Daily Data

Summer is here and I'm already trying to find something to do. Monday was a holiday and Tuesday was our last teacher work day. I haven't done a lot this week but I did make a file to add to Teacher Pay Teachers. I've had a few people ask about my Daily Data board that I do with my students.

I purchased sorting circles from EAI. I teach two math classes so I picked two different colors of push pins. I picked them up in the Dollar Spot at Target last year. Each class has their own colors and the buckets on the left side of the board hold those pins.

Each week I post a different question and the students use a pin to record their response on the venn diagram. One year I used number circles but with the number of students I have this year I found that the push pins worked better.

In their math journal, the students record the question and draw the venn diagram with the responses. Then we use that data to create graphs, observe trends, and make inferences. Want to check out the file? Take a look in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. 

Daily Data File

Week 37- Final Week of 2013-2014

This was our final week of school, but we didn't slow down all week. We started off reading to Kindergarten students. 

All the students loved this! One of the Kindergarten student said he wanted to read all day with his partner. 

This week we also did another engineering challenge: Cup Pyramid. I loved seeing the creative ways my students came up with to solve this problem.

Wednesday we dissected cow eyeballs! This was a hit with almost everyone. We had a few students who had to leave because they were a little grossed out. When you made a slit in the front of the eyeball to get the lens out liquid squirted out. 

Check out the faces! They were really grossed out but had a lot of fun. 

Thursday was 5th Grade Graduation! We were all dressed up for the program.

Brandon and Dyani won the Principal's Cup this year for outstanding leadership, character, and positive attitude. Congratulations!

After Graduation we had our final walk. The 5th grade students walk the entire school while all the other students and teachers cheer them on. It is great because our 5th grade students get to see all their former teachers. There are normally lots of tears shed. 

 Here is a picture of Mrs. Reasner, Mrs. Smith, and myself (left to right). We were all dressed up for the occasion too.

That night we had the 4th grade and 5th grade dance. So needless to say, it was a full day!

The last day of school was field day and class party. The fire truck also came and hosed us off for a little while. 

 It was a hot day but we all survived!

 We came in for lunch and to cool off for a while.

I loved it today because so many of my former students came by to see me!

It has been a wonderful school year! We had so much fun and learned a lot along the way. It was great to get special notes from my students thanking me for being their teacher this year. I will miss all my students! I hope you all have a great summer!

Week 36- Refraction, Engineering Challenges, & Pentominoes

This week we did a little experiment to see how refraction works. My students put a penny under a cup and then filled the cup with water. 

Refraction makes the penny disappear! 

I divided my students into groups for the House of Cards Engineering Challenge. Smart-Chick on TeachersPayTeachers has several great engineering challenges.

Each group got a deck of cards and a pair of scissors. Their goal was to build the tallest free standing structure. I loved seeing them work to find a solution to make their structure the tallest.

I also think my students really loved doing this! 

The tallest structure of the day was from Skyler, Jared, and Evan. Their tower was 31 inches tall.

Then I had them stretch their brain in math. We pulled out the Pentominoes and had them work to create as many different 3x5 arrays using different combinations of 3 of the pieces. 

We only have one more week of school left before summer break. I can't believe it is coming to an end. I have some more fun activities planned for the last week of school, along with awards day and field day.

Week 35- Finished Testing & George Washington QR Codes w/7 Habits

This week we finally finished taking the ASPIRE tests! We were all happy to have that behind us.

In social studies this week our focus was on George Washington. My students used a QR code to access a website about Washington. They used the information from that site to fill in their flip book in the SS interactive notebook.

Each group worked together to find important facts to add to their flip books.

Then every group made post it notes for our poster about how Washington used the 7 Habits. 

The next day we completed a Venn diagram about George Washington and King George III and how they each used the habits. 

On Wednesday, they used another QR code to access the Rules of Civility that Washington had to copy as a student. My students picked 3 rules and wrote them in words so other students could understand what they mean. They also had to explain how each fit into a habit. 

Check out our final display for Synergize.

This is the project I shared last week! In case you missed it I'll give a quick overview. I printed pictures of my students working together in our classroom. Each group worked together to write a paragraph and one student typed it. Then another student used the iPad to record the paragraph and create a QR code that visitors can scan and hear them read the paragraph.