Blog giveaway at Education Journey

I was checking out everyone's blog posts as I sit and watch General Hospital -the one hour of the day when NO ONE is allowed to disturb me :-) When I saw that the following blog just reached 50 followers and they are giving away a 10.00 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers - check it out :-)

Flips, Turns, and Slides OH MY!!!

Transformation Translation Rotation Game

Problem Solving Resource for Florida's Next Generation Sunshine State Standards

I just came across this wonderful resource for problem solving that meets current Florida Standards! I can't wait to use these problems with my kiddos as the school year comes to an end. I will make the questions game like to keep the kids actively engaged. I usually give one question at a time to each team, they all solve it and I call on a team to answer (I go from team to team) if they get the question correct they get a point (one point for each smiley face the question is worth). If the answer is incorrect I open the question to any of the other teams. It is simple and the kids really enjoy it.

Check out the link - there is problem solving questions for grades k-5!!!

http://www.cdnportfolio.net/smileyfacemath/

 ONLY 3 WEEKS LEFT!!! I LOVE teaching, but I am ready for a little break :-)

Reciprocal Teaching

So I know I only have 5 weeks left for the school year, but I am working on trying Reciprocal Teaching as a strategy to improve their comprehension. I would love to hear how some of you use this strategy. Right now I am introducing it whole group with lots of modeling and letting the kids give it a try. This week I will to take them deeper into questioning with thick and thin questions. Once they have that I will work on clarifying (this will be a tough one) any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Looking for reading lessons grades 3 - 5? Assessments too???

My district has complied a data bank of lessons. You can search under grade level and the lessons pop up. They are based on Florida's Sunshine State Standards, but are basically focused on all those 'tested' skills like main idea, author's purpose, compare, plot etc.

To see these lessons click on the link below.

http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/instruction/curriculum/

 Username: Reading
 Password: Lessons

Much of the text that is referred to comes from Florida Treasures and Time For Kids (Treasures Edition)

But even if you don't use the text you can take something useful from the lessons that ALL follow the gradual release of responsibility - Each lesson has a 5 question assessment attached too!