Every year I’m bound and determined to help students experience the magic of the holiday season. At the same time, I want the learning to continue and to minimize behavior issues. In this post, I’ve shared a collection of my favorite Christmas activities that are just right for upper elementary students.

Browse these resources:

Reading

• Holidays Around the World
• Holidays Around the World Interactive Notebook
• Twas the Week Before Christmas
• Christmas Writing

Math

• Christmas Division Lessons
• Holidays Around the World Math
• Holiday Lights Math Project
• Christmas Fraction Project
• Christmas Geometry Project
• 12 Days of Christmas Task Cards
• Christmas Math Centers

Science & More

• Christmas STEM
• Christmas Escape

Reading

Holidays Around the World

This Holidays Around the World resource incorporates reading and writing. There are ten sets of reading passages that are based on different cultures’ and nations’ winter holidays and traditions. For differentiation, each of the passages is written on three different reading levels. You’ll also find three sets of text dependent comprehension questions for each of the passages.

One of my goals is to give you as many options as possible. I know there is never a one size fits all approach to anything in the classroom, so I’m continuously adding-on to existing resources. To help you extend your holidays around the word lessons, I created a bonus version of this resource. Of course, you’ll have access to both, so you can use what works for you. This extension includes a paired passage version of the holidays around the world passages.

There are multiple choice questions for each country, as well as nonfiction text structure and nonfiction text features questions. Students also answer a main idea and supporting details question for each passage.

My favorite portion is when students write a paragraph (or more) to integrate the text from both passages. Students love the fiction response, because they get to be creative. I know there are a lot of options, but don’t feel like you need to do it all! Pick what you want! There is a PDF version and a Google Slides version of this resource.

Holidays Around the World Interactive Notebook

Students love this Holidays Around the World Interactive Notebook. This resource is perfect for reviewing informational reading skills and strategies. For example, when students learn about Brazil, they will work on main idea and supporting detail, or when students study Australia they use text evidence to answer questions. You do not need the close reading passages for this pack, but it is an amazing companion resource! There is a print and digital version of this resource.

Twas the Week Before Christmas

This literacy resource Twas the Week Before Christmas is based around five Christmas picture books. For each book there is a reading, writing, and art activity. Most books also include a STEM activity. For example, after reading Snowmen at Christmas, students make a snowman Venn-Diagram that compares the snowmen’s celebration with the student’s celebration.

Christmas Writing

I have a December Creative Writing Freebie! It’s fun of fun, creative prompts that your students will love! There are 15 different writing prompts that require students to think and write creatively! You can download it here!

Math

Christmas Division Lessons

I’ve adapted some of my division lessons in my Division Unit (not seasonal) to Christmas division lessons. I included this Christmas option as an additional PDF file to access when you download the Division Unit. Hopefully, these little updates and twists will make the division unit a little more fun for students.

Holidays Around the World Math

I made two 3-act tasks (or at least a version of a 3-act task) for Holidays Around the World Math. The goals was to make a task for each country studied, but…..maybe next year! In the meantime, here’s what is ready. For Australia, students solve a complex problem involving Carols by Candlelight.

Students use a Google Form to work their way through the problem. I prefer using Google Forms for this task, because it forces students to look at each part of the problem. Far too often, students skip to trying to solve the problem without analyzing what they know, need to know, and thinking of reasonable estimates.

There is another tasking involving the holidays in Brazil. Once again, students use multimedia to solve a complex problem.

Google Forms are such a great way to guide students through the problem solving process. These problems will present a considerable challenge for students and will need to be followed with a conversation about the strategies used and the possible results.

You can download a FREE copy of these Christmas math resources right here. You’ll get a PDF of the recording sheet as well as links to the digital forms.

Holiday Lights Math Project

In this Christmas Math Project, students enter a holiday decorating contest. Students select a house to decorate and must determine how many feet of lights they need/want for their decorations. (On the picture of the house, every centimeter equals one foot.) Then, students purchase all of their decorating materials from The Exterior Illumination Specialist.

All contestants (students) must submit a plan that accurately shows how their decoration budget is spent. Students plan should show student measurements so confirm the exact length of lights needed. The plan must also show the desired location of each additional decorative feature.

All contestants must submit a final version of the decorated house, which makes an adorable hallway display! You can skip this step, but it’s students’ favorite part of the activity.

Christmas Fraction Project

There are three versions of the Christmas Fraction Project. In one version, students are given a detailed picture of different parts of Christmas Village. They must use the direction page to color portions of the pictures based on specified fractions. This is definitely the easiest version of the project.

In the second version, students use equivalent fractions to design Christmas Village. In this version, 12 square units represent a whole. After students draw Christmas Village, they may add special details. The third version is similar, but in this version, 24 square units represent a whole.

Christmas Geometry Project

This project begins with a letter from Santa Claus. He needs help drawing pictures of the buildings in Christmas Village in the North Pole. The catch is that all of the buildings are geometric figures (quadrilateral, parallelogram, square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, and irregular polygons). There are lots of different options for this project, so you can adapt it to your classroom.

12 Days of Christmas Task Cards

Even though it’s definitely NOT my favorite holiday song, I couldn’t resist making math task cards for The 12 Days of Christmas. The cards are mostly multiplication word problems, but I threw in a little addition, subtraction, and division word problems as well. You can download these Christmas task cards for FREE!

Christmas Math Centers

These ten 4th Grade Christmas Math Centers and 3rd Grade Christmas Math Centers are great for reinforcing math concepts taught in the first half of the school year. Instead, I’ll leave you with a few pictures from some of my favorite math center Christmas activities. As always, it’s completely flexible. Use all the activities or use what works for you and your students.

