Understanding Multiplication

Multiplication – The art of increasing gold or silver by magic, — attributed formerly to the alchemists

Younger students need to have the magic of multiplication broken into little pieces of reality! I think the best starting point is showing that multiplication is repeated addition. If I add two 6 times, I have multiplied two by six. It actually takes saying that word “times” quite a few times before everyone catches on to the idea that we also say “times” when we multiply.

Of course, by showing I actually mean showing. Students need manipulatives in their hands. If they are edible all the better! 15 candies in one roll of Smarties. If everyone on your team has one roll, how many candies does your team have? We make arrays out of cubes, then we draw the arrays with circles or Xs. Sometimes we get fancier and do hearts or stars, but it is important to be able to draw quick arrays to see that they can be useful in problem solving when you get stuck on a problem.

Important vocabulary surrounds multiplication. I love to have them figure out the analogies such as, plus: addition :: times: multiplication and addend: factor :: sum: product. Later on, we realize addition: multiplication:: subtraction : division. Besides factor and product, there’s other important multiplication vocabulary or key words. Each and every usually mean to multiply. I tell my class to watch out for same number and equal groups, because those words change each and every to division, every time. Kids need to know the words twice, double, triple, and quadruple means to multiple. Then we have total and altogether, which they already recognize as addition words. These words provide a chance to reinforce the idea that multiplication is actually just FAST addition.

When learning our facts, we use many strategies: fact families, number lines, repeated addition, arrays, groups, sets, music, movement, discussion, breaking apart numbers.

I made this poster for my kids to discuss all the ways they know to multiply. I have attached the pdf for you.

Understanding Multiplication

I have made an Understanding Multiplication Scavenger Hunt. Here is a page from it:

It also explores multiplication as repeated addition, arrays, skip counting, and fact families.

I hope that you find some magic in multiplication in your classroom!

Ann

 

Always, Sometimes, Never

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

Plato

We need our students to think. For many they are trained to put answers on a line. If there is no line, there must be no question. The directions and information above the lines can easily be ignored. The whole exercise, for those who can get it all right without reading and for those who can get is mostly wrong without reading, is a waste of time. This is one example of why I feel so strongly about conversation as a learning tool. This same exercise, shared with a partner with the expectation that answers need to be defended, requires thinking. The students can learn more about what they know and/or what they don’t know.

Graphic organizers are a great way to have students think. I have created a formative assessment called “Know or No”. I give students a list of words on a current topic for them to rate their knowledge. They can then line up in a continuum showing their understanding. This line is then folded and students are paired to talk about the word(s). This formative assessment can used before, during, and after instruction. Students, of course, should grow in their knowledge, but they should also be aware of that growth.

Another great graphic organizer to use is a tree chart. Students fill in each section with whatever information they can think of. For example; thinking – always…  helps, thinking – sometimes…  is hard, thinking – never…  costs money. I have seen many of these on TPT and have made many of my own. Here is a new one on Thinking for today’s blog. The others are examples of ones I have used with my class.

Thinking

I hope you give your students many opportunities to think and talk every day!

Ann

Ask Questions

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Voltaire

The third book of The Comprehension Toolkit by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis focuses on asking questions. This is such an important way to learn and to build vocabulary. I have a little guy in my class who is so interested in every topic we touch on in class (science, social studies, etc.), that he gets non-fiction books on the topics from the library each week. Then he shares with me all of his new learning. Our conversations help him clarify what he is reading and to build his understanding. These Toolkit lessons helped him and his less interested classmates notice and respond when questions float through their minds while reading. It suggests ways to help students stop and think about how what they are learning fits with what they already know. Sometimes students need to realize that what they “know” isn’t actually so and they need to give up that thinking and update it with the new information they are discovering. Of course, this can also be true for adults!

This set of 4 posters for lessons 7 – 9 is available free at my Teacher Pays Teacher store. The set includes a strategies wrap up page.

 

It is through asking questions that we learn more about what interests us. Teachers ask questions of themselves and their colleagues about how to best reach and teach each child. We ask question of the child, too, to help access and assess what learning is taking place.

Questioning is an important skill, it needs to be taught.

Ann

Snowman Bioglyph

The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.
Margaret Atwood

I wonder how many words we have for some important topics. It has always seemed to me that someone discovered this factoid and thought it was really amazing, but didn’t really do any research on our language to discover which words fill up our vocabularies. A brief search on Merriam-Webster.com had me counting over 100 synonyms for love. This could be a great topic for discussion in a classroom. Which words do we have them most synonyms for? Which words are used in the most ways?

