Review the Room, Marshmallow Math, Main Idea

       We had a fun filled week with many activities and lots of learning. Last year I started making review activities for my students to use the day before a math test to review all the concepts that would be on the math test and see who needed some reteaching before the test. I shared them with my teammates and they began using them, too. Over the summer I tried to figure out how I could expand the idea. It finally dawned on me as I was driving down the road that I should do them to go with each of the reading units. That was the beginning of my Review the Room units. (Which can be found in my TpT store here.) My vision was to use them the way I did my math Review the Rooms last year. I would hang the problems up around the room, and students would walk around answering each questions. Then they would come to me to have their paper checked. My students looked forward to these very much. They would be so excited when they would see new problems hanging and couldn't wait to get through reading to start math. Well, my students and my schedule are very different than last year. So, the way I utilize them has changed, too. Instead of hanging the problems up, I print out black and white copies for each set of partners and they students stay in one spot to answer all the problems. My morning class has done very well with this and I now let them choose a spot in the room to work. Of course I forgot to take any pictures of them working. I did snap a pic of my afternoon class working. They are still working at their desks.

They share the Review the Room paper between them. They each have their own recording sheet, but they work together on the answers.

I am hoping to eventually move towards using them as a get up and move around the room activity as I intended, but until then I'll do what is best for each class. 

       Another really fun activity that we did this week was Marshmallow Math. I was looking for a way to inject some fun into my math lessons. I read Amy Lemon's blog this week and she talked about Abby's Marshmallow Math and it looked like just what I needed.

I took her paper and tweaked it to make it work for what I was teaching. We were learning word form this day so I added a spot for that on the page. And you know when somethings are just meant to be? We are in the fourth week of school and I still hadn't been able to get my document camera to work. I had asked two people to help but they couldn't remember the steps for the fix. I hadn't gotten around to asking anyone else. On a whim I decided to try it again because it would have really helped to model how to set up the marshmallow math. It worked! and it worked all day for both classes! That made the lesson go so much smoother.

I set up the marshmallow place value under the document camera.

Here is what the screen looked like. Don't ask why I took a pic of the laptop  instead of the Promethean Board. I don't know why. But you can see how the students could see my marshmallows, how to draw it on their paper, and the dice we were using to generate the numbers.

The students are working hard to complete their work, so then they can eat their math tools. :)

You can see where I added a line at the end where the students wrote the number in word form.

In reading we are working on main idea. My student loved these main idea trees. They are also from Amy Lemon's. 

I love how the exact same tree pattern can turn into so many different trees. They each had their own opinion on where the leaves should go.

       On a totally random note, my youngest daughter has become a rather picky eater. Picky meaning she would rather pick cookies, candy, cake or ice cream than any other food. I gave her a banana with her lunch today. She likes to take the complete peel off, but then today she didn't touch it at all. I asked that she eat at least one bite (so I didn't feel like it had been a total waste.) She asked if she only had to take one or if shehad to take more. I said one would make me happy. When I walked back in this is what I saw. 

I don't know why but the bite out of the side of the banana just struck my as totally funny. Like proof that she took ONLY one bite. 

What sunshines and giggles filled your week?