Science & More

Christmas STEM

I’ve created Christmas STEM activities to go along with Christmas themed books. In one activity, students design a parachute for Olive. In another activity, students use gumdrops and toothpicks to see who can design the tallest Christmas tree, and in the last activity, students create a container that will prevent their snowmen (ice cube) from melting. You can download these free forms here.

Christmas Escape

In this Christmas Escape, there’s been a terrible mix up at the North Pole, and the class has accidentally been placed on the naughty list! Students must alert Santa of this mix-up! However, for students to get the message to Santa and escape the naughty list, they must solve a series of four Christmas puzzles.

I’ve written a blog post that serves as a how-to guide on implementing digital and physical escape lessons, and you can see that in my post, A Guide to Using Escape Classrooms. I feel very confident that everyone will make it to the nice list on this Christmas Escape!

The post Christmas Round-Up + Resources appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

There are so many great options for using digital math manipulatives. However, once school started I quickly realized that while I had access to great digital manipulatives, I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to use them. We all know the importance of using math manipulatives in the classroom, but there is a difference (other than the obvious) in using digital manipulatives.

I recently wrote a blog post as A Guide to Math Manipulatives. It has a lot of great information and ideas so if you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check it out.

I wish I could make this an all-inclusive blog post that shares how to use every option for every standard. But, that would get overwhelming quickly. Instead, I’ve shared some of my favorites for teaching whole numbers and operations for upper elementary students. I’ll try to create a new post for digital manipulatives for teaching fractions and decimals, and operations with larger numbers a little later in the year.

You can download all of the forms you see below for FREE! Click here to grab them!

Base-Ten Blocks

One way to use base-ten blocks is to have students build numbers using different combinations of blocks. This helps students compose and decompose numbers.

When I have students complete these activity, they look at the example, then we do one together with me using the document camera, before they try this on their own. Mathematically, they don’t need the extra scaffolding, but they do need support using the manipulatives.

Another way to use base-ten blocks is to have students multiply by multiples of ten. This can also be done with place value discs, but I did learn that it was easy to overwhelm students teaching too many options and types of manipulatives too quickly. I’ve found that it’s best to slow down and introduce them over time.

Hundreds Chart

We don’t use a hundreds chart a lot in class, but I do love them for teaching multiples of numbers through 100.

I love how this feature allows students to see how multiples overlap, as well as see prime numbers.

Cuisenaire Rods

Cuisenaire Rods are by far my favorite manipulative for teaching fractions. They can also be used for teaching students to find the factors of numbers.

This is an activity I wouldn’t try with my blocks, because they don’t have any numbers written on them. I love that for fractions, but for the purpose of finding factors, the numbers are a big help.

Once again, I would show students an example and complete one together before students try this activity on their own. I wish this wasn’t the case, but there will always be technical issues: students need to zoom out, students don’t know to to drag or resize an image, etc.

Color Tiles

Color tiles are awesome for perimeter and area, but they’re also great for teaching students to build arrays. The tiles transition nicely into area models, which can be used with larger multiplication problems.

I love relating repeated addition to arrays. Anything that helps students visualize is a win! Plus, just think about the options for teaching the distributive property!

My only word of caution is to go slow. I tried to introduce all of these digital math manipulatives in one class. We did it, but like anything else they lose their novelty. Next time, I will absolutely spread out my lessons.

Snap Cubes or Linking Cubes

Linking cubes are great for teaching multiplication as a comparison. As I mentioned in my word problem blog post, students need a lot of hands-on opportunities for this tricky standard. I like giving students two numbers and have students create a model for additive comparison and multiplicative comparison.

A great extension is to give students the model and have students write a word problem to reflect the model. That significantly raises the rigor for students.

It’s exciting to think about all the options students will have once they are familiarized and comfortable with using digital manipulatives!

If you’d like a copy of the Google Slide images above, click here. I’ll send you a free copy!

I assigned the slides above in Google Classroom and the slides linked to the manipulatives. After students created the image, they copied and pasted their final product to the Google Slide. I was worried that the extra step would be complicated, but it wasn’t at all.

There are many options for using digital math manipulatives. My personal favorite is BrainingCamp, which is what I used for all of the examples. I feel like it has the most options and easy to use interface. Of course, you can use whichever platform works best for you. I have included links within the slides, but once you may your copy, you’re welcome to change them!

The post Digital Math Manipulatives appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

I store my math manipulatives in clear, stackable containers.  There is one container of each type of manipulative for each group. Whenever we need our manipulatives, one person from each group gets the manipulatives from the bookshelf for their table. There’s no need for me to stop instruction while I pass everything out.  I know it sounds simplistic, but you wouldn’t believe how much smoother the whole process has become!

I created a label for each tub and made sure to buy stackable tubs to keep things nice and straight.  This is also nice for independent work time, because I often allow students to use manipulatives, so they can independently get what they need.

I’ll share free manipulative labels with you in a bit! Just keep scrolling.

Procedures for Math Manipulatives

It is essential to be consistent with your expectations of how manipulatives should be used.  Along with your procedures, you’ll also need to create a plan for what to do when students do not use their manipulatives correctly.

• Handle them carefully-do not break
• Everyone helps clean up
• Check the floor for loose pieces
• Put the manipulatives away the way you found them
• Do not touch while the teacher it talking

Make sure students know where the math manipulatives are kept in your classroom. Let students know which ones are available to them to use and which may be off limits. You’ll also want to discuss how and when it is appropriate to use the manipulatives.