I created this snowman bioglyph for a fun following directions activity for my class. It also gives the students an opportunity to use their observation skills to discover differences between themselves and their classmates. I love the word bioglyph. It literally means “life picture”. When students complete a bioglyph they have a picture that represents something about their lives.

I posted  this example several months ago:

A simple Glyph

This one is great because it also shows if students understand the cardinal and intermediate directions.

Our snowman bioglyphs were especially fun for us because many of my students rarely if ever see snow. They don’t understand how a snowman is built or how heavy or cold it really is. We had a very good conversation throughout their work. Here are some pictures of my students working. After we made our bioglyphs I made a couple of changes to the directions page and the snowman to make them easier and better. Nothing like classroom testing to improve a products!

 

My Snowman Bioglyph product is currently available at my Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook stores at a special low price. Also watch my Facebook page as it will be a flash freebie for one hour each day this week!

I hope you are enjoying your day off.

Ann

Brain Twister Bingo

Here’s an amazing find from Teachers Pay Teachers. It is by one of our newer members and it has some great material for word study and thinking skills!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brain-Twister-Bingo-Class-Pack-of-30-Brain-Teaser-Bingo-Boards

This activity pack introduces and teaches four different types of brain twisters:

 

Letter Patterns – determining what certain letters stand for based on number clues

Example:  “24 H in a D”  is 24 hours in a day and “26 L in the A” is 26 letters in the alphabet

 
Visual Puzzles – deciphering a common phrase or word based on the visual attributes of letters or symbols in a box

           Example:      “2nd     2nd     2nd     2nd     2nd”  is 5 seconds and “SH    IP” is Spaceship

 

Hink Pink – identifying two rhyming words based on a defining sentence

           Example:  “a distant light in the sky”  is FAR STAR  and “a tiny sphere” is a SMALL BALL

Clues in Common – deducing what complimentary word a group of words may have in common

Example:  “door, ache, stage, pack”  all have the word BACK in common, while “keeper, brick, wife, fire” all have HOUSE in common.

Angela includes a fun teaching sheet with three or four completed samples to help students figure out how to approach each type of brain twister. Each of these fun activities challenge students to think about words in unique, interesting ways. These activities will initiate great conversation about words! An answer key for each activity is included.

Here is what Angela has to say about her amazing product:

Here is an example of one of her 36 complete bingo sheets! One sheet would be fun to solve on its own! I am blown away by the value of this product! You get a total of 48 pages, packed with brain building materials, currently for only $4.00!

I am always on the lookout for creative ways to get children to love language learning! I am excited to present this one and I am anxious to find and share more amazing products.

Ann

Saturday Extra: Word Study

Intermediate Word Play Weekly Plan

If you are trying to get your kids to appreciate and engage in the process of discovering words, this is the activity for you! Not only do these lessons engage students actively in forming and exploring their word lists, but it also helps your reluctant readers gain confidence and learn to love words! After the first few lessons, students’ confidence skyrockets. Kids who hesitate to attempt difficult words gain the skills they need to start decoding more complex, multisyllabic words. You will see an increase in vocabulary skills, spelling skills, and fluency rates if you consistently implement these lessons with minimal preparation!

Heather Earley of www.wildaboutwords.blogspot.com begins her word play lessons with this amazing claim. But as I look over her materials, I find myself believing every word of it! Each 5 day lesson comes with detailed plans and easy preparation tips. I love that she allows for conversation and uncertainty on day 1. There will be words the students may not know. Students think together, manipulate letters, and make discoveries. Heather differentiates by working with a small group of students who need extra help. She includes other differentiation ideas and suggestions. The activities include a word ladder type practice, building words with manipulatives, independent practice, partner work, small group work, whole group work, fluency practice, “Find a Friend”, “Team Test”, a review, and I am sure there is more! She includes a word list for study and materials for every activity she describes.

The biggest selling point for me is the work with affixes. Students explore their meanings, the meanings of the new words they create, and how adding them affects spelling. During this discovery students also get to use conversation as a vocabulary building activity.

Heather has linked her work to common core expectations.

At this time Heather has 12 sets available on Teachers Pay Teachers. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Wild-About-Words/Category/Intermediate-Word-Studies

The focus words include:

indestructible

disappointment

disinfectant

prematurely

eavesdropping

disagreements

weightlessness

uncomfortable

autographs

rearrangements

conversation

decontaminate

“You will find everything you need to actively engage your kids in word play and exploration to develop vocabulary and word analysis skills as students seek to discover what the “big word” of the week is.”

