When I was growing up, my grandparents lived close to Pasadena, California.  For years, they went to the the Rose Parade. It was always, always, my favorite thing to do on New Year's Day.  The floats were beautiful and amazingly creative. The weather was always warm and sunny, and the people were so fun.

This year, I was stuck in cloudy Michigan watching the parade on TV.  But, as I watched, my brain started turning... There is a lot of MATH going on here! Like how many flowers / seeds you need to cover a square inch of space. Or much it costs to create a float. Or the cost per square inch of a float. Or how many flowers you would need to order to cover your float...  Then I wondered: "How can I use this in my classes?"

{Remember my previous post about student engagement? My goal was more authentic tasks!}

While the task I created isn't totally authentic, it does link to something in real life {the Rose Parade}, and gave an artistic outlet for my students.

During the mini lesson, I showed a couple of videos to give students background on my all-time favorite parade:

Then, students worked on the following task in the Explore zone. We gave them two rotations to complete the task:

We used the "answer keys" from the coordinate grid graphing pictures at worksheets.com to give students an outline for an image.  Students colored the image and then counted the number of squares for each color.  For partial squares, we had students estimate which partial squares they could put together to create a whole square.  Click on any of the activity images to download the worksheet {for FREE!!}

There are a few ways you could differentiate this for your class -- you could change the decimal numbers in the Materials Price Sheet and make them whole dollars. You could also have students count partial squares as a decimal / fraction.  How can you see yourself using this in your classroom?

Makin' it real,
Christi

Today we get to feature a GUEST post - how exciting!!  Sarah Wood is the technology and media specialist at Godfrey-Lee Public Schools. Her current passion is designing and implementing curriculum-based BreakoutEDU games for the classroom.  This week she is presenting in Kansas at Podstock about the benefits of doing Breakouts in a classroom setting.  Recently, she came and ran a fractions game for our 5th grade class.  Check it out!

If you haven't heard of Breakout EDU yet, you are missing out!  In a simplified description, Breakout EDU is a way to create an "escape room" for your classroom.  Instead of trying to escape your way out of a locked room, you are trying to break out of a box that has multiple locks.  There is a fascination with wanting to unlock all of the locks to see what is hidden inside the large box.  Students can't resist!

Recently, I had the awesome opportunity of working with Olivia and Christi in designing and implementing a fractions game to use with their 5th grade ZONES group.  I was super excited to see the game in action, as they had shared so much about their students with me and I was curious how the game would play out in the classroom.  As soon as the students saw the Breakout boxes sitting out, they knew something fun and different was in store for class that day!  

​Before playing the game, Olivia and Christi had been working with their students on adding, simplifying, and comparing fractions.  So, the students already had prior knowledge of how to work through problems using fractions.  Adding the element of the Breakout box allowed the teachers to work in the "now what" part of learning...what do you do once you solve a problem?  For some, the higher-level thinking is really challenging and mentally draining, but others thrive on it!  Sometimes those students that you think would do really well end up having a difficult time, and those who you think might really struggle end up having a time to shine.

For me, watching and facilitating Breakout games never gets old because it is always a new experience each time.  I have co-facilitated one particular game over five times so far, and each group always approaches the critical thinking, communication, and collaboration aspects of the game a little differently.  For this particular game, there were three boxes/games going on simultaneously in the classroom.  The classroom was divided into thirds and groups were assigned a color.  All clues were hidden in the students' respective third of a classroom (to avoid checking out what other groups were doing).  This allowed for smaller groups and more students to have an opportunity to have a voice in the game.

As a bystander, it is always fascinating to see how the students work with each other and interact with the game components.  For example, one of the clues was to use a Google Form containing some questions regarding vocabulary.  Students had no problem accessing the form, but struggled with the "what next" part.  In solving the the questions on the form, students would be directed to the next part of the clue.  As a result, they were stumped for a bit and a couple of groups needed hint cards to help them through the clue.

As part of the class debrief, it is always interesting to hear what students have to say about their experience.  Many said that unlocking the first lock made them feel excited and happy, but on the same note, were quick to admit that it was difficult at times in getting to the point where they could unlock a lock.  As a first time for most students participating in a Breakout EDU game, I think it was a success and the students overwhelmingly agreed that they would like to do another game.

If you want to see a brief video about how our district has been using Breakout EDU, please watch the video below!

What do you think?!?  Leave us a comment, or give us a shout out on Facebook or Twitter!

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