Teaching With Manipulatives

When students are introduced to a new math concept, they should move through three phases: concrete (manipulatives), visual representations, and then abstract (symbols and algorithms). However, it’s not always a clear path for students. You’ll find that many students need the concrete models to transition to the visual representations. Just like many students need the visual representation to move to the abstract phase.

A Word of Caution

As adults using manipulatives, we “see” concepts that we already understand. However, for children who do not have the same mathematical understandings that we have, some misconceptions may develop. We cannot assume that students will automatically draw correct conclusions by interacting with a particular manipulative.

You can see an example of students moving through the three phases of instruction here.

Social Distancing and Manipulatives

I’ve created a free set of math manipulatives that you can download here. Even though it is admittedly annoying to make and cut out, I kept the base-ten blocks as proportional as possible. This is really important for students. I also kept one value to a page, just in case you wanted to print on colored paper.

Digital Math Manipulatives

The post Math Manipulatives for Upper Elementary appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

The first 30 days of school are never easy. In fact some might call those days exhausting and overwhelming. And that’s when we know what to expect and what to plan for.

With talks about distance learning, alternative schedules, and hybrid models, this school year may be a whole other ballgame. Yikes!

To help you out, I’ve spent countless hours working on a plan for the first 30 days of third grade and fourth grade. You can download all of the documents here. In this post, you’ll find an overview of how to use this plan, as well as a few other helpful tips.

Keep This In Mind

More than ever, we don’t know what to expect from our students. We may need to move at a slower pace or even teach concepts that we don’t typically teach. It’s okay. You can use this guide as framework-a starting place. If you need to slow down and spend more time on a lesson, do it!

How to Use This Document

Inside you’ll find a 30 day plan for third grade reading, writing, and math. You’ll also find a 30 day plan for fourth grade reading, writing, and math. All of the pictures are linked to resources in my TpT Store. All of the linked words (written in blue) are linked to a blog post with additional information.

Language Arts

The language arts plan consists of a daily reading warm-up, reading mini lesson, reading groups, and writing lessons. You can see how to implement each component below.

Reading Warm-Up

The reading warm-up can be used to review the previous week’s lessons. This review should take students about 10 minutes to complete, and we always go over the answers together. You can use the print version or the digital version on Google Forms. The data from this review is perfect for gathering data to form small groups.

Reading Lessons

All of the reading lessons come with a detailed lesson plan. Each lesson includes a mentor text suggestion and an explanation of that day’s reading skill or strategy. The lessons in the first 30 days center around comprehension strategies which students will rely on for the remainder of the year.

In the unit, there are also weekly fluency passages, weekly vocabulary activities, and weekly homework assignments. Since there’s a chance we will be moving to more distance learning, I’ve recorded myself teaching the mini lesson for all 30 lessons. There is also a digital version of each of the recording sheets.

Reading Response Choices

During our independent reading time, students complete one reading response a week. You can print these or use the Google Slides version. The three prompt options can be used with ANY text.

Spelling Patterns

This will be used for students who need extra support with spelling patterns and decoding. I use this resource along with leveled readers for additional instruction. There is a digital version of this resource, but I prefer the paper copy of this resource.

Novel Studies

Students may participate in a novel study for enrichment in reading. Each novel study’s lesson correlates directly with the lesson taught during the reading mini lesson. These can also be completed digitally or in a print version. There are five novel study choices included in each reading unit. I am currently in the process of updating each unit’s novel studies and reading mentor text to ensure that I included books that represent all students.

Introducing Paragraphs

Before I jump all the way into writing, I like to teach students how to write a high quality paragraph. These lessons use amazing back-to-school mentor texts to teach students step-by-step how to write a paragraph.

Personal Narratives

Students begin the year with personal narratives. If you are short on time, you may omit the included mentor text and refer to the text read during your reading lesson.

Math

The math plan consists of a daily math warm-up that focuses on number sense, conceptual math lesson, math centers, and a digital interactive notebook activity. You can see how to implement each component below.

Math Warm-Up

This is my favorite resource for giving students the opportunity to develop number sense. Each day there is a series of slides with a specific focus. For example, one day students may focus on subitizing or unitizing. Another day students count the room (which is such a valuable activity). Another day be be a series of number strings and number talks, while the following day students may complete a which number doesn’t below activity. This is best completed as a whole group activity. I do not recommend using this resource for digital learning.

Weekly Word Problems

Students solve three-word problems every day of the year. The problems in this resource increase in difficult as the year progresses, so students can complete this independently. This can be completed on paper or digitally, so this is great for in class or distance learning.

Number of the Day

If we use a hybrid model, this is what students will complete in lieu of the math warm-up. There are MANY versions of this activity to meet the needs of your students.

Place Value Lessons

If you take anything from this plan, use this! These place value lessons are highly conceptual and engaging. This takes students far beyond identifying the place value or value of numbers. Instead, students truly dig-in to the concept of place value and develop an authentic understanding. I don’t know that it’s possible to make every lesson suited for distance learning. However, I did include a digital option for each lesson. I also included a unit at a glance page that indicates which lessons are best suited for distance learning, and which lessons to avoid if possible.

Interactive Notebook

This resource is to be used with distance learning. The Place Value Unit indicates when to use each of these lessons, but you can certainly use this however you like. Because of the amount of color ink, this is one resource that I wouldn’t recommend using the print version.

