Keeping Center Activities Organized

There are days when transition times between centers during Daily 5 or Math Rotations can be a hair-pulling experience. I have found that this is where students waste the most time and lose out on necessary work time, not to mention distracting others along the way... not cool ;)

What I have found is that the key is to stay as organized as possible by keeping everything in one place. That way, kids can grab what they need lickety-split and get to work anyplace in the room that they'd like.

Here's what I have found this year and I just love it:

The Place Value Words activity is available in my TpT Store HERE. 

Each folder contains the following:

• small dry-erase marker
• "eraser" {back fleece remnant from Walmart I cut with pinking sheers to roughly 5"x3"}
• laminated activity & recording sheet
• any extra manipulatives needed (dice, cards, baggie of coins, etc.)

The enveloped themselves are clear plastic envelopes that close with small velcro. The ones I use are from Office Depot and I couldn't be happier with how they have held up!

Now, when a student is working on Word Work in Daily 5 or Math Centers in Math Rotations, he/she can go to the drawer they need, pull out an envelope, and find someplace to work, knowing that all of the materials they need are in there to help them. Whew! What a time/sanity-saver this is!

As I mentioned, all of these envelopes are stored in labeled drawers in my lovely carts:

One side is for Word Work and the other for Math Centers. They are labeled now and just look lovely :) :)

How do you keep centers organized? Share your tips below!

Math Rotations: Fact Practice

Thanks for hanging with me on this Math Rotations Journey. Although I am now describing the last "rotation"-ish, please know I have lots of extra posts I will be doing to follow-up on some of the ideas I have introduced. And, if you know me {which many of you do!}, you will also know I will be tweaking these along the way and sharing those new experiences, too.

If you ever want a full recap of these posts, be sure to click on the button on the top title to be taken to a nice and neatly organized linky with each Math Rotations post I have done. 

Ok, onto the non-rotation rotation:

Fact Practice

I call this a non-rotation rotation because kids may or may not get to this during our math class. Activities in Fact Practice are mainly for early finishers of Lesson Work and they are an occasional choice on our Math Centers Bingo Board.

I had to structure my time like this for a few reasons:

• Limited Time= I have 60ish minutes to teach math, so four rotations just wasn't a feasible option (12 minutes for Teacher Time would be way too short for my littles)
• Limited Technology= Many of the activities require a computer and I only have 5 in my class
• Limited Stamina= For the kids, sometimes 20ish minutes of Fact Practice can be very daunting, and that can mean disaster when it comes to class management, so I prefer to keep Fact Practice short and sweet :)

Fact Practice options are listed on our white board and I like to switch them up from time to time to keep it interesting.

These signs are available in my TpT Store

Here's a rundown of some of our usual choices for Fact Practice:

• Xtra Math
• Flash Cards 
• Dominoes 

I have kids work on Flash Cards and Dominoes with a buddy (quietly) or independently, making two piles as they go-- one for "known facts" and one for "unknown facts".

I picked up some very inexpensive flash cards from Target's dollar section over the summer and have addition,  multiplication, division, and even time!! Kids can also practice facts with dominoes and choose to do either addition or multiplication for practice (usually addition at the beginning of the year and multiplication for the second half).

If they do choose Xtra Math, they will need to pick up a Computer Pass from a bin on my desk. This freebie is simple and definitely helps with management when I am meeting with kids at Teacher Time. I have also kept the bin near me at the beginning so I can help regulate the process a bit more. 

I have also heard of a few more programs that I would like to look into, especially since I received word that my Donor's Choose grant to get four iPads for my class was FUNDED! {Insert a VERY happy dance here!}. Some of the options I'm thinking about are:

• Sumdog
• Scootpad (The Lesson Plan Diva has a great tutorial to walk you through HERE)
• loads of iPad apps, but I haven't waded through the free ones yet and definitely need to hear some good recommendations from you all

So, that's my ending question for you-- what iPad apps and/or websites help your kiddos practice math skills? I love the data tracking that Xtra Math and Scootpad provide, plus, Scootpad has an app, which is always very exciting. Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!

