Chapter 7: Manipulatives, Experiments, Labs, and Models

This week's book study discussion, hosted by Deanna at Mrs. Jump's Class, is all about using hands-on strategies to increase learning.

My favorite quote from this chapter:

"When learning is active and hands-on, the formation of neural connections is facilitated and information is much more readily remembered than information learned from an abstract viewpoint, where the teacher is doing the work while the student watch (Gregory & Parry, 2006)."
(Source: Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate)

For me, reading this chapter was a big "You're doing it! Way to go!" I'm all about hands-on learning.

I just wish I had more cupboards and storage space! (Our building was not originally a school when we bought it.) One way we've tried to alleviate the storage burden is by practicing what we preach - SHARING! One teacher has all of the mini Judy clocks. Another a set of the 3D shape models. We even have a cupboard of math manipulatives to checkout in the teachers lounge. When I don't have a certain manipulative... and I don't want to buy it, I just write a note in my lesson plans about who has what I need.

These insect collections were borrowed from the high school science department.

Hands-on learning is engaging. It's important for any grade, but especially the younger grades. They explore using their hands. That's how they make sense of their world.

Here are some examples of Chapter 7 in action....

 

 Fraction Pizza

During our fraction unit, we donned our chef hats and made paper pizzas. 

We discussed equal parts and then cut them into fourths.

 

 

Telling Time

When we read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, I give each student their own clock.

As I read, they match their clocks to the time on each page of the story.

3D shapes Models

"When students are working with concrete shapes, they are developing the foundation for spatial sense" (Wall & Posamentier, 2006).
(Source: Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate)

See how we created our own 3D models with play-doh. It's a little tricky, but it's a great way to practice our vocabulary. "Make a sphere, and then roll one end to make a cone."

 

Building Letters and Words

 

Boys love this Word Work station!

Wikki Sticks are great for learning proper letter and number formation. I use them frequently at the beginning of the year. After building them, we trace them with our finger.

TIP: Use glossy paper plates to keep the sticky residue off your tables.

 

Subtraction Bowling

 

Click HERE to get a FREE copy of this recording sheet from Kelly Young.

 

Pumpkin Experiments

During our pumpkin unit we measure the circumference of the pumpkin with string before cutting it open and exploring the "guts" inside!

Bones and X-Rays

Insects 

Here was our "Bug Lab", where we categorized bugs according to the number of legs they had.

In my defense, this should be called a "recording sheet" :)

We created our own models out of play-doh using what we learned about insect characteristics.

6 legs? 3 body parts? Yes, it's an insect!

Check out the link-up at at Mrs. Jump's Class, to see how other teachers are implementing these strategies!

Five for Friday!

Happy Friday! Time for my favorite linky. Thanks Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

There are many perks of working at a K-12 school:

1) I have an amazing high school student who comes in for one period a day to help out in the classroom.
And...
2) They always have left over pie each year when they celebrate "pi" day.
(You should have seen how excited all of those math fanatics were this year since the date for pi day  had "15" [the next 2 numbers after 3.14 in pi].... 3.14.15) Hey, I'll be that excited if it involves pie :)

We continued on with our plant unit this week. Our focus when reading about sunflowers was describing words. After reading about sunflowers, each student wrote one word on a post-it and stuck it to our chart.
These words made a reappearance in our journals.

I was impressed that one of my students knew that these words were called "adjectives". When I asked how she knew that, she replied "My family plays a lot of MadLibs".

"Beautiful, Humungous, Pretty"

Flip 10

If you are working on sums of 10, your kids will love this game! Students play in pairs a game similar to memory. Player 1 flips over 2 cards. If the sum = 10, they keep the cards. Whoever has the most combinations of 10 at the end wins! It's great practice to help get sums of 10 automatic.

I encouraged them to go beyond counting their fingers: "Try saying the biggest number and then counting on: 8....and 2 more.... 8.... 9, 10!"

Subtraction Stories

Last week we read Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar and made a class book. This week used the Five Little Monkeys to help us practice subtraction sentences.

First, we got out our individual whiteboards to write the subtraction sentences as we read Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow

Then, we made our own stories!

Thanks Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten for the resources! (Click HERE to get your own FREE copy of the Five Little Monkeys subtraction story booklet.)

Each student created their own book featuring 3 different subtraction sentences.

Mr. Bones visited our class this week to teach us about our skeletons. He even brought X-rays of different people and animal bones! He was a hit!

Mr. Bones taught us that our bones: 1) Give us support, 2) Help us move, and 3) Protect important organs.

He even taught us 10 different bone names. (I laughed when a student said "Patella rhymes with Nutella!" Yes, yes it does!)

Click on the picture below to dance along to Dem Bones School Tube video.

These guided drawing skeleton paper dolls turned out adorable!

Pajama Day

What better way to fight the "below zero blues" of January than with a pajama day! My students came in their P.J.s and slippers along with a favorite stuffed animal. I set up several tents throughout the classroom the night before for them to read in.

We made pancakes for our morning snack. Each student helped stir the batter while practicing their counting skills. Some counted by 2's, 5's, or 10's during their turn and others I gave a number and they had to count on (43, 44, 45...) Then they each had a chance to flip a pancake! There was a lot of laughter! We had several conjoined pancakes by the end of it. And many burnt-ish pancakes - my specialty! (They just needed a little extra syrup, that's all.) The leader of the day brought two kinds of syrups for us to try with our pancakes. Afterwards we graphed our favorite - this year it was an equal liking for maple and blueberry.

The other classrooms were jealous of the delicious smell coming from our room!

We read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff  and talked about its circular story pattern - circular just like a pancake. I had to laugh, beacause on one page I asked the class "Why do you think the pig wants her picture taken?" A student responded, "To put on Facebook!" Haha!

We also read The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood while highlighting the growing pattern of the story. I took drawings of each character and taped them to wooden building blocks. We stacked the blocks as each character piled onto the next one in the story.

"What can you find that measures 3 pancakes?" was our math challenge of the day. I cut out 4inch pancakes for students to measure with. It was a great critical thinking exercise.

I am slowly introducing the concept of subtraction until we get to that unit. I want my class to be familiar with the vocabulary prior to jumping right in.  We read a version of There Were 10 in a Bed  and acted out the story with teddy grahams. Each time the little one said "Roll over!", we rolled one teddy graham off the bed and into our mouths. I would say the subtraction problem and then call up a student to write the difference on the whiteboard.

We wrote in our journals about our day by copying the sentence: "Today was pajama day." I encouraged them to write a second sentence of their own. At the beginning of the year I focus on phonemic writing/inventive spelling - stretching out the word and writing down the sounds they hear. Now, at this point in the year, I take it a step further and model "finger spacing" between words, starting with a capital letter, and ending with a punctuation mark.

I drew names to see which 3 students could put their nap mats in each of the 3 tents set up in the room.

Pajama day was a success! However, I did get a lot of grief for wearing pajamas from my colleagues,"In a rush this morning?" They also advised me not to run errands after school - unless I was shopping at Wal-mart. They were just jealous. :) Who doesn't love being comfy? I think I might plan a "sweatpants day" next month...