Recess Learning with Campaign Signs

I know that you seen many outdoor campaign posters like this with the upcoming election:

After the election, all these signs are removed and thrown away, 

so make use of this valuable resource and create this activity.

During lunch recess time, work with you lunchroom supervisor or a  parent volunteer to reinforce learning that is happening in your classroom.

 

First, glue a piece of paper over the front and back of the sign.  Write or glue on a written question and answer on the sign. For this example, let's imagine that your students have been studying addition doubles plus one or two.

 

Student begins at the start and softly dribbles the ball  to the first sign. The student calls out the answer, then waits

 to see if the answer is correct.

 A student standing next to the sign tells the student

 if they are correct.

  If they are correct,

then they softly kick the ball through the legs of the sign.

 

Student continues through all signs in the order

 specified by the teacher. 

great fun + exercise + learning = a great activity 

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of my idea.  

Smiles,

Deborah Devine

Video Comment About Playing "The Calendar Game"

I created a short 2 minute video that discusses what skills are necessary to play this game, and how to play the game.


I created the video using the app- Educreations. (It's a first....)

Deborah

"Fraction/Decimal/Percent Card Deck Games from Everyday Math

The Everyday Math  "Fraction/Decimal/Percent Card Deck"  contains cards showing 18 different fractions, decimals, and percents. The fraction, decimals, and percents are equivalent to each other. Even though Everyday Math created an activity booklet to go along with the cards, I find that many teachers are not aware of the suggested activities because they are not in the Teacher Resource Guide manual, or don't play them because there are no formal game boards to accompany the suggestions.

So I am planning to host a workshop in my district to play 10 New Games that use the Fraction/Decimal/Percent Card Deck  in January 2012.  I've been busy creating game boards or playing mats for the games, and I thought I would share some of them with you in a series of  posts.

The first game is called "Bar Graph Addition" and the skills covered in the game are estimating the sums of fractions and recording data on a bar graph. This game is worth the use of class time to play the game as many students don't understand fractions very well. I love this informal format and the fact that you record the sums according to 3 different categories: Sums 1/3 or less, sums between 1/3 and 2/3, and sums 2/3 or greater.

I made this game board to accompany the game, and you only use the fractions cards contained in the deck.  To make it easier for the teacher, the directions to the game are located on the game board at the bottom.

Click on the document to download it.
Deborah

Anchor Chart: What Math Skills Am I Practicing?

My last post was about taking an extra step when teaching students how to play a math game. That step is to insure that the students know what math skills they are practicing while playing the game by creating an anchor chart with them.

Kristen, from Ladybug Teacher Files, Started me thinking when she commented, “ I definitely need to do this more with my EDM games. I feel like I have to rush to get everything squeezed in and I forget to do things like that.”

How could you reduce the amount of time spent creating an anchor chart with your class?

Here is my idea:

Before teaching the lesson 

1. On sentence strips, pre-write in kid –friendly language, many of the skills the game will allow the students to practice. Code the back of the strips with a phrase to help you locate it during the upcoming class discussion.

After teaching the game

2. Write on the board: I will practice these math skills:

3. Begin a class discussion of what skills the student will be practicing as they play the game. As a student mentions an item on your prewritten strips, post them on the board.

4. Have 1 or 3 sentence strips ready for student ideas you didn’t think of during your planning.

5. Save the strips to use when they play the game again in class. Start that lesson by reviewing the skills listed on the strips.  Of course, save the strips for next year too.

 

What do you think of this idea?

. . . Deborah

Playing Math Games

Do you take time to explain to your students why they are playing a particular math game? Or do they play the game to find out who "WINS!"



When you teach a new game, be sure to make a quick anchor chart with them so they recognize why they are using classroom instruction time to play a game.

  Actually, I wish Everyday Math would have called their games..."Skill Practice Activities" because that is why they are playing the games. That's also why you must find time in your schedule to let them practice their math skills and play the games.

When you circulate around the room as they are playing the games, you can say comments like these to connect back to the anchor chart and give them authentic and specific praise:

• I can tell that you know the difference between a penny and a nickel.
• How many pennies are there in a nickel?  Why do we say the word  'exchange' when you put your 5 pennies back in the pile and take out a nickel?
• Who had more nickels in the last game? How did you know that ___ had more?
• Good job counting those five pennies accurately.  I like how you put your finger on each one as you counted.