Math Rotations: Math Centers

Warning: Information Overload! I will have to say that Math Centers took me the longest out of any of these to wrap my head around, to practice with my kiddos, and the one that I am still working on perfecting. I will share what I have done so far, but please-pretty-please share your tips and strategies below!!

Math Centers

If you're like me, my typical math class was set up with Teacher Time and Lesson Work, just in a whole-group setting, so making those more small-group oriented was easy and delightful!

Math Centers were what always hung me up when it came to logistics, time management, work habits, building independence with my students, and on and on and on!!

So, I decided when I was going to take the plunge into Math Rotations, to over-prep Math Centers to death, because I was pretty sure that if the wheels were going to come off the bus, it would be when kids were in this center. By the way, is there such a thing as over-prepping? Oh well ;)

The first thing I did was buy these lovely shelves from Joann's during one of their big sales with free shipping. I love these darlings so much, the other set is for Word Work Centers. They are just delightful and keep the flow going in the class, so that was the start of keeping management issues at bay.

My next step was to think about purposeful center activities that would do several things:

• Keep students engaged for 15-20 minutes
• Require little prep-work on my end-- they had to last longer than a week, and preferably several, so variety was important, too
• Easy directions for my kids to understand
• Cover standards we just studied or ones that could always use some extra review
• Cute and high-interest :) :)

Here's why some of those are important-- I, like all of you, are tired and pooped by the end of each week and the idea of making new centers all of the time was just not going to happen.

** Rule #1: In order for this whole Math Rotations idea to be successful, I needed it to be as easy on me as possible so I would be inspired to keep going. 

Drowning in printing, laminating, cutting, and copying specifically for these centers each week was not going to be the answer and is my quickest road to dropping the whole thing.

For me, what worked was the idea of seasons and I therefore created my Wintertime Math Centers {Spring, Summer and Fall are coming soon} to address all of my needs above and be cute and fun for third graders. These activities make up the meat & potatoes of our Math Centers work.

Click the picture to be taken to my TpT Store

I also wanted to incorporate some things we already do, so using our Word Work Centers seemed like a great idea. I did want them to practice different words, however-- not that there's anything wrong with more independent spelling word practice, I just wanted to shake things up a bit for them, so I instead use 3rd Grade CCSS-Aligned Math Vocabulary Cards on a binder ring:

I printed these front-back so it could save paper since there are over 100 terms

I put all 100+ on a binder ring (printed on front & back and laminated), or you could put out just the ones that address what you are studying and/or what you have already studied.... up to you :)

Now, my kids can practice Place Value Spelling or How Much is Your Word Worth? with new and interesting vocabulary drawn from our math lessons and get additional practice with math vocabulary all year long... can't beat that :)

How do I keep track of student work?

I keep this all organized in a very similar way to Word Work: A Bingo Board :)

At the beginning of each seasonal unit, I will put a Math Center Bingo Board on the top and staple all of the center work behind it for a "Math Centers Packet" they will use over the course of the next however many weeks you want. It's nice to be able to offer students the choice to go back and forth between center activity and Bingo activity to keep their engagement up.

My expectation/requirement is that, by the due date, they have one bingo and all of the center work complete-- any additional Bingos and/or Bingo squares are a bonus.

The items on the Bingo board are:

• Place Value Spelling
• How Much is Your Word Worth?
• Letter Tiles Spelling
• Dice Games (includes Roll & Cover)
• Math Boggle

For Math Boggle, I simply laminated some die-cut circles and will write numbers with dry erase markers that  reflect the concept(s) we are working on. Kids will then choose two numbers that are next to each other (up-down,left-right, and/or diagonal) and solve with the circled operation on the sign. They record their work on a mini-dry erase board that I will check and give them a signature for:

For Dice Games, I use FANTASTIC freebies from Pitner's Potpourri and my own Multiplication Roll & Covers and these games are my kids' favorite!! I think because this is also one of the activities that require them to work with a partner, which is always fun :) To cut down on noise and lost dice, I use the dollar store mini-containers to keep the dice in:

Whew, that was a lot! There are definitely ideas in my head already for Part 2, 3, and maybe even 4. Hopefully, this starter post got you thinking of how you could make Math Centers work for you in your own unique classroom.

