Elf-tacular Giveaway

We have teamed up with Nikki at Teaching Autism for this Elf-tacular blog hop and giveaway! Hidden in our blog post you will find one of the letters needed to enter for a chance to win a $70 gift card! Hop through to everyone's blog to collect and unscramble all the letters into a December/Holiday themed word. Then, enter the Rafflecopter for a chance at winning.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (cue in the music)... in my room.  We only have 14 instructional days between Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break, which means we have been busier than Santa's Elves on Christmas Eve! 

Here is a peak at what we have been working on:

Christmas Centers

As you know, I teach 3 rotations a day of 3rd grade math.  I set up these centers to review skills that we have already learned about this year.  All of these centers are hands on and the kids absolutely love digging into them!

The centers will stay the same each day, I just tweek them a bit to include slightly different measurements etc. each day.  

Here is what you can find at each of the stations:

Station 1- Weight with Addition and Subtraction

At this station, students weigh 2 different objects using a digital scale.  Students then must find the difference and total weight of the two objects.

 Station 2- Liquid Measurement and Rounding

At this station students must measure the total amount of liquid in both containers.  Then, they must round the amount of liquid in the containers to the nearest 10 and nearest 100.

Station 3- Weight

At this station, students use a pan balance to measure the weight of an object.  They must show the units they used to calculate the weight.  This works well for multiples. For example if students weigh a 90 gram item, they may list that they used 2, 20 gram weights (2 x 20), and 5, 10 gram weights (5 x 10).

Station 4- Catch a Reindeer

In addition to these fun review centers, we are also learning about area.  At this center, students must "catch" one of Santa's reindeer that has gotten loose.   To do so, they must enclose it in a pen and calculate the area of that pen.

Station 5- Build a Figure

To go along with the area theme we are working on in class, students are given a specific area and must create as many rectangles or squares that they can with that given area.  Students use foam square inch tiles, in which I have glued magnetic pieces to them so they will stick to my magnetic whiteboard.  If you want to try this and don't have a magnetic board, cookie sheets would work as well for this center.

And there you have it.  Some easy to set up centers with little prep time.  In efforts to make sure students really understood what to do at each center, on Day 1, I only set up the first 3 stations, and then added a station each day after that. You can find the recording sheet that I use here: Christmas Stations Recording Sheet

While students are rotating around through the centers, that frees up a bit of time for me to work with small groups.  Right now, students are working on reviewing multiplication of whole numbers by multiples of 10 or single digit multiplication (depending upon each students ability) during small group time. 

I found these adorable Santa light up wands in the Dollar Spot at Target.  If you can't find the light up wands, you could use fly swatters or kids can simply slap their answer choice with their hands.  You can find this fun FREEBIE in my store here: Snatch a Santa

Paper Plate Santa Craft

Karen's kindergarten students had a lot of fun making these paper plate Santa's on our Polar Express / Pajama / Hot Cocoa Bar Day. **Disclaimer** Most of you know that I (Karen) taught for 16 years in Southern CA and then moved with my husband and kids to MO. I am no longer in the classroom.

December Themed Writing Topics

Students loved guided drawing lessons and writing holiday themed stories.

Elf on the Shelf

Every year Jingle, our Elf on the Shelf, would visit after Thanksgiving break. The students loved finding her and little notes and gifts she would leave.

Thanks for reading! Click the elf image below to hop to the next blog post... 

Be sure to collect all 7 letters and enter our Rafflecopter for a chance to win a $70 gift card. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Making Sense of Rounding

Has anyone else witnessed this look after they have taught their students a lesson on  how to round?

Rounding can be a confusing concept!  There are some cute chants we can teach our students to sing, but is that really teaching them the number sense necessary to master this skill?  I'm not sure...

Here are some simple techniques you can use in your classroom to help teach your students the number sense necessary for rounding.  These ideas are concrete methods that will not only help build number fluency while also teach them how to round.

Using a Number Line to Round

This strategy builds on the the idea that when rounding, if a number is 5 or greater, you round the number to the next ten, hundred, thousand, etc. and if the number is less than 5, the place value stays the same.

For example, lets say we are rounding the number 67 to the nearest 10. Students would create the number line as shown below.

Since 67 is past our halfway point, students know that we round to the next 10 which is 70.

Here is another example for you- Let's say we want to round 543 to the nearest hundred.  Students would create the number line as shown below:

Since 543 comes before our halfway number, we would leave the hundreds place the same, which is 500.

I know, I know, this is a different approach, BUT, try it a few times with your students and you will see they will actually "get" it. 

 Download this  number line template by clicking HERE.  

I also really like to break out our graduated cylinders (also known to my 3rd graders as measuring cylinders).  I set up a few stations by filling the cylinders with different amounts of water.  Students list the amount of water in each cylinder and then round the amount to the nearest 10.  What is the benefit of this? 

1. Students are getting practice in reading liquid measurement.

2.  The visuals on the cylinders are perfect for rounding.  The units on the cylinders count by 10- reinforcing the concept of finding the nearest 10.  Also students can see the halfway point- reinforcing the concept that if the liquid measurement is past the halfway point, we will round to the next 10 and if it is less, we keep the current 10.

And last but not least, how do we keep learning fun? By games of course!  We play Alien Abduction, where students have to find the halfway number (abducted by aliens).  When checking for understanding, students use the "Round to the Next 10 or 100" and "Keep the 10 or 100" the same signs.  I give students a number to round and they show me how they would round the number by showing me the correct side of the sign.  And, to get students up and moving we also do a "'Round the Room" activity where students match numbers placed around the room to rounding clues.

And there you have it!  I hope these strategies help make teaching rounding more understandable and fun for your students.  

Download these FREEBIE activities by clicking HERE.

 

Clip art from Rebecca B Designs