STEAM Week-Pt. 2

Our STEAM week activities were a huge success! We started our week with the landing of an MV-22 Osprey. The MV-22 is the Marine Corps' newest helicopter. The students not only got to watch this amazing machine land, they also had the chance to climb aboard and talk to the crew. The pilots and crew were awesome! They asked our students some really engaging, thought-provoking questions that showed our students how math, science, engineering, technology, and even the arts go into creating things such as the Osprey. Here is a brief video of the landing:

Since I was the "T" for the week (Technology), I wanted to introduce the students to a new program that they could use for school and for fun. Our school has a variety of software from Tech4Learning (www.tech4learning.com) including Pixie, WebBlender, and Frames. My students have had some experience with Pixie and WebBlender, but Frames was new to me and to the students. It enables students to create presentations with sounds, animation, video, narration, etc. We were very limited on time, but I asked the students to create some frames to finish this sentence: Technology is.... They LOVED the activity! Many of them stuck with "Technology is fun", "Technology is cool", etc. There were some that were so creative. One little girl made a slide "Technology is making memories" and she went on to explain how that is the only way she gets to see one of her siblings and other relatives. I have some fabulous examples to share (once I remember to put them on my flash drive to bring home). I will try to do that tomorrow :-) Until then, here is my basic example video I shared with the students at the very beginning of our technology activities.

The students really had a blast, and had a completely new outlook on how important Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math are in our everyday lives. Now I am challenging myself to really integrate and create some good units for next year that will keep that theme in my classroom.

STEAM Week

Our school system will be participating in a week of activities designed to expose our students to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math), and to make it a constant focus in our schools. My 4th grade team has decided to each pick one of the 5 areas and create activities to go along with that area. Our students will rotate to a new classroom each day for the week. While in our rooms, they will learn about careers, as well as having the opportunity to show off what they can do in that area. The teacher who is working on Science will be doing a wonderful integrated lesson about the distance of the planets from the Sun. Not only will students be learning some great scientific facts, they will be practicing Math skills, learning about scale, and even getting some exercise. I am doing the Technology piece, and I will be honest, I have way too many ideas. I have not narrowed it down to something that I feel will be perfect for our kids. I want something that will really pique the students' interest. I will have to report back when I narrow it down and see what my blog followers think. We are limited in what we have access to, and I want to introduce them to some tools they can use. Hopefully I get this figured out over spring break...it is all happening the week of April 23-27.

51 Followers!!!

Wow, I never thought I would get to 10 followers, let alone 50+! Thank you all for putting up with the fact that I am rarely posting fun or fresh ideas this year! I feel like I want to share original ideas, but to be completely honest with you, I am one of those teachers who borrows great ideas from other, more creative teachers.

We have our testing the week after next, so today was spent planning for some fun activities that will help the students review, without completing changing our instructional time (we are not allowed to "cease" regular instruction in order to review). Since I have been using Math Stations all year, that is the format I am going to use. I will even have time to continue with our "regularly scheduled" standards :) Heaven knows, we are nowhere near through the 4th grade curriculum in March. EEK!

I am excited, though, that after March 23, the stress of testing will be behind us and we can focus on having fun while learning. I took a brief course about using Gaggle (email, message boards, homework drop box, digital locker, etc) in the classroom, and my students are itching to get to use it on a regular basis. They were my guinea pigs. I set up message boards for them much like the ones in my some of my graduate school classes. THEY LOVED IT! The interactions and collaboration were better than anything they had ever done. They were polite and respectful, but willing to debate the topics.

Thanks again for visiting my little blog :)

Prime and Composite Numbers Smartboard activity

I adapted "Be a Prime Number Hunter" game from Education.com for the Smartboard, and my students really loved it. I think they just loved being able to use the Smartboard in a small group on their own, but it was a nice alternative to a traditional math station. Feel free to use the "game" if you are teaching prime and composite numbers. It was GREAT to hear the students debating about why certain numbers are or are not prime!


Prime Number Game

I Got the Liebster Award!

 

 

Thank you to Tales from a 4th Grade Teacher for recognizing my blog with this award!!! 

 

The goal of the award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. The rules are:

1. copy and paste the award on your blog
2. thank the giver and link back to them
3. reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
4. hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers

Here are the 5 blogs that I chose to honor with this award as well:

Shepherd's Shining Stars 

A Time to Share and Create

The {Polka} Dotted Desk

The Teacher Organizer

Tales of This 4th Grade Teacher

Please check out these great teacher blogs for wonderful insights and ideas!!!

Math Stations

So, this year, I have been spending a great deal of time trying to "perfect" a math workshop approach to teaching my 4th graders. Sadly, I am finding that they seem to need a lot more direct instruction than I expected, so that is taking some of the "oomph" out of our Math Stations time during each day. I found some great ideas on TpT (links below) that I have used in my classroom. I am currently using the acronym M.A.T.H. to organize my groups. This includes:
M-Math Facts: Students can choose from a variety of math fact games such as Multiplication War, Multiplication and/or Division Bingo, Math Fact Memory, flash cards, etc.

A-At Your Seat: This is usually my time for small group, but for some groups, they have enrichment activities or independent work.

T-Technology: Our school has V-Math, so that is usually what students are tasked with working on. Sometimes I will assign online activities that correspond to our text, enVisionMATH. 

H-Hands-On: This is one area that I struggle with finding great activities for my 4th graders. We will often use the centers that came with our text series, but those are not truly "hands-on". I have done the typical things like having students solve problems using manipulatives, etc., but I feel like this is one section of our Math Stations that I need to revamp. Feel free to share any ideas you might have :)

Overall, I feel like the Math Stations approach is working, but I need to work on management a little better. I believe that my students who are generally proficient in math area doing well, while my students who struggle sometimes end up "playing" without really knowing what they are practicing. This is a work in progress, I guess. I'd love to hear any thoughts and suggestions you might have!

Teachers Pay Teachers Math Workshop "Stuff":
From Ashleigh: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Days-of-Math-Workshop

From Littlest Learners: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/MATH-WORKSHOP-ROTATION-BOARD

Wow...Thanksgiving is over already?!?!

Where is this school year going? I cannot believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now we have 3 crazy weeks until our winter break!

I really wanted to have an awesome teacher blog this year, but I guess that will have to wait until my 2 graduate courses are over in mid-December. I apologize for not having FUN and FRESH stuff to share! However, with that being said, because I started this blog, I have learned so much and found so many wonderful ideas from my fellow teacher bloggers! You all are the BEST!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that the upcoming holidays allow you to get some rest and relaxation!! I promise to spend some time updating my blog very soon!