Economics Carnival

Every year in we have a carnival in third grade to celebrate the end of our economics unit and put the principles we learned into action.  Kiddos get to experience opportunity cost when they have to choose what booth to spend their very last ticket on.  They experience scarcity when all the prizes at a booth are gone.  Each kiddo gets to be a consumer while they play at the carnival and a producer when it is their turn to run a booth.  They get to determine if their booth will be based on giving out goods or providing services.  They LOVE this unit and I have kiddos from past years coming back and telling me that they still remember the Econ Carnival.  How cool!

I am including some pictures from past carnivals to give you an idea of what it is like.  I have also included a freebie smartboard lesson about Human, Natural, and Capital Resources.  If you would like to download my 3-4 week unit with the lesson plans,smartboard activities, activity sheets, letter to parents, carnival schedule, quiz and test, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store by clicking the picture below.



Download this Economic Resources Smartboard lesson for FREE!


I hope you enjoy!
Amy

Problem.....SOLVED!

Problem solving is always a tricky element to teach to students.  I have taught third grade, first grade, and now second grade.  Since our district has implemented Singapore Math, I have absolutely loved teaching the 8 Steps of Model Drawing.  This method has helped my students tremendously when it comes to analyzing and correctly answering problems in math.  The year our district started Singapore Math, I was teaching third grade.  I wasn't too overwhelmed about teaching problem solving, but the following year I moved to first grade.  I was totally in shock about how to help the students keep the 8 steps organized and readable.  I created this diagram to help them fill out as they moved through the 8 steps of problem solving. To my surprise, the kiddos totally got it and were successful as they solved the problems!  I have continued to use this diagram for the students even this year as I teach second grade.  I am fortunate to be able to see just how effective this strategy has been, since I have several students this year from my first grade class last year.

 

I uploaded my diagram- they are mini....I use these daily and the students get one per day to fill out and glue into their math workbook to solve problems.  You could glue them into a notebook, or I have even used them as exit slips and collected them as they leave for recess or lunch.  One of my co-workers, Kolleen, created a scoring rubric to go along with the model drawing process.  I fancied it up a bit and attached it for free as well.  Take a look at a few of the slides I added to the page as well.  If you want to purchase the whole unit, you can visit my Teachers Pay Teachers page by clicking on my button to the right!  I hope you have as much success as I have teaching problem solving!

problem solving diagram page

scoring rubric

problem solving with problem

Have you ever used model drawing before?

-Gretchen

Retelling

If you download the Five Finger Retelling, there is a book you can print to go along with it!

Retelling a story is something we have worked on all year long. I started using the five finger retelling strategy last year. I love it! All I have to do after a story is hold up my left hand and my students will list the characters, setting, beginning, middle and end of the story. This week, I have been explaining the difference between summarizing and retelling. The five finger retelling strategy is better used with summarizing but I have found that using this to get kindergarteners to retell has been great, especially for my boys that stare at me and say they don’t remember.

Today I read “Chicken Little” to my class and then I passed out one page of the five finger retelling book. As I handed it out, I told the student which part they were writing about. This is the first time that I have had my students retell by writing, so I was lenient on the explanations. I think they did a great job!

This student had the ending of “Chicken Little” and she wrote, “The wolf throwed the guys up”. In the “Chicken Little “book that we read, the wolf tricked them and they went into his mouth and he sneezed them out. 

This student said, “Second, Chicken Little ran into friends.”   

This student said, "Chicken Little got hit by an acorn."

To get to my teachers pay teachers account and download the free smartboard five finger retelling slide, click here.

Singapore Sunday.....sadness (its the last day of spring break)

I have been working on teaching my students to add money (the Singapore way).  Because we spent so much time using the place value mats, I decided that it may help with their transfer to add money using the place value mats with a decimal.  I began by just showing the students coin combinations in my SMART notebook file.  They have to recognize coins and find the sum of each circle combination.  Then I have them record the amount on the money adding page recording sheet.  Once all the students have their answers recorded on their sheet, I select a student to come up and "uncover" the mystery amount.  This allowed me to see who understands the idea of coins, dollars and the placement of the decimal.  After that, I had my students write the sums of two coin combinations into the place value boards and find the total amount of money for both coin combinations.  I like to remind them that when the sum is ten or more (in each place value) you have to share next door.  I think with a few more practice sessions using the place value boards, the kiddos will really understand how to write money, its relation to place value, and adding with regrouping.  I hope to continue this with subtraction!

Adding Money page 1

Adding Money page 2

You can visit my teachers pay teachers account to purchase the SMART notebook pages! It is up and running.....I have posted the pages under Adding Money on Gretchen Kassel's Teachers Pay Teachers account!

Singapore Sunday: Math Resources

Hello Teaching Friends!  So, we thought it would be fun to Blog about Singapore Math Resources every Sunday.  Even if you don't teach Singapore Math, you can still use these strategies in your classroom!  To make sure you don't miss out, Follow us and make sure to follow us with your email address! Find the little form on the sidebar on the right.  Yes, that right over there!

Below you will find a little smartboard lesson you can download that teaches about Number Bonds.  This is an important Mental Math Strategy in Singapore Math that I refer to constantly with my kiddos.  We are still talking about it in third grade and we are learning about time!  I have included an anchor chart that I keep up to "Anchor" my students' thinking all year long.  This takes Number Bonds to a higher level, using Bonds to Branch.




Smartbook File

  Did you find this resource beneficial? Should we continue to post Singapore Sundays blogs?