Graphing Activities & Ideas...Plus a FREEBIE!!

Hello lovely ladies and gentlemen! It has been a few weeks since I last posted. It's amazing how quickly time can slip out from under you, especially when you are teaching and trying to have a personal life as well. My husband and I have been going through a roller coaster with some medical things so my focus has been there more than anywhere else, which is my excuse for me being MIA for a few weeks now.

Speaking of time slipping away...all of these snow days have made it more difficult to get the necessities taught before the wonderful MAP test begins in late April. My team and I met on Wednesday this past week (we had a full release day) and started stressing over the little amount of time we have to cover so much "stuff".

On a side note...it's a wonderful thing when you work with a group of people who you can joke around with, be serious with at the necessary times, who you support through tough times, or who you can be crabby with and STILL get along and like each other. The best part...we don't take it personally, hold grudges, or get mad at each other. I am VERY fortunate to work with a fabulous team as just described.

Anyways, we talked about the remaining part of our academic calendar and planned out how many weeks we are going to hit on the major concepts that we need to cover before the wonderful MAP test begins. Graphing is one of the concepts we are getting ready to cover, after we finish up with our measurement unit later this week.

As we collaborated, we started talking about different ways we could incorporate graphs within the classroom. We find that students still struggle with answering questions from graphs that are given, especially if they are pictographs where they have to determine the value of each object. After much collaboration, we decided that we will incorporate a graphing activity in the centers that we do during RTI (Response to Intervention/Instruction) time.
   
Groovy Graphs is a FREE activity where your students can create their own graphs and can be used universally. In addition there are graphing questions that your students can answer based on the graphs that they create.

Students create either a bar or pictograph by developing a theme and variables that are associated with that theme. They roll 2 dice to determine how many votes are given for each variable and then graph the total amount rolled. After all variables have been graphed, the students then answer the questions (included on a separate page) under their graphs. They can work individually or with a partner to create their graphs. Click here to download Groovy Graphs for FREE!!!






In addition to the Groovy Graphs activity, I also have a graphing game within my Major League Math centers that is similar to Groovy Graphs but is within a baseball theme. (Check out the other concepts that are included within the Major League Math centers by clicking on the link above.)

Some other graphing ideas that I wanted to share with you include the following:

• Math-Aids-A coworker of mine told me about this awesome website where you can quickly create worksheets for various math concepts. I use this website especially for my lower students. Click on the link to look at the various graphing options this website has to provide.
• Math Data Game For Kids-This is a great technology resource, especially for your lower level learners or for introducing graphs. Students get to determine the amount of tallies made and then create a bar graph that shows the amount of tallies. Upon completion of the bar graph, your students then get to create a pictograph (which even includes the key where each one is worth more than 1). Great resource for a center or to put on your student computer(s) for your students to work on.
• You could also have your students determine a theme that they would like to survey a group of people on. Have them survey the people (students and teachers within your school or can survey people at home) and then create a graph to determine their findings.
• Hand out candy to your students and they have to graph the candy (they determine how they are going to graph the candy). Then have them share with the class the strategy they used to graph their candy.
• Basic Skill Practice Games-a plethora of math graphing ideas and links to click on.

Thanks for stopping by today! Don't forget to follow us on

How do you incorporate graphs within your classroom? What other suggestions or resources do you have for graphing?

Happy Sunday!

Snowy Days & Winter Centers

Hello darlings!  Another cold, snowy day here in the Show Me State!  Watching kids outside throwing snowballs at each other, reminded me to post about my Winter Math Games.  One game my kiddos loved last week was the Snowball Fight.  Yes, we threw paper around the classroom and acted crazy, but you know what?  Those kids were learning!  They absolutely loved it!

So what did we do?  Each kiddo got a snowball card with a three digit by one digit multiplication problem on it.  Before they even solved it, they crumpled it up into a ball and when I yelled "Snowball Fight!"  they threw the ball across the room.  (I can see you are panicking...)    Next, they grabbed a snowball, opened it, and had to solve it as quickly as they could on their recording sheet before I yelled "Snowball Fight!" again.  We kept repeating this.  (It is okay, hang in there!)  To make it a little more exciting, there are yellow snowballs mixed in.  If a kiddo grabs a yellow snowball, they have to sit out for one round.  I didn't tell my kiddos what the yellow snowballs represented.  I told them to make an inference.  They got it.  Yuck!

Needless to say, EVERY single kiddo was working hard to solve his/her math problem.  Even my kiddos who like to melt down or refuse to work, were working, smiling, and giggling!  It was fun even for me.  I didn't think to take pictures since we were having a blast!

Click here to download this free game and while you are at it, check out the rest of my highly engaging Winter Math Centers here.

Here are the rest of my Winter Math Centers.  In third grade, I use them during RTI time when my kiddos go to Math Wizard Station.  To check out all my info and freebies about RTI, click here.

Is it a snow day for you?   Tomorrow I will choose a random person to grab these centers for free.  Leave your email in the comments if you would like a shot! Please be sure you are following us on Bloglovin!