Place Value Centers

You’ll probably notice that I don’t introduce centers the first few weeks of school. That’s because during that time I’m teaching procedures and setting up my classroom expectations. It’s tempting to jump right in, but you won’t regret the time you spend establishing those routines, as it will save you so much headache later in the year.

I use these centers instead of the place value unit on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For me, this means that all my lessons don’t finish neatly week-by-week, which was originally so hard for me! Instead, my units run long, but that’s okay with me! I’d rather go slow and let students develop a through understanding, than hurry with superficial instruction.

• Monday-Lesson 11 Benchmark Numbers
• Tuesday-Place Value Centers
• Wednesday-Lesson 12 Interactive Number Lines
• Thursday-Place Value Centers
• Friday-Lesson 13 Finding the Midpoint

I also want to point out that in no way should these centers replace your math instruction. Yes, these are conceptual, rigorous, and engaging, but students also need laser focused inquiry based math instruction.

Place Value Extras

I add a “buffer week” at the end of each math unit. Whenever I finish a unit, including our unit assessment, I wait a week before starting my next math unit. That extra week is when I teach all of my extra lessons that aren’t in my math units. During this week of instruction, I continue to work intensively with need based small groups of students.

Emoji Place Value

One of my absolute favorite place value activities is Emoji Place Value.  In the activity, each student receives a different cell phone with a text conversation on the screen. The conversation is full of different emojis. Each emoji is assigned a different value and students determine the total value of their text conversation.

3 Act Task

At the minimum, I like to incorporate at least one 3 act task with each math concept I teach. Since place value is the first unit of the year, this is also students’ first experience with a 3 act task. I got the idea for this task from Robert Kaplansky’s website which is full of ideas and videos for teaching math.

Place Value Escape

You can think of breakout lessons or escape lessons as a type of academic scavenger hunt. Students solve problems to discover a clue or code that will take them to their next problem. You can use Escape From Place Value Island as a culminating task for your place value unit.

I know this is A LOT of information to digest. You may want to bookmark this post. Process. Then come back to it. Don’t forget to download the planning forms for The First 30 Days here.

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During the school year it’s hard to find time to slow down and reflect on instruction and classroom management. Sometimes it feels like self-reflection is just a “bonus” activity or something that can be saved for last-if there’s time.

However, self-reflection is a necessary part of the learning process. This is how we learn from experience. Since this spring was many of our first experience with distance learning or remote teaching, there is a greater need than ever for that reflection.

What to Ask

What’s working- think about the ways in which things are going well. It’s important to recognize and celebrate your successes. That allows you to validate what you’re doing.

What’s not working- determine your areas for improvement. Teachers are almost always overly self-critical here, so don’t be too hard on yourself! Also, try to focus on things that are in your control. Sure, I can think of some really big picture ideas that aren’t working, but most of those are outside my sphere of influence.

What are my next steps– Once you determine what is and isn’t working, it’s time to start thinking about what you want to change or do differently. You certainly don’t want to try to change everything in just a year, but it’s essential to continuously refine our instruction.

I’m currently in the throw all the possible ideas out there part of the process. I have a single sheet of paper full of ideas. It’s totally and completely disorganized with to rhyme or reason to anything. If someone found it, they’d definitely mistake it for trash. That’s okay, I’ll clean it up later. Right now, I’m just making sure I don’t forget any of these new ideas.

Student Self-Reflection

Since distance learning is so new to many of us, it’s also helpful to get students’ perspectives on things. Normally, I can read the classroom and my students easily, but it’s much more difficult to get a feeling of how things are going with our students when we’re not together.

To help see my students’ self-reflection, I created a Google Form that gives students the opportunity to share feedback about their experience with distance learning.

You can download a copy of the form here. Once you make your copy, you can change the questions.

If you’re looking for more ideas for distance learning and remote teaching, don’s skip this post! It houses links and overviews for all of my distance learning posts!

The post Distance Learning Self-Reflection appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

This isn’t an easy blog post, or at least introduction, for me to write. But, I want to be completely transparent with you. I don’t want to pretend like everything is sunshine and roses in my little piece of the world, because it’s not.

If you’ve already got a handle on all things distance learning and you’ve hit your stride, this may not be the post for you. I do have plenty of other distance learning posts that may be helpful. You can check those out here and find one that supports your needs.

If you’re feeling stressed, uncertain, out-of-sorts, or just need some encouragement-keep reading.

Personally, I feel like I’m on an emotional roller coaster in terms of my mental health. Some days I’m fine. Other days I’m a cross between stressed, scared, mad, and sad. I also have different emotions based on the hat I’m wearing at that time:

As a mom, I have to help my own children navigate this experience. This has been especially hard on my fifth grader as she realizes she may not have her big fifth grade field trip, Field Day, Eco Expo, or graduation. I want to respect her emotions, but at the same time wailing in self-pity isn’t going to help anyone.

As a teacher, I was able to transition into the tech and resource end of distance learning easily. Due to my professional development course, I already had some experience with this. However, I was not prepared for the emotional side of distance learning. Walking out of your classroom with no clue as to when you’ll be back and hugging your students good-bye without knowing when you’ll see them again is hard. Really hard.

More than likely we all have our own individual struggles with being home. That struggle will vary due to our individual needs and personalities. For me, it’s the not knowing when this is going to end. I’m a very goal oriented person. I need an endpoint, a destination. I don’t feel right when I don’t have a plan.

The reason I write all of these things to let you know that you’re not alone. I feel like if we’re completely honest, we can all acknowledge that there are some serious growing pains in this experience.

