Tried It Tuesday {Math Workshop Games}

Happy Tuesday friends! I hope your week is off to a great start! I am in countdown mode for a two week spring break. We have this week and next week, then a two week spring break! Wahoo!!

It's Time for Tried It Tuesday! 

What have you tried at school or home?
If you've never linked up with Tried It Tuesday, just link up any idea school or home related and what worked or didn't work. Simple! 

COPY THE NEW BUTTON ABOVE!

My Tried It:

Math Workshop Games
I have blogged about how I started using math workshop this year during my three 80 minute math blocks a day here and here. During the "Hands On" rotation, students work on centers from my math bins. I have eight drawers in this cart from Lakeshore Learning.

Students absolutely LOVE the math "games" hands down more than any other center choice. They are so excited when I introduce a new game as a center. They are allowed to play the games at center time but also have to work on the other independent activities. They would only play the games if I let them though! Students who are fast finishers on our daily math meeting that I open the class with, have anywhere from 5-10 extra minutes and during that time, they can grab a quick game to play.  

We just finished our fraction unit, and students loved the matching/go fish game that I made several years ago as part of four fraction math centers.

One way I have found to help organize game pieces is to make two copies of the cards and laminate the cards onto a colored sheet of paper. 

I use two different colors and it is super easy to keep the stacks together!

This is the "Monster Half Smack" game from Monster Fractions. Students compared fractions to the benchmark fraction 1/2 and are able to keep fractions equivalent to 1/2 if they "smack" it first. The other cards go on the game board next to < or > than 1/2.

The concept we just finished last week was 4.NF.4 multiplying fractions addressing:

CCSS.Math.Content.4.NF.B.4b: Understand a multiple of a/b as a multiple of 1/b and use this understanding to multiply a fraction by a whole number. 

CCSS.Math.Content.4.NF.B.4c: Solve word problems involving multiplication of a fraction by a whole number, e.g., by using visual fraction models and equations to represent the problem. 

The students are in love with this "Monster Land Race to the Finish" math game where they must find a fraction of a whole number to determine how many places they move on the game board. If they answer the problem incorrectly (partner checks using the answer key), they don't move on that turn. They start to master this concept quickly when there is a game for it! Here is the bin I have this game in with two sets of cards (two different back colors to keep packs organized). 

This is part of this math pack and also includes another center with word problem task cards.

During the last Teachers Pay Teachers sale, I snagged two great game packs by Angela Watson. I'm really excited to use these geometry partner games.

I laminated game directions and put pieces in baggies to place in bins later.

What have you tried recently? I would love to hear about it!

This link up will be open all month. Link up anytime! 

New link ups posted the 2nd Tuesday of the month.

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Tried It Tuesday {Math Workshop Board} and Teachers Help Teachers!!

Happy Tuesday! Before I get to Tried It Tuesday, I would like to tell you about my BBB, Nick, from Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason. Nick and his wife have begun one of the best, most exciting journeys of their lives...a journey to adopt a child. It is their dream to be parents and they have put so much heart into making this dream a reality. Unfortunately, the cost associated with adoption is so high that a teacher's salary alone is not enough. That's where teacher bloggy friends come in! Many bloggers have put together a fall bundle of products geared for grades 3-5 where the profits will help Nick and his wife make their dream of becoming parents a reality! Check out this fall bundle here!

Many of these items were created new for this bundle and are not yet available in teacher's stores! Check them out...

So, that comes to about $1.30 per product in this bundle! What a steal!! AND you will be supporting a fellow teacher and his dream of becoming a dad! Win, Win!!

Now It's Time for Tried It Tuesday! 

What have you tried at school or home?
If you've never linked up with Tried It Tuesday, just link up any idea school or home related and what worked or didn't work. Simple! 

My Tried It:

Math Workshop Board
Knowing that I was making the switch to teaching 4th grade math departmentalized this year (three 80 minute blocks), I spent a good amount of time this summer reading about math workshop. I loved using Daily 5 for ELA in my classroom and knew that I wanted to use something similar for math.

I found some wonderful, inspiring posts by my amazing bloggy friends Tara at 4th Grade Frolics and Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B. Elizabeth actually has a whole series of posts about math workshop in her room. It was overwhelming at first because their workshops seem to run so smoothly and I wasn't sure how it would work for me. I started about a month ago and could not be more thrilled!! I am loving it and so are the students! Two students just told me yesterday that math is their favorite subject and it used to be their least favorite!

One thing I thought might be overwhelming was changing the math workshop rotation board everyday with three different blocks of 80 minute math classes.
Here is my workshop rotation board:

Aren't they cute? This set is from 4th Grade Frolics TpT store and she has different colored sets available too. The groups are written for three different sections. I laminated all the pieces and write on them with dry erase markers so I can change groups if needed. I put the rotation cards on the board with push pins so that I could move them easily. However, I have found that I can just leave them as is and tell the students that today we are doing centers 1 & 2 (or whatever) and the next day do centers 3 & 4!  

I only have time for two centers a day. We start class with math meeting and then do a mini lesson usually or review something whole class. I will write more about that later. The students are great at the routine now and get to their centers quickly. Below the "Hands On", "Math Facts", and "At Your Seat", I just laminated white pieces of paper and write in dry erase marker what they will be working on. I blogged last time about how I am using Adapted Mind this year sometimes for "At Your Seat". I just added a calendar to the open space at the top. As much as I would like to keep all three math classes on the same centers each day, it's just not happening with assemblies or things in one class taking more time. So, I am writing on the calendar each day what centers each block completed (so I don't have to ask the class each day...I can never remember day to day!).

Time for you to link up! Have a great Halloween this week! Aren't you happy it is on a Friday? We carved these pumpkins last night (using the pre made designs) but I was pretty proud. :)

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Tried It Tuesday {Adapted Mind}

Happy Tuesday! I am leaving this Tried It Tuesday link up open for two weeks.
Hope you have a great week!
It's Time for Tried It Tuesday! 

What have you tried at school or home?
If you've never linked up with Tried It Tuesday, just link up any idea school or home related and what worked or didn't work. Simple! 

My Tried It:

Adapted Mind
My district purchased a subscription to Adapted Mind this year.
There is a free 30 day trial subscription to check out and test the website.

Here is a YouTube introduction clip:

My students started out by taking a pretest. Then, Adapted Mind automatically differentiates each student's lessons and practice based on their individual abilities. I have been using Adapted Mind the past two weeks during Math Workshop for "at your seat" work. The students love it because they are on the iPads or laptops for "at your seat!".

Each day I get emails for the student progress. I don't always open them, but it is a good feature. 

It is addressed to the parent so I think my email is set up as the parent on all students but that could be changed.

A sample email:

 When you click to see problems missed, a screen like this shows:

There are also free worksheets and problems offered on the site. Just scroll down on the home page.

 If I don't want my students to work on "smart practice" they can work on any 4th grade skills that I choose to have them work on. This is just one screen shot of some 4th grade skills.

One of the students favorite parts of the website is that they earn "badges" as they progress through their work. Students are always commenting on what badges they have earned.

Check out the website if you have a spare moment. Even if you don't get a membership, you might find something useful to use in the free section!

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