Hi Friends! I am dropping in quickly to share some freebies with you from one of my FAVORITE enrichment activities! I hope it is of help to you and your little geniuses!

I use Hundred Board Enrichment Puzzles to challenge my 2nd and 3rd grade students. I am in love with these puzzles because they are both FUN and MEANINGFUL. Each puzzle offers an interesting, non-routine way to develop important math concepts and critical thinking skills.

So, how do they work? Each Hundred Board puzzle provides a series of 4-6 mathematical clues. Students use the clues to determine the value of the mystery number. While the focus of each activity is numeracy, each puzzle includes a variety of upper elementary math skills, concepts, and vocabulary.

Here's an example from the 2nd grade pack:


Puzzle #8:

• It is greater than the number of years in a decade.
• It does not contain the digit that equals the number of sides on a rhombus.
• It is not between the value of 4 nickels and 4 dimes.
• The digit in the ones place = the number of inches in ½ a foot.
• The sum of the digits is < 11. 

As you can see, the focus is on numbers and operations, yet students also need to apply geometry, measurement, time, and academic math vocabulary in order to solve this puzzle.

Here's an example from the 3rd grade version:

Puzzle #5:

• The number is greater than the number of sides on a trapezoid.
• The mystery number is less than the perimeter of a 6 by 6 array.
• None of the digits are even.
• The sum of the digits equals 8.

Again, the focus is on numbers and operations, but students also need to apply geometry, measurement, and perimeter in order to solve this puzzle. Fun, right!

There are 20 puzzles in each pack and the level of complexity increases as the puzzle number gets higher.

The puzzles come in color and black and white, so I can use them in a variety of ways. Some of my favorite uses include:

• math centers and stations 
• a printable packet for early finishers 
• anchor activities 
• learning contracts 
• choice board activities 

You can download both of the activities shown above for free by clicking on the link below the image. I hope you are your students enjoy them as much as mine!

I am so proud of my students who participated in last year's 3rd grade film academy!!! And I am infinitely grateful to the parents, particularly our director/producer Chip Hackler, who made the entire opportunity possible!

Because of my talented students and parents, we are headed to the 20th annual Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC in two weeks! :-)

Among the thousands of films that were entered, our short film "Shot Reverse Shot" was selected as a favorite! Based on Jack Johnson's song, the music video is about point of view and perspective in both film and life. The festival will take place November 12-16th. Our film will "premiere" Sunday, November 16th at 1:00. Tickets are only $10, so I hope you will come join us to enjoy and celebrate!!!!



Click HERE to watch our short film. Check out the following link to learn more about the 3rd grade film academy! Some day I promise to post about all of the Elementary Academies in detail!! They have become one of my favorite aspects of teaching.

Stay tuned :-)

One of my favorite math units to do with upper elementary students is Math Quest! I very rarely repeat units in my classroom (there are too many great new things to try, right?), but Math Quest is one I have returned to year after year. So, I thought I'd share some of the ways I use this AMAZING Interact Unit with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade students.

Math Quest is set up like a game to engage and motivate students. (See the game board below!)




Students earn “travel dots” for solving math problems; each travel dot is worth one space on the game board. As students work their way towards the treasure chest at the top of the board, they earn special "powers" and gold. The team of students with the most gold at the end of the unit wins! SO MUCH FUN!

Now for the math . . . ! The unit is designed to help students become competent, confident, and creative problem solvers. Throughout the unit, students explore six problem-solving strategies:

• Guess and check
• Look for a pattern
• Work backward
• Make a picture or a diagram
• Use Logical Reasoning
• Make a table or a chart

Students work in teams and then on their own to apply each problem-solving method. The Math Quest unit provides all of the problems for team practice and individual application. Each set of problems is tiered to provide varying levels of challenge. I've found that levels A, B, and C correspond pretty well with grades 3, 4, and 5.

When introducing a problem-solving strategy, I follow an "I do," "We do," "Y'all do," "You do" approach. With "I do," I introduce and model the strategy. I select a different problem for "we do" and the students and I solve it together; the students record their work in their math notebooks, while I write on the board. If all goes as planned (ha, right?), then we move on to "y'all do." In this stage, students work in their teams of 4 to solve the problem together. We use Student Learning Teams to ensure meaningful learning. In a student learning team, each student has a specific "job," which promotes individual accountability, equal student responsibility, and positive interdependence.