I also want to offer you support, and I hope to give you some actionable ideas and strategies that you can use to make this experience a little easier for your mental health. In the remainder of this post, I’ll share some of things I’ve quickly learned to do and not to do with distance learning.

Schedule

A predictable, but flexible, schedule has been such a help for me and my mental health. I can easily lose track of time when I work. In fact, our first week of digital learning, I feel confident that I put in more hours that I would on a normal week of school. All I did was work.

I’m learning to set up clear work hours. This goes for email too. At a certain time each day, I completely close my school email and notifications.

I begin my work day by checking and responding to emails and messages on Google Classroom. I use any extra time to manage my FlipGrid and Padlet accounts. The next two hours are reserved for Zoom calls. Then I grade and message students as needed. I end my work hours by checking my email one last time.

I do reserve Sunday nights for my weekly plans. That always worked for me at school, so I haven’t changed that.

Notifications

Speaking of notifications, I have drastically limited the quantity of notifications I receive. I greatly reduced the various ways students were allowed to comment and message me an each other. My Google Classroom notifications were in the hundreds every day. I couldn’t deal with it. If I know there’s something that I might need to take care of, I can’t relax until I’ve handled it.

Batch

As a wife, mom, teacher, blogger, curriculum creator, and professional development leader my plate is always full. Over the years I’ve learned that the best way to manage my time is through batching. This means I don’t hop from one task to another. Instead, I focus on one thing to completion.

My first week of distance learning or distance teaching, I felt like I was jumping from one thing to another. Constantly. I quickly realized I needed to apply that batching strategy to my online instruction. I now no longer try to grade as soon as an assignment is turned in. Instead, I set aside a time for grading and only grade during that time.

This goes again my instincts, but it’s working. We simply waste too much time when we hop from one platform to another all day.

Let it Go

We have to let go our preconceived notion of what school should look like. A “normal” distance learning day isn’t going to be the same as a “normal” school day. There are too many unknowns right now for us to truly manage it all. We’ve been conditioned to have these incredibly high expectations on ourselves and our students, and almost overnight these expectations changed.

For the sake of our own mental health, we have to show grace and patience to ourselves, our students, and their families. I’m trying to shift to the mindset of providing learning opportunities to my students. Whether the student chooses to take part in those opportunities, is something I can’t control. I have to let go of the idea of grades and accountability, which is not easy.

The first two weeks of distance learning, I chased down missing assignments, and it was torture. (At this point all of my students have a device and connection.) I did that because I wanted to make sure everyone understand the platforms, assignments, and our procedures. I wanted to make sure there is no miscommunication.

I’m learning to simplify and streamline my assignments as much as I possible can. One way I’m doing this is through my new digital interactive notebooks. The notebooks are organized by math skill and be be used 100% digitally.  You can see the third grade notebooks here and the fourth grade notebooks here.

Each notebook comes with a cover page and hyperlinked tabs. Each tab take students to a specific location within the file. Of course, students can scroll through the file as well.

In each interactive notebook, the first page is for vocabulary. I have my students write the definition in their own words. If they are up to the challenge, they can also add a picture example of the terms.

The second page is a skills practice page. Students may also click the sticky note to be taken to a corresponding Study Jams video. If you don’t want students going to the link, you can delete the sticky note.

Each notebook comes with a math journal prompt. This isn’t the same as a word problem (those come later). Instead, it requires students to think and write about math in a nonthreatening way where there is no right or wrong answer.

Each notebook also includes an interactive sort. In this sort, students drag each unit of measurement into the correct column. This allows students to work with metric and customary measurements.

Each set of notebooks includes word problems. I included several multi-step word problems in each notebook.

In the last page of the notebook, students complete a problem solving task. I also linked a Khan Academy video for students to reference.

Have Fun

Every school year, I reach a point when I’m overwhelmed and stress and school isn’t fun for me anymore. I’ve learned that whenever I hit that mental health wall, I need to slow down and remember why I love teaching in the first place. I’ll take a day and just have fun with my students. Then, the next day we get back to work feeling so much more refreshed and ready to learn.

I’ve tried to apply that same principle to distance learning. Watching my own two kids at home allows me to see firsthand just how boring it can be, especially when it rains 12 out of 14 days! To help interject a little fun and break from boredom, I’m going to start giving students a weekly challenge. These challenges are 100% optional and 100% silly. There is no reward, requirement, or rules (other than being safe). Not only will students have fun planning these challenges, but they should also have fun viewing each others’ videos. You can download the files below here.

Limit Tech

Limiting my time on the computer is so hard for me, because there are so many things I need to do. As of right now, I have 390 resources in my TpT Store, and I want you to be able to use them ALL digitally—today. But, it took me 9 YEARS to make all of those resources, so those updates aren’t going to happen overnight, or even in a week or two. I find myself working on those updates every spare second I get, and I know it’s not the best thing to do for my mental health.

We have to get off our devices. We need to do other things that make us happy. What that is will depend on you. After I force myself to take a break, we’ve been going on walks and bike rides, reading, baking, and I even bought myself a paint-by-number kit. For our own sanity, we have to step away.

Goals

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a goal-oriented person. Unfortunately, I can’t make a goal of returning to “normal” mental health. However, I can set other obtainable goals. These goals must be centered around the things I can control.

These goals can be teaching related. I may set a goal of communicating with each child individually with each child at least once a week. Or I could set a goal of learning a new platform or tool.

