Weekly Problem Solving Journals

Several weeks ago we had a team planning meeting to plan for our math instructional unit.  Our first instructional unit in math is multiplication and division with the factors 2,3,4,5 and 10.  I always feel so much pressure teaching this unit because it such an important concept for students and I want to make sure I do the very best job teaching it as possible.  

One of the things that we wanted to make sure that we give our students plenty of exposure to is using their new found multiplication and division skills to solve problems.  Over the years, I have tried many different approaches to problem solving in my classroom.  I have typed problems on a power point and had students solve them in their math notebook.  I have typed problems on address labels and put them on pages of their math notebooks.  

These methods all worked just fine and students were able to get sufficient practice.  The one downside that bothered me was the fact that our math notebooks stayed at school and parents were never able to see the problems that students were being asked to solve.

The idea for Weekly Problem Solving Journals was born and our problem was solved (like my little play on words!). 

The idea was to take one type of problem and work on it for a week.  Students would get a week's worth of practice and we would be able to scaffold the instruction and practice of those problems.  We use the Weekly Problem Solving Journal as our math bellwork each day.  It takes between 5 and 10 minutes.

On Monday we look at the problem together and I model how I think through the problem.  We highlight important information and then we discuss different strategies we could use to solve it.  I model my thinking as I solve the problem step by step and then how to prove that my answer is correct.

Tuesdays we try a similar problem.  I still provide some guidance.  We do some table talk discussions with peers and solve and prove our solution.

Wednesdays are my students' favorite day, it's "Work With a Partner Wednesday."  This allows them to have some support as they discuss the problem and work through it together.  As I'm walking around and checking in with each group, I also look for different ways that groups solved the problem or proved it and I have them share under the document camera with the class.

Thursday students try it themselves.  I give them some quiet thinking time and they work through it. As they are working, I walk around the room and help those who get stuck by questioning them and coaching them through it.  After our quiet time, we check the answer together.

Friday is our independent practice day.  I always tell my class that it's like going to the doctor for a check up.  I just need to check to make sure they are growing and learning.  The last page of the journal is a review problem.  When they have completed the last two pages of the journal they turn it in.

We've been using the journal for about a month now and I have seen a huge improvement in my students problem solving skills.  I love that the routine is consistent from week to week and that it allows me to provide targeted instruction on problem solving without taking up too much time!

My Weekly Problem Solving Journals are available as a growing bundle in my store!  This means that you can grab them now at a reduced price and redownload the file as new journals are added!!!  When the bundle is complete it will contain 25-30 journals and will cost over $50!  You can grab it now for just $8.50.  The price will increase as each week is added, so grab it now for the best deal!!!

The bundle also includes an editable version of the Weekly Problem Solving Journal so that you can create your own problems!

October 2GetherWeAreBetter

I’m so excited to be linking up with two of my favorite bloggers, Ashley and Angie, for a linky about one of my favorite subjects….math!



I am so excited to share 2 of my favorite math strategies for this month’s 2getherwearebetter!





Two to three times a week we begin our math time with problem solving journals.  I project a problem on the smart board.  I try to write the problems using my students’ names and they love when I find Melonheadz that look like them!

I give them quiet problem solving time.  While they are working, I make the rounds encouraging and coaching as needed.  The important thing is that we are working on our perseverance.  We are working on not giving up if the first strategy we try doesn’t work, we are working on checking to make sure our answer is reasonable and makes sense.  We are working on explaining our thinking and constructing viable arguments.  We work on modeling mathematics and use appropriate tools. Sound familiar?  Our problem solving routine covers 7 of the 8 mathematical practices!

 

During our quiet problem solving time students can use any tool available to help them.  I have bins set up with different kinds of math manipulatives and tools.  After quiet time we take our journals and walk around the room doing pair share.  They take turns explaining how they solved the problem.  If they don’t have a solution yet they talk through all of the strategies they’ve tried.  It’s amazing to hear them talk about their thinking with each other.  It’s also amazing to hear them coach each other through struggles and offer each other ideas!


My other favorite strategy is one of my favorite parts of our day!