I am offering an *EDITABLE* Bingo Board in my TpT Store if you are interested-- it is a fully-editable PDF that will allow you to tweak the Math Centers Bingo to fit your own needs and your own choices in class. Check it out HERE if you're interested.

Thanks so much for sticking with me through this post! Let me know if you have any questions!

Math Rotations: Lesson Work

I have posted my Chevron Math Rotation Posters in my TpT Store! 

There are lots of chevron color options for you to choose from (teal, blue, purple, gray, green, orange, and red) as well as a plain background. Included are the posters you see below, each with a description underneath that still shows up beautifully if you wanted to make bookmarks (easy tutorial HERE). I don't use "Rotation One" or "Group 1" but I thought some of you might like that, so I included Rotation & Group 1-4 in each color as well... it's a huge file ;)

Lesson Work

Onto how I do Lesson Work. If you've been following my Math Rotations Series, you'll know that my main lesson delivery model is set up around I do. We do. You do. The "I do" and "You do" are done in Teacher Time, while the "You do" is all about Lesson Work time.

Students leave Teacher Time and head straight to Lesson Work, with the exception of my high kids who end math class with Teacher Time. They do Lesson Work as their first rotation the next day in math. Here's a picture of my student bookmarks to see what each group does (low is on the left, then middle, then high kids on the right):

I only assign as much work as I feel the groups can do in 15-20 minutes. Rotations are about 20 minutes long, but this gives them some time to practice and then recheck their work. If they don't finish Lesson Work in class, it needs to be finished up as homework. This sometimes happens, but so rarely since the risk of homework is pretty high motivation ;) 

Students keep their completed Lesson Work in their math folders and will bring it with them to Teacher Time the next day, where we will go over it as a group and grade our own work. Because there are only 8 of us in a group, it's easy for me to check the next day to see if they have done it and, as we go over it, to see if they are correcting it or are getting everything right. Love those small groups!

Lesson Work forces me to ensure that what I am covering is broken up into meaningful and manageable chunks. There are some times I am tempted to throw a whole packet of new info at them, but this short time reminds me that I need to stay focused and purposeful with my Teacher Time instruction so that their "You do" practice time is useful and reflects the new information we have learned.

Lesson Work is also the perfect time for differentiation-- I can adjust their independent work to fit their needs. This is something Everyday Mathematics was great at providing, and I am hoping our new curriculum does the same. Each lesson came with an extension option I could use for my high group and a reteaching option I could use with my low group.... easy peasy! I will say the typically, all of my kids have the same Lesson Work, but I do love the flexibility that Math Rotations provide!

I do require that Lesson Work be done independently at their table spots and this is on our class' anchor chart:

If they run into problems or a question they don't get, they need to try their best and look back in their Teacher Time notes and problems to try and solve the problem. If they still don't know, I have them try their best and rest assured we will go over it in Teacher Time the next day. I do not want them to "Ask 3 Before Me" like I do during other parts of our day because if they aren't understanding something, that is important info that I need to know when we check in tomorrow as a group. 

*For my low group, I will sometimes make an exception if they are brand new to a topic, or I will allow them to work on a certain amount with a partner before completing the rest independently... nothing is ever set in stone ;)

Again, because Lesson Work so closely aligns with what we just did in Teacher Time, it is rare that this comes up, but when it does, I want to make sure they know that they have a host of strategies from which to choose besides relying on the person next to them and their answer :)

If and when they finish with Lesson Work and their rotation time is not over, I have them jump into Fact Practice. This includes Xtra Math on the computers or working on flash cards with a partner and I will be explaining that "I'm Done" option in an upcoming post.

Do you have any questions about Lesson Work? I will be happy to answer them either in the comments or in an upcoming Q&A post, so feel free to ask away! I can't pretend I know all of the answers, but I am happy to share what's worked and what hasn't for me :) 

Math Rotations: Teacher Time

Thank you all so much for your feedback and great questions to how I start setting up Math Rotations in my class! I am planning on doing quite a bit more in this series, including a post on each of the rotation options as well as some Q&A, so if you're ever interested in reading all of the series, be sure to click the icon above and/or the new button on the top sidebar.

Teacher Time

I wanted to start with the simplest rotation choice, Teacher Time. This rotation choice for me was the easiest to prepare, since it was what I was going to teach anyway-- it required very little additional prep work.

