Five for Friday

I am so excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! I have been reading these blog posts forever, but never linked up. Now that I have my adorable new blog, I am ready to share!

Last Friday our third grade team had a math work day. One thing we made were these fraction number line cards. There are the numbers, bar models, and circle models. I was really surprised how much the kids loved them! They got really into combining the different fraction sets. Such an engaging activity - although it was a little crazy in the room with everyone talking at once!

More on the fractions front! I challenged the kids to make a fraction design using the pattern blocks. This turned out to be a great lesson on equivalent fractions and equal parts. The pictures show the work of two groups. One group totally got the idea, and the other needed some quick interventions. For a simple assignment, this one was pretty cognitively demanding and had plenty of entry points which was exciting.

This week we have been focusing on positive self-talk or affirmations. I started by having the kids write down any bad thoughts they had. They wrote down things like, "I'm dumb" or "I always get in trouble". Then, we tore these thoughts up and recycled them because we don't have to listen to these negative thoughts. Finally, the kids wrote good thoughts on their desks. The kids really enjoyed this. In fact, the school counselor had a weekly meeting with a couple of my kids and one of them said that his day was at a 10 because of this activity. That was so great to hear!

This face. That is all.

My students are so creative! We were making bookmarks with "Two Vowels Go Walking" words on them. I have a cluster of ELL students who need this phonics booster, plus, I am finding that focusing on phonics is helping everyone with sounding out words for spelling. Anyway, this amazing little girl decided to name the kids on her bookmarks. She even gave them names that started with the letter of the bookmark! So cute!

If you are interested in getting these bookmarks, they are free at www.TeachWithMe.com.

Well, that was my week! It was a long one! Looking forward to a lot of time with my four favorite kids this weekend. Plus, lots of planning for next week.