The Happy Learning Den

With the school year winding down how do you keep students engaged during the last weeks? What strategies do you use to ensure behavior doesn't spiral out of control?  Is it all about "survival mode?"  I keep seeing memes posted all over social media about surviving the last few months/ weeks/ days....  I'm guilty of sharing a few myself.  But survival mode isn't a healthy way to teach.  Your students still need your guidance and follow through with your rules and consequences that you established the first week of school.  

It's a challenge, but the most important piece of advice that I can offer is to keep your students engaged every single day.

1.  Keep your students working!  Have your students review their work. If your students have been keeping their work in classroom folders or journals all year, give them some time to reflect on their educational journey.  Let them read, revise, and share their favorite assignments.  

2.  Allow students a day to show what they know.  I have been doing this activity for over 10 years, and it works in every single grade level.  Give your students an opportunity to teach the rest of the class (and you!) something.  I have had students demonstrate origami, how to draw, even a favorite dance. It's one of my favorite end of school year activities that I do every single year.

3. Helpers!  You have a lot to do.  If only you had around 20 energetic people to help you.  Sigh... Oh wait!  You do!!!  Students LOVE helping their teacher at the end of the year.  I tell my students that I am looking for helpers ahead of time, and how I will choose specific helpers. I tell students that everyone who wants to help, will have an opportunity to help IF they follow the rules.  Students who don't follow the rules are not allowed to help.  It works every time.  Older students can clean desks, pack your library, organize an area in your closet... younger students can do things like sort crayons and sharpen pencils for the next year.  

4.  Advice from Grads.  Have students write a letter or a brochure to incoming students for the next year.  The first day of school next year, you can give your new students the letters/brochures.

5. Breaks!  Be sure to give students enough movement breaks throughout the day.  When children, and many adults, sit for too long it becomes difficult to concentrate.  This doesn't necessarily mean extra recess.  

• Play, Heads Up, Seven Up for 10 minutes.  Depending on how quickly your students move through the room, and play each round... you may be able to play 3 or more times before sitting back down and refocusing.
• Play 4 Corners
• Play "Simon Says"
• Have students march in place as they count by 2, 5, or 10, recite the ABC’s, say the multiplication tables, etc. What you have your students recite will obviously depend on their age.

Good luck to you as you are winding down the school year.  I would love to have a conversation with you.  Please share in the comments below if you tried anything your read in this post, and how it worked for you.

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of using task cards in my classroom.  Students use them in centers, either independently or with a partner.  And at least two times a month, I have my students play Scoot with one set of my cards.  I find it to be one of the best ways to review facts that has been previously taught, without using worksheets. However, there are so many other ways to use task cards in your classroom!

     Laughter

+ Learning

 Classroom Joy

Last month, my students worked in pairs to solve problems.  But with a fun twist!  I put individual task cards into plastic eggs with pieces of wrapped candy.  Then students hunted for the eggs that I hid in plain sight around the class (in desks, under desks, on the dry erase marker tray, in the book case, etc).  Once all eggs had been found (about 2 eggs per student), I paired students up – based on ability.  I chose to partner a strong student with a struggling student so that the strong student could help explain errors and the process if it was necessary.  Students had to solve the problems, but in order to eat the candy inside the eggs two things had to take place.  Students were allowed to eat their candy if they had correctly answered the problem.  Then in order to be allowed to have the second candy, students needed to use the document camera and explain to the rest of the class how to solve their problem.  It was an egg-selent time! 

A Few Ways to Use Task Cards

1.   Whole class game: Scoot

2.   Whole class game: Scavenger Hunt -  hide cards around the room; students  look around the room for the cards with clipboards and answer sheets

3.   Morning Work: display card on document camera for everyone to complete first in the morning

4.   As an activity for students to do while you are meeting with small groups

5.   With whiteboards: teacher displays card on document camera; students answer on individual whiteboards – great for short answer or multiple choice.

6.   For fast finishers

7.   For extra practice on a targeted skill – could send home for homework

8.   As seat work: cards are in baggies that students take back to their seats to complete

9.   Binder:  Put whole pages of uncut cards in plastic page protectors. Students flip through the pages to answer several cards at at time.

A Few of My Favorite Task Cards

Multiple Meaning: Jokes that contain multiple meaning words.  In all, there are 32 task cards.  However, 18 of the cards have more than 1 correct answer!  Hello test prep!!! And your students won't even realize it!  It's a win-win.
Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots, Oh My! Learning and Laughing with Task Cards:  

Do your students have trouble figuring out the meaning of words when prefixes and/or suffixes are added to the root? Mine do! Your students will be giggling as they use these 32 multiple choice task cards to reinforce prefixes, suffixes, and roots of words. 