I began preparing for Teacher Time by splitting my kids into three groups based on a quick pre-assessment before our unit. The results, paired with what I knew of them as learners, gave me the info I needed to sort them into a low-medium-high kind of system.

I always begin math by immediately pulling my first group. We used to start with an all-class warm-up, but we were running out of time for the last Teacher Time group, so now we just come in and get straight to work on Rotation 1 of our bookmarks:

Students need to come to the carpet for Teacher Time with their math journals, any Lesson Work from the day before and a pencil. They can grab clipboards and we gather around my small white board to get to work.

I received these items from a Donors Choose project and L.O.V.E. them! I know it's marketed as a "Big Book" holder, but the height is perfect for small groups and it's much more manageable than a large easel. I use half-sized chart paper or a dry erase board that I got on the cheap that fits on the ledge when I meet with kids for Teacher Time.

Our new warm-ups in Teacher Time involve going over some or all of the Lesson Work from yesterday. I want to make sure kids are getting immediate feedback on how they are doing and I found that when I collected Lesson Work and graded it later, it wasn't helping them as much as if we graded it together. It also gave me the chance to switch-up the lesson last-minute if I realize the group is missing out on a concept or, on the flip-side, has already mastered what we are doing.

After we are done going over yesterday's Lesson Work, we delve into the lesson for the day. I have each group for about 20 minutes, so after checking over our Lesson Work, it leaves us with about 12-15 minutes. I love this, since that's about how long their attention span is anyways ;)

My general premise for any lesson I teach is: I do. We do. You do. The 12-minute lesson encompasses the "I do" and "We do" part, then I send them off to the "You do" part for Lesson Work.

I love these smaller groups for so many reasons:

• They are smaller ;)
• I can see and immediately interact with each of them-- no hiding in a group of 8!
• I can peek at their work at any time without getting up and walking around
• They are shorter-- attention span is maximized :)
• Everyone is around the same ability, so I can tailor the lesson to fit their needs
• Manipulatives can be divvied out to everyone and less people have to share (Try getting 30 sets of anything math related without spending an arm & a leg! But 8? Not too bad.)
• Groups are fluid as the units change, so they are still getting to work with lots of people

I pull my groups in this order: low, medium, high. Immediately after Teacher Time, they move onto Lesson Work, so I wanted to make sure that my low & medium kids could practice as soon as they had learned something. I meet with my high group last, which is tricky, since they will need to retain what we learned over a 24-hour period before they practice it at the start of next math class, but I have found that with the notes we take and sample problems we do, they have been up for the challenge so far.

If you wanted to switch the low and medium group, I think you could easily do so, since they will be starting with Math Centers and that's always a self-directed, independent activity that does not depend on Teacher Time. I may do that for my next unit, that way the kids who have been doing Teacher Time first for a while can feel they are mixing-it-up a bit more :)

Last thing, I have found that doing Teacher Time in Math Rotations works best on a Monday-Thursday schedule. We will typically do the first picture on Friday only so my high kids will have the chance to finish Lesson Work (without having to wait a whole weekend), my middle kids can work on Math Centers, and my low kids can work with me to get additional support on any of the concepts we worked on that week. We will then spend the rest of the time playing games, doing scavenger hunts like Multiplication Monsters, or going to a website to practice what we've learned.

I hope this has made Teacher Time sound a bit more clear. What questions do you have? I will be back next with information on how I do Lesson Work, then Math Centers, and lastly, Fact Practice. Thanks for joining me on this series!

*UPDATE 2/18/13: The chevron poster set (all 106 pages) are now available for purchase in my TpT Store HERE. All 7 chevron colors are included for every slide as well as a plain background option. Be sure to download the Preview to see an example :) Thanks for such great feedback- I hope you enjoy using these in your class :) :)

Why I NOW Love Teaching Math: Setting up Math Rotations

If you know me, you know I am in loooove with Daily 5! Ever since incorporating it into my classroom last year, I have loved seeing the variety of skills and strategies my students are working on each and every day. I also love that the segments are short, so we all stay motivated and the energy for learning stays high.

