Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe

I loved this book.  It may be because I know this area of Oregon and started traveling through there a little bit after the years this story is set.  It may be that I just adored the main character, Kitty.

Kitty lives on the Warm Springs Reservation as a white child on tribal lands.  She experiences the cultural tensions and prejudices going on at this time.

Katherine Schlick Noe writes based on her experiences living in this area in the early 60s.  I highly recommend this book for intermediate grades.

Here is a graphic organizer for students to brainstorm a daily event and how they might be different in the past, present, and future.


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Currently September 2014

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The Tennis Channel is on.  My husband is watching the U.S. Open.

I'm enjoying Labor Day -- one more day off before school begins this week.

Our district has a teacher work day tomorrow where we finish setting up our rooms and preparing for the new class.  The last hour of the day we will have a back to school event where I will meet some of my new students.

Some of them are siblings of previous students.  Others were with me in drama club last year.  It's nice to have already developed some relationships.

I want to have my first week all planned out.

I need to get dinner ready: taco salad.

The three trips I mentioned are where different parts of my family live that I haven't seen in awhile.  I'm not a big traveler, but I love my family.

 

Happy September,

Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts

I know I had seen this video before, but this summer someone recommended that I read Susan Cain's book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. 
I find Cain's words inspiring both personally and professionally.

Quote of the Week -- August 31, 2014

“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Have a good week,

Likely, Unlikely, and Impossible

I have been developing some materials to teach probability this fall and over the next few weeks, I plan to share some freebies with you.  Today's freebie is a tri-fold paper for a whole group active response. Click here for the free download Likely, Unlikely and Impossible from my Google Drive.  Students fold along the horizontal lines and attach the top margin to the bottom margin.

The first lesson is to introduce the words and have students hold the correct term toward you. Use some non-mathematical situations which require a prediction.  Here are some examples:

1. At the end of the day, the school busses will arrive to take some students home.
2. At the end of the day, a limousine will arrive with a movie star.
3. At the end of the day, a unicorn will arrive carrying a rainbow.
4. It will be sunny all day.
5. It will rain sometime today.
6. The clouds will turn purple with orange and green stripes and shower cotton candy.

You get the idea.

I would love to read comments about how else you introduced these words.  Don't forget to come back next Friday for more freebies in this series.

Update: November 2015

 Math Spies and the Case of the Corrupt Carnival: Lessons in Probability

In this packet are seven “carnival games” students will evaluate based on likely and unlikely outcomes. I have included a tri-fold page with the words “likely, unlikely, and impossible” so all students can respond at the same time in class discussion.

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger

My students and I love the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger.  Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O'Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind is a wild ride with unique characters and an out of control plot.

Lenny Flem, Jr. is the only one who suspects the one with the fake mustache of being up to some evil plot. He meets Jodie O'Rodeo and the two of them work to foil the impending world domination.
    
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Developing Number Sense Round Up

Over the last several weeks I have posted several lessons I use to teach number sense.  Here is a list with the links in case you missed one or two.

First I wrote about using a meter stick to teach students the relationships between fractions and decimals.  (I recently updated this post here.

I wrote a follow up post here about other concepts I teach using the meter stick as a model.

You can purchase 12 meter sticks from Amazon by clicking the affiliate link below.

 
 Next, I wrote about creating a Magnified Inch and using this as a model for fractions between 0 and 1. 

I followed that up with how I extend the lesson to include mixed numbers.  My students have placing mixed numbers on a number line and creating their own helped.

 I wrote two posts about having students create their own set of fraction bars.  The first week I showed halves, thirds, and fourths.  The next week I wrote about creating sixths, eighths, and twelfths.

Last week I asked the question, "Can Calculators Boost Number Sense?". I would love some discussion about this issue.