I can also set personal goals. One of mine is to clean out and organize my closet. That may not sound like a lot of fun, but it will give me room and an excuse to need new clothes once I have somewhere to wear them again! 🙂

The post Distance Learning & Your Mental Health appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

I miss the presence of my students. I miss our physical interactions. I miss the sound of laughter and cheering over silly things. I can’t image how much our students miss their friends, their escape, their normal. Even though we’re not in our classrooms in a traditional sense, it’s more important than ever to nurture our classroom community. Our students need that support and encouragement. Plus, if you’re like me, you need that community too.

As you already know relationships are the cornerstone of good teaching. There is nothing more important than the relationships you build with your students. Even though we can’t physically be there for our students, we do need to be as present as possible.

In this post, I’ve shared a few strategies of things you can do with your students to help maintain your classroom community.

Communicate Frequently

The importance of frequent communication cannot be overstated. On Sunday nights I send home a document that outlines what to expect during the week. Students need structure and predictability, and it’s still hard for many students to stay organized digitally. I know I like a hard copy of my to-do lists! Of course, as we learn and adjust that overview will change.

For immediate or time sensitive information, I also use Remind which allows me to send texts to parents. I also share class announcements on Google Classroom. I found that Google Classroom was quickly cluttered with content, so I learned that you could adjust students’ stream to ONLY see announcements. Just change the settings to “Hide Notifications”.

Flipgrid

This is a super easy to navigate and free resource. If you haven’t used Flipgrid before, here’s a tutorial I wrote that will help you get set-up in just a couple of minutes. In Flipgrid, students can use any device to record themselves and privately share their video on a class board.

You can use Fligrid for jigsaw activities, presentations, number talks, or even book talks. It can also be an excellent tool for building classroom community. If it’s someone’s birthday, you could have students send a happy birthday message. You could start each day or maybe week morning meeting message. I’ve created a collection of morning meeting cards that you can download here. While not all of these cards are useful for distance learning, you should still be able to find plenty of topics to share for a morning meeting.

You could post “Would You Rather” or “Who Would Win” questions. If students get desperate, a class magic show or lip syncing content. At that point, I would definitely recommend requiring teacher approval before the video was posted. As with all other platforms, students will need to demonstrate proper digital etiquette.

Padlet

Padlet is a brand-new tool to me. It’s been around a while, but I’ve never had the time or need for it. However, it’s awesome for distance learning. One great way to use Padlet is for a weekly status of the class update. We’ve always done a status of the class in reading, so this was a natural transition for my students. This allows students to see what each other are currently reading. This increases accountability and allows students to get an idea of what they want to read next.

You can also use this tool for class communication. I made a separate board for general purposes, because I didn’t want my more academic Padlets cluttered with “hi” or “what’s up” or the ever popular “I’m bored”.

Breakouts

I love incorporating breakouts into my instruction. They’re so much fun, and my students absolutely love them! Once we moved to distance learning, one of my first projects was to completely digitize all of my Math Escape Lessons. Before sharing the digital version, I tested it out on my students. The only complaint I heard is that an escape activity was WAY more fun in a group. They thought it was really hard on their own.

One way to allow students to work in groups with a digital breakout is through Zoom Breakout Rooms. You can see a tutorial here. You can assign a certain time for students to log-in to Zoom. Once you see how many total students are there, use the breakout room to automatically place the students into groups of about four. Then, message all of the groups the link to get started with the breakout. See what teams can finish before the room closes. Of course, the live aspect of this is also the disadvantage because it’s unrealistic to expect all students to be able to log-in at the same time. But as with everything, we’re going to have to comprise and do the best we can to continue fostering our classroom community.

Small Group

We can’t forget about our small group instruction. Yes, there is a tremendous academic benefit to our small groups, but students also benefit emotionally from that small group time. I’ve started creating a weekly Sign Up Genius form where students can sign up for small group instruction. I found that my groups were getting way too big to really be effective. Instead of writing the location of the meeting, I add the topic I would be teaching during that time slot. Then, I’ve set the groups for a maximum of six students. After students, or their parents, sign up, the Zoom link will be emailed to them.

Sign up genius is another free tool that’s easy to use! You can share the link on Google Classroom and email it to students’ parents. You can also set-up different time slots for different subject areas.

If you’re looking for a starting place on distance learning, be sure to check out this blog post. There’s so much involved that it can’t all be accomplished in a single blog post!

Hopefully, some of these strategies will help build classroom community as you as you navigate new territory!

The post Distance Learning and Classroom Community appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

The past few days have turned our world upside down-professionally and personally. Up until now, I had everything related to Ashleigh’s Education Journey prepped and planned. I knew what I was going to blog about, what I’d share via email, what I wanted to present on Facebook Live, and what resources I wanted to create. Everything has changed. During this time, I hope to combine all of the roles I play (blogger, curriculum designer, teacher, and mom) to support you and your students. This particular blog post can be used as a starting place or “home-base” for distance learning. I’ll consistently add new content and posts. As I add content, I’ll link it back to this starting place, so you don’t have to spend hours sifting through information and content you don’t need.

Getting Started with Google Classroom

If you haven’t yet implemented Google Classroom, this may be a game changer for you. This post includes a detailed tutorial on how to get started and how to post announcements, assignments, and more. I use Google Classroom as my home-base with my students. The great thing about Google Classroom is that it will still be a valuable resource when you’re back in the classroom.

Distance Learning 101

As you plan distance learning or remote teaching, don’t miss this post. I’ve shared tutorials for Zoom, Screencast-O-Matic, as well as various instructional ideas. In this post, I also stress that less can be more. The abundance of available resources is heartwarming, but it can also be paralyzing. Don’t feel like you have to do it all. It’s okay to stick with what you know.

