Metric Measurement Conversions

I taught one of my classes this week how to convert between metric measurements. Unfortunately, the metric system is rarely used here in the United States, and students are not often exposed to opportunities to use and be aware of metric units. Inches and feet and miles they know, but can students relate to items that might be a millimeter thick or a centimeter wide? This is where we started - a dime has about the thickness of a millimeter and their textbook weighs about one kilogram. Our conversation became more lively and creative as we continued along this path, as students tried to guess what item I was about to mention. I think it left students with a better understanding of the greatness (and smallness) of these units.

I created the image above to help students learn the information and keep it in an organized representation. Originally they drew their own stair steps in their math notebooks, but I created this one to make sure my students have a legible and neat copy too. To remember the order of the steps we memorized the sentence, "Kangaroos hop down mountains drinking chocolate milk." I found that tip several years ago in my first year of teaching and have remembered it ever since. (I know from experience it is easy to remember!) Each letter stands for the prefix of one of the metric units. Though we don't often use the hecto- or deca-/deka, we keep it on the steps to keep the relationship intact between units. Each step is labeled with the prefix and a number for that unit. Notes are included that remind students that as they move down the stairs to the right, the decimal point moves to the right for the same number of places. For instance, converting from centimeters to millimeters is just one step to the right, so move the decimal point just one place to the right (30 centimeters would equal 300 millimeters).

All in all, a pretty successful lesson once the graphic organizer was utilized. With more practice and exposure we just might become experts in the metric system.

There's How Many Sugar Packets in a Coke!?!

As I begin this year, I am truly agonizing over my lesson plans - on a daily basis. I want to guide my students in so many ways. I want them to enjoy coming to school  (especially math class!) I want them to have lessons and experiences in my classroom that will help them truly understand the concepts we are studying. For me the conclusion I've come to is this. The problems need to be fewer, yet more involved. More applying what we know to make sense of what we don't know. That is why I am trying so hard to give the best lessons I can.

As noted in my last post, our first unit covers ratios. Thank goodness I have discovered the genius of Dan Meyer's Three Act Tasks. I used his task on Sugar Packets for the first time this week and LOVE IT! (The lesson plan can be found here.) Very engaging problem from both my point of view and for my students. In our discussions, students became very interested in how much sugar they are taking in. They wondered about things like "How much sugar should I have in one day?" and "Is all sugar bad for me?" They thought about their favorite foods and beverages and wanted to know the sugar content. At the end I asked them to find a food/drink that contained 50 packets of sugar. Amazing conversations and some deep thinkers emerged. I think we are off to a great start!

Because my students were given iPads this year, I am working in ways to teach them some of the technology as we work through the problem. They haven't had very much time to explore their new toys yet, so we opened up a pages document and learned some essential skills. Here are some of our accomplishments this first week of school.

1. We learned how to properly head our paper on the ipad.
2. We learned how to format text - change the font, the color, and size.
3. We learned how to insert a table and enter the information about the Sugar Packet problem to help us solve the problem.
4. We typed a conclusion that stated our final answer.
5. We also created a line chart with the same information to demonstrate what it would look like on a coordinate plane.

Examples:

Beginning with Ratios

It's back to school this week, and I am excited to get this year off to a good start with my sixth grade classes. I wanted to start our first unit in Math with ratios. I was surprised to find that most of my students claimed they didn't know the word ratio. I thought it would be a good idea to give them a visual representation that depicts the comparison of two elements. I know it will help them remember the concept better if they see it in action. So, we divided the class - boys on one side and girls on the other. I grabbed my iPad and took a picture to show them how we could compare the picture of the girls versus the picture of the boys. I quickly showed them how to correctly write ratios on paper, but then we spent some time thinking of different pictures we could make that would compare two or more items. It was great to see them so excited about math!

In my last class of the day, we found the ratio of boys to girls to be 8:16. Wow! 

Another great idea by one of my students - "Let's look at the ratio of neon-colored shoes to non-neon-colored shoes!"

Summer Fun Crafting ~ Making Our Own Wands

I meant for this blog to be about teaching. Well, mostly about recording some of the activities that are taking place in my classroom. But, it's summer time, and I am home with my three children. I am spending some time connecting (following) other teachers on twitter and researching ideas to use in my own classroom. But, I am also thoroughly enjoying some quality time with my children. Yesterday morning I surprised them with a fun activity. Being fans of Harry Potter, I told them we were going to make wands! You would think these were real wands if you were listening to their reaction of whooping and hollering.

We made a quick trip to the local Hobby Lobby store to purchase some more acrylic paints and a replacement glue gun. It was a fairly easy task that didn't involve too many supplies and I had some pretty happy kids! The end result yielded us some pretty cool wands, some realistic looking ones, and a couple of nontraditional (colorful) ones.

If you would also like to make some Harry Potter wands, watch this video or read these instructions. Good luck!

Class Picture

I found this idea on Pinterest by photographer Christine Kay. Here is a link to her original idea. I knew I had to do it as soon as I saw it. What a great and unique way to remember the students in my homeroom this year. I sent it to the parents of my "kids," and they loved it too.

I am no photographer, so mine does not look as good as the original, but I was happy with the outcome. It took some guess and test, but I ended up making a collage of the pictures on a document. I filled in the background as black and kept the pictures a little apart, so it looks like a thin border between the pictures.

Memory Pages

I find it's always a little more difficult to keep students engaged those very last few class periods in the school year. I find myself searching for something that will keep the natives from getting too restless. At our school, students had to return their much loved ipads and some (or most) were beginning to think that summer had already begun. This year I ended up creating my own worksheet, a memory page for them to keep as a record of our year together. It turned out to be a pretty successful win-win situation for everyone. I was happy that they took their time to write down their favorites, funny moments, and even a "shining star" moment. Students were happy to chat with friends, reminisce about the year, and just decorate their page when they were done writing.

Here is a picture of Emily and her finished page. See my Teachers Pay Teachers store page if you would like to download and use the page too.