I have been wanting to redo how I teach math for a while. As a student, I truly adore mathematics, but as a teacher, I was getting bored. Our district was looking into several programs to adopt and I was piloting Everyday Mathematics. It was definitely a change from our old textbook, but I liked how it mixed things up and spiraled around to keep kids fresh on many math concepts.

The district ended up choosing Math Expressions (Please share your experience if you use this!) and this decision allowed me to stop teaching Everyday Mathematics "with fidelity" and monkey around with starting Guided Math/Math Rotations/Small Group Math/Math Centers/etc. for the remainder of this year.

I.am.in.love!

I know there are many ways of doing this, so I am just sharing what I have been trying and what works so far with my schedule. Some of my greatest inspirations are Elizabeth from Fun in 4B and Dana from 3rd Grade Gridiron. I also have TONS of wonderful links with pictures on my Math Pinterest board-- there are so many inspirational teachers out there :) :)

First up, the 3-4 rotations that I use:

1. Teacher Time- spent with me on the rug in a small group, ability-based for the unit, learning a new concept.
2. Lesson Work- practicing the new skill from Teacher Time (usually book work or a worksheet) independently at their table spot.
3. Math Centers- this has been using some of my Word Work Centers as well as my Winter Math Centers.
4. Fact Practice- this is the "I'm Done" center for those students who finish Lesson Work early. I also have Fact Practice as a choice for Math Centers. Some days students don't get to this at all, but I'm ok with that since Xtra Math is a part of our Star Homework each night.

Because of time constraints, I could only divide up my class into three groups, so that really limited my use of the cute M-A-T-H or B-U-I-L-D centers that are out there. I just couldn't imagine trying to have super-short Teacher Times or trying to spread one lesson across two days :( With three groups, I am able to meet with kids for 15-20ish minutes and that seems to be just right :)

I also tried to keep things aligned with how I do Daily 5 in my class. Because that is so successful, I knew it would be easy for my kids (and, to be honest, on me!) if we started it off the same and ran our math time the same, using some of the same activities as well as the same lingo (like Teacher Time).

I began by making an anchor chart of the four rotations as a class:

To make the smaller signs, I adjusted my print settings to print 2 signs on one sheet. 

We then practiced the bottom two rotations over the course of a few days. Because I started this mid-year, it was very easy to build stamina. I started by dividing the kids into two groups and they practiced either Fact Practice or Math Centers. We then reflected on what worked/what needed improving and tried again. I slowly added Teacher Time and then Lesson Work, so that by the end of the second week, we were in full swing.

To help things along, since the content does change much more often than in D5, I made small signs to hang on my side white board that listed either the learning target or question as well as the assignments and center choices for kids' reference:

This has been a lifesaver because now students have a quick reference point to not only know what we'll be studying in Teacher Time, but they can manage their own Center and Fact Practice time, therefore not interrupting me during Teacher Time (win!).

You KNOW I have bookmarks with these rotations, right?! :)

I need to go to Bookmarks Anonymous ;)

Each student has one and it makes it easy for me to say "Picture 2" and they all know where to go. To learn how to make your own bookmarks from PDF pages, click HERE. To be honest, now that we have been doing this for a while, we don't need these anymore, but I love them just the same and, when our geometry unit is over soon I am going to me remixing the groups, so these will come in handy again soon :)

As with everything, the devil is in the details, so prepping is the key. I spent a looooooong time making sure the kids had activities and trying to account for "dead time"-- thus, the Fact Practice option. I also wanted to make materials accessible and easy to get to, so there wouldn't be any excuse for not getting started right away.

I am currently storing all of the centers and flash cards in my lovely, colorful cart I purchased from Joann's (50% off and free shipping coupon-- woo hoo!)

I will be back soon for more details on how I have been doing Math Centers-- we are using a Bingo Board similar to Word Work and it has worked out well so far.

Do you use Math Rotations or something like it? How's it going?

PS- I don't have these chevron signs on TpT yet, but is it something you all would be interested in? Let me know and I can get all of the colors together for use in your own classroom-- it's the same chevron as all of my other products HERE.