If you never heard of Number Talks I highly recommend checking them out.  I am in love with them.  My kids are in love with them.  I had two groups of visiting teachers in my room this week to observe our Number Talks and they loved them and couldn’t believe the vocabulary my kids were using and how they were discussing their thinking! 


You can read about my love for Number Talks in a previous post HERE.


Here is what our board looked like after our Number Talk today.





We have been busy adding to our Number Talk Tool Box this week too. 





Again, this strategy hits 7 of the 8 mathematical practices.  And to hear your kids saying things like, “I decomposed the number 88 into 80 and 8….,”  and asking each other questions like, “Can you explain why you subtracted 6 at the end?”  is the most amazing thing ever! 


You can check out the Number Talks book HERE and be sure to check out my previous post!


I’m so excited to go read about some other great math games and strategies!

An InLinkz Link-up

Back to School, Visual Plans, Freebies and Sale!

It’s here.  The first day of school!  I’m linking up my visual plans for a peek at my week! 


I’ve spent the last 2 weeks prepping my room and getting organized.  We’ve had Meet the Teacher….I’m ready to get started!

Here are my plans for the first week!


I'm linking up with the fabulous Mrs. Wills for a Peek at my Week!






The first week will be busy with First Day Jitters, getting to know you activities and learning how to Table Talk!  Our first framework is called Collaborate and Communicate and we spend several days learning how to have conversations about our learning using activities and lesson from my Table Talk pack.  Once students learn how to “Table Talk,”  we use it all year long and across content areas!  This pack will take you through it step by step! 


I forgot to include the link to Jivey's amazing Mentor Sentence pack in the picture so HERE it is. If you don't already own these...run to her store and grab them.  They are amazing and I will never teach grammar with worksheets again.


I’ve also included in my visual plans cards to use to practice Table Talking after reading First Day Jitters!  Don’t forget to download the visual plans to get all of the links to the products and FREEBIES!  Click on the pictures of the plans to download!  Any product of mine featured in my plans will also be on SALE for the next 2 days!!!






I love teaching math and I LOVE teaching multiplication!  It is so fun and they always come to thrid grade so excited to learn it!  I love using the picture book Each Orange Had Eight Slices to introduce multiplication and this summer I made a little journal companion to use with it!  I’m so excited to get started! You can read my blog post about it HERE.


I also LOVE Number Talks and I can’t wait to start them again this year!  If you haven’t already read about my love for Number Talks you can find that post HERE. 


I plan on beginning to introduce our new M.A.T.H. centers slowly this week.  I’ve learned over the years to take it very slow when introducing math centers and Daily 5.  The more intentional you are at the beginning of the year about teaching and practicing those procedures the more it will pay off in smooth sailing down the road!  I’m excited to get started and I love how cute my new board turned out!  The packs to create the bulletin boards are available in my TpT store!





I’m so excited to get this year started tomorrow!  How many of you go back this week?  If not this week, when do you go back?


Happy Back to School Season everyone!

Using Picture Books to Teach Math {Multiplication}

I love using picture books during math!  Today’s featured book is Each Orange Had 8 Slices by Paul Giganti, Jr. 
 



I use this book in the fall every year as we begin learning multiplication.  Each page has a story problem that students can solve using repeated addition and multiplication.  I created this fun little problem solving journal as a companion to the book.  There is a page in the journal for each page of the picture book. 





In the past, we have used notebook paper or our math journals, but I love this little journal because it doesn’t take up as much space if I want to collect them after a day’s work to look them over.  I also love that I can send them home when we are finished with the book ( I don’t send math journals home until the end of the year) and it can be a great conversation starter at home for parents to ask what students are learning about multiplication!





As we begin learning about repeated addition and multiplication, I have included some number sentence frames to help students write them correctly.  This scaffolding really helps those students that are still struggling with the concept.





Something else that I really love about this book and the journal is that I am able to differentiate.  I teach the gifted cluster in my grade level so I have general ed. students, as well as the students who are identified as gifted in my grade level.  Many of the quantitatively gifted students already know how repeated addition and multiplication work.  Each story problem in the book also includes a challenging question that uses multi-steps or multiplication with 3 factors!  I challenge the students who are ready for it to solve for that last question in each page of their journal. 


