Fab website!!

Just found this fabulous website with lots of math & science foldables. Enjoy!!!

1st day jitters...

I just read Ashley @ Fierce in Fourth's "First Day Jitters Blog Hop and here are my 3 first day jitters:

1. Meeting and getting to know 29+ new students and their parents. This always makes me nervous!
2. STAAR testing. I'm still a 5th grade self-contained teacher and I FEEL THE PRESSURE!!!
3. Can I survive without my Baby Boy. We ha been inseparable all summer long!

Happy Teaching!

My Favorite picture books!!!

I LOVE to begin a lesson with a picture book. I have linked up with The Teacher Wife to share my top 5!

A super cute book about the founding fathers. Full of beautiful pictures and lots of jokes. My 5th graders LOVE it!

Great for teaching large number patterns in math (students love using calculator with this book) & an excellent resource to teach about characters in reading. My #1 to get students exited about math!!!

Cute pics and clever strategies to use in multiplication. Tang's whole series is fabulous!!!

Great way to teach interpreting remainders & division for visual learners.

A beautifully told story about the life of Cesar Chavez. A great picture book biography.

Reading Response

I've been thinking about how I am going to have my students respond to literature. So far, I think I have it covered in fiction. I will be using critical thinking response sheets (The set includes 30 response sheets for fiction, including poetry, biography, autobiography) to have my students think in depth about text. Eventually, after I have introduced them I will be using them as a center activity. Enjoy!

Math Stations, anyone?

This year my campus will be having a set block for intervention and enrichment. It will be a 30 minute block at the beginning of the school day where teachers will be working with struggling students while others are working on activities to spiral concepts.
I am thinking that I am going to be doing Stations at this time. I am working on developing stations for each content area. So far I have started with math. Check out these. My intention is to use these stations to spiral concepts to keep them fresh in my students' minds. How do you use stations in upper elementary?

Spiraling stations

Mini Quiz

Station response sheet

It's been a while...

Okay, so my last post was on July 10th!! Eeek! I have been super busy at professional developments. I know we were all a little scared about STAAR test, but now that the raw scores have come in, I am panicking just a little more!!!! I just attended a 2-day Singapore model drawing training that I think will be very beneficial for me. If you are looking for a new and challenging way to get your students to be problem-solvers this may be very helpful. I found a book I've had for years from one of my grad school classes  (order a book) that I am going to  use as a guide when teaching model drawing to my students. The price of the book is a little high, I know I did not pay that much a while back.
You might find the Thinking Blocks site helpful to get familiar with model drawing. It offers great examples!!! It is very user-friendly. I will be bookmarking it on my classroom computers ASAP.

Has anyone taught model drawing and how did it help develop your students' mathematical thinking?

:)

Back to School bulletin board ideas!!!

Hi everyone!!

I'm already thinking how I am going to get to know my 28+ kids next year. Last year we build a class puzzle together, but this year I am going to be use a 'Superhero-themed' bulletin board. I'm hoping that it makes my kids feel exited about learning in 5th grade!!! You can find both of the options here.

This will be the theme on my welcome board.

I used this last year!