Kid-friendly Explanation of Common Core Math Practices

As I have been waiting to implement the Common Core in my Classroom, I am realizing that my students are going to need a lot of help transitioning into these new expectations. After Easter Break, I plan to start out doing this by first having students gain a deeper understanding of the Math Practices they will be conscientously using to solve problems. If I simply gave them a copy of the online practices, they would be confused and frustrated. I have created a Flipbook for their notes that will be an easy resource to refer to when using these practices. It includes kid-friendly descriptions of each standard and will also be used as an activity to have students think about 8 different situations and decide which math practice was used in each scenario. Once we have discussed each scenario and where it fits in as a class, they will glue it on the appropriate flipbook page to serve as an example when they refer back to this resource. I will be uploading pictures of the finished products as well as some of our class discussion points once I complete this lesson with my kids next Tuesday, so please visit frequently!

Comparing Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Flipbook

Here is a video showing how to put together the "Relating Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Flipbook. This is a great way for students to review these relationships and serves as a great resource for their notes.

Please view this video to see this Flipbook as a finished product. (My students love making these and since they have time invested in creating them they refer to them more quickly than traditional notes.)

Don't Get Zapped - Integer Operations

This is a really neat idea that I saw on an elementary school teacher's blog at http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/2011/01/dont-get-zapped-addition-version.html
and I think it could be adapted for my middle school students.



I thought it would be a great way to practice integer operations, fraction operations or any other operational skill and could be used for an independent game idea. I would like to plan to work in a 3 station group next year. As I am planning for the Common Core Curriculum, I am taking a tip from the reading teachers and creating a three groups (Red, Green and Blue). They will be working through rotating stations. One station will always be a skill self-check station... so I believe this game would work perfectly!

Basically, you put problems on popscicle sticks and place 30 of them in a container along with two "Take another Turn" sticks, two "Give Another Player a Stick" sticks and one "Zapped" stick which means you have to put all the sticks you collected back into the container. You keep a stick if you get the problem correct. I think I will number each problem and have an answer key handy so kids can check each others' responses. The student that wins is the student who has the most sticks when their time is up at that station.

I am very excited to start working on these games, but plan to use a PRINGLES container instead since my family devours these on a regular basis.

Megalodon Investigation: Work Samples

Student Work Samples: Megalodon Investigation

Even though this is a 6th Grade Unit, I had some time between State Testing and the students going on Spring Break, so I decided to try this investgation out with my 7th graders. They really did a good job so I decided to display a few of my Top Notch Groups' work with you. You can find this investigation in my Common Core Ratios and Proportions Unit or you can download just the Megalodon Investigation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 



Betta Math Common Core Flipbook on Relating Fractions, Decimals and Percentages

Another Betta Math Common Core Flipbook: Relating Fractions, Decimals and Percentages 

This Flipbook helps students to interact with their knowledge of relatin rationals numbers. They can revew this topic it also helps them to think about and apply the concept. I also have noticed that students more wuickly refer to these flipbooks when using their notes than looking back at what they wrote. (The time invested in creating these books make the student more invested in using them.)

If you have downloaded the Betta Math Common Core Geometry Flipbook and thought it was a good resource, than you will like this Betta Math Common Core Flipbook relating Fractions, Decimals and Percentages as well!

 

Probability Investigation: Sticks and Stones

YES! State testing is finally over and I am able to do some fun activities with my students. This was a neat activity that I found on the Illuminations Website that simulates an Apache Native American Game that was played when indian nations came together during festivals.

 

I used it as an activity to enrich my 6th graders' knowledge of probability and extend it into probable combinations. I am also working on helping my students begin to transition into the Common Core Curriculum and start helping them with the basics of writing about math. This website is a great resource for activities that are free to teachers, but a lot of times you have to supplement the activities with worksheets or additional supports that will help the students. I have started out using this activity as a review of experimental probability, but will extend this concept tomorrow to including linear combinations.

 

If you would like to use this resource and would like to have the FREE SUPPLEMENTARY worksheets and game pieces, please visit the following link and download the materials I used in class FREE of charge. Please view the images below to see the game in action. I have also included a video from You Tube showing a modern day Pow Wow to give the students an idea of what a Native American Festival sounded and looked like.

 

 

 



Today I decided to allow my 6th Graders to try-out the game entitled GRIDLOCK. They loved it, but as I played against a couple of my students I did have some ways I felt I could make it more challenging and put it more on a 6th/7th grade level. Here are pictures of the activity from today as I used it in my classes. I have created a more advanced version of this game that can be downloaded on my TpT sight.

 

 



 

Here are some images for the more advanced game FOUR TO SCORE.