The book includes 11 story problems and we certainly do not work through them all in one day, in fact last year we only did one a day in our journals as a warm up.  We did the first one together whole group so I could help guide them and model for them.  The next day, I projected the next page from the book under my document camera and students did it independently or with a partner.  Day 3, we once again worked whole group so I could model and guide them through explaining their thinking in their journal.  Day 4, they worked independently to solve the problem that I projected and then I gave them time to discuss their journal page with their table groups. 


I love the versatility of this little journal too.  You can use it like I did last year as a math warm up each day.  You could put the book or multiple copies of the book and use it as a math center….the possibilities are numerous! 


Have you used Each Orange Had 8 Slices in your classroom?  Comment below and let us know how you use it! 


Check back here at The Blessed Teacher to read about other picture books I use to teach math!

Visual Plans (Tons of Freebies!)

It’s back to school this week.  We had a relaxing break.  The oldest made it back from her NYC trip, she had so much fun she didn’t want to come home!  We got our spring cleaning finished, visited my sister and nieces in Tucson, and threw a sweet sixteen party for the oldest!  Tomorrow is back to reality!

It’s always hard to get back into the swing of things and I know it won’t be any different for my 31 sweet kiddos tomorrow!

Here are my visual plans for the week.  Don’t forget that you have to click on them to download the pdf to get all of the clickable links to the freebies and on sale items!

 

The Gold Rush passage to go with the True/False sort is from Read Works.  Click here to download it.  You may need to register for a free account if you don’t already have one, and if you don’t already have one, I highly recommend it!  They have amazing lessons and passages with comprehension questions and they are all lexile leveled!  It’s a great sight!

I absolutely love starting our math time together with Number Talks.  You can check out my blog post about my love of Number Talks here.  After our Number Talk, we head back to our seats and do a little CGI style problem solving in our math notebooks.  I uploaded the problems that I will be using this week and you can download them for FREE by clicking the link on the visual plans!  We will also be using my March Madness Math centers.  You can grab those on sale for 20% off this week!

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway, it’s ending tonight!  And stay tuned for my new blog design!  I’ve been working with the amazing Lindsey from L. Paull Designs for All on a new custom blog design!  I can’t wait for you all to see it, I am absolutely in love with what she has done!!!


Have a great week everyone!

More About Multiplication

Multiplication is such a huge part of third grade and I had such a great response to my post about the strategies that I  use to teach it.  So, I thought I would share some other resources we use in the classroom.

1.  Kim Sutton’s Number Line

I absolutely adore this number line!  The colored dots come with it which is a huge time saver!   I put velcro dots on the back of mine and each year as we learn about the different factors I place them on the number line.  The multiples of 2 all get a red dot, the threes are green and so on.  We practice skip counting by the different multiples and it helps ensure that they are practicing their skip counting correctly.  As my husband likes to say, “ Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect!” 

2.  Multiplication Wheels

I found this as an awesome freebie on TpT.  I copied them on cardstock and laminated them.  They are great to use as a quick practice or even as a quick time filler if we finish something early.  Sometimes as a fun twist I will time them to see how quickly they can finish.  I stop the timer when half of the class is finished.  I give everyone else time to finish and then we check our answers and I reveal their time.  The next time we practice that factor we try and beat our time.  We store them in a basket for each table and they can practice their facts as a fun when you’re done choice!

3. LOTS of practice during Centers

I love using math centers in the afternoon.  It gives my kiddos time to practice important skills and it gives me time to pull small groups to reteach and enrich.  I have all kinds of multiplication practice in their centers.  My newest is my “Hip, Hip, Array,” pack.  They absolutely love to use the classroom iPods or iPad to check their answers with the QR codes, and it makes checking their work much faster for me!

Click on the pic above to check them out!

I also have free Multiplication Task Cards on my Facebook page.  All you have to do is like The Blessed Teacher on Facebook to have access to the fan freebie tab. 

I would love to hear some of your favorite strategies and resources for teaching multiplication!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Multiplication Strategies….Where Have You Been All My Life?

The other evening I shared a picture on Instagram of a stack of multiplication “fast Facts,” that I was grading.  The caption talked about the strategies by Van de Walle that I use and many of you asked if I would share them.  I will….gladly!  But first, a story. 

 

I was that kid in third grade.  You know the one, the teacher thought I NEVER practiced my facts at home because I just didn’t know them…at all.   The truth was that my dad worked with me nightly, in fact many nights ended in tears, sometimes from me….sometimes from him !  I just couldn’t seem to get those facts down and I was turtle slow at recalling them.  So, I was that kid.  The one who got pulled into the hall with every helper mom that visited our room.  I felt stupid and like I was terrible at math.  In truth, math just didn’t make sense to me.  I didn’t understand how or why it worked. 

Fast forward years later to a workshop I took on teaching multiplication to students.  I sat in the meeting with my mouth hanging open thinking that I wish my third grade teacher had taught multiplication like this.  It made So. Much. Sense!!!!  I have been teaching these strategies faithfully, every year and I have seen a huge improvement.  They aren’t the only way to do multiplication and my kiddos know that.  They know about skipping counting, repeated addition, they have lots of different strategies.  But, most of them will choose to use these.  They are efficient.  They can get to the product quickly. 

 

I uploaded a document explaining all of the strategies HERE.  Be sure to read the last section about the helping fact strategies, those are some of the most helpful!

I also have posters and strategy practice included in my  Multiplication…A “Monster,” Pack of Resources pack in my TpT store.  It will be on sale for the rest of the week for those of you who are interested in the purchasing it for the posters and strategy practice!  Just click on the picture to check it out!

I hope this helps with some of the questions you had the other night!  If you have other questions about how I teach the strategies or how I use them in my room, just comment below and I will get them answered! 

 

Have a great night everyone!

Number Talks {I’m a Believer!}

I posted earlier about my good friend coming to my classroom and modeling how to do a number talk with my class.  Since that day, we have used a number talk as our math warm up every day.  I am a believer…in love…sold.  My copy of the book finally came in and I can’t put it down.

After just two chapters, our number talks this week have already been so much better!  If you are looking for a way to build number sense in your students, to encourage them to think about numbers and number relationships, and to work with students on their communication skills and explaining your thinking, number talks is for you.  I found an introductory video on You Tube that was helpful and watched several others before trying one on my own.  Also, the book comes with a DVD that is full of Number Talks filmed in K-5 classrooms….truly amazing stuff!

Here is a picture of what our board looked like after our number talk last Thursday.

The things I love about Number Talks:

1. My students are looking more at number relationships and patterns and relying less on algorithms.
2. My students are able to explain their thinking more clearly and more precisely.
3. Having to defend their answers has helped them to see when they have made mistakes in their thinking.  More than one kiddo has started to defend their answer, got about a third of the way through, and said, “Oh, wait a minute….”
4. Number Talks use just about every single one of the 8 mathematical practices.
5. I feel like my students are improving at problem solving and persevering. They don’t give up as easily when presented with a challenge.
6. They are developing several strategies so that when one isn’t working for them, they have something else to try.
7. They have starting to look at whether answers are reasonable or not by using estimation.

I am sure as we keep going with our number talks I will have many more to add to the list!

In the meantime, I made these little cards to print and put on a ring that I have with me during our Number Talks and problem solving time.  I am having to train myself to take a step back and let my students do most of the talking.  Number Talks are about their thinking, not mine.  These cards have question stems for each of the 8 mathematical practices. You can click on the picture to download them for free! 

If you use Number Talks in your classroom, I would love to hear more about how they work for you!  If you don’t use them or haven’t heard of them I encourage you to check out the YouTube video and the book.  It is kind of pricey but I went in to my principal, told him what my friend had just done with my kids in my classroom and showed him the book.  He ended up buying it for me and telling me that he possibly wants a presentation on it early next year!  I can definitely see the benefits of having the K-2 teachers on board.  I can’t even imagine the number sense they would come to me with!  It makes my heart swell just thinking about it!

Visual Plans 11-18 {Sale Items Included!}

 Linking up this morning with my plans for the week!  Don’t forget, to make the links clickable you must download the plans from GoogleDocs. Click the pics to go there!

 

 

 

 

 

So excited to continue our Roald Dahl study this week!  The kiddos are loving James and the Giant Peach.  We did a little visualizing activity last week using Dahl’s amazing descriptions of Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker!

 

 

My original goal was to have my James and the Giant Peach Giant Pack finished and uploaded by the end of last week.  I am sad to say that did not happen.  It is still a work in progress.  I am finishing up vocabulary power points and trying to make them editable! Hopefully by the end of our Thanksgiving break….that is my new goal!

 

 

This week’s Mentor Sentence comes from the book Verdi and the skill is comparative and superlative adjectives.  I made a foldable, some task cards and a couple fun activities to go with it!  You can grab them in my TpT store and they will be 15% off today and tomorrow!

 

 

We had so much fun during small group time last week with our nonsense words and context clues.  In fact, every group wanted to make up their own for more practice.  I was so impressed with the words and clues they came up with.  They kept asking if we could do it again and it just so happens that I have “A Cornucopia of Context Clues,” in my “Let’s Talk Turkey,” centers.  I will be pulling that to do at the back table this week!  They will also be 15% off today and tomorrow!

 

 

My math plans are a little light this week.  I am a notorious overplanner and we have a TON going on.  Our iPad lab opens back up this week and we will start going in to work on Study Island.  I know that will take some extra time to teach and practice!  We also have our annual Turkey Trot on Wednesday and I owe my class a kickball party since EVERY LAST. ONE. of them raised their benchmark test score! 

 

We will be doing some more work with subtraction with regrouping because I honestly feel like that is a skill they can NEVER have too  much practice with!  I made a version of subtraction scoot that is very similar to my free addition one.  The subtraction one is available in my TpT store and includes and EDITABLE version.  You can change the number of digits, make it without regrouping, or just make extra practice cards!  We will be using it whole group on Monday and then I will edit the numbers and put it in math workstations!  Subtraction Scoot will also be 15% off today and tomorrow!  Grab it while it’s on sale!

 

I didn’t put it in my visual plans, but I will have a sub on Friday.  My sister and I will be flying to Tennessee to visit my sister, my mom, and my 92 year old Memere (Grandma).  I am excited to be able to see her and have an early turkey dinner with her.  I am so thankful for Teachers Pay Teachers and every teacher who has ever downloaded and used one of my products.  Without you all, this trip would not be possible and it means so much to my family that we can all be together one last time.

 

Have a blessed week!

Visual Plans 11-11 and a SALE!

Happy Veteran’s Day to all of the hardworking military men and women out there, especially my daddy!  Thank you for all of your hard work, dedication, and service.

 

I am also incredibly thankful for this day off of school.  It was much needed.  This was me this weekend…..

 

 

I spent hours snuggling with my daughters and getting caught up on Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.  It’s my guilty pleasure, don’t judge!

 

 

Today is all about getting done all of the things that I put off all weekend, including my visual plans for the week.  So, here we go! Remember, if you want to be able to click on all of the links, you need to click the pics of the lesson plans and download them!

 

 

This week we kick off our new ELA framework, Author Study.  We will use the story Author: A True Story from our Treasures reading book to kick it off and start a discussion about what authors do. For our first read, we always read independently and code our text using our “Not So Secret Codes.”  I have a poster with our “codes,” but some of my kiddos in the back always complain that they have a hard time seeing them.  So, I made smaller ones, printed them on cardstock and taped them to desks.  Viola!  Problem solved and now everyone has them handy!

 

 

The following week we will dive into to our author study.  I am so excited to get this started.  I have been working so hard for the last month planning and prepping for this.  Each third grade class (there are 5 of us) will be studying a different author and then we will have a culminating celebration to share our authors with the whole grade level!  Since I have the gifted cluster class, I chose the author with the highest lexile level on the list, Roald Dahl!  I also happen to have class sets of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so it worked out perfectly.  My James unit is almost finished and I am so proud of how it turned out!  I am hoping to have it uploaded to TpT by the end of next week.  It will include lots of editable files also so that you can make it work for your room!