Supporting Parents & Teaching Your Own Children

We are all experiencing some pretty major transitions, and it’s not always easy. In this post I’ve shared several ways we can support out students and their parents during this unsettling time. I’ve also included a detailed Google Classroom tutorial that you can download to send to your students and parents.

I also briefly share some ideas for teaching your own children. I was my daughters fourth grade teacher last year, and while I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, it wasn’t always easy.

Distance Learning and Classroom Community

This is one blog post you don’t want to miss! Even though we’re not in our classrooms in a traditional sense, it’s more important than ever to nurture our classroom community. Our students need that support and encouragement.

As you already know relationships are the cornerstone of good teaching. There is nothing more important than the relationships you build with your students. Even though we can’t physically be there for our students, we do need to be as present as possible.

In the post, I share a few strategies of things you can do with your students to help maintain your classroom community.

Distance Learning & Your Mental Health

Distance learning is taking its toll in all of us. Even though we’re home, it’s not easy-mentally, physically or emotionally. In this post, I open up to my own journey through distance learning. Then, I share six strategies of things have have helped me through the process. I’ve included a really fun freebie for you, too!

Teaching Math Through Distance Learning

In this post I’ve shared my math lesson plans for distance learning. There are quite a few freebies in this post, so if you teach math, don’t skip this one!

Teaching Language Arts Through Distance Learning

In this post I share my distance learning language arts plans. I’ve broken it into reading lessons and writing lessons. There are several free resource in the post, and I hope they help you out!

Using TpT Resources for Distance Learning

In this post you can learn how to use your existing TpT resources (including those from my TpT Store) for distance learning. There’s a lot of technical support in this one!

The post A Starting Place for Distance Learning appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

I never, ever dreamed I’d write blog post on distance learning or remote teaching-much less have a need for it myself. But, here I am.

It’s crazy that just last week I couldn’t wait for a break from school. Now I have one, and I’d so sad about it. It’s funny that you don’t totally get the bond you develop with your students until you’re in a position like this.

I’m one of the lucky ones, because I had a day to prep my students for what to expect. At least from a school standpoint. I smiled and faked excitement all day, and most smiled and faked their happiness right back to me. Some were just flat out honest, “Mrs. Swinford, I don’t like this. I want to be at school”.

There was definitely no joy walking out of the classroom. It is not at all like leaving for summer break or Christmas vacation.

In this post:

• Elephant in the Room
• Daily Structure
• Video
• Online Resources for Distance Learning
• Zoom Tutorial
• Using Screencast-O-Matic for Distance Learning

However, I also know that this isn’t the end. It’s a change. A BIG change. Planning for that transition was a bit overwhelming to say the least, because there are so many things to consider. Even with distance learning, it is very important for me to teach purposefully. I don’t want to assign busy work for the sake of students having an assignment to complete. I’ve written multiple blog posts about distance learning and you can use this post as a starting place.

Elephant in the Room

I think it’s essential to not overlook the obvious. Many students will not have access to technology for distance learning. We can’t ignore that.

To determine which students access to technology would be most problematic for, I created a parent survey that provides information about who has access to technology at home. If a parent doesn’t complete the digital survey, I will send home a paper copy. If they don’t return the paper copy, I’ll assume that digital learning isn’t an option.

After I get the results from the survey, you can create a plan for students without access to technology. I may leave weekly packets for them to pick up at school or possibly even mail work packets to their home address. No matter what the situation, no student will be penalized for not completing work during this time.

You can download a copy of the survey here. After downloading, you’ll be able to make your own copy and adjust the questions as needed.

Daily Structure

I’m definitely not going to expect my students to follow our classroom schedule. I assure you, if I’m teaching remotely, I will not be getting up at 5:30 each morning. However, I do plan to combine both real-time instruction and student-paced schedules.

Real-Time Instruction

• A whole class video conference at set times during the week (obviously this won’t be mandatory).
• Video conferencing — students can sign up if they want to schedule a conference. This would be a one-on-one conversation.
• Small group video conferences for students with similar needs.

Student Paced Instruction:

• A video introduction or screencast for key lessons. I won’t make a video for every single lesson, but this will always be an option.
• A short welcome video each morning. (We’ll see if I can maintain this.)
• A screencast to offer feedback on student work and progress.

Daily “To Do List”

In addition to the videos, I will give students a daily to-do list. This list looks a lot like a student friendly lesson plan. I did include time-frame suggestions so some students don’t spend too much time working on a particular task.

In the to-do list I link all of the resources such as Read Theory, Moby Max, Studies Weekly, FlipGrid, and Generation Genius. All of the assignments that students will turn in are posted in Google Classroom.

You can download this digital to-do list here. You’ll be able to make your own copy and revise as needed. If you departmentalize, you can also share this with your teammates. Having all expectations on one document will be much easier for students.

This means you can still use your favorite resources! Anytime I create a digital version of one of my resources, I add it to the original product at no extra cost to you. During this time, if you need a digital or editable version of any of my resources please let me know. I know that this transition can be challenging, so I want to be as helpful as possible. You can see my resources here.

Home-Base

I’ve seen SO MANY wonderful resources recommended for distance learning. However, I do want to proceed with caution. We don’t need a hundred different resources. Less can be more. Try to stick with tools and resources your students are already familiar with.

