Dot Day, Nouns, & Word Problems

This week was Dot Day so I read The Dot to my homeroom class. Every year I use this day to start our random acts of kindness that we do throughout the school year. We pick a door in the school and leave many, many positive post it notes on the door. Of course, my kids wanted to start with Dr. Headen, our new principal. 

The only rules are they must be positive notes and they must sign their name. 

I'm sure she was surprised when she returned to see her door looking like this!

We have been studying nouns and I found this game to help them practice concrete and abstract nouns. The kids loved it!

They played the game in pairs and the winner of the game got a ticket for the good job jar. 

Do you need some games to noun practice? Games 4 Gains had this great pack for Nouns so I purchased it. The kids loved this game and I can't wait to use more of them next week. 

We have also been working on making word problems easier. This is something my students struggle with every year. I wanted to introduce them to this collaborative problem solving activity for 5th grade math. 

So I put the kids in small groups and had them work together to solve the word problem. Then I set up the screen and we used our 4 Mobis so that each group could share their thought process and problem solving. 

I love using the Mobis for this because there are times when groups solve the problem in different ways and they are able to share with the entire class. This time everyone solved it exactly the same way. I like using the groups to solve the problems because it helps those who may struggle with word problems because they help each other!

Week 4- Math Games & Energy

The best part about teaching math is being able to use games to practice what we've been learning. It is great when the game is over and you tell the students they just practiced math and they can't believe it was fun.

I put the students in pairs and they wrote place value columns on their desk. Then each took turns rolling a 10 sided dice (0-9). Each student had to use the number rolled to fill in their chart. On the top row they were trying to make the highest number and on the bottom row they tried to make the smallest number. Once the number was completed they compared their numbers to see who had the highest/lowest (depending on the round). The winner earned a ticket for the good job jar. 

We also did a science experiment to compare how the drop height of a bouncy ball effected how high it bounced. This helped to learn about potential and kinetic energy. The higher you held the ball to let it go, the higher it bounced off the ground. 

I also gave each group an iPad mini and had them take pictures to document their results. We ran out of time this week but next week we are going to complete graphs and make a video explaining what was learned during the experiment. 

I started introducing math games for the students to play during math rotations. 

Like I said at the beginning of the post, I love using games for math! I think my students enjoy them too. 

Here are a few more pictures of my students sharing their place value posters. 

I've had a few questions about the guidelines I gave them. If you are interested in having your students do this you should look at the Place Value Poster Project on TpT by Confessions of a Teaching Junkie. It has student directions and rubric to grade the project. 

Today I also had my students hand out happy notes to people in the school building. My mom sent me some notes she found that have positive quotes and Disney characters on them. As soon as I saw them I knew what I would use them for. My kids wrote a happy note on the back and signed them. On the way to recess, they stopped in classroom to give them to teachers, siblings, or even a student they didn't know. We have been talking a lot about random acts of kindness. A happy note doesn't cost a thing and it puts a smile on someone's face. 

STUDENTS: Do you have an idea of a Random Act of Kindness (RAK) we could do? Share your idea here to earn a ticket for the good job jar. Remember, RAKs don't have to cost a dime! 

Week 22- Dividing Fractions & Super Bowl Habits

I started the week by doing my own random act of kindness. If you have ever used the bathroom at school you know the toilet paper is pretty much a step up from sand paper. So I made this little basket of Charmin for the teacher bathroom! 

We had a day where we were delayed and then we missed another day due to extreme cold. It was 7 degrees outside and we are in Alabama! That's way too cold for this southern teacher!

So when we came back to school we had a little fun. The kids created football players that represent the team they think will win the Super Bowl.

Then I had the kids write which team they think will win and which habit the football players use. These turned out really cute!

We have been learning about dividing fractions this week. So we made this flip book in our interactive notebook. You can lift the flaps where the words are and see more detailed instructions. 

My students have also been watching the Kid President videos. They love them and he is always talking about how to make the world more awesome. So the students wrote about how they can make the world more awesome.

STUDENTS: Why do you like Kid President? What can you do to make our school more awesome?

Teacher Workroom RAK Board

We are back from Christmas break! I don't know that I can call this a week because the students were only in school one day. Since I didn't really take pictures I thought I'd share something my best friend Kelly Reasner and I did in the teacher workroom today.



We have been doing random acts of kindness with our students so we thought we'd share it with the faculty as well. So we made a RAK board in the workroom. The border was already up but we decided this is something that is going to have to be changed. But I didn't want to wait to share what we did.



On the left side of the board we posted 5 random acts of kindness teachers can do for themselves or for others. We plan to switch them out each week so we added paper clips so they can be easily changed.



Then on the right side we added some posters about random acts of kindness.

