PEMDAS Hopscotch

I will be teaching Order of Operations this week.  After seeing Dave Burgess speak at our opening day, I have been motivated to "Teach Like a Pirate."  I would consider myself a pirate but have been giving it some extra effort this year.  There is always room for improvement.  

This week I will be teaching OA.1 and OA.2.  I will use my PEMDAS hopscotch boards, Order of Operation Shuffle, and a surprise visit from my Dear Aunt Sally.  Some people do not like gimmicks, but we need children to be excited about school and learning.  

I will teach the chant below with gestures for the kids to chant as

they hop down the board.  I will also have them hop as they solve equations.

Order of Operations, Evaluate Equations(2x)

Parenthesis and Brackets(2x)

Exponents with Powers(2x)

Multiply or Divide in the order that they come

Divide or Multiply in the order that they come

Add or Subtract, Subtract or Add

Doing Algebra is totally rad!

I bought 12x12 vinyl square floor tiles at Lowes.  70 cents a piece.  

I made 4 sets for my classroom.

I first printed out my signs on colored card stock.  (will hang)

I traced the letters on white copy paper and used them as stencils to trace on the tiles.

Click below for your free printable

Click for link 

 

 I used both the chisel marker,  both worked great on the tile.

I have a few notebook pages in my 5th Grade Interactive Notebook on TPT or my Multiplication, Division & Order of Operation Notebook for 5th graders that would be perfect for this lesson.

Love the Twist on the Place Value Chart.
Kids can see how the numbers continue.
Save Crystal Light cans...could be pencil holders on their desks!!!

I am trying to do more check-ins with my students.
Sticky notes can get expensive if you have a lot of classes.
I like that I could grab these and look at them at home.

Great way to make models of arrays or area.

We are working on exponents.
I made this anchor chart for my classes.

Ordered a name stamp...no more writing my name in their planners.
They love to get stamped!!!
I ordered mine on Amazon.

Going Bananas with Scientific Method

The first two weeks of school have been sooooo busy.  On top of the craziness at school, my oldest daughter just bought a place and we have spent the last few weekends getting it all painted,  moved out and set up.  I finally got to spend a Sunday creating some new lesson plan materials for next week.

I love my class!!! I was new to fifth grade and the middle school setting last year and it took longer to get going!! We are getting the schedule down and have established our daily routines.  For the past two weeks, I have had 100% of my math and science HW.  Go room 444!

We just finished up our "Banana Lab" this week.  We went through the steps of the scientific method and the children created their own experiment with variables and a constant.  

 Here are the kids collecting data and recording observations on their lab sheets.

The last day we finished our observations and wrote our conclusions.  I had each group create a mini poster that they will share on Monday.  We will talk about our results and conclusions.

 This lesson is part of a unit that I have on TPT, "Fifth Grade General Science Notebook"  for $6.00.  The lesson can be done in any grade and on your own lab sheets.  My resource has many printables, vocabulary cards, projects, etc.  

A Light Bulb Moment (Motivating Student Participation)

Today I was teaching a math lesson on place value.  I saw the light bulb go off in one of my student's faces and a hand shot in the air.  I spontaneously ran to my closet and pulled out my bucket of "light bulbs" and put one on his desk.  It was amazing how many hands went up during the remainder of class.

I took a photo of my student and you can see how proud he is feeling.   I am going to enlarge a light bulb and let kids sign their name on it.

I ordered the light bulbs a few years ago for writing workshop. (I am now teaching just math and science) I did a search for "light bulb stress ball" and there are many companies that still sell them.  I bought mine at Office Playground.

Here is my can I made.  Coffee can spray painted black.

Here is a link from There's No Place Like Second for the free printable

A Great Classmate (Freebie)

We had a great first week of school!  Here are the kids working in groups sharing ideas about great classmates. I had them do it independently, then in groups and as a class.  I charted them out and we used the charts to create our classroom rules.

Available for 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th Grade

Click here for link

Friday's Five Fabulous Finds

Our guest speaker this week was Dave Burgess.  He was phenomenal!  He is very motivational and inspiring.  I am so glad that our district is heading in this direction.  I am tired of hearing about test scores.  We need to get our children excited about their learning!  If you have the chance to see him do it!  If not, read his book, "Teach Like a Pirate."

 Thanks Jen Pierce for the photo on the right

Dave moves so much and fast all my pictures were blurry!

I survived my first three days of school with students.  I feel like I did not accomplishment many things.  It was so hot on the top floor and getting my students adjusted to a new school was a challenge.  We also had our first assembly and picture day.  I did not lose anyone, no one missed a bus and there were no tears.  (We did have a missing lunch box but it was found a day later)  I am looking forward to next week and hope to take more pictures!!!

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