Well, wouldn't you know it that I would go crazy shopping and planning and guess what? I will once again be teaching 5th grade math! You know what though, I am definitely okay with it. I LOVE MATH. One of the things I've also learned in my short 7 years of teaching is that it doesn't matter how many times you've taught a subject, every year is different. There are new ideas, thoughts, activities, and a blend of what you know that works great mixed in.
This summer I clocked something like 40 hours of professional development. It was my favorite kind too! You know, where you get to pick what you learn about instead of the district mandates. For years I have wanted to institute a Wonder Shelf in my classroom. Have you heard of one of these? It is essentially a place with mini-projects and activities for students to work on when they have mastered your current standard, or even if they are just early and correct finishers of that days work. Let's face it, we all have students who could use activity extensions. You know those students, the one's who finish early and chat, or the students who give you their so-so efforts because they know that there is nothing else to do. That is okay though, check out the Wonder Shelf I have for them!
One of the seminars I attended was designed for GT students and is called Genius Hour. It was essentially another moniker for extension activities. I also attended Maker Space seminars that were designed for librarians. But hey, I figured there was something I could get out of these for my own classroom. I was right, and finally made my Wonder Shelf come to life.
One of the things I've learned about my students for this upcoming year is math is a low-point for them. State scores aside, I am concerned that there are students who do not have a grasp of many of their basic math facts. This information was important for me, because I designed or chose the activities for my Wonder Shelf based upon these content standards that they had trouble with last year. My purpose is to fill in those gaps through play, art, and straight bribery!
Each bucket in my cube contains activities and instructions for students who are early finishers. These little projects won't get finished in one sitting, but they offer their own rewards once completed. One of the coolest things I picked up this summer was a Rube Goldberg challenge pack from Target. Yep, I got it off the clearance rack! Math for under $3 and reusable! (Want more? Target carries different one's starting out around $10, or you could use one to introduce Rube Goldberg's to your students and they could make their own out of things they find in the classroom!)
One of the content standards my students had trouble with in 4th grade was measurement conversions. In this challenge, the students will have to time themselves constructing the Rube Goldberg, conducting trials, measuring the distance of the car, and converting their measurements and then they will do conversions based upon their total time working on the project. As an added bonus they will get to video their results! My other projects include design builds for fractional understanding using mosaic tiles, classifying shapes in sets and subsets using Qubits toys to build the shapes first, and then answering questions based upon their classifications, and then a long division movie project I picked up off of Teachers Pay Teachers with the end result being they get FREE popcorn to eat in my class!
I'm sure you also noticed the robots on top of the shelf. I picked these robots up for less than $25 each at Target (Clearance prices of course. I have to say, I LOVE their STEM and Robotics toy section). One is an AI robot. You can teach this robot! The other is a robot that you can use to "attack" and chase people with. While there are no mathematical advantages to these two objects, there is value in literacy and coding. The best thing about both of these Bots is that you can take them apart and use their pieces to build whatever your imagination comes up with. Critical thinking, perseverance, and problem-solving are skills that are useful no matter what content area you are teaching in.
I look forward to changing out projects in my shelf throughout the year, and building a catalog of great activities based upon their standards to extend their learning. Do you have a Wonder Shelf for your students? How do you use yours? I would love to hear how others are extending their learning in their classroom!
This summer I clocked something like 40 hours of professional development. It was my favorite kind too! You know, where you get to pick what you learn about instead of the district mandates. For years I have wanted to institute a Wonder Shelf in my classroom. Have you heard of one of these? It is essentially a place with mini-projects and activities for students to work on when they have mastered your current standard, or even if they are just early and correct finishers of that days work. Let's face it, we all have students who could use activity extensions. You know those students, the one's who finish early and chat, or the students who give you their so-so efforts because they know that there is nothing else to do. That is okay though, check out the Wonder Shelf I have for them!
One of the seminars I attended was designed for GT students and is called Genius Hour. It was essentially another moniker for extension activities. I also attended Maker Space seminars that were designed for librarians. But hey, I figured there was something I could get out of these for my own classroom. I was right, and finally made my Wonder Shelf come to life.
One of the things I've learned about my students for this upcoming year is math is a low-point for them. State scores aside, I am concerned that there are students who do not have a grasp of many of their basic math facts. This information was important for me, because I designed or chose the activities for my Wonder Shelf based upon these content standards that they had trouble with last year. My purpose is to fill in those gaps through play, art, and straight bribery!
Each bucket in my cube contains activities and instructions for students who are early finishers. These little projects won't get finished in one sitting, but they offer their own rewards once completed. One of the coolest things I picked up this summer was a Rube Goldberg challenge pack from Target. Yep, I got it off the clearance rack! Math for under $3 and reusable! (Want more? Target carries different one's starting out around $10, or you could use one to introduce Rube Goldberg's to your students and they could make their own out of things they find in the classroom!)
One of the content standards my students had trouble with in 4th grade was measurement conversions. In this challenge, the students will have to time themselves constructing the Rube Goldberg, conducting trials, measuring the distance of the car, and converting their measurements and then they will do conversions based upon their total time working on the project. As an added bonus they will get to video their results! My other projects include design builds for fractional understanding using mosaic tiles, classifying shapes in sets and subsets using Qubits toys to build the shapes first, and then answering questions based upon their classifications, and then a long division movie project I picked up off of Teachers Pay Teachers with the end result being they get FREE popcorn to eat in my class!
I'm sure you also noticed the robots on top of the shelf. I picked these robots up for less than $25 each at Target (Clearance prices of course. I have to say, I LOVE their STEM and Robotics toy section). One is an AI robot. You can teach this robot! The other is a robot that you can use to "attack" and chase people with. While there are no mathematical advantages to these two objects, there is value in literacy and coding. The best thing about both of these Bots is that you can take them apart and use their pieces to build whatever your imagination comes up with. Critical thinking, perseverance, and problem-solving are skills that are useful no matter what content area you are teaching in.
I look forward to changing out projects in my shelf throughout the year, and building a catalog of great activities based upon their standards to extend their learning. Do you have a Wonder Shelf for your students? How do you use yours? I would love to hear how others are extending their learning in their classroom!
Comments
Post a Comment