Each item is available for only $2.00! If I taught 4th, 5th or 6th grade, I would already own them all! I am going to try some of the ideas with my 3rd graders.

Check out Rebecca Glasmann’s Fabulous Fall Giveaway!

Have a great week!

Ann

Saturday Extra Veterans Day

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”

– Maya Angelou

Every Veterans Day for the last 5 – 6 years our third grade classes have walked to the nearby jr. high to look through their display of posters honoring service men and women from every student’s family. These posters are laminated and strung between the many trees in the schoolyard. The students walk respectfully and notice the different wars and the amount of service and sacrifice. They become silent in front of posters when they realize that that person was killed in battle. Last year we got to thank to Viet Nam veterans who were posing for pictures in front of their posters. It is a wonderful experience for the students. Inevitably they begin talking about who they could honor and why they should also be honored. This experience is an amazing vocabulary builder and so much more.

Here is a word of the day card to help honor our veterans in your classroom.

Veterans Day

Many other word of the day cards are available at my TPT store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Ann-Fausnight

A set of National Holidays cards is currently available for $2.00

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/National-Holidays-Cards

A b/w version is also available.

 Ann

Rock On!

Vocabulary development can depend on many things, repetition, connections, visuals, conversation, and, of course, interest. Children, no matter their age, deserve the real words to describe what they are desiring to learn about. All of my vocabulary cards are written with this idea in mind.

Yesterday I posted the igneous rock. I love to talk with my students about the Latin root of igneous igne meaning fire.  They usually have heard of ignite and ignition. Some of the other words are ones I never knew until I was ready to learn them with my kids!

igneous (adjective)

1. Of fire, fiery; typical of fire; relating to or characteristic of fire. 2. In geology, formed by solidification from a molten or partially molten state (used of rocks or relating to rocks so formed): “Granite and basalt are igneous rocks.” 3. Relating to a rock that was formed by solidification from molten or partly molten material; one of the three principal classification of rocks along with metamorphic and sedimentary: “Such materials are a result of, or are produced by, the action of great heat.”

ignescent (adjective)

A reference to something that produces sparks of fire or that which can emit sparks or burst into flame: “He was using ignescent flint to cause sparks.”

ignible (adjective)

Something which is able to cause sparks or fire: “Since he had ignible trash, it was easy to burn all of it in the fire place.”

ignic (adjective)

Of or pertaining to fire: “The ignic heat from the fireplace helped to keep them warm during the winter.”

ignicolist (s), ignicolists (pl) (noun forms)

A fire-worshipper or fire-worshippers: “There were ignicolists who were known to worship fire as a form of a god.”

ignitable(adjective)

That which can be burned or set on fire.

ignite

1. To cause to burn. 2. To set fire to. 3. To subject to great heat, especially to make luminous by heat. 4. To arouse or kindle the passions of ; excite.

igniter

1. One who ignites. 2. A device to set fire to an explosive or combustible.

ignition

1. An electrical system, usually operated by a magneto or battery, that provides the spark to ignite the fuel mixture in an internal-combustion engine. 2. The point at which a substance begins a process of combustion, or the means by which this process begins.Ignitionoccurs when the heat produced by a reaction becomes sufficient to sustain a chemical reaction.Today’s word is metamorphic rock. It’s name comes from Greek roots. Metamorphic comes from the Greek words meta and morph. Meta means change and morph means form. So we get metamorphic meaning to change form. That is just so cool to kids, like a transformer or a shape-shifter!

Remember if you’d like more on rocks you can find my Rocks and Mineral unit and my Rock Cycle unit at my TPT store. (The Rock Cycle unit is contained in the Rocks and Mineral unit.)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Science-Vocabulary-Rocks-and-Minerals-Teaching-Unit-and-Rock-Cycle-Unit $5.00

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Science-Vocabulary-Rock-Cycle-Teaching-Unit $3.50

See you on tomorrow to share sedimentary!

Ann

I Am Her Vocabulary Devotee!

The best word-learning classrooms are filled with an intentional
focus on vocabulary where students notice words and consider strategies for becoming word savvy.   – Linda Hoyt
http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00719/chapter18.pdf

This list is from Spotlight on Comprehension: Building a Literacy of Thoughtfulness by Linda Hoyt, Chapter 18 “Building a Robust Vocabulary”.