*UPDATE 2/18/13: These are now available for purchase in my TpT Store HERE. All 7 chevron colors are included for every slide as well as a plain background option. Be sure to download the Preview to see an example :) Thanks for such great feedback- I hope you enjoy using these in your class :) :)

Keeping Table Bins & Supplies Clean + Update

I am loving this update to my Desk Fairy Packet on TpT. {If you have purchased this already, be sure to head over to TpT to download this update for free from your "My Purchases" tab!}

As you may remember, I have tables this year with communal supplies. It has been absolutely lovely, clean, and all-around WAY better than old, awful desks, but what I was noticing was the lack of ownership over these supplies was becoming an issue..... I think the supplies were too communal :) Sure, there were my regular set of lovely thirdsters who always make sure everything is clean, but I needed to make sure my little stinkers who were stabbing/breaking/eating(?) the erasers stopped it immediately (ew!).

Nothing my lovely little Desk/Bin/Cubby Fairy couldn't handle :) She is now the Desk/Bin/Cubby/Table Fairy :)

Here's the scoop: I printed these out in two sizes-- four to a page and two to a page using this tutorial HERE. That saved paper and space and allowed me to laminate them for use and reuse throughout the whole year. I LOVE things in full color but HATE wasting ink and paper, so this system has been perfection when the kids use them to keep their personal bins organized. Here's a pic of the two sizes:

The larger size on the left is going to be put into their table pencil bin-- it's nice and large so they can see it as soon as they walk in the room. I will be leaving this for them to find the next morning if they have all of their dull pencils in the dull pencil bucket, they have nice, lovely erasers in their cup, and they haven't turned their sticky note stack into a flipbook or tons of paper airplanes ;)

Their reward will be a small sticker for each person at the table-- I'm paperclipping it to the card and then they can turn the card back into be for the Table Fairy's next visit.

The smaller size I am using for their table supplies bin that hold markers, color pencils, scissors, and glue. I don't have a pic {sorry!}, but I keep these on a shelf for times we need them. The smaller size will be a fun treat when they need to get them for the next project.

I hope some of you can use this management tip, even if you have a group of desks as a "table"-- anytime the fairy visits our class, it's a huge hit :)

Have a wonderful evening and if you're interested in the Desk/Bin/Cubby/Table Fairy neatness system, check out my previous posts HERE and my poem signs on TpT HERE.

Adding Some Fun Into Teaching Subjects & Predicates

I don't know about you, but one of the most boring things we have to teach in our daily grammar lessons are subjects and predicates. Zzzzzzzzz.....

They do help kids understand what makes a complete sentence, but I have found that not a lot of kids code sentences for fun ;)

I went on the hunt earlier this year when these lessons came around and, to my surprise, I found some very fun videos and songs on YouTube to help me out:

 
Here's the remixed version of Mr. Morton- it's pretty funky and some of my kids liked this version more :)  

I also drew upon one of my most favorite movies ever to make a small subject & predicate unit. It's titled "Now the Sentences are Complete" and makes coding a bit more fun, even if it is with make-believe light sabers :)

I first printed out the definition posters full-size and side-by-side on one page for easy reference later in centers. 

We then went over them as a class and I handed each child a black & white copy of the definitions and had them fold it in half and color (color copies are available in the packet, but for disposables, I typically always use black and white). 

In the meeting area, we gathered as a class with these cards and I would read either a subject or predicate. They had to hold up the side (facing me) of the part of the sentence I read. It was a great visual for me to see who was grasping this concept and who still needed more help.

I later mixed this up in small groups with some of my strugglers to have them hold up the part that was missing from my sentence. This helped scaffold them for a later activity in the packet called "What's Missing?" 

The most fun part of this came with the center and individual work. I had them choose a blue pen and a highlighter and those became their "light sabers".... tee hee hee.

They could then complete three different activities:

1. Subject & Predicate Build a Sentence: These cards can be used several different ways and there is even a blank EDITABLE PDF page for you to make your own, if you'd like. For the easiest way, you could have kids match the characters, then write the complete sentence in the bubble next to the character and then code the sentence by underlining the subject and highlighting the predicate. For more challenge (and fun!) have the kids mix up the subjects and predicates to make silly (but still complete!) sentences, then practice coding.

2. What's Missing? This worksheet gives the student a subject or a predicate and asks them to circle what's missing. They then fill in the complete sentence below. This was a good follow-up to our small group lesson with the cards I mentioned above.

