge

Snowball Fight by Jimmy Fallon...I just loooved him on Saturday Night Live!

This Next New Year

Tiki Tiki Tembo...I loved this in kindergarten and I still have not forgotten the words!

Magic School Bus Arctic Adventure, Lost in the Snow, and Sleeps for the Winter. I <3 Magic School Bus!

Just because it's perfect for making connections and I loved Horrible Harry as a kid...and who can't relate to the relief that January brings from all of the holidays?!

I also loved Little Critter, especially how he always looks stuffed into his clothing!