Do you like those two sets?  I have a plethora of other task cards in my store.  Check them out by clicking on the link here or keep scrolling down the page for a list of my current task cards.
Right now these are the only task cards that I have in my store.  I will be posting more soon because my students keep asking for more.  I just can't keep up with their demands, lol! If you aren't already, follow my store and you will be notified as soon as I post new task cards.  They are always 50% for the first 48 hours.  It's my way of saying thank you to my followers.  :-)

Multiple Meaning Task Cards

Literacy Task Cards

Cause and Effect with Short Vowel Words (Two I Have, Who Has Games)

Science Task Cards

Geometry Posters, Worksheets and Task Cards for G.1 & G.2

FSA 3rd Grade Practice Operations and Algebraic Thinking Task Cards

FSA 3rd Grade Practice NBT Task Cards, MultiSelect Questions

FSA 4th Grade Number and Operations in Base-Ten Task Cards (Multi-Select Ques.)

Adding Decimals Task Cards

Subtracting Decimals Task Cards

Adding and Subtracting Decimal Task Cards (BUNDLE)

Multiply Decimals Task Cards 5th grade (NBT 2.7)

Operations and Algebraic Thinking Task Cards (5th Grade)

Dividing Fractions Task Cards

St Patrick's Day Dividing Fractions Task Cards

St Patrick's Day Multiplying Fractions Task Cards

Have a marvelous May!  Please leave a comment below and let me know if any of these ideas were helpful for you.  If you have any other ideas for task cards please leave your idea too.  I am always looking for new ideas to incorporate into my classroom.  

The best is yet to come...
Sandra @The Happy Learning Den

Saint Patrick's Day is a perfect time to bring theme learning into the classroom.  Do you do any special learning activities in your classroom for St. Patrick's Day?  Over the years, I have observed, taken part in, and actively planned many activities such as STEM Challenges (like Catching a Leprechaun), writing about their luckiest day, and having the entire class where the color green.  This year I decided to create task cards for multiplying fractions and another set for dividing fractions with a St. Patrick's Day theme.  I was planning on saving the task cards for St. Patrick's Day, but one of my students overheard me telling a colleague about them... and he interrupted our conversation by excitedly asking when we were going to play Scoot with them! My students LOVE Scoot!

If you have never played before I highly recommend you giving it a try.  You need about 30-45 minutes to play with 24 cards.  Give each student a paper to write down their answers and to also work out any problems.  Place one task card on each desk.  Then make sure students look to see which is their starting card.  I typically have students circle the number on their answer sheet to help them remember where to start.  Only one student starts on number 1!  I give students about one minute to answer the card in front of them, Then I call out Scoot, and students move to the next desk.  (***Actually... I call out "moo."  That's their "go word" for many things.  I love cows!  So I actually say "moo."  Not "scoot."  So if you have a favorite animal or catch phrase, you can use that instead of saying the word "scoot."***) They have one minute to answer the next card, and then when time is up (or most students are finished) I call moo/scoot and they move to the next card.  Play continues until students have answered all questions.  Then you go over the answers.  

I have several task card sets in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and this year I have used most of them.  Over half of my students this year are below grade level in math.  So we started the year with 3rd grade math skills via the task cards.  Students gained confidence because they didn't know the level, only that they were doing well!  Throughout this school year I have gone back and forth between on level and below level for the games.  My math mantra: review and reteach, differentiate, differentiate, differentiate!

 Multiplying Fractions- Get them multiplying Fractions with this Luck of the Irish multiplying task cards set.  There are 16 word problems, and 16 computation problems.  Perfect for this time of year!





 Dividing Fractions- I set up the perfect division word problems and computation problems in these cards.  There are 16 word problems and 16 computation task cards in this resource.  I know that it is perfect since these are the cards we used in Scoot today.  Oh!  Did I mention that I told the student that we would play today?  It was perfect to use today as a review for the upcoming dividing fractions test!  They love when they read each task card and see which student's name I used this time... hmmmm, you don't think that's why they like playing Scoot, do you?  Well, whatever the reason, they enjoy playing.  Playing Scoot means actively engaged learners!  And most likely we will use them again in two weeks when it's St. Patrick's Day.  Which of course goes right along with my math mantra: review and reteach, differentiate, differentiate, differentiate!

