CHAOS! Review Game

Posted on February 28, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Ideas, Math • Tagged Chaos, Ideas, math game, Resources, Review game • 2 Comments

Has anyone else noticed that we are at the time of year when the kids need a lot of interaction and motivation to keep working hard?…spring fever has set in hard! A few weeks ago I shared the review game ZAP!, today I’m going to share another game that I named CHAOS! (Hmmm, do all the review games I invent need to be be capitalized with an exclamation point? I guess I want to emphasize how exciting they are :) I pulled this game out of my bag of tricks this week and I thought I would share with y’all. I have used this game to review in math and to spice up test prep with multiple choice questions. Ps: Don’t try this game if you aren’t willing to put up with a little CHAOS!

Here is how it works:

1. I make sets of cards with questions on them–I usually make 4 of each card like this:

2. I print them out on card stock and laminate them…or you could just print them out and have the kids do the work on another sheet of paper.

3. Then I put each stack of questions on a desk or table:

4. Next, put kids into teams…I put them into 3-4 groups and then have each team break into partners. So each team will be working together for points, but will be working in pairs.

5. Start each pair with different cards, for example one pair gets card #1, another team gets card #2 etc… then it’s ready, set, go! Everybody starts working on their problem:

6.When they finish with their first card they bring it up to me and I check it:

7. If they are correct they get to go to the SMARTBoard and roll the dice. Whatever number they get is how many points they add to their team:

*Don’t have an Interactive Whiteboard? No problem, just use a regular dice and have the kids write their total on the board!

8. Then they put their card back on the stack, get the next number and keep going until time is up!

9. At the end of the game we add up all the numbers and dub a winner… the nice thing about this game is it has a lot of skill and little luck!

The game usually takes about 15 minutes of intense activity, but the kids are super engaged and there is tons of learning going on! During this particular game of CHAOS! I heard these comments: “Wait, it says perimeter, do we need to add or multiply?”, “Is customary inches or centimeters?”, “Check the math chart for how many centimeters is in a meter!”, “Miss O said that when it’s a square we can multiply the sides by 4, right?” Trust me, I can’t inspire that kind of math thinking…but a little bit of CHAOS! goes a long way.

Here are some resources and ideas:

Download my Perimeter and Area CHAOS! game here: PDF Publisher

Download my CHAOS Scoreboard for SMARTBoard here: Score Board (Chaos)

You can certainly play this game without a SMARTBoard, just use a regular dice and whiteboard…I played this game all the time pre-interactive whiteboard :)

Other CHAOS games:

Multiplication Word Problems: PDF Word
Multi-Step Word Problems: PDF Word
2 digit by 2 digit multiplication: PDF Word
Long Division: PDF Word

Make your own CHAOS game: CHAOS Template

*Pssst check out other games I’ve posted about here

Warm-Up 4 Writing!

Posted on February 26, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Ideas, Reflection • Tagged incentives, standardized testing, Writing • Leave a comment

In 4 days my little authors will take their standardized writing test. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I’m not a huge fan of standardized testing…I know it’s necessary to hold teachers and schools accountable, but my kids get so nervous and they have worked so hard! I could not be prouder of my class and I want them to feel empowered and confident about taking their writing test.

Enter: Warm-Up 4 Writing! For the past month we have been doing Warm-Up 4 Writing each Wednesday to get our kids ready for the TAKS test. As you know we have been doing Writers Workshop this year, but my students still need to be able to crank out a composition in response to a prompt on test day. So each Wednesday we do a practice prompt to get them ready. We call it Warm-Up 4 Writing and we try to make it fun and exciting…my team even bought matching jogging suits and headbands :)

My team! The first day we did this we played Jock Jams, had our kids stretch and dance...it was so fun!

Only the nerdiest of teachers would wear these outfits every week, right? The funny thing is, we have started a Warm-Up 4 Writing craze at school! Over half the teachers have gotten the jogging suits…do you think it is enthusiasm for writing or because they can wear basically pajamas to work once a week? ;) We also have a school wide writing prompt that we call “Golden Pencil”, more about that another day!

