Ugh...not more math.

     As I was growing up, I can vividly remember my hatred for math. It never came easy for me. I somehow managed to always do well enough, but God did I loathe numbers and anything that involved problem solving. The one math area that I did actually enjoy in elementary school was learning about data and measurement. Finally...visuals! Pictures! Hands-on concepts! Manipulatives that made sense to me! 

     When I became a teacher, I promised myself and my students (both current and future) that I would always try to make math fun. I would come up with ways to engage every kid (fellow math haters included). I would spend many hours on weekends creating centers and games for the different concepts I was teaching at the time. Some worked. Some didn't. Some centers stuck around a tad longer than expected because my kids loved them so very much. I wanted to share a set of centers/games that proved to be winners in my class. 

Measurement and Data Centers/Games

These centers and games can be used in many ways.

Ways to Use:

• These are great options for those early finishers! Partnered up, they can play until you are ready to tranistion to the next task. 
• Putting these into centers is another great use (and how I used them). This can be done in pairs or groups of four (two students teaming up - good for students that may struggle). 
• Want to use individually? Assign students a certain # of dice rolls or a certain # of spaces that must be answered. 
• You can also use in a small group by projecting this onto an interactive white board and use magnets as game pieces. Kids in the group can team up to answer questions together or students can take turns. 

Materials Needed:

• Printed sheets (like the one above)
• Game pieces (counters, coins, paper clips, etc...)
• Scratch paper or notebooks (to work problems out if needed)
• Manipulatives (mini clocks, etc...) if necessary
• Die

How to Play:

1.       Students decide which player will go first.
2.       Player 1 will take and keep Player 2’s answer key, and Player 2 will take and keep Player 1’s answer sheet in order to check the math. (you can also have both students working on every problem to check each other’s math too).
3.       The first player will roll the die and go to that space on Player 1’s board.
4.       Using the graphic on the sheet, Player 1 will work the problem out on scratch paper or in a notebook. (They can also use small post its and just place the post-it over the space on the board if they get it correct).
5.       If Player 1 gets it correct, they can place a marker over that spot on the board.
6.       It is now Player 2’s turn.
7.       If a player gets an answer wrong, their turn is over.
8.       If a player rolls a number that has already been answered, their turn is over.
9.       Continue playing until one player has markers on every space.

I created five different centers/games that can be used. The Common Core Standards 

addressed include:  

Hot Dog Stand Mania - CC.2.4.3.A.2
Tell and write time to the nearest minute and solve problems by calculating tie intervals

Ice Cream Truck Chase - CC.2.4.3.A.3
Solve problems and make change involving money using a combination of bills and coins 

Ballpark Birthdays - CC.2.4.3.A.4 Interpret data using line plots

Snow Cone Surprise - CC.2.4.3.A.4 Interpret data using bar graphs

Buccaneer Burger Shack - CC.2.4.3.A.4 Interpret data using pictographs

This product can be found in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here -> CLICK ME! 

Peace, Love, and Math, 

Mary

BAS Benchmark Assessment Tracking System

We have all been there. It is district assessment week and you have a billion students to test using Fountas and Pinnell's BAS Benchmarking kits. If your school is anything like mine, you have trained countless staff members on using and adminstering the test. If you are expected to get through so many students, you need all hands on deck!

The last three years I worked as a building-level reading specialist, my colleague and I tried to think of ways to ease the burden on ourselves in regards to organization and planning for the testing week. With so many "cooks in the kitchen", we wanted to be sure that it ran smoothly and without kinks. After each testing session, we would sit down and try to think of a way to make things easier on ourselves that didn't include writing a million notes on what students were left to test, how to store assessments, how to keep track of what levels and books were used with each student, etc... After some deliberation, we came up with a tracking system to help ourselves regain some sanity during these testing weeks. 

I developed an assessment tracker sheet to use for each student being tested. The purpose of this sheet is to...

• follow the student from grade to grade
• serve as a "cover sheet" for the student portfolio that includes hard copies of the running records
• track the staff that administered testing
• record the benchmark books used with the student so that the opposite is used in case of a need for retesting in the future
• list instructional reading levels for the student for fall, winter, and spring for one grade or multiple grades depending on the version you use

Follow the pictures and notes below to see how this can be used. The student used is fictitious and the levels are made up. I have included all versions of these tracking pages for you to download for FREE at the end of this post. 

Picture 1: Student was tested first in the winter of kindergarten. The first round of testing was done and written in pink. Based on the findings, the student would start with level B and work on some of the behaviors noticed during testing to work on getting to level C. These actual hard copy running records with specific score information would be put into a folder using this as the cover sheet. Anyone with questions or concerns would see the test administrator (in this case T.C.).

Picture 2: Spring testing rolled around, and the test administrator (using purple ink to show the difference) saw to start with the level C non-fiction title for this student. The student scored very well on level D and was close to independent level so the administrator kept going. The student hit a level of frustration on the next level. Since this was the last time the student would be tested for this school year, a highlighter was used (pink) to show what levels were assessed during this school year. In this case, levels A-E were highlighted.

Picture 3: It is now the following school year. Fall assessments have started and each teacher should have a folder for every student with these cover sheets depicting the previous year testing data. If your school district pays for data tracking software, more specific info will be available online too. This is more for teachers to have an idea as to where to start and with what BAS title. Seeing that he student frustrated on a level E in the spring, the teacher started there with blue ink and continued all the way to level G. The teacher stopped going further with testing because the student showed some weakness in accuracy even though they were instructional. During winter testing, the student scored instructional on level H but had great accuracy and comprehension and was very close to scoring on the independent level. Spring scores for this year are shown in black ink. The scores for the duration of the year were highlighted in yellow (levels E-K).

Picture 4: Following the same routine from the years prior, the new year's teacher has all of the testing data from kindergarten and first grade for each of her students. The green levels represent the testing done in second grade. During this year, you will notice that he student showed some regression. Intervention was utilized for a few weeks and then the student was able to close the gap. That is the reason for having four lines under each level. Alternating the use of fiction and non-fiction titles is important and gives the tester information on what titles were already used. Instead of this student having seen the fiction title for level K 3 times, there is now a long period of time from the first non-fiction appearance (5/13), to the retesting session (10/29). *note* I did not fill this in correctly to match this statement. Please follow what is written in the blog, not what is shown in the picture.

Picture 5: The years continue...

Picture 6: On page 2 of the cover sheet, there are places to list the instructional levels found during each testing session for a quick snapshot. There is also an area for notes that can be filled out by any test administrator.

I am posting these for free for anyone that is interested in using them. There are multiple versions to fit anyone's needs. I have versions for strictly K-2, K-5, K-3, not grade level specific, etc...

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS FREEBIE