Connected in the Classroom: Order of Operations

I taught order of operations a couple of weeks ago and to be perfectly honest, I wanted to hide in the corner of the classroom and avoid this unit. I think I've mentioned before that I'm super confident in my understanding of math, but explaining it to kids who think differently than I do sends me for a loop. I know there are so many different ways to interact with math and I really struggle to understand other people's math logic. I try my hardest but it's a struggle.

I was nervous going into this topic (and it was an evaluation - so nervous times two!), but I think the way I approached it really helped. I started by creating a common sense of cognitive dissonance. I put up a simple math problem that needed order of operations to be solved correctly. Creating this common sense of 'I don't know what's going on here' really peaked their curiosity and motivated them to figure this out!

Then what I did next really changed the game - I played bingo with them. These kids really thrived in games and playing bingo with them was exactly what they needed to hook them into this lesson. Even my students who would have otherwise not been engaged in this got so into the bingo game and really got order of operations.

Connected in the Classroom: Never Poems

Even though I am no longer student teaching, I still have some teacher resources to share. My cooperating teacher suggested I do this activity with my fifth graders and it went so well! I actually used this lesson as one of my evaluations and everyone was a big fan - the kids loved it, my supervisor was impressed and I have to say, I loved teaching this lesson. This lesson provides such great structured fun - there are clear expectations and structures to follow but it allows for so much fun.

My kids took about 4 hour long periods to complete their never poems. I structured the poems into very clear sections - the words banks, the rough drafts, revision & peer editing time and the final copy. Some took a little bit longer to do their illustrations but they were able to work on them during 'finish up' time. I really stressed taking time to do their best work at each step. I emphasized that if they make a good word bank, it will be easier to write a rough draft and if they edit the rough draft carefully, it will be faster to write the final copy. This made for some really impressive end products! I will share all of the resources I created to structure this lesson below.

Connected in the Classroom: Poetry Response

When I named my blog Connected in the Kitchen, I had every intention of only posting recipes. Now almost three years into blogging and I haven't posted a recipe in over a month - what!? I still do love cooking and baking, but this blog has become a reflection of how I spend my time. If I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, I have a lot of recipes. If I've been on vacation, I have vacation recaps. Well, lately, I've been spending most of my time in a classroom, so I have a lot of classroom resources. I was going to try to spread these resources out, but I'm excited to share them and reflect on how they worked in my classroom in real time! So, I'm sharing!

Today, I'm talking about and sharing a resource that I made to guide students in responding to poetry. My students love poetry. Like they read poetry books during silent reading so I knew this would be a good place to start for responses. Eventually, they will have to respond to short stories and novels, but for now we're starting with poems. Poems are quick, they carry a ton of meaning and they are fun for my fifth graders to read.

Connected in the Classroom: Think Outside the Box Lesson

Today, I'm sharing a lesson that I've seen several times when scrolling through Instagram. I know many teachers that use this "Think Outside the Box" drawing activity. I think this is such a fun way to challenge students' minds and have them exercise their creativity. I used the drawing part (like you may have seen before on Instagram) and added on a writing component. My students are not into writing. They would do math all day long, but engaging them in Language Arts is like pulling teeth!

I've been looking for ways to interest them in Language Arts and this lesson was a major win. They were totally captivated by the drawing part and didn't complain once about having to write. I was a little ambivalent about using this activity knowing that some students are more into art than others, but all of them ate this up. I could not get through the explanation fast enough - they were ready to work (and they worked oh so quietly!!). I'll walk you through what I did and share my graphic organizer with you below.

Connected in the Classroom: Place Value Teaching Tool

Get ready for a lot of teacher-y stuff coming your way. As a young teacher, I am constantly on the hunt for good teaching strategies and resources. So, whenever I come up with a strategy or a tool, I love to share it!

Part of what intimidated me so much about teaching Grade 5 is the math. I know I can do Grade 5 math, but how do I explain these often difficult concepts to kids who don't think like me & understand math like me? I still don't have this figured out, but slowly and surely, I am getting more comfortable with all things fifth grade math.

My first task as a fifth grade teacher was decimal place value and I kind of wanted to run to the staff room and hide. Decimal place value? What the heck!? So, I did a lot of research - I read about how different learners understand place value and I came up with a plan. Knowing my group of students, I knew they needed something tactile that they could refer to again and again when doing place value work. So, I came up with a graphic organizer to support their learning. I will detail how I used it and share the graphic organizer below.

The Goodbye Gifts

Last week, I showed you this picture and told you that I was finishing my internship by spreading delivering some fun gifts around the school! Today, I am telling you what is hidden in those fun packages!

