So, who is super excited about teaching fractions?!?

Regardless of grade level, I feel like fractions is always the unit I dread.  There is so much to cover, we always get to it towards the end of the year, and there is so much conceptual AND content to learn.

Last week, we played an AWESOME fraction game in 4th grade that got me a *little* excited!!  There was so much differentiation easily integrated into the game that it was accessible for my low students, yet challenging for my high students.  I LOVE activities with a "low floor, high ceiling".

This one is called Build A Fraction Wall. 

Here is how we differentiated the game to make it accessible and challenging:

• Students can CHOOSE to create equivalent fractions, but are not penalized if they do not find equivalent fractions. This allows our lower-level students to simply focus on what a fraction is. 

• We gave students fraction tiles to use while they were playing the game. This gave a hands-on way to create equivalent fractions for the students who needed it.

• Surprise! Sometimes the cards drawn created a MIXED NUMBER! We haven't covered mixed numbers yet, so the fraction tiles came in really handy:

• To win the game, students could either count a "whole" as a full row across that they filled in, OR they could combine partial rows to create a whole. This lent itself to not only equivalent fractions, but also addition of fractions with different denominators. Again, fraction tiles came in very handy if students chose this route!

The students loved playing this game, and we as teachers loved it too! Next week we are going to play a very similar game called Fraction Race. We will use the same differentiation strategies to help all students be successful and grow!

If you are looking for more low floor - high ceiling activities:

• Check out the tasks from youcubed.org.  Under "Grades" choose "Low Floor High Ceiling"
• Use games from k-5mathteachingresources.com or another source and add the option of using manipulatives with the game.

As always, let us know if you need ideas or resources - we are happy to help you!

Happy playing,
Christi

Bring it February!  The longest shortest month is in full swing here in beautiful Michigan.  I may count it as one of my spiritual gifts to make it through each winter here; but alas, spring break is on the horizon (48 days... if you're counting  #thankyoujesus).

We kicked off the new year with some great site visits from other Michigan schools interested in starting ZONES which got me thinking about some of the common questions we receive. 

Here's the low down on how I've made the ZONES framework successful... and work for ME in my classroom.  I think that's one of the best things about the ZONES framework is its ability to be customized FOR you and TO your student population.  Our team always laughs when we discuss things about ZONES because we find each of us utilizing it slightly differently. 

So, here goes.  Welcome to Root's Room!  P.S. We love visitors!

First things first, I use the NY Engage Curriculum.   So when I sit down to plan each week, I focus on the overall skill/standard as my starting point.  From there I think of ways to plug it into each zone. So, basically I plan for the daily lessons, as well as how I can incorporate the standard focus through each zone.  This particular week the focus was developing the concept of multiplication using groups of 4.  The way I've found best to organize this for me and my students is through the use of a menu (which I customize each week). 

Exhibit A:

The expectations have been set when we launched ZONES back in September, so all I really need to do is a quick run through each week of what each center entails.  From here the students are put in charge of their own learning, while I'm freed up to conference or pull small groups.   They make their selection of which ZONE they want to go to, and I initial their choice on their menu.  Once everyone has chosen, I set a timer for 20 minutes and ZONES is off and running!

*As a side note, my literacy is taught through this similar balanced approach, which really makes it seamless for the kids.  ZONES aligns amazingly well to the Daily 5 choice board. #winning

This is an easy one... it pretty much stays the same all year.  God bless Reflex Math.  If you haven't checked it out, it's an amazing program for fact fluency and spits out fabulous data reports for teachers, students & parents!  Students also have the option of practicing fact fluency in other ways such as flashcards (with our handy dandy ZONES MemoriZe Mat), or power towers. 

On your Own is typically a worksheet practice of some sort.  I really push the use of their Resource Journal to complete independently. 

It's organized using a shoe holder.  Each week there's pages they MUST complete, and if they accomplish them, they MAY choose another extension (typically it's more of a fun activity or spiral review pages).  If they choose not to do a MAY do (and they are done with the MUST do) they can always work with their flashcards.

This is where the writing component for math comes into play.   I've found the K-5 Teaching resources journal prompts work fabulously for targeting this skill.  Because 18 of my 27 students are English Learners, this center can have its challenges.  One way to scaffold this is through the use of sentence frames to help walk them through the steps to solve.  When we launched the Notebook zone, we spent a lot of time building the expectations and modeling.  There's a page in their Resource Journal they can always go back to if help is needed.

{ Also see: Notebook got you in Knots? }

Each student MUST solve the problem of the week.  Early finishers MAY create their own story problem, or do flashcards.

This seems to be a favorite zone... I mean, what kids don't like to play with TOOLS (if I got a dollar every time I had to say "TOOL or TOY?" in September - ha!)?

I've found that the dollar bins are great for storing and grabbing manipulatives for this center.  At this center you want kids to use manipulatives to solve problems. 

Early finishers who complete the task get to work with any type of problem solving game.  Here are a few of our favorites:

- Head Full of Numbers (like Boggle for equations)
- Mobi (like Bananagrams with equations)
- Rush Hour Jr.
- Rush Hour
- Katamino
- Rubics Cubes
- Tangrams/ Pattern Blocks/ Pentaminoes [spacial shape games]
- Puzzles

Last but not least, there's play with Someone - another favorite.  Think of this center as utilizing a game to cement the standard focus.  Since we've been into multiplication, I found the best way to organize was with a bin and file folders.  I have different bins like this for each unit that I simply have to pull out! #winningagain

Supplies they need are right next to the bin.  If it's a new game, Mrs. Gilbert & I have lots of fun reverting back to 3rd graders to model how it's NOT played and have the kids tell us how we SHOULD play it.  #memoriesaremade

SOoooooooooooo.... clear as mud?
By the end of the week, the weekly menu looks something like this:

The key to ZONES it to remember it's a framework for the guided/balanced math teaching approach.  What works for me is to do the math lesson for the day and with the remaining math time allow the students to do ZONES.  Some days time is limited so we may only have time for one zone rotation (20 minutes), where other days we may have time for 2, or 3 rotations.  I've found for myself personally, 7 is the magic number.  Typically with that amount of rotations, students are able to accomplish weekly tasks. 

Another little tidbit is I color code chosen centers each day for tracking purposes -  as students aren't allowed to repeat a center within the same day (example: Monday I initial in red, Tuesday orange...).  It also helps me to see where they've been and what they've gotten accomplished.  Some students are able to complete a ZONE task in one rotation, while others may need to revisit (on a different day) to complete.  Early finishers who complete a ZONE can go back to do the MAY do options that particular ZONE offers.  

Friday's are known as "FINISH FRIDAYS" and they must complete and turn in the practice page, notebook, and explore work.  Depending on the week, I usually don't do any actual lesson on Fridays to allow for students to focus on completing their ZONES work. 

Here's how the data each week is tracked - it's kind of a hot mess, but it works for me.  Students turn in work as it's completed.  I'm able to document scores each night as I check it.   This also really helps with planning for small groups and remediation.

Annnnnnnnnnddddd.... for sticking with me through this crazy long post... here's your FREEBIE!  Like who wouldn't want a tracking form??  #livingthedream

Still have questions?  Drop us a note in the comment section below!

Rock on,
Kristin

I was skimming through Twitter this weekend when I came across this fun post from @mraspinall . It was an emoji exit ticket! How fun!

We decided to use it after our lesson on division. In 5th grade, we have the lowest group of students. They still struggle with basic math concepts, which means that before we do multi-digit division, we have to go back and solidify what division actually means.

We took a whole class period to introduce and play Roll and Divide. I love, love, love this game for so many reasons:

• It works with division vocabulary
• It gives a hands-on experience with what each part of division means
• It gives a clear picture of what the remainder is
• Students can discover patterns and connections from their work with the game
• It can be used as a Play with Someone game or as an individual Explore activity​
• You can play by figuring out how many groups, or how many in each group (an important distinction, yet important to understand that division can be used for either one)

We will be using this as our Explore zone next week.

After students spent the class period playing the game, we had them fill out the emoji exit ticket. The class loved it, and so did we!

Here are some examples of what we learned from the exit ticket:

​Some students remained confused -- good to know for a small group or a conference!

Some students changed how they felt from the beginning of the lesson to the end (makes a teacher feel good):

This student clearly made a smart partner choice:

Some students benefitted from having a hands-on learning experience:

Click on the image to download a blank copy of the emoji exit ticket, so you can try it in your classroom!

Stayin' cool like the kids,
Christi

...we laid the cards out and saw they spanned 4 desks!!!  That's a LOT of skip counting!

Being the (*ahem*) great teachers that we are, we decided to have students complete the entire sequence with a partner during our whole group lesson. Once the sequence was complete, students kept the first twenty cards in each row and put the rest away.  Those forty cards, plus four "treasure" cards, went into baggies for the Explore Zone. Students are so excited to be able to "play with Someone" in the Explore Zone!

And we are excited that we worked out the kinks before students started their ZONES choices!

BONUS: Free stuff for you!
Click on the link below for the Treasure Hunt game cards. Scroll down until you see Treasure Hunt.
http://www.solonschools.org/mr/NWN.asp

Download the game instructions we used:

If you try this game, we would love to hear how you used it, and how it worked in your classroom!