Blessings,

RTI Resources for Clueless Teachers (like me)

Hello darlings!  Are you doing RTI in your classroom?  If not, you probably will be soon.  It is the new big thing in education-Response To Intervention.  Not that we aren't "interventioning" enough already!  I don't know about you but I feel like I am teaching 25 different curriculums every day, trying to meet my students where they are.  That being said, you gotta do, what you gotta do!

This post is going to be all about what I have the other 20 or so kiddos doing while I am pulling my small tier 2 intervention group.  I didn't want it to be busy work.  I wanted them to be challenged and have fun.  AND I wanted it to be E*A*S*Y!  Can we say "Aint Nobody Got Time for That!" boys and girls?

So I created 8 centers/stations that two or three kiddos could visit at a time.  They spend 25 minutes at the station and complete one station a day.  This means they will not get to all stations in one week.  Which also means you don't have to change the math center out every week.  You have to do it every two weeks.

  Each student has an RTI notebook that they record all of their work inside.  I am not necessarily going to take this for an academic grade because not ALL students will go to the centers.  I will most likely take a participation grade.   The only station that requires you to change out any materials is the Math Wizard Station.  Everything else is good to go.  See what I mean....

The above picture show Super Hero Vocabulary.  Students simply create a vocabulary card for each of the words you have chosen.  I use a sticky note to write the words up each week.  Once they compete the card, they hole punch it in the corner and put it on a binder ring to keep them together.  My kiddos store these on the metal bars of their desks.

Materials 

note cards

hole puncher

1 1/2in binder ring

Math Monster Center: Depending on your classroom computer situation you could have students play math games, go to xtramath.org, or take a quiz at multiplication.com.  I am lucky that I have 3 computers.  You could also have kiddos use flashcards or practice with a dry erase board.

Materials

Computers or

flashcards

News Reporter Center:  I have a stash of Time For Kids magazines.  Students read an article and then summarize the article and write a reflection.  If you don't have TFK magazines ANY nonfiction article, book, or textbook would work.

Materials
Time For Kids Magazines or
Nonfiction texts

Poetry Center:  Students read a poem and then pick a task card.  They follow the directions.  I got the task cards for free from the Lesson Plan Diva.

Materials
Poetry books
Poetry Task Cards

Friendly Letter Center: Students grab a sheet of paper from the pocket and write a letter to a classmate.  The letter must be detailed and formatted correctly.  I put the example that we did together back there as a reminder.  We write the letter to the Rockstar of the Week.

Materials
paper

Comic Strip Story: Students choose a fiction book that they have already read or are finishing up.  They then create a summary in comic strip form. (sorry the Comic Strip paper is from a book)

Materials
fiction book
comic strip paper
crayons

Word Study Center: Students choose a task card to study their spelling words for the week.  I got the task cards fro free from Amy Lemons.  The spelling words can be found in my store by clicking here.

Materials
spelling task cards
spelling words

Math Wizard Center:  This is the only center you will have to change out every week.  I just find different games for my kiddos to play.

Materials
Math games

To the right you can see each of the posters in mini size. (to print I just chose multiple pages and chose 4 to a page) This is how we keep track of who is at each center. (one center a day)  I took this pic before we added the clothespins with each kiddo's name.  We just move the clothespins down each day to rotate for the next day's center.  I make this a job in my classroom.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post.  Would you like to download all the direction cards?  Here you go! Click here!  Please follow me on TPT and bloglovin my friends!


Blessings,

RTI with Mary Howard

I just attended the best Workshop I have ever been to!  It was RTI (Response to Intervention) with the guru herself, Mary Howard!  Not only was the information great, but Mary was awesome!  She is so down to earth and funny and you can tell she truly cares about students! She was inspiring!   While I would love to tell you everything I learned that is just impossible!  Basically, I am just going to give you a little background of RTI and then share lots of strategies! (sorry for all the exclamation points!  Can you tell I am excited?)

My school is just now learning about RTI and we started implemented assessment tools last year.  We were using AIMS web, which Mary doesn’t recommend… AIMS web simply assesses how fast students can read.  You and I both know that you can have a kiddo that reads like the wind, but can’t remember a single thing he read.  COMPREHENSION is what we should be assessing. Mary recommends using RUNNING RECORDS, anecdotal notes, and DRA (developmental reading assessments) to assess students.  You should be doing Running Records for the lowest 20% of your kiddos once a week and the rest of your kiddos every 3-4 weeks.  Make sure you are analyzing the total score for accuracy and the total score for meaning accuracy.  If you go to the Teacher’sCollege website, they have tons of Benchmarks that you can print off and use!   I will definitely be using these bad boys! 

I typed the rest of my notes so you can print them out.  This is what I am going to be sharing with the teachers at my school.  Please know, this is from MARY HOWARD and they are NOT my ideas!  Today's notes are all about the WHAT of RTI.  Check back soon for the HOW.