Quadrilateral Tree

Both my 6th and 7th graders are working through the geometry unit. One thing that really throws them off is the fact that quadrilaterals can be classified as more than one special quadrilateral. A square is also a rectangle? WHAT?! NO!

To help them out, we created this quadrilateral tree together. I used my SMARTboard to create a large version of these pieces and we worked together to put it together. Of course I couldn’t resist lots of Astrobrights!

Click on the picture below to download the PDF.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I had a wonderful, relaxed weekend and I am super excited for this week! I will be out Thursday and Friday because I will be watching my younger brother graduate in PALM BEACH, FLORIDA! Yay!!

Triple Beam Balance Practice

Ahhhh Math state testing is FINALLY over! I think it went well, but we’ll see. My 6th graders have been practicing using the triple beam balance and they are doing a great job! They are LOVING it! Over 2 lab periods, the students worked with their groups to find the mass of 6 different objects determined by me. They then got to choose a few different object as a group to find the mass of.

On the back of their labs, they each wrote a paragraph for homework describing how to use a triple beam balance. Overall I was so pleased with how well they worked and all of the students can independently find the mass of an object. Next week they will be having their first of lab practical type of exam where they will be moving from station to station to find mass, volume and density of different object. I have never attempted this with my 6th graders so we will see how it goes!

Click on the picture below to download the PDF of this activity.

Enjoy your weekend!

Earthquakes Background Info

One. more. day of state testing. YAY!! I can’t wait until 10:15 tomorrow when I collect the last of the tests 🙂 My kids are doing AWESOME! I am so proud of them.

That being said, quick quick quick post today. Background information sheet for introducing Earthquakes!

Click on the picture below to download the PDF.

Enjoy!

Seismic Waves Intro Activity

I love teaching Earthquakes! We actually felt the aftershocks of the earthquake in Virginia this summer, so for once, most of my students have some background knowledge of the topic besides what they see in movies. As an introduction activity, I have students use jumbo Slinkys to model P and S waves. They have a great time using the Slinkys and it actually helps them remember how each moves.

Click on the link below to download the guided activity and questions.

I have decided to open a TPT store! I haven’t done it yet, but I have a question for everyone– would you rather buy a larger unit or individual, specific activities? Or both? Just wondering 🙂

Earth Day!!

Happy Earth Day!! I have been meaning to post all weekend, but my cousin/BFF was in New York searching for bridesmaid dresses for her wedding! We finally ordered one this morning!! I can’t wait for it to come it!!

This has been a crazy/busy week in school. The 4th and 8th graders have been taking their NYS ELA exam. Because we are a Catholic school we are only required to test in certain years. The 3rd grade teacher does all of the test coordinating and I know it is a TON of work. My 6th graders are buddied up with the 3rd graders and sometimes we do activities together. I volunteered to plan a little Earth Day activity for a period on Friday for both of our classes. It was a huge hit! I love seeing my students work with the younger students.

First, each table of students got a sheet of chart paper and brainstormed ways to take care of the earth. All of the kids got to participate and did a great job of coming up with ideas.

After discussing the ideas, each student filled out this super cute Earth Day pledge that I saw floating around pinterest. They decorated it and we hung them up. We challenged the students to choose ideas that they, themselves could implement.

When they completed the pledge, each student made 2 mini bird feeders by stringing Cheerios on pipe cleaners. Unfortunately our school doesn’t have any trees (or grass for that matter) so the students had to bring them home to hang up.

We all had a great time with these activities! Now off to finish getting ready for the week. MATH testing starts on Wednesday!!

Exploring Polygons

Just a quick post for tonight…State Exams are wiping me out…only one more week 🙂 My 6th graders are working on polygons. Today they did a quick polygon sort. The students worked with a partner and cut out the shapes. Using the definition we worked on in class, they sorted the shapes and glued them to the table.

Click on the PDF to download the file.

Enjoy!

Types of Lines and Angles Activity

Thanks for all of your sweet comments about my last post! I made most of my geometry unit on my own. I will definitely be sharing some of the things, but I am thinking of finally taking the plunge and opening a TPT or TN store. Any suggestions on which is better?!

Anyway….State testing is this week and next week. This week is ELA so I am administering the test to one of the students who has an IEP. During this time there is a sub in my room. My kids are getting spoiled with lots of BrainPOP and other sub type activities. One activity they will be doing tomorrow is based on this pin:

Click on the image for original source

I created my own document to suit the needs of my students. I also hate making things on construction paper!! I feel like they fade and rip so easily! Students will glue toothpicks to represent each type of line or angle. They will then use neon dot labels ($1/pack at Walmart!) to show points, endpoints and cut them in quarters for arrows.

Click on the picture below to download the PDF file.

Enjoy!

Lately…

This has been a wonderful Spring Break! I am so sad school starts up again tomorrow! Mostly sad because I will be spending the next 2+ week administering state exams. I LOVE coming back from a 1.5 week break and getting a chance to start high stakes testing. YAY!!

On Friday I went into school to photocopy and organize my geometry units that I worked on over break…

 

I love being able to take over the faculty room and punch, cut and organize everything that I need to.  How do you organize all of your copies. etc?

One of the many geometry activities I made is a 6 door foldable. My 6th graders don’t have a ton of background knowledge about polygons. One of the intro activities that they will be doing is creating this foldable to practice identifying some of the polygons that they are expected to know. I can’t wait to do this with them!

Click on the picture below to download the PDF file.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. I have been SO far behind on blogs and comments. I’m sorry! I still love you all I promise 🙂

 

Sink or Float? Mmm DIET COKE!!

I have been on Spring Break since last Thursday. I can’t complain. It’s been awesome. I have spent the past 3 days working my butt off finishing up some NYS test prep, 2 different geometry units and a few science labs and activities. As much as I would love to have gone someplace awesome and SUNNY over Spring Break, I love the feeling of being caught up and prepared for the coming weeks! I am going into school tomorrow to make millions of copies. I would much rather go in by myself and copy until my heart is content than worry about people waiting for me to be done.

I know I have been kind of ignoring the blog lately! Sorry! I have so many new ideas to share, but I have been super busy. I am thinking of possibly opening a TpT or TN store, but we’ll see if I get around to that haha… I thought I would share the handout for an interesting density activity I will be doing next week. Fill a tank with water and show the students a can of regular Coke and a can of Diet Coke. Even though they have the same volume, the Diet Coke floats and the regular Coke sinks. It’s super fun and it helps students visualize the relation of mass and density. Click on the picture below to download the PDF.

Percents, Fractions and Decimals Bingo

My students love playing Bingo! I figured the perfect way to review for our upcoming percents, fractions and decimals test was to play my students’ favorite game! I give my kids blank bingo board and project all of the possible answers on my SMARTboard. They get to choose 24 different answers and place them wherever they want on the board. This saves me a TON of time not having to make individual boards and since the kids choose what they want on their boards, I don’t have to hear about how I gave them a bad board on purpose.

Click on the picture below to download the calling cards and blank Bingo card.

Enjoy!