Anyway, as the test approached we decided our kids needed a little incentive so we bought our whole grade level headbands and let them decorate them! They were hilarious and very creative with their decorating:

So there ya go, Warm-Up 4 Writing rocks the 4th grade! The kids really loved it and they are super pumped for their big test…and then it will be back to Writer’s Workshop!

Writer’s Roundtable

Posted on February 23, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Ideas, Literacy • Tagged sharing, writer's roundtable, Writers workshop • 3 Comments

This year was my first year doing Writers Workshop, and it has gone pretty well. My kids have improved by leaps and bounds as writers, and they seem to like to write–although a week away from our state standardized writing test they are DONE with “prompted” writing practice! I certainly have not done Writers Workshop perfectly, and I will do it far better next year–I already have my list of ideas and things that I will try and do differently, but overall I think I found a good balance.

One of the things that I invented…or at least I don’t think I stole this idea from anyone else…is called the Writer’s Roundtable. As I started with Writer’s Workshop, I realized that I never had enough time for the sharing side of writing, and my kids LOVED to share their writing! Enter: Writer’s Roundtable. I designate one Friday afternoon ever few weeks for Writer’s Roundtable and this is how it works:

All the kids choose a piece of published writing, or a writing they really like, and put it on their desk.
I give everyone a piece of fun, colorful paper for comments to put next to their writing.
Everyone gets up and finds another persons desk. They read the story there and make specific, positive comment. (I did a mini-lesson about this!)
When they are finished with one, they choose another…
This goes on until the time is up!

This was a HUGE hit in my classroom! And I have never had a more quiet, energy filled 35 minutes. All students were diligently on task, and the only sounds that pierced the silence was a quiet giggle or “wow” as they admired their classmate’s compositions. Oh, and an occasional, “You have to come read this one!”

When the students went back to their own desk at the end to read their comments they were so excited and affirmed in their writing skills! Take 30 minutes out of a Friday and build your kids up, try the Writer’s Roundtable.

Today I fell off the wagon…

Posted on February 22, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Confessions • Tagged Books, Budget, Half Price Books, Library, Reading • Leave a comment

Confession: Hello, my name is Amy, and I’m addicted to buying books.

Today I heard that the Borders near our school is going out of business. “Hmmm, Borders is right on my way home,” I thought innocently to myself, “I’ll stop and see if they have No Talking by Andrew Clements.” No Talking was going to be my next read aloud, but my copy is NO WHERE to be found!

I was on the phone with my mom as I walked into the bookstore, “Don’t worry mom, I’m just looking for one book….unless they have an amazing deal I can’t pass up. I mean how often will Borders have their going out of business sale?” Do you hear the justifying? “Amy, this is like sending an alcoholic to a liquor store!” My mom tried to reason.

In the store I headed straight to the “C’s” to find my book. They had every Andrew Clements book except No Talking…but I continued to browse. At only 20% off, I wasn’t too tempted until I saw this book…

You have to see this book in relation to a normal size book!

It’s a jumbo sized version of Bridge to Terabithia! We just finished this novel unit in reading, and it is my absolute favorite! How could I pass that up!? And, of course I had to buy one for my whole team! (Don’t worry, VERY soon I will post my Novel Unit for Bridge to Terabithia)

Head out of Borders. Now that I’ve had a taste, I’m thirsty for more…”I’ll just swing by Half Price Books and see if they have No Talking…” I give myself a pep talk in the car. “Just walk straight to the Juvenile Fiction section, see if they have it and walk out. You can do it!” I walk in to the store and there on display is a GIGANTIC Greek mythology POP-UP book! It is like I was being tested! After turning each gloriously interactive page, I sadly set it back in the display…and began walking toward the JF section. I intended to walk straight there, but it was beyond my control, The Children’s Clearance section is on the way…

This Ancient Greece book will be a great addition to my Greek Mythology basket…and all these hardcover books? Only a dollar each ($.90 with my teacher discount)! Can you tell that I’m working on my non-fiction section?

And look at this….