And then finally, "you do," where students practice and apply the problem-solving strategy independently.

Due to the complexity of the problems, I require my students to use a problem-solving mat to guide and illustrate their thinking. The work mat guides them through the important steps of understanding, solving, explaining, and checking the problem. Prior to using the mat, my students tended to RUSH, particularly through steps 1 and 4, which seriously compromised the accuracy of their work! I've found that the mat helps my students to navigate and solve complex problems with greater independence and accuracy.



I then use a holistic rubric to score the completed mats. While it is not as descriptive as an analytic rubric, I find it more user-friendly for the purpose of scoring LOTS of math problems each week.



When I designed the problem-solving mats and rubrics, I wanted to emphasize the importance of the problem-solving process. Therefore, I wanted students to be rewarded for showing their work and thinking. As a result, students can actually earn more points for an incorrect answer where they have shown their reasoning, then if they simply record the correct answer. With that said, there is a lot of value in accuracy, as well! That is why there is such a large numerical gap (4 – 10) between the two highest scores. I want students to participate in and value the problem-solving process, but I also want them to recognize that accuracy is essential.

Putting an emphasis (and a score!) on the problem-solving process is a new way of thinking for many students. I've found though, that once students understand and use the problem-solving maps & rubrics that it dramatically improves the quality of their work and thinking.

In my experience, when my students take ownership of the rubric, they are more likely to understand and invest themselves in the process. Therefore, I enlist them to help me build the criteria. I provide the descriptors and we discuss each one. In the discussion, we address the value of the problem-solving process, the importance of accuracy, and our ultimate goal of accomplishing both! As a class, students then decide what point value each level of performance is worth. We record their decisions on paper and use this an anchor chart. It keeps the criteria clear and available and students can refer to it easily throughout the year.

The members of my 3rd grade Film Academy presented the final cut of their video to the school today! They were so excited and felt like true celebrities! I am so proud of their hard work. Our Academy host and director was AMAZING! I can't believe how much he was able to accomplish in such a small amount of time. Click here to check out our fabulous, 4 minute music video. :-)

One of my favorite parts of the academy was how the director helped the students explore the multiple meanings of Jack Johnson's song, "Shot, Reverse Shot." Not only did they learn about filming techniques, they also developed a better understanding of empathy, point of view, and perspective.

Without a doubt, the Academies were my FAVORITE part of the 2013-14 school year! You can learn more about the interest-based, enrichment Academies here. Once summer begins, I hope to write about the Academies in greater detail and share more examples of student work. If you have any questions or there is something in particular you'd like to learn more about, let me know in the comments! Thanks for checking in!

I love the Teaching Channel! Last year, one of my New Year's Resolutions was to watch one short video a night before bed. Well, the every night-thing didn't happen (ha :-), but I did watch a whole bunch of terrific, inspiring videos in 2013! One of my favorites was called, "My Favorite No." I was originally intrigued by the title, but it was the content that got me hooked! (You can watch the 5 minute video here.)

In "My Favorite No," the teacher provides a brief pre-assessment in the form of an entrance card. The students work the problem to demonstrate what they learned the day before. The teacher then collects responses and sorts them into two piles: yes and no. "Yes" represents a correct answer and "No" is an inaccurate response. She then works with the class to analyze her "favorite no." She calls it her "favorite no" because it reflects strong thinking and problem solving and, as she says in the video, "A mistake is an opportunity to show how much you know." (LOVE this!) The activity provides reflection, analysis, and higher order thinking. Furthermore, it is quick and effective!

What I love most about this strategy is that in NO WAY penalizes students for being wrong. In fact, the whole process is designed to validate students and their thinking! I have been using this strategy - in various ways - with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in both reading and math. Like the teacher in the video, I've seen improvement in student accuracy, understanding, accountability, and metacognition. I have been so in love with this strategy that I created a series of task cards for my 4th and 5th graders to use as we explore, review, and extend the concept of fractions. Each card presents students with an error in problem solving, arithmetic, and./or reasoning. Using a problem solving mat, students rework the problem, show the correct answer, and explain the error.

My kiddos love this! They feel empowered analyzing mistakes, while developing a meaningful depth of understanding from analyzing and explaining the error.



Thanks for checking in! Happy teaching!