Holiday Positional Concept Book

This cute holiday book, created by a Speech Pathologist, encourages student participation while learning positional concepts to cover this Common Core Standard: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.1

Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to.

Suggested Uses in the Classroom:

•   Read the book to students in a large group setting and ask individual students to come to the front and place the ornament in the correct position on the tree while reading individual pages. 
•   Print a book for each student in a small group. The teacher reads the book aloud to the small group while each student individually places the ornament in the correct position.
•  Reread the book to your students. Students can use choral reading and read aloud the phrase, ““Oh me, oh my, how great would it be, to hang upon this Christmas tree.”
•  Assign the role of each of the different colored ornaments to your students. Have them act out their part and then hang the ornament on the large Christmas tree page provided in the packet. They”ll love it! Each ornament ( 8 1/2 x 11) is available to be printed individually for the play.
  
  
•  For older students that can read more independently, use the book within a literacy center.  An extended writing project involves writing text about more positional locations on the tree filled with ornaments that the students draw and add to the tree.

        

 She even thought about how to organize the ornament pieces so they won't get lost!

Take a closer look at this product on Teacher Pay Teacher at this link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Ornament-Fun-with-Positional-Concepts-2842015

Each page of the story builds upon the previous page, and encourages students to vocalize the repetitive phrase within the story.

Smiles, 

Deborah

3 -Dimensional Sort

This afternoon at our house was a lazy, snowy day. I decided to challenge my granddaughter, who is in 2nd Grade, to a 3-Dimensional Sort Challenge. 

This a great activity to do with a small group of students during Guided Math. 

 Using a set of 32 MiniRelational GeoSolids

and a set of cards labeled: cone, pyramid, prism, and  cylinder.

Earlier in the weekend, we built prisms and pyramids out of toothpicks and playdough.

We talked about what made 3-D shapes 

either a prism or pyramid.  

So when I gave her the bag of 32 shapes and asked her to categorize them, I did not review any concepts... 

she was just given the task. 

The first time around she made 2 common errors:

1) she categorized the hexagonal prisms as a cylinders.

2) she categorized the triangular prisms as a pyramids.

Why?  Probably because she was never exposed to these shapes before and did not deeply understand the "the characteristics" of the different types of 3-D shapes.  As we reviewed each category 

of 3- D shapes, we again talked about what she looked for when she was looking at each shape.

Cone- "Only 1 face at the bottom, and a vertex at the top of the shape."

Cylinder- "2 faces with curved sides. No vertex at all."

Prism - Faces- there can be a different number of them, and vertices."

Pyramid - " One vertex at the top, straight sides, and a bottom."

After our discussion I place all the shapes back into a plastic bag and asked her if she wanted to try again.  WITH THE INCENTIVE OF EARNING A DOLLAR IF SHE COULD CATEGORIZE THEM ALL CORRECTLY!

She is now $1.00 richer!

Smiles, 

Deborah

Family Math Night at the Local Grocery Store ACTIVITIES

Mary Bauer recently commented on my post about the Family Math Night at a local grocery store:

"We have a local grocery store that would participate. What kind of activities do families do?':

You can see that I have created activity sheets for Grades Kindergarten through 6th Grade.

 Here is an example of the Kindergarten Activity sheet:

The activities at each grade level are based on the Common Core Standards.
I've taken into consideration that your local grocery store may be different from the one in my area. 

Since the format of my packet is in PowerPoint, the pages are be editable , so you can easily change the wording of the document.

Do you want to host a school event that will draw a large crowd?
Then use the suggestions provided on the page titled, 
"Suggestions to Promote the Event." 

What if too many people attend?
 Read my suggestions about creating Estimation Alley to have attendees do before entering the Event.

 The entire Math Night kit is NOW available in my Teacher Pay Teacher store. Click to take a look at the 39 page packet.

Here is another example from the packet:

(One school had a volunteer near the meat department with a set of calculators to assist the students as they calculated the answers for Number 2 on this sheet.) 

Also included in the packet is a checklist of all the tasks that the Organizing Committee needs to do to prepare for the Math Night Event.

Parents complete this form at the end of the night to praise their children as they recognize mathematical skills used by their children.

 

Smiles,

Deborah

Formative Assessment with Door Posters

 

For a quick formative assessment, make a door poster like this. In my class as the students left the room for lunch recess, I would ask them a quick question:

• point to the cube
• point to the spacial net that can be formed into a cube
• which 3D shape has two bases that are circles
• what is another name for the very top vertex on the pyramid
• why are these figures called 3 Dimensional
• which 3 D shape would you make to package this object that I hold in my hand
• which 3 D shape has congruent sides
• which shape has a curved surface
• how many faces, edges, or vertices does this 3D shape have

There are so many questions that can be asked and that is the beauty of this simple poster. If a student didn't know the answer, I moved them to my side and had them listen to 3 or 4 questions that I would ask other students. Then I would ask them a new question (usually one that was a variation of the question that they heard me ask other students). This method is easy to differentiate for different learners and there are NO papers to grade either.

 I wonder if this would be a good idea for those teachers that have to take their students to the bathroom each day as a whole group. Just post the poster near the bathroom to use as a visual aid while working with your students individually as they wait for others to use the bathroom.

Deborah

A Simple Formative Assessment for Planets Unit

Oh,  for  those  simple  ideas!

Here is a simple idea for an informative assessment:

Rotate/Revolve Model

Make this simple model to demonstrate the differences between rotation and revolution.

Thread a practice golf ball onto a pipe cleaner.  Twist the pipe cleaner closed, to make a loop. 

To show rotation: spin the ball.

To show revolution: slide the ball around the pipe cleaner.

The materials are so simple and inexpensive, you could make a classroom set of these and have students try it out themselves.  


You can make a larger scale model using a hula hoop and a wiffle ball.  You will have to cut part of the ball open to get it around the hula hoop. 

This idea was from this great, creative blog:

 Science Matters

 http://science-mattersblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Planets

Personal Note: When I went to the dollar store to look for the practice golf balls, but they were unavailable. They did have practice baseballs for 4 for $1.00 so I went with that. Then I adapted the orbit pathway to 2 pipecleaners.

Even though this assessment may seem too simple to be effective, let me assure you that it is not. I tested it on 6 teachers, and I could tell that two teachers had no idea the difference between revolve and rotate. This is probably because they learned science by completing worksheets instead of “doing and discussing.”

Next section in my unit is The Moon….  I’m Thinking……..

I wonder ... would double stuff oreos be even better?

Deborah