Happy Teaching!
Sandra @The Happy Learning Den

We did it again! (And we will do it again next year too!) Six classes of 5th grade students were "set up" by their parents and teachers for a Valentine's Day surprise!
All 5th grade students went home the week prior with a sealed envelope for their parents.  Students were given explicit instructions not to open the envelope, that it was only for their parents.  I told my class that it was information about middle school, and that if they open it something important might fall out (insert devious smile here).  One student told me the next day that he knew what was in the envelope.  When I inquired about what he knew, he told me that he could only tell me outside the classroom.  He told me that he read the first line as his mom was opening the envelope and saw the word "SURPRISE" written on the first line.  So he knew the truth.  That middle school teachers from all the schools were going to come and surprise them.  I LOVED THIS!  
Of course I played along.  I told him that under no circumstances was he to tell anyone else.  That he would ruin the surprise for others.  He then looked down and told me that he already told 2 of his friends in class.  Lol!  I told him not to tell anyone else... it spread like wildfire!  
February 13th, from 2-7pm parents came to decorate their child's desk.  Of course some parents weren't able to come due to a variety of reasons.  Thankfully, parents donated extra balloons and decorations after they were done with the ones they wanted.  I had also gone to the dollar store and bought several different balloons and other decorations.  This way no student was left out.  
February 14th, students were not allowed into the hallway.  This gave parents time to sneak into the classrooms and wait to surprise their child.  When all 5th graders were allowed up, we told them that inside the classrooms were middle school teachers waiting to give them an important presentation.  And then they went inside and saw the explosion of love:







Once parents left (around 8:15), I had controlled chaos for the rest of the day.  :-)   I showed a Valentine's Day Idiom PowerPoint that I created.  Idioms about love!  Perfect timing!  Once I had shown the PowerPoint, and students had a few silly discussions, students took the 5 question quiz at the end of the PowerPoint.  (This quickly brought their energy down for a few moments since now they started to realize that there would also be work on this day- not just a party day.
After the quiz, they wrote stories using candy heart stickers that I bought at the Dollar Store.  The only rule was that it had to be "appropriate" for school, and that it would be read out loud.  This was also a perfect day for students to write thank you letters for all the Donor's Choose projects that had been funded this school year... I never seem to be able to find time to do that.  I was very happy with how excited they were to thank people for donating to the classroom.  
I have a variety of center games, some that I created and others that I purchased on Teachers Pay Teachers... that I put out for learning rotations.  We also played Scoot with some task cards that I created for review.  I wasn't planning on playing Scoot, but a few students requested to play.  How can I say no to learning?  :-)  So I managed to get two games of Scoot squeezed into the day!  The first one that students played was using my Operations and Algebraic Thinking task cards.  Students have played this game multiple times, and they are getting pretty good at it.  I decided to change it up a little.  I didn't put the task cards in consecutive order around the room.  This way I could make sure that they hadn't just memorized the answers and were actually doing the work.
Students also played Scoot using my Multiplying Decimals task cards.  Once again, I didn't put the cards in numerical order because they have played so often.  However, lots of learning was taking place so I was a VERY HAPPY teacher.  And all of this took place in a classroom where it looked like Valentine's Day had exploded.

After lunch we had our Valentine's Day party, and then they cleaned up the room and took everything home.  It was just as amazing as it was last year!  Which you can read about here if you are interested.  I hope this is something we continue to do every year.  It is beautiful and oh so special!

I hope you enjoyed reading about Love-fest 2017!
~Sandy @The Happy Learning Den

We have all been there.  We've given an amazing lesson.  Students were engaged, correctly answered questions and explained their steps they took to solve it, were able to give alternative ways to solve problems... and you feel confident that you can now assign practice problems.

And then... BAM!  It happens.  You know what I am talking about!  It's that exact moment your students realize that there are *gasp* word problems for them to solve!  Before you even have a moment to take a sip of water or just gather your thoughts you hear something like...
In most classrooms, there are students who are below grade level in reading.  So they have difficulty determining what the problem is asking. Then there are other students who struggle with word problems because they do not understand which part of the text is relevant.  And of course, some students struggle with reading AND figuring out which information is needed to solve the problem.

I have a few strategies that I find useful.  Let me know what you think!

1.)  I read the math problem to the students.  Sometimes this is done whole group, while other times I do this in small group.  I  use this strategy every single day! I have students in my class who are English Language Learners and/or below grade level in reading.  By taking the "stress" out of reading the word problem, students can focus on the math piece.