 

Our mentor sentences this week are all about vivid verbs again.  We will also do some work with those grammar rule breakers, irregular verbs, with some lessons and activities from this pack…..

 

 

 

Click on the pic above to check it out!

 

 

Our Daily 5 time this week will start with a little review of our charts and expectations.  They are getting a little wiggly and off task during this time and need a little reminder.  Does anyone else find that they have to do this every couple of months? 

During small groups this week we will do some more work with context clues using activities from….

 

 

There will be some tough vocabulary coming up in our Roald Dahl books and I want to make sure they are equipped to be word detectives! 

I will also put activities from this little pack…..

 

 

in the bucket for Read With Someone.  We will be benchmark testing in a few weeks and I still have some kiddos working on improving their fluency! 

 

In math this week, we will work some more on subtraction with regrouping.  Last year, when we were working on regrouping across a zero, one of my kiddos asked me if there was a quicker way with fewer steps.  He kept trying to explain to me what he was thinking about looking at the hundreds and tens as one unit (for example; looking at 503 as 50 tens, instead of 5 hundreds and zero tens).  I was having a hard time understanding  where he was going and following his thinking and he was getting pretty frustrated with me.  That night at the dinner table it finally clicked for me!  I called his mom who happens to be a good friend of mine and got him on the phone!  I then went online and found this video on YouTube.  I had never seen regrouping across a zero done using this strategy, but it makes so much sense.  It cuts down on a step and can also cut down on mistakes with regrouping that dreaded zero!  The kid is a genius!  Maybe you’ve already seen this and I’m just late to the party, but if just one of you hasn’t then it was worth reposting!

 

 

Workstations will still be all about the Robertson clan!  They are making my students Happy, Happy, Happy, and that makes for a happy teacher!

 

 All of the products highlighted in my plans will be 15% off for the rest of today and tomorrow!  Head on over to my TpT store to grab them and have your week planned!

Whew….What a Week!….Oh yeah, and a Freebie!

This week was C.R.A.Z.Y. at school!  We had the Fun Run for our big school wide fundraiser, the high school’s homecoming parade, and door decorating for Red Ribbon Week.  Oh yeah, and we still had to try and teach some things!  I was chatting with my student teacher earlier this week about all the craziness that is upon us the next few weeks.  I feel kind of bad for her because there is so much going on during these few weeks that she has full responsibility.  However, I guess it is a good way for her to experience what life is really like this time of year in an elementary school.
Between all of the madness we did manage to do some work on inferencing.  Hands down, my favorite way to introduce inferencing is using Abby’s “Mystery Box.”  You can check out Abby’s blog about the Mystery Box Activity here.

My kiddos love this activity.
Then, a brilliant co-worker of mine showed up at lunch with a great third grade twist on the activity!  She used some pieces from Abby’s activity to have her students make a foldable and write clues about their favorite food.  So….of course I had to try it with my class.
How cute are the magnifying glasses this kiddo drew!


The clues were glued under each flap on the foldable.  On the back, students wrote their favorite food and covered it with the question marks taped on so that you can flip it up and reveal the answer.

Have you guessed what it is yet?

I love how she spelled tortellini!  Too cute.
If you don’t already have Abby’s Mystery Box activity, I highly recommend it.  It is a huge hit every year and something I pull out from time to time for a fun review of a super important reading skill.
Also new this week, we assigned our character pumpkin activity.  Students will be making the pumpkin part of the project at home and working on the character description in class.  If you didn’t download the project earlier, here it is again.  Just click the pic to download it for FREE!

And to round out my crazy busy week, I finally finished up my “Monster” pack of multiplication resources.
 
Just in time to begin our unit on multiplication.  This is by far one of my favorite things to teach in third grade math, I think because they come to third grade so excited to learn it.  It is 72 pages full of fun ways to learn and practice multiplication and it is all Common Core aligned! You can check it out at my TpT store!
I am off to watch one of my all time favorite bloggers, Cara from The First Grade Parade, on one of my favorite shows, House Hunters!
Here’s to the end of a crazy week, and the beginning of a crazy weekend!  Happy Friday everyone.