This is a list of ways to intentionally build word awareness as an important stepping stone to facilatating vocabulary development and retention.

1. Ensure that students spend a lot of time reading from a wide range of texts with well-crafted language.

2. Read to learners from richly written fiction and nonfiction sources, discussing interesting words.

3. Create a word-rich environment, celebrate words on the walls of your classroom.

4. Use a rich vocabulary when conversing with learners.

5. Study the concepts that underlie words.

6. Identify relationships between words.

7. Connect new words to words already known.

8. Help students develop strategies for independent word learning.

9. Model good word learning behaviors and your own curiosity about words.

10. Invite students to be word detectives, collecting interesting words and words that are important.

11. Save words in a notebook.

12. Give students opportunities to use words in meaningful ways.

13. Engage with fewer words; don’t try to cover so many that learning is superficial.

14. Link visualizations to word meanings.

15. Provide opportunities to make inferences about word meanings.

16. Have fun with language!

I am including two worksheets I have created to go with Linda’s amazing vocabulary/comprehension building ideas.

KID Vocabulary

The First activity KID Vocabulary is for students to choose key words from a concept that is introduced. They choose the important information to remember, then draw an illustration to help build their understanding.

The second activity requires students to summarize a lesson in two words. Students need to reflect on the two words that will provide them with the most meaning for what they learned. Students are also asked to write or talk about why they chose those 2 words. They could talk about other words they considered and why they rejected them. They can help a partner evaluate the 2 words they chose. This is an excellent activity for using conversation as a learning tool.

 

Please check out my Vocabulary Development  Strategies Book at TPT!

Ann

Saturday Extra: Freebie Edition

Expecting something for nothing is the most popular form of  hope. Arnold  H. Glasow

I want to invite all of my readers to find all of my freebies on TpT. I have talked about several of them on this blog, but many others are available.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Flying-Higher-with-Bloom

This product creates a 3 and 1/2 chart that shows the levels of Bloom’s questions. I have one in my room. I move the hot air balloon at times to talk about why some questions are better questions than others. Great student discussion requires higher thinking!

I also have a product for “Diving Deeper with Bloom”. It has the same format, except that a cute scuba diver goes deeper into thinking about ideas. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dive-Deeper-with-Bloom This product costs $1.00.

Our school uses The Comprehension Toolkit to help build comprehension skills and to  provide the students with tools for understanding what they are reading. The third – fifth grade set of the Toolkit has 6 books. I have created posters to go along with each book. Since I only synthesized the authors ideas, and didn’t really add any of my own, all of these materials are free. There are 30 posters in all.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Track-Your-Thinking-Comprehension-Toolkit-Posters

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Follow-the-Signposts-Comprehension-Toolkit-Posters

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ask-Questions-Posters-to-Use-with-The-Comprehension-Toolkit-Book-3

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Infer-Meaning-Posters-for-Comprehension-Toolkit-Book-4

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Determine-ImportancePosters-to-use-with-the-Comprehension-Toolkit-Book-5

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Summarize-and-Synthesize-Posters-to-use-with-The-Comprehension-Toolkit-Box-6

Another freebie, that you have already seen, are my patriotic bookmarks. This set includes bookmarks for the Pledge of Allegience, the Star-Spangled Banner, the Preamble, and the Declaration of Independence.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Patriotic-Bookmarks

Here is a weather related freebie. This is great for adding a writing component to your unit on weather.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Be-a-Meteorologist-Writing-Freebie

My List, Label, Group graphic organizer can be used with any concept. It is a great extension to the “K” part of a KWL. Great for using conversation as a learning tool to build vocabulary.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/List-Group-Label-Graphic-Organizer

If you have visited my blog before you have seen many of my word of the day cards. This freebie is a package of some of the most popular ones I have posted. Many packages of word of the day cards and other vocabulary cards are available at my store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-DevelopmentWord-of-the-Day-Trial-Pack

My favorite freebie of all time is my context clues lesson, Diamonds or Coals. I recently added to this freebie to make it even better.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Diamonds-or-Coal-A-Context-Clues-Lesson

Finally, my newest freebie is for Halloween. It has two compound word activities.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Compound-Words

I hope this is helpful and that you were able to easily download any or all of the activities that would be of interest to you. I think next Saturday I will scour my blog for all of the freebies I have only posted here for another roundup!

See you Monday with the Word of the Day!