15 hardcover books for only $22! STEAL. And they had No Talking…SCORE! And you should see all the great books I didn’t buy! Ok, so maybe I have a bit of a problem…

ps: This genre in the Teen Fiction section of the book story caught my eye:

WHAT?! Teen Paranormal Romance is a GENRE now? And the section was HUGE!

If buying books is wrong, I don’t want to be right :)

Plant Killer

Posted on February 21, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Confessions • Tagged classroom arrangement, Confessions, plants • Leave a comment

I have heard from a lot of teachers that having green, growing things in your classroom is good for the atmosphere and student responsibility. So this summer I bought 4 plants to live in my classroom window sill:

Here are two of my healthy, happy plants...not pictured: African Violets and Fern.

Here are two of my healthy, happy plants at the beginning of the year...not pictured: African Violets and Fern.

Confession: Every one of those plants is dead. With the exception of the African Violets, which I know are delicate, every plant I bought was supposed to be hardy and fool-proof! My kids watered them according to the instructions on the tag…but over the past 6 months one by one they bit the dust. Even my bamboo plant, which my coworker informed me, “You have to try to kill bamboo!”

Ah me, what’s a nerdy teacher to do? I have NO green thumb. I guess I’ll have to create a warm and inviting classroom some other way…

DIY: Dry Erasers

Posted on February 16, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Ideas, Organization, Tools • Tagged DIY, Dry erase, dry erase board, Ideas • 4 Comments

“Miss O., can I hand out the socks?!”

This may not be a normal request in your classroom, but it is in mine!

When I posted the other day about using page protectors to create instant dry erase boards, it reminded me of another idea! I got this idea from my cooperating teacher when I was student teaching. I was perplexed when all the students brought a sock with their school supplies, then Mrs. Huisman explained that the socks were used as dry erasers. Brilliant! Of course, I forgot about this until later…

When I started using page protector dry erase boards on a regular basis, I would hand out tissues to everyone to erase their boards. But then cold and flu season hit, and we did not have tissues to spare! Then I remembered those socks. I made a run walmart and picked up a class set of socks (only one per student, not a pair!). Then I put one skinny marker and one thick marker in each sock.

Ok, clearly these socks have been used! :) The great thing about storing your dry erase markers this way, is that you get your markers and erasers handed out in one step…and the kids can’t see what color marker they are getting, no arguing… perfect. I store my markers in a container like this:

Remember that container from my garage saling this summer?! I have put it to good use.

So there you go, DIY dry erase boards and dry erasers! Unfortunately, I do not have an idea DIY ideas for making dry erase board markers…we have these on our school supply list at the beginning of the year.

Alexander Day

Posted on February 15, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Confessions • Tagged Bad Day • 1 Comment

Confession: Today, I felt like Alexander, as in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Whew, today was a doozy! It was just one of those days when nothing seemed to go right. The kind that makes you want to move to Australia.

It started out OK, we finished Bridge to Terabithia, and had a really great discussion. We learned about perimeter, and the kids picked it up really quickly. We did a measurement activity and the room hummed with a great learning energy. Then, recess happened. Recess is always our undoing!

My kids got back from recess, and there was Drama with a capital D! I still don’t know exactly what happened; it was a lot of she said this, she did that, but there was nothing to be done or learned until we sorted it out. Even after getting all the stories and a round of apologies, they were all distracted. Oh, great.

During our Snow Week I created a Measurement Unit for science (don’t worry I will share it soon), one of the activities I have been really looking forward to doing was a Water Temperature Lab, and today was the day! I had everything ready, I even bought $50 worth of digital temperature sensors for it… and it could not have been a bigger disaster. I was so disappointed–and mad. Note to self, do not use Styrofoam cups when using digital sensors with pointy ends, it turns into a very soggy disaster.

Oh, the bad day doesn’t end there, of course it had to end with a trip to the dentist and a cavity! Even though the hygienist said I had perfect oral hygiene. Ok, off to drowned my sorrows in Girl Scout cookies.