2.)  Students are quite familiar with the concept of "Close Reading."  After all, they dig deeper to analyze the text daily during Reading, Science, and Social Studies.  So why not have students 'close read' their math problems? I have students rereading math problems a minimum of four times, and doing something different EACH time with the information.  By the last step, students have a better understanding of how to solve the problem.  Some of my students are able to memorize the steps and use it without me reminding them.
I have a blog post if you are interested in reading about it.  Just click here!

3.)  Whenever I introduce a new math concept I use a real world word problem or story.  For instance, in my class we are currently working on fractions.  I don't want students to think that they will only do this in math class!!!  So we discuss real world situations that involve math.

"It's your birthday and you and all 15 of your guests want a piece of birthday cake.  How many pieces do need to be cut?"  (Answer:16)
Or "before you pass out the pieces of cake, your mom puts birthday candles on half of your cake.  How much of your cake has candles?" (Answer 1/2, and then you can start developing the understanding that 8 pieces out of 16 is 1/2 of the whole.  Equivalent fractions!!!)

4.)  One of my favorite strategies to help my students become more successful with word problems doesn't involve me speaking a lot.  At least two times a week (when my schedule allows it), I have students take their homework up to my document camera and explain how they solved the problem.  This involves students rereading the problem, circling any numbers needed to solve, underlining key words, and then explaining the steps as well as doing the math.  During this time we discuss misconceptions, strategies, and new ways of thinking.  I love when students show me a new way to solve a problem!

I hope you are enjoyed reading this post.  Please leave a comment below to let me know if any of these strategies help you!
Happy Teaching!
:-) Sandra @The Happy Learning Den

Happy New Year everybody!  
This is going to be a fantastic year!  
This is the first Friday of 2017 and I am still on winter vacation. (I do go back to school Monday, but I am not thinking about that right now.)    

Most of this vacation I either spent in the gym, with family and friends, or lounging on the couch.  I did not bring home one single paper to correct, nor did I bring home any lesson plans!  I made sure to complete the first week back lesson plans before I walked out of school the last day of break.

However, I did complete a teensy tiny tidbit of work while on break, and I am so glad that I did.  

During the first week of winter vacation, I finished a major project.  A teacher friend/colleague and I have been working for over a year creating scales for the Florida math standards.  We were informed by our administration at the beginning of the last school year (August 2015) that all classrooms must have standards, scales, and activities posted. Easier said than done!


(FYI the school board does provide the standards, in teacher language, however they are not student friendly at all.  I don't know about you, but if students don't understand it, I'm not wasting valuable wall space.  Also, and I am sure we were not the only teachers who faced this, some of the standards are not teacher friendly either.  A few of the standards are difficult to figure out!)  

The first thing we did was turn to Teachers Pay Teachers, but all we could find during our searches were the standards written in fancy fonts and pretty colors.  So we worked together to write each standard on 8.5 x 11 inch posters and include the information that we knew our administration required.  All posters have the standard in teacher language (small print), student friendly language (large print), a 1-4 scale with level 3 always being the proficient scale and level 4 always being the "enrichment" level.  We struggled many times with levels 1 & 2, because breaking a standard down into smaller pieces while maintaining the integrity of the original standard is no easy feat.  But we did it!  Yes!  Sweet relief!  

MAFS.5.MD.1.1 Converting Standard Measurements

We also struggled with how to include the activities section.  After all, our classroom demographics are significantly different.  We had some heated discussions over what the activities should be, but after a few months we realized that not having the same activities in our classrooms was normal/typical/par for the course.  We left it blank.  After all, the students we have from one school year to the next are different too.  We decided to put each poster in a sheet protector and we will guide our math groups and help students create the activities for the levels.  Talk about taking ownership of their learning! 

Now those of you who know me know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE clip art.  So we made sure to include student friendly clip art on each poster.  After all, we want our students to feel comfortable interacting with the standards.  If I am required to have it posted, then it MUST be student friendly.

If you are interested in checking out this major undertaking click here, if not, scroll down for my New Year Resolutions for 2017.

Resolutions for 2017

#1. I'll grade papers in a timely fashion - at least before the stack buries me. 

#2. I'll stop comparing my anchor charts and bulletin boards to the stuff I see on Pinterest - my colleagues' out-of-this-world creativity is enough for me to feel inferior.

#3. I will not bad mouth the copy machine when it jams - after all, I have plenty of time to come back later.  I don't need to eat my lunch!

#4. I will keep my hands, feet, objects, and unkind words to myself when non-teachers tell me how to run my classroom.  Yes.  Really.

#5. I will not pray for a hurricane day every Sunday night during Hurricane Season - even though it would be nice to sleep an extra hour or two.