So my favorite RAK for next week is to share a music list. I have been accused of listening to music that is a little darker than what most of my co-workers listen to. So I came home tonight and typed up my list so I'm ready to post it Monday. Want to see my list?

Mrs. White’s Top 10 Playlist

10. Under and Over It- Five Finger Death Punch

9. White Rabbit- Egypt Central

8. Get Up!- Korn

7. Living Dead Girl- Rob Zombie

6. Fake It- Seether

5. I’ll Follow You- Shinedown

4. The Truth- Buckcherry

3. Pass Slowly- Seether

2. The High Road- Three Days Grace

1. One More Lie- Aranda

Week 18- RAK and Welcome Jack!

WE started the week with a few Random Acts of Kindness. My homeroom and Mrs. Reasner's homeroom delivered coffee and cookies to all the teachers and staff members in the building Monday morning. We wanted to show them how much we appreciate them all!





These students took the time to decorate the teacher workroom. They had a great time and seemed to be excited to be able to surprise the teachers with this random act of kindness.



Mrs. McNabb came in this week and made an ornament with us.



This is the tag that we tied on the ornament. The students added these items inside the plastic ornament.



Then they filled it up with Epson salt. It is like a mini I Spy for the Christmas tree.



We also wrote some math word problems using a price list and the 12 Days of Christmas song. 



We also played 24. Some of my students were serious about this game. On each card there are 4 numbers. They have to add, subtract, multiply, and/or divide to get 24.


We had a blast at our class Christmas party and there were lots of sweets for everyone!


The week wrapped up with our class gaining a new "student" named Jack. Jack is Dylan's service dog and alerts when Dylan's blood sugar gets too high or too low. We are looking forward to having Jack in our class every day!



I hope everyone has a wonderful break and a safe holiday!

Week 16- Fractions & RAKs

I have so much to share about this week! We started learning about Holidays Around the World this week in social studies. Check out the file on TpT. It is a close read format and my students had fun learning about traditions in different countries.



We started learning about fractions this week and had several fun activities. We started with a living number line. I gave each student a fraction card and they placed themselves on the number line in the correct order.





On Thursday, during our small group rotations, I taught the kids how to play a game called From Here to There Fractions.





We used fraction cards that my former math coach, Haley James, gave me last year. The kids loved using these cards and couldn't believe I had playing cards with fractions on them.



Here is a picture of one of the game boards.



Want to know how to play? Watch this Gami that Haley and Avery made to explain the game.



I also had to do the chocolate bar activity with fractions. I love any excuse for chocolate.





We answered questions about fractions using the chocolate bar pieces.



Want to see the powerpoint I made for this? It is free on TpT: Chocolate Fractions 

And have I mentioned lately how much I love using Padlet with my students? This week we took pictures of our pages in the interactive notebook and I added them to the fractions padlet. That way students could go back and access it from home in case they forgot their notebook at school. It is also a good resource that shows the different ways I teach fractions. I like to show my students several different ways to do things and let them pick what works best for them.

Created with Padlet

My mom stopped by school this week and brought us a beautiful wreath for the classroom door. I love it!



Mrs. Reasner and I have been doing Random Acts of Kindness (RAKs) with our students during the school day. I gave my students a choice board and challenged them to do all of the items on the board this week. Find the choice board idea I found here. We also created a Motivation Wall in the teacher work room. I have seen several of these on Pinterest and knew we had to do this for the teachers. This is what we did. We also left other post it notes so that teachers can add some of their favorite motivational quotes to the wall. We didn't add a bunch because we wanted to leave room for others but I have a list of quotes I plan to add it no one else takes advantage of this.



To go along with the Random Acts of Kindness we started using the Christmas Kindness Countdown. It gives a different RAK each day for the students to do. This week we picked up trash, smiled at everyone, and made cards for our principal. I also showed them this RAK video and we talked about doing nice things for people and not expecting things in return. I think this is a great life lesson and I've seen my students doing nice things for others all week.


We also chose names for the Secret Santa RAK. Each student drew a classmate's name (I added my name too). We will do nice things for that student and reveal ourselves before the Christmas break. I also plan to have them make a picture of their RAK person and list things they have done for them. I found the idea on Pinterest (here it is). 

Mrs. Reasner shared the idea of writing positive notes for the teachers in each grade level so of course I was on board. We have been randomly selecting a grade level and writing a positive note on a post it note for the teachers. Then we go and stick them on their doors. I hope we have brightened some days this week with our little notes of love.

STUDENTS: We started doing RAKs this week. I loved seeing everyone doing nice things for each other. Has this carried over into your life at home? Have you done a RAK for someone at home or has someone done something for you? Share what was done. I'd love to hear about it.