STAAR Wars

I’m back to tell you about some ways I try to keep my students motivated while preparing for STAAR (Texas state assessment).

One of the tools I use in my classroom is punch cards. We do A LOT of practice leading up to the STAAR test and it is important that the practice be meaningful. Unless students are working to their full potential and using the strategies I have taught them, time is being wasted. To help keep them focused and motivated I use punch cards. This year I’ve changed the punch cards to fit our STAAR Wars theme.

In order to receive punches, students MUST show their work. They have the opportunity to earn the following punches:

• 3 punches – 100
• 2 punches – A
• 1 punch – B

Once they fill up the entire card, I offer them money from our classroom economy.

If you think your students would benefit from using these free punch cards, you can download them from here.

 

Using too many worksheets during review time is boring for ME, so I know the kids are bored too! I like to change things up a bit by playing a variety of different games. PowerPoint games are my favorite because we can play as a whole class and there are plenty of opportunities for meaningful discussions. Here’s a game I created to review fractions that fits our STAAR Wars theme. *For some reason the image for the video looks crummy! When I click on it to start the video, the resolution improves.*

STAAR Wars–3rd Grade Fraction Review

This PowerPoint game can be found on TpT.

 

I hope I have given you some ideas that you can use in your classroom. I’ll be back with more STAAR Wars ideas soon.

Leave a Comment fractions, STAAR, STAAR Wars, test prep

Fractional Relationships

Don’t you love the word “rigorous”?  If you’re anything like me, you have heard that term enough for rigor mortis to set in!!  Anyway, in an effort to make my math instruction more rigorous I typed up this fractional math sort.  I gave this to my class towards the end of my fraction unit after we had discussed fractions on clocks, fractions in measurement, and fractional parts of a dollar.


I told my class to cut out the cards and sort them but I didn’t tell them how to sort them.  I wanted to see what would happen.  Not surprisingly, a lot of my kiddos put all the clocks into a group, all the coins in a group, etc.  I was amazed to see that many of my kids sorted them by the fractional relationship.  After some guidance, everyone had their cards sorted the correct way.  We then added the sorts to our math journals and the kids had to explain the relationships.



This was an enlightening activity.  Even though some of my students really had to stretch, I was glad we did this.  It is very rewarding to see some higher level thinking taking place.

If you would like to try this one with your class, you can download this freebie at my TpT store or by clicking on any of the pics above.

2 comments fractions, freebies, math, notebooks

It's Freebie Friday!

Today is Freebie Friday at Teaching Blog Addict.  What a great way to finish off the week!  Free is always good in my book.  I'm joining the party with two fraction sorts you can add to your math notebooks next year.  If your students don't keep math notebooks, you can always have them glue the sort onto construction paper for a quick assessment. 



   

Each fraction is represented as a set, part of a whole, and on a number line.  I hope you can find a use for these in your classroom. Click on any of the pictures above to get your copy.  Don't forget to drop by Teaching Blog Addict to find more great FREE resources! 

Happy blog hopping!

I would like to thank Amy from Adventures in Teaching for nominating me for the One Lovely Blog Award.  Amy is a new blogger with lots of teaching experience.  Drop by and check out her blog sometime.  I'm still on the lookout for more blogs to nominate.  You can check my list of deserving blogs here.

1 comment fractions, freebies, journaling, math, notebooks, notetaking