3. Coding with the Force: This was used more as extra practice for coding and an independent activity. I have since added R2D2 and C3PO graphics to the bottom of this sheet, to make it more pleasing to the eye :)

Granted, I don't think anything short of having Darth Vader show up in class would make subjects and predicates the most exciting things in the world, but with these Youtube videos and songs, as well as this mini-unit, I think you will have a bit more enjoyable time teaching it and it will give the kids something more interesting to sing and think about as they practice complete sentences :)

Do you have any fun recommendations for how to spice up boring grammar lessons in your class?

Making Landforms & Using the 7 Habits

We are beginning our long unit on the regions of the United States and I wanted to be sure that my kids knew what these different landforms were that helped to define the areas of our country. Even though it isn't explicitly in our curriculum, this project was way too fun to pass up, and my kids thought so, too.

This project also gave us the bonus opportunity to embed the 7 Habits of Happy Kids into our work. For more info and the free signs, click HERE.

First up, there are some amazing and wonderful resources out there all about landforms to get you started. Because we were short on time, I went to a great site full of all sorts of third grade (and more) goodness, Super Teacher Worksheets. Have you ever heard of them? I found out about STW about four years ago and it has since become a membership site. Honestly, though, their resources are very extensive and fun, so it's been worth the $20/year. Note: STW has no idea who I am, I just really, really love their site and wanted to share with you :)

They have loads of landforms activities and I chose a sorting one that was a great intro to the different landforms and bodies of water-- students cut out the picture and glued it next to the correct definition. That is the pink sheet you'll see in a lot of these pictures that the kids used for reference throughout this project.

With our reference sheets made, we started with the following materials:

• Chinet plates (the thickness is very, very important!)
• Crayola Air-Dry Clay (my class of 27 ended up using less than one 5 lb. tub)
• large paper clips
• Washable Tempra paint in blue, green, and brown
• Paintbrushes (I just used the cheap ones you usually find in watercolor trays- nothing fancy!)
• White School Glue
• Sharpie markers

That's it! Simple :)

We started this project on a Friday so the clay could dry over the weekend. We then glued on Monday morning, painted Monday afternoon, and labeled with Sharpie and shared with each other on Wednesday.

Here's an overview of each of those four days in pictures:

Day 1: We talked about Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind- Have a Plan and, using pencils, planned out and labeled the different landforms and bodies of water we wanted to include, using the pink reference sheet as out guide. I passed out a ball of clay about the size of a kiwi fruit to each student and they began to create the landforms in 3D. They used the paperclip to add texture to things like the waterfall or canyon :)

I then collected them all to dry and stacked them on our round table over the weekend:

Day 2: Monday started by gluing our landforms to our plates-- they were stuck on there for the most part, but I knew they would pop off easily once we started painting, so regular white glue did the trick. That afternoon, the painting began. We talked a lot about Habit 6: Synergize- Together is Better. Because we would be sharing paint trays and may all want blue at the same time, how could we work together to make sure we were able to paint and also function well as a table group? I also explained that we needed to follow our own Class Rule #3 (Respect others. Respect yourself. Respect our school.) and Class Rule #4 (Make smart choices.) when we had the paint out. They really did an awesome job, I was so proud :)

These only took a day to dry (probably less). I did have them leave the outside unpainted so it would be easy to carry and paint wouldn't get all over our hands or another person's plate.

Day 3: This was another day that focused on Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind- Have a Plan because we were labeling with Sharpies and there's no erasing those guys! We used our pink reference sheet and got to work thinking about the different ways we could label. Luckily, Sharpie writes great on top of the paint and on the edges, so the finished product was top-notch :)

We ended this project by having students leave them at their table spots and walking around to view all of the different plates. We made predictions as a class as to which landform/body of water we saw the most and also tallied how many landforms/bodies of water they were able to fit on a plate.

We started talking at the end of this week about the West region and already, landforms are popping up in our reading. I know the kids have such a better grasp on it after this project and, trust me, it is easy-peasy for you as a teacher as well :)

Have a wonderful weekend! I am so excited to share a new series with you about how I am using Math Rotations in class- more info on that soon :)