Identify Triangles and Quadrilaterals

I'll be honest...when I teach triangles and quadrilaterals it is usually towards the end of the year, right at the beginning of state testing season. I feel in the past I haven't taught it as well as I could have and I wanted to make a point to do better this year. I always felt rushed to teach this standard and I felt like it was an easy one. However my scores in this standard have always been lower that what I expected. I attribute this to my speed in teaching it and knowing that it isn't a power standard on state testing.
I was determined to do better this year teaching this standard and I feel like I succeeded as my percentage for proficiency for this standard was in the 70's when in the past it's been in the low 60's! Reflecting on the school year there are a few things that I felt helped!

• Figure out at the beginning of the year what students already know about theses shapes
• Determine any misconception and take note of them for future teaching
• Create and anchor chart and keep it up for WEEKS!!!!
• SPIRAL REVIEW SPIRAL REVIEW SPIRAL REVIEW!!!!
• Make the lesson as hands on as possible!

I created an anchor chart after review what they knew about angles and triangles and left it up for a long time. I did the same for quadrilaterals and made a "family tree" to represent the different quadrilaterals. The students really used it during workshop when I did spiral review activities. I felt that leaving the chart up allowed the students to use their resources instead of me having to keep teaching it. 

I swear by spiral reviewing EVERYTHING! I taught triangles and quadrilaterals at the beginning of the year this year and I was able to review it all the time. I would randomly throw in task cards, or a hands on activity in workshop to keep the information fresh in their mind. 

I tried to make this as hands on as possible as many times as I could. I WISH I had a set of geo boards, and I requested them for next year and pray we actually get them! There were a few other things I did to make it hands on! One that was really fun was the students had a "Guess Who..." worksheet where the shapes had a speech bubble with a characteristic and the students had to match the speech bubble to the shape. THEN the students got a sheet of construction paper and cut out a shape of their choice with a speech bubble with a characteristic that they came up with do describe that shape. The students drew faces on the shapes and got super in to it! They were adorable hung up around the room and in the hallway! 

(Click the link above to get the worksheet for FREE!)

Another activity I did was SUPER fun and interesting. I put the students in groups and gave each group a different color sticky note. I drew some shapes on the board and they had to write characteristics that described each shape. ONE characteristic per sticky note and they could put as many sticky notes up as possible! It was neat to see the students work together and used their observations to describe the shapes. They put things like, has perpendicular lines, has two pairs of parallel lines, has two lines of symmetry....etc! It was so fun! We had a good time seeing which sticky notes were the same and which color had the most on the board!  What a quick and EASY set up activity was AMAZING results! 

In workshop I utilized my task cards in review VERY often! I also used the coloring page had morning work some days and the extra worksheet as homework. One of my favorite ways to use the task cards is to tape them around the room and to have the students solve them on a clip board! Gets them up and moving which is always fun! 

I hope some of these ideas help you as you plan for the next school year! I will be sure to do the same this year as I got great results!! Share any other ideas with how YOU teach this standard!! I would LOOOVE more activities to implement! 

Line Plots with Fractions!

I LOVE teaching line plots with fractions! I have always teaching fractions on a number line first and teach them how to read and understand how number lines work. Once they have an understanding, I teach how to plot the data. 

I have found that many students have the same issue with line plots, and it is understanding what the questions are asking. The biggest misconception I've found is that when the questions asks, "What is the longest length?" the students will pick the fraction with the most data points. I have to go over and over and over this with the kids and tell them to read carefully! Especially the ESL students who struggle with vocabulary, they tend to really have a hard time understanding the difference between the most common length and the longest length.

To help with this I cut straws and had the students measure them and plot the on the number line. They LOVED the hands on aspect of it and got a measurement mini lesson! Once the data was plot, the students could easily see which straws were the longest/shortest and which straw length was the most common or least common. This activity also helped with the questions that ask, "What is the combined length..."I was able to put the straws end to end to show what the question is asking!

In the past I actually had the students measure REAL earthworms! Oh man do the kids love this! This year I wasn't able to do it because I did not have any worms! In the past I our school had compost bins and I was in charge of taking care of the worms!

Oh well...straws work great too...and are less squirmy!! 

Check out my line plot task cards to help enforce this skill!! They are great and give a variety of questions to practice this skill! I know you'd love them! 50 questions total which include 20 task cards, worksheets and coloring page! All for a great price!!! 

                                    

Add and Subtract Fractions and Mixed Numbers

Last week I taught adding and subtracting fractions on a number line. I decided to just use painters tape as my number line so I did not have to keep redrawing lines over and over again! When I started writing on the table instead of dry erase boards, it really got the kids attention!

Here I showed how to read a number line and how to add and subtracting using a number line. I extending the activity for some groups by making them represent their answer as unit fractions and then as a multiplication sentence (multiplying a whole number by a fraction).

I also have task cards that I use to practice this skill! You can get them and all my other cards at my TpT store!  I also have task cards for adding and subtracting mixed numbers!! All of these include 20 task cards, worksheets and coloring pages. A total of 50 questions in each set.


Don't be afraid to get your desks dirty!! The kids love it and it is so much easier that getting out all the dry erase boards!! Even better...you don't have to BUY dry erase boards!!!

FYI---dry erase board cleaner gets all the marks off best once you are done!