META TAG

Monday, May 1, 2017

Teaching with Task Cards

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


P.S. Find and follow me on Facebook (The Happy Learning Den).  I post good news in education,  positive videos and memes that relate to  teaching, notifications when a new resource is available  (50% off for the first 48 hours... you get a reduced rate, and in return I get positive feedback... win-win!), and FLASH FREEBIES  (usually for 2 hours).




Posted by at 10 comments:

Saturday, April 1, 2017

A Recipe for Test Prep

Another season of state assessments is upon us.  I’m sure so many teachers can relate to this: You have all grade level standards to review for reading, math and science- and no time to do it in.  You are feeling stressed, but you do not want your students to feel any stress. 

What’s a teacher to do? 

Whether you view test prep as a necessary evil, or just plain evil, the fact remains that your students deserve to be well prepared for their assessments. Just like every year, the weight of all the assessments causes stress for administrators, teachers, parents, and unfortunately the students.  All of of this pressure can drive you crazy, and a crazed teacher obviously means students who are off-the-wall. Here’s where I take a few deep breaths and pull out my arsenal of test prep tricks. Bring it, state assessments, we’re ready for you!  Follow my recipe for test prep, and you’ll be ready too! 

Test Prep Recipe 

Ingredients (duplicate as needed for each subject tested)

 1 cup of state standards
1/2 cup of FUN
1/4 cup of Humor
Serving Size: The number of students in your class.

Directions

1. Keep your test prep fun, sweet, and simple! Whether you have a few days, a week or a little more time to dedicate to reviewing skills taught all year make it a time filled with games, practice, and prizes in your classroom.

2. Realistically, you will not be able to review all of the skills. It is imperative that you choose standards that your students still struggle with, standards taught at the beginning of the year, and standards that you know your students can excel at if they are just reminded of the skill.

3.  Students do need to practice: But it doesn’t need to be sitting down with a test prep booklet.  Make it fun!  Turn prep into a game.  There are thousands of task cards for sale at Teachers Pay Teachers.  You can easily do a search for the skill that you want students to practice.  Then cut and laminate the task cards.  Put them in a center!  Let students rotate through a variety of centers for a specific amount of time (it depends on the amount of centers you create and the number of students you have).  Then review the answers once students have gone through all the centers.  Or play Scoot with Task Cards.  I have blogged about this before, but basically you place one task card on each desk and you give students about 1-2 minutes per card to solve it on their own sheet of paper.  
You can read about how we play Scoot in my classroom here.  Super important:  Make sure that you make time to review the answers and if possible, review in small group with any students who struggle with standards.

 A cute learning activity that I am incorporating into test prep is an idea that I got from my friend over at Tailored 4 Teachers.  She did this last year with her 4th graders, and I am doing it this year with my 5th graders.  It's an egg (learning) hunt!  I am going to put task cards into plastic Easter eggs and hide them in plain sight around my classroom.  I am choosing cards from standards that my students have struggled with all year.  Students will find an egg, open and solve it, and then students will share their task cards with the class and explain how to solve to others.  

4. Once testing day(s) arrives, it is important for your students to know that you aren’t worried. And if you are nervous? Fake it until you make it!  Remember, the test-taking attitudes your students form now may impact their test-taking behaviors for the rest of their education. After all, standardized tests don’t go away as you go up through the grades.  If anything, you are creating the foundation for your students to take the SAT in high school.  Keep in mind that a lot of your students’ attitudes will be shaped by the feelings you project.

5. This is the time for you to emphasize that testing is a chance for your students to show off and show what they know. Each morning students are testing, I give testing treats.  This is just a little something I give to ease the stress.
  • Dum Dum lollipops: Because they are not dumb-dumbs!
  • Nerds: So they can be a nerd and read every word!
  • Blow Pops: So they can blow the test away!
  • Smarties: Because they are smarty pants!




What are your test prep strategies? How do you stay sane (and keep your students from going bonkers) while facing the testing pressure? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.



Posted by at 29 comments:

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

St Patrick's Day Math Activities for Upper Elementary and Early Middle School

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


Posted by at 6 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)