The Children's Day Journals

Through this student teaching internship, I've realized how much I love the students' journals. I don't know if this applies to other grades but I love first grade journals! My students write in their journals about once a week and they are always their best writing samples! I get to see such wonderful glimmers of the writers they will grow into and I get to see the very best of them as little people - their heart, their imagination, their sense of humor... their journals are always the highlight of my week!

On Tuesday, I put this prompt up on the board-

What if Kids Were in Charge?

At least once a week, I have my students write in their journals. Usually the journal prompt is subject matter related but because we are between terms, I gave them a fun one on Tuesday! This is what I put up on the SMARTboard...

Another Teacher Freebie :)

Last week, I shared a worksheet that I used with my first graders during our counting on unit! This week, I'm sharing a worksheet I am using during a little story mapping unit!

Just like the last worksheet that I made, I looked everywhere for a resource that I could use. By everywhere, I mean Teacher Pay Teacher and Pinterest :). I found so many great resources, but I wanted to combine some of the ideas that I saw. So, I made my own! In case you are in a similar situation as I was - here is what I ended up making:

A Teaching Freebie :)

More teacher talk, today! On Tuesday, my cooperating teacher and I were browsing through Teacher Pay Teacher (because neither of us can get enough!) looking for 'counting on resources'. We found some great teaching tools, but there were very few application/reinforcement worksheets - ugh! So we discussed what we needed our students to do and I offered to make a little worksheet! I have had so much fun downloading new fonts and I was so excited to put them to use!

Connected in the Classroom: Apples, Apples, Apples!

Yesterday, I talked about Spatial Relationships in the first grade and today I'm talking about apples! This lesson started as a poem - my cooperating teacher showed me a poem and then all of a sudden we had such a fun lesson about adjectives and graphing!

My focus during this lesson was on the adjectives used in the poem and in the song. And eventually on the adjectives they would come up with on their own. But you could adjust these objectives to fit your students - you could focus more on math than the language arts. There is just so much you could do!

Connected in the Classroom: Spatial Relationships Lesson

This week is all about teaching resources. I have two fun lessons to share with you this week - today, I'm talking about positional relationships and tomorrow, I'll be talking about a fun apple lesson! On Thursday, I have a worksheet to share with you! I'm teaching grade one, so all of these resources are catered to a grade one audience, but I'm sure you could make some little tweaks to change the grade level a little! :)

Also, I should note that this lesson aligns with education standards that are specific to the area of my teaching. If you are teaching elsewhere, you might need to make changes to better align the sontent with your curriculum.

Let's start with the objectives for this lesson. Here is what my students were expected to accomplish by the end of this lesson:
- Students will be able to understand and use positional words appropriately, in various contexts.
- Students will complete the individual cut and paste activity.

Personal Narratives in Second Grade

Teaching is something that I didn't initially intend to post about on my blog. When I started to develop the lesson that I'm sharing today, I thought it might be a fun one to share. But when I got to teach the lesson and see how effective it was, I knew I had to share it! This lesson was developed with inspiration from Pinterest as well as guidance from my cooperating teacher! We used several ideas from True Life I'm a Teacher while developing this lesson.

The second grade classroom that I was in were coming to the end of a unit that focused on situating themselves in place and time. Throughout the unit, they discussed time zones, they made personal timelines, they read books about people who live in different parts of the world and people who lived at different times throughout history, they explored vocabulary to help them express where they are in place and time and more! To close the unit, the students had to write a personal narrative to add to their portfolios and I got to teach the lesson to introduce Personal Narratives! Here is how I did it...

First, I wrote this out on a flip chart at the front of the classroom. I did this before the kids got to school - most times, I think it's effective to make the flip chart with the students present, but in this case, I did it before.

Advice from 2nd Graders

A couple of weeks ago, I finished up a student teaching internship. I spent 3 weeks in a second grade classroom. After my first day, I was overwhelmed to say the least! Second grade is loud and busy - there is so much going on! So after day 1, I was just discouraged. I didn't think I could ever get the hang of working with 22 seven year olds at once.

But I just powered through, continuously reminding myself that this is a learning experience and I need to be gentle with myself. And guess what!? I fell in love with those loud and busy seven year olds. They are challenging but they are so wonderful! These little beings are so full of love and so full of wisdom. I was so sad to leave but I am so excited to go back and see how these kids flourish over the next few years! On my last day, the kids made a card full of advice for me as I grow towards becoming a teacher!

I was impressed by how wise and thoughtful the advice was. The notes they wrote to me are such important reminders as I become a teacher, but I also think they are important to remember on a daily basis! Here are some of the highlights from the advice I received from the sweetest group of seven year olds: