Math Journals in 5th Grade (and all grades!)

It's that time of year where we start to brainstorm ideas and resources we will apply in the upcoming school year and new adventures we want to take on! As for me, I know a MUST in ALL content areas is the use of journals. My experience working with ELLs has always led me to incorporate writing into all content areas and journals are an excellent way to do that.


I started looking at my teacher journal for the past 2 years and I have to honestly say how pleased I am with the work we do in our journals. The thinking, exploring, writing and collaborating we do through the use of journals is what I attribute to our STAAR success.


Are you looking to enhance or begin using math journals in your classroom? Here are a few suggestions I have.

First of all, composition books or spiral journals will work just fine for you. I've used both and both work well. I highly recommend setting up the journal on the 1st day of school so you and your kids are ready to learn immediately.

Here are a few tips for setting up the journal:
*Consider adding a rubber band to hold everything in place and to keep the journal from overflowing
*Add a pocket on the inside cover of the journal to keep some handy dandy tools and math related items
*use glue, rather than glue stick. Glue is simply more durable.



Once you set up the journal, give some thought to what you'd like to include in the journal. I find having some sort of structure, with flexibility of course, helps students stay organized and process content.

Here are a few components I always include in journals:
*Interactive graphic organizers (IGO). Kids love them. Teachers love them. They help chunk and organize information. I use different colors as we make them, that match a supporting anchor chart, so that it is easy for me to say "find your yellow IGO on dividing decimals." I use IGO for note taking and at times as a review. Here's a sample one for solving for products of decimals. Also, with IGO teacher your kids to see them as a resource they can go back to when they need a refresher or extra support during math.

*Teach kids there are many ways to arrive at an answer! Here are some notes we took on different ways to add mixed numbers. Some kids will master all, some kids will master one way. It's OKAY! I usually tell them find the one you're VERY strong at, learn it backwards and forwards, and then I challenge them to learn one more way. It helps them to feel empowered that they can use what they know to connect and understand what they may be struggling with.

*Have kids write about math! That's right- writing should occur in all content areas! I've always seen writing as a way to solidify the learning and as a formative assessment tool. When kids write using content vocabulary, they make strong mathematical connections and deepen their understanding.

*Provide them with activities: Concrete to Pictorial to Abstract. I always tell my kids we are going to build it, sketch it, and solve it.

One example of this is a place value stand. We use these daily to practice skills such as rounding, expanded form and expanded notation. It's fun and doesn't take up a lot of our time. 

Here we used based ten blocks YES!!! in 5th grade :)  to compare decimals.

*Make real-world connections! In this activity we connected the multiplication of decimals and whole numbers to shopping at a grocery store! So much fun!

and last, but not least...



*Use a variety of graphic organizers (thinking maps) to process math learning. Whenever possible, have your kids practice both filling in and interpreting information found in tables and other graphic organizers. It's part of math! Have them share their findings and observations using sentence stems. You'll see their vocabulary expand!!!

 

So go on! Incorporate math journals into your daily instruction!!!


If you are interested in the activities and ideas for math journals, you may want to see my new math journal resource. A complete TEKS aligned guide with activities and examples for 5th grade math.


Have a wonderful day!




P.S. Are you a 5th grade teacher? Check out my TpT store! It is full of 5th grade aligned resources for math, science, and reading!

#Teachinghack No. 4: A pocket full of math

#Teachinghack No. 4: A pocket full of math


Everything has a place and everything is in its place. Simple, right? Not so simple in the everyday life of a teacher or student!


Here's a little hack to help with organizing an interactive journal. I've already shared how to keep an interactive journal from overflowing, and now here's a way to keep small cards, place value stands and any other math tools in a secure spot.

Use a sandwich bag and sturdy tape to make a handy dandy pocket. In my classroom, we keep all sorts of items in the pocket and if taped down correctly, it will last you all year long.


In the pocket we usually store a place value stand, a ruler, and any matching cards we use for math models.

Pretty soon our pocket starts to look a little like this

I always tell my students there is no down time in class. If they finish a task and are done with their center work, they can come to the pocket to find an activity to work on. The learning has to continue!


You don't have to worry about the journal becoming too thick, because you have rubber band to hold it all together.


Hope you found this #Teachinghack helpful.

Number representation for younger students

It wasn't until my new job required that I model lessons in the lower grades that I began to think about number representations, and also because I have a 4 year old at home who needs some school time built into his summer activities :) 


Last October I modeled a lesson in Kinder about different ways to represent numbers. The following was an extension the teacher and I prepped and built into a center for students to continue practicing.

We used large craft sticks to create these handy learning tools.

The pics above show that we were practicing recognizing a number, its written form, its value on a ten frame and in tallies. We colored the odd numbers red on the ten frame, and the even numbers green.

Later in the year, once the students were very familiar with the numbers, we asked them to sort them into even/odd.
P.S. Ask kids to sort things without giving them categories and see what amazing things they come up with. This particular kinder class sorted the sticks by curved and straight lines, shaded and unshaded shapes and number of letters.


BONUS! You can have kids create matching cards so that they can play a game! They'll need 5 cards per number: 1) number 2) words 3) ten frame 4) represented with objects and 5) tallies.


What other easy number representation activities have you tried?