Online Platform

It’s important for students to have a home base or a starting point. We will be using Google Classroom. Our students are already very familiar with Google Classroom, so this is the easy part for us. If you haven’t used Google Classroom before and would like to learn more, here’s a great starting place.

I did want to point out that you can schedule your assignments for certain dates. That may prevent students from trying to cram all of the work they submit in the course of a day or two. But, you will have the capability to assign a week’s worth of assignments at a time.

Your students’ Google Classroom homepage will look something like this. In each assignment, you can add a link to a website, load a Google Drive file, or even add an attachment that can be printed at home.

Students can also submit assignments and mark assignments such as watching a video complete. This will help them stay organized and on-track.

Video

There are few things I dislike more than being on video. I feel so awkward! I never like the way I look or sound, and I get nervous and stumble over my words. But, I know that my presence as my students’ teacher is important. I have to learn to relax, and I’m sure that it will get easier and easier with time and a little practice.

Live Video

There are many tools out there that allow you to connect with students via video. Two of the most popular video-conferencing options are Zoom and Google Hangouts Meet.  I plan to post the link to any conference calls on Google Classroom, and students will sign in to the call at the specified time using any device. The live video will be recorded so students who are unable to attend can view the video at a later time. In the live videos, we can share our screens and all participants can talk and participate. You can even include breakout rooms on Zoom.

My students about lost their minds when I showed them what a Zoom call would look like. I *may* have been home for two hours before I had my first student invitation to Zoom. If you want to learn more about Zoom, scroll to the bottom of this post. I’ve included a detailed tutorial.

Recorded Video

One benefit of live video is that there is no redo. Whenever I make recorded videos, I find myself redoing the video again, and again, and again. As we do this, we have to remember that our videos are for our students and absolutely do not need to be perfect. My favorite resource for recorded video is Screencast-O-matic. I’ll use this to go over things that don’t necessarily need to be live. I love that I can save and reuse these videos on an as-needed basis.

I record all of my videos either on my laptop or my phone. You definitely don’t need any fancy equipment. I also keep everything short and sweet. I’ve also included a brief tutorial of this resource at the bottom of the post. It’s seriously SO easy!

Online Resources for Distance Learning

I will be linking these resources in students’ to-do list. I’m going to focus on my least essential standards while we’re out, but I think these resources will be fun and interesting for students.

Kahoot!

There are few things my students love more than Kahoot! quizzes. Thanks to some incredible innovations, we are now able to place LIVE or SELF-PACED games remotely! I linked the remote learning starter kit.

BrainPOP

These short educational videos are fantastic for online learning. This is currently free for educators affected by coronavirus school closures.

Flip (Formerly Flipgrid)

Create grids to facilitate student led video discussions. This tool is totally free. I’ve written a tutorial on getting start with Flip here.

Khan Academy

These instruction videos are perfect for our math lessons. This is a bit more procedural than I like, but I’m at that point in my curriculum where the essentials have already been taught for deep understanding.

Moby Max

I like this online learning program for math because it pinpoints gaps and it individualized instruction based on those gaps.

Read Theory

This is a free reading comprehension program. It’s not perfect, but it’s good for reading comprehension. My students really enjoy it too.

Zoom Tutorial

You’ll first need to sign up for an account, which can be done in less than a minute. Once you set up your account, you’re ready to schedule a meeting.

You’ll give your meeting a name and decide when to meet. I go ahead and turn my (host) video and camera on. I’ll wait and see on whether or not I want to turn my students’ video on.

When you’re ready to go, you just click “Start Meeting”. You can start your meeting before the official meeting time.

All of your meeting controls are at the bottom of the page. You can mute yourself or turn your video off. You can also mute and unmute individual students or all students at one time.

I highly recommend turning off the chat feature, or making so students can only chat with you. That was the first thing my students noticed, and it was highly distracting.

You can also share a file with students. For example, if you’re going over a math task, you could share a printable image with all students.

If you’re feeling especially fancy, you can have video breakout rooms. It sounds complicated, but it’s surprisingly easy. You’ll first go to “settings”.

Then, scroll way down until you get to “Breakout room”. You should click the circle, and it will turn green. Whenever you start a new session, you’ll now be able to use a Breakout room.

You can manage Breakout rooms with the icon shown below. The pop-up box will open and you can decide how many rooms you want. You can also decide if you want to manually assign groups or if you want Zoom to automatically assign the groups.

You can rename the rooms, add students in rooms, move students to different groups-you name it! When you press start, students will receive a pop-up message and will be taken to their Breakout group.

You can move from group to group, as well as post notifications for all groups. It is all extremely user friendly. It’s sounds like it should be really complicated, but it’s not.

For students to join a meeting, they click on the link in Google Classroom. If it’s the first time Zoom has ever been used on that device, it will give students step-by-step directions on what to do. If students have already used Zoom, they’ll go directly to your “meeting”.

Using Screencast-O-Matic for Distance Learning

This is another free resource that you can upgrade. I don’t typically spring for the upgrade, but this price is not too bad!

You should first “Launch Free Recorder”.

A dotted box will pop-up. Adjust the size of the frame so that anything that happens in the frame will be recorded. You can also select if you want to record your screen only, yourself only, or both.

That’s it! Seriously! I never would have imagined recording a video for students could be so easy. Plus, I can do this in my pajamas!

If you upgrade, there are many editing options. However for now, I plan to keep it simple.

I have one last thing! I know many teachers need to quick print a collection of resources for students for distance learning, so I’ve combined samples from some of my favorite TpT products to share with you for FREE! You can download them below.

• Math (Google Drive)
• Literacy (Google Drive)

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