Delicious Descriptions

Posted on February 14, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Ideas, Literacy • Tagged Descriptive writing, Sensory writing, Valentines Day, Writers workshop • Leave a comment

Who else thinks it’s weird that Valentines Day falls on a Monday? Mondays are the worst day for having a party, but a Valentines Day party we must have! But because of the craze snow week that we had 2 weeks ago, I simply cannot afford to loose an afternoon of instruction, so today we did my favorite kind of instruction, tricking them into learning! Wahahahaha!

This is a fun little writing project that the kids enjoy and actually will learn from..and it goes perfectly with Valentines Day! (But I have taught it at all different times of year!)

To begin with you will need to have some materials:

A Hershey Kiss for every student (plus some extra for you!)
Tin foil (I get the precut sheets, everyone has the same size and none of those scary serrated edges!)
Hershey Kiss Template printed on cardstock
Delicious Descriptions activity sheet.

So here is the story that goes along with this lesson. “You are an alien who has landed here on earth on Valentines Day. You discover a strange object that you have never seen before. Now you must describe this object, but you cannot use its name, because you do not know it.” (Oh, even better, play some creepy, twilight zone music in the background while you tell them this!)

Start handing every child a kiss–which we will call a UFO (Unidentified Foreign Object). The first step is that they must describe how it LOOKS. They may NOT touch it, they can only look at it.
Now they can pick it up and touch it. They must describe how it FEELS.
Next, make everyone become absolutely silent, and let them open the UFO. Describe how it SOUNDS.
One of my students thought she was soo funny, "Miss, I can't hear anything!"
You really have the tension built now, they are itching to eat it…but first, they must take a deep whiff and describe how it SMELLS. Here is where it gets really tricky, they can’t use the word “chocolate” in any form. They have to try to describe it in other terms.
Finally, tell them to eat the UFO and describe how it TASTES. (Again they can’t use the word chocolate!)

After the they have filled out their UFO Description sheet…now it’s time to make our Kiss model! I hand out the Kiss template and the kids cover it in tin foil.

I use tape to avoid the glue mess. Now they are to write their descriptions on their kiss–in the past I have had them go to the computer lab and type them up, but this year we just wrote them out on cards and they attached them to their kiss. Their name is written in blue on the Hershey flag, and wha-la! You have a cute Delicious Descriptions Bulletin Board, the kids got to eat a treat…and practice their sensory writing! Now it’s time to exchange Valentines!

You can see that I haven't added the title to the bulletin board yet...but you get the idea!

Share it Forward: Fake Facebook

Posted on February 13, 2011 by aoelschlager • Posted in Ideas, Literacy, Share it Forward, Tools • Tagged characters, Facebook, my fake wall, Share it Forward • Leave a comment

When I read this blog post by Free Technology for Teachers, I literally LOLed. My Fake Wall is a website that allows you to make a fake Facebook-like page. Why did I think that was funny? Because last year I did this with a fourth grade teacher for characters from a book! I duplicated a Facebook page in Publisher and the kids came in and manipulated it to look like that character’s Facebook. The kids loved it…and now someone has stolen my brilliant idea and made it into a wonderful website. Ay, yi, yi, if only I would capitalize on my wonderful ideas :)

So this is how it works:

You create an account (email required), and then click on “Create a Wall”. Enter your person’s name, and then you can add pictures, information, friends and conversations to create their Fake Facebook wall! Cool. I tried it out and made a Fake Wall for “Jess Aarons” the main character in Bridge to Terabithia, the book we are reading right now. It was helpful that they made a movie about this book so I could find lots of pictures of the characters. Here is what I made in about 10 20 minutes:

Click on the picture to go to the full Jess Aarons' Fake Wall

I had so much fun doing this! I kept thinking of other character connections and events from the story I could add! As I added new events, I could drag and drop them into a different order! What a unique way to make a timeline of a story and show character interactions! I think I will use this with my class at the beginning of a novel unit and we will add characters and events as we read. I will create a class account and let the kids log in and add their own content…what a new collaborative tool

I also found this example FakeWall for the Greek god Hermes, hmmm, maybe I could add this as a project for my Greek Mythology Unit?

Go ahead…Share it Forward!

Confessions of a Nerdy Teacher

Monthly Archives: February 2011