Marshmallow Math aka Let's Talk Place Value!

Learning about place value can be a difficult thing for kids. Heck, teaching place value can be a difficult thing! In order to add a little fun to the situation we decided to look at place value in a much more appetizing way. My kids were very excited to learn that we were going to work on place value with food.
Using marshmallows, fruit loops and toothpicks we set about learning place value and what each number place meant. I created a worksheet with columns naming each place up to the thousands place. The students placed one marshmallow in each square with a toothpick in the top. We used the fruit loops to represent each number.   
Using the fruit loops the kids would place the number of fruit loops needed to correspond with the number I told them. For example, if I said 4,321, the kids would place 4 fruit loops on the marshmallow in the thousands place, 3 in the hundreds place, 2 in the tens, and 1 in the ones place. This would allow them to see the value of each number with in the whole number given. We practiced this several times, each time having the kids write the numbers in the designated space below. We practiced reading each number out loud, and also breaking it into expanded form and putting it in word form. It definitely was a great way to introduce place value and the kids seemed to catch on quickly. However, the highlight of this activity for the kids was that they got to eat their math at the end of the project. They keep begging to have an eat your math day again soon! I consider this project to be a success both academically, and kid friendly.

Writing each number.

Placing the correct amount of fruit loops on the marshmallows.

Blogging Experience

I am enjoying my blogging experience thus far. I thought that this would be more complicated and time consuming and found that it really is neither. I am having fun trying out the different things I can do on this blog and am excited about the potential and possibilities that this blog presents. I am looking forward to learning more and seeing what else is possible with blogging. I have seen some really amazing blogs, and also follow quite a few, and am impressed by the flow of the blogs and the content they contain. I have been impressed by teachers who take the time to blog and share with others and really am enjoying this opportunity.

Titanic

 In my classroom we recently studied the Titanic. My kids were enthralled with the subject and wanted to dive more in depth into the subject matter. We read several stories from various points of view on the sinking, some involving survivor stories, and some from the point of researchers. We talked about what it must have felt like when the people first walked on to the Titanic and it's massive structure. How it must have felt for the passengers to set off to America, many of whom were meeting with family. And how what it must have been like to have been crammed into the lower levels of the ship all in hopes that when they made it the America a fresh start would be awaiting them.
 As we researched we came across many websites that posted virtual tours and as a class studied them and how they were similar and how they were different. We followed the story of researchers searching for the Titanic. The kids were enthralled to see the how the ship looked at the bottom of the ocean. They were fascinated by the pictures of areas that were virtually untouched after the sinking of the ship, once compared to original photos taken before the journey.
 I decided to have the students imagine themselves on the Titanic and had them draw pictures of what would have been the most incredible sight to them upon entering the ship. Through portholes they drew what they would have seen and we hung them on the walls transforming our room into a Titanic ship all our own. The students reread journals and stories from characters or survivors accounts of the journey and then created their own journal/story. Even after our weeks of studying the Titanic, my kids still enjoy learning about it and continually present me with facts that they learned whether from a book or from spending time with their parents online looking up information. This project drew my students into the learning process and excited them about history. I am very pleased and proud of them and their enthusiasm for the subject!

  I follow many blogs that friends have created for their families, and blogs of fellow teachers with great ideas. I am starting this blog in the hopes that I will be able to archive some of the ideas I have and I use in my classroom. There are so many great blogs out there, and I hope I too can contribute to the list. I would like to be able to use my blog in the form of a yearbook/portfolio of the school year.
  I am currently teaching 4th grade again, and we have been in school now for 3 weeks. I am still building relationships with my students and their parents, as well as my colleagues. I started at a new school this year, so it is almost like being a first year teacher again. I am anxious to get into a more settled routine. I hope to offer my ideas, my challenges, my triumphs to other teachers who may or may not be going through the same ideas.
  I am not sure that I will use this blog as a means of communication with parents, but it's still early in the game and like I stated I haven't made up my mind as of yet. What I do know is that I love teaching and being in the classroom with my kids. If nothing more, I will use this blog as my own memory book of this school year and all that goes on.