The Colonies, Family Math, Stamps, and Submarines

Folders for our unit on the 13 colonies:

I love taking patterned duct tape and making plain folders fun for the students. They get so excited deciding which one will be theirs. Each student's folder has everything they will need in one place to take notes about their colony that they will research, and maps to trace the journey that the colonists took to the new world.

Folders are all ready for students!

The first page is ready to be colored and labeled

I created Venn diagrams to allow students to take notes about their colony for several categories (Religion, Geography, Climate, Economy, Social/political structure, and odds &ends). The last part will allow students to compare and contrast their colony with those from other regions.

Taking a break to say hello to a student's new puppy!

One of my students has been telling the class about his new puppy. His mother arranged to bring the puppy in for show and tell to meet the class. It was a welcome break and all the students loved running and playing with this beauty.

Decorating the classroom to get into the spirit of Colonial times, and learning about negative numbers:

In the classroom, we have to use every inch of space effectively. I decided to take advantage of some cabinet doors for some interactive space. We are starting a unit about the 13 colonies, and in math we are learning about negative numbers.

These two panels will be used to explore real world examples that would use negative numbers. The panel to the right uses the example of traveling above and below sea level. We will be using submarines or birds to make number stories. The panel to the left will relate to spending money in a milkshake shop. The students were so interested in these ideas that math has been a breeze.

This is a close up of the the number line showing that below sea level is indicated with negative numbers.

At the bottom of the sea is an octopus!

To the left, you can see that I have shown students the example of England. I discussed with students what each category represented, and how I completed it in relation to England. This gave students an idea what most colonists were leaving behind in England.

A close up on a few of the categories about England

Students understood the categories much easier with examples and pictures

This is what all the cabinets look like from a distance. Students will be filling in the categories soon for their regions of the colonies.

This tape is all that remains from a fun lesson that I did about what life was like traveling on the Mayflower. It measures how much space a person would have to sleep and keep their belongings. Students loved siting in this space. It really gave them a feeling of how cramped the quarters were on this long journey. They especially loved learning about how people used chamber pots and didn't bathe often.

Each desk pod is grouped in a region of the colonies and they will work together to share information that they have found to complete these categories.

This is another region waiting to be completed!

I can't wait for students to complete these. Their notes look amazing and I think they are almost ready.

Make expectations clear and know where your students are in their process:

Students move their number to show where they are in the writing process

They are responsible for moving their clip when they are done.

I use must do, may do, and catch-up to clearly show expectations. On Fridays, students that have all their work done for the week are "pickles" and they can pick what they want to do from fun academic options. If not, then they must spend time catching up.

There is always time for read aloud! It is so fun and the students always become so interested in the stories.

Our "PAT" time goal is an engineering challenge called the Marshmallow challenge. I wrote about it in a previous post. I can't wait to do it with my class!

The desk pods are named after people that are famous from the colonial regions their groups are researching.

A close up on one group's name

Some streamers and paper and we have new desk group names to match our unit of study

This is a fun greeting for the classroom that allows me to make mini assessments. I will write a question that students can quickly mark an answer to as they enter the classroom after recess or lunch. They love it, and I enjoy getting instant feedback on a question.

Students are responsible for keeping their group's colonial folders and books neat and organized.

This group did a wonderful job putting their folders away!

Students can quickly recognize their folders and settle in to work. Duct tape allows personal touches and quick identification.

My resident teacher had this wonderful map that can easily be labeled with dry erase marker. We have students use a fun pointer to lead the class in a song that lists the colonies.

Mrs. Dailey is happy after setting up the classroom for colonial studies.

So much learning and fun happens in this classroom!

This easel is a great place for students to stick an exit ticket after I have approved it.

Family Math:

The UC Davis School of Education has allowed me to experience many wonderful things. One way that they give back to the community is by having a family math day. We worked together with our peers to create an activity for students in a local community church that could teach them something fun about math. I knew my peers were creative and amazing people, but once I saw all their activities together in one room I was speechless. These students were going to have an amazing day!

An activity about ratios.

This community primarily speaks Spanish, so we had the directions in Spanish and in English

These fun animals would draw any child into the game!

Some creative and wonderful future teachers!

They are ready to rock!

This game looks like fun!

Adding the finishing touches to the fraction game.

This hands on game is sure to be a blast!

They are so organized and creative!

I had to pull myself away from this one. I wanted to build and play!

Their tangram animals are so adorable. I'm going to have make some!

Mrs. Dailey hiding behind the monster!

Such a creative title

Very creative!

Awesome!

I love the superhero drawing on this station. These future teachers are so fantastic!

Students will love math art! Geniuses!

After students get stamps for completing some math activities, they earn a book about math. This fantastic organization has all the prizes ready for students.

These books look like so much fun!

All the books are organized by grade level.

I can't think of a better prize for doing activities in math than a book about math!

This gumdrop activity caught my eye.

They did a beautiful job!

I love this activity! I am planning on doing it with my class after spring break.

Students will love using these toys to measure weight at this station.

The scales are ready!

I love how they brought fun things to weigh and have such a clear board.

These creative women used such fun and beautiful colors! I really wanted to play at this station too.

Learning about printing during colonial times:

After a brief lesson about how printing was done during colonial times, students had a chance to make their own stamps so they could understand how important it was for the printer to know how much ink to use. They also got the feeling of how printing worked. The students loved the lesson and the chance to be creative.