iPads for the kids!

Get into the Holidays spirit and vote for my school to get a grant from Clorox to buy iPads for the kids!!!

We have a huge demand in the computer lab and usually schedules are super busy for us to go and take advantage of the web based programs that the school has purchased... plus transition time to the computer lab takes longer, so having the iPads in the classroom would be a great aide!!!

You can go to this link: https://powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/detail/?nid=744 register with your Facebook account and search for "Ascher Silberstein" to vote :)

Or, making it easier (and if you are in the US) you can text 744pbf to 94248

Please, please vote!! And Happy Holidays! :)

Thanks!

Únete al espíritu caritativo y vota por mi escuela para obtener un patrocinio por parte de Clorox para ¡comprar iPads para nuestros alumnos!

El centro de computación tiene mucha demanda y sus horarios están ocupados, así que nuestro tiempo de laboratorio es muy corto para aprovechar los programas tecnológicos que la escuela ha comprado... además la transición del salón al laboratorio toma tiempo que podríamos aprovechar si las iPads estuvieran en nuestro salón.

Pueden entrar a este link: https://powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/detail/?nid=744 registrarse con Facebook y buscar la escuela "Ascher Silberstein" para votar :)

O para hacer las cosas más fáciles (y si viven en E.U.A.), pueden mandar como mensaje de texto 744pbf  al número 94248.

¡Porfa, porfa voten! ¡Felices fiestas!

¡Gracias!

3D Pumpkin Math

So, after all the left overs I feel more stuffed than anything! I had a great time having my family here, but I'm a little bit sad it did not last longer :( I hope you had a great time with your family as well!

Back to reality now, and as I promised here I have the resources I used to create a 3D pumpkin using word problems that included multiplication and division. Even though Thanksgiving is gone, you can still do this for the rest of November...

I printed the problems separate from the orange construction paper and pre-cut everything because I know that if I have the kids do it, it would take them longer... and I was aiming more to check for their understanding of when to multiply and/or divide to solve problems, but doing something cute at the same time. Anyway, to make it easier for you I created a file with the pattern and the word problems included, so you can only print or make copies in construction paper, then cut.

So, I handed out the patterns and the problems already cut, and encouraged students to follow the strategies we use for word problems: Read a sentence, Stop at the period, and Think what important information was in the sentence. The students found the answer for each problem as a team, and wrote down the appropriate operation, and the answer in a sentence on the right side of the pumpkin pattern.

Whenever the problems were solved, they glued the pumpkins back to back. When the pumpkin books were done, I used hot glue to put the pipe cleaner inside and ta-da! 3D pumpkins ready :)

In my TpT store you can find the instructions to make the 3D pumpkins, the patterns with the problems included in English and Spanish, and the answer key! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Donaji-Salinas Hurry and get it! I will keep the discount price all this week :)

Have a great week!

Pumpkin Science (and Math) Investigation

Today has been AWESOME! Besides that today is the last day of school of the week... :) We did a two-day lesson using pumpkins and it went great!

I purchased on TpT this Pumpkin Science Investigation to do with the kids these two days of school: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pumpkin-Science-Investigation I only used the stations for Science and Math, and left the reading activities to the RLA teachers.

Yesterday I had the kids bring one pumpkin per team, so we did the stations for weight, height, circumference, number of ribs, and number of seeds. That made a total for 6 teams. Every kid had a trifold investigation log to record their predictions, actual measurements and comparison between the two.

Today we read the informational cards and completed the "background information" on the trifold investigation log. We also had an activity with the the Multiple Response Strategy "numbers in the poster". I displayed the pumpkin with the name of their parts and placed a number on each. I read the definition for each part and the kids, using their pinch cards, showed the appropriate label for it by pinching a number. This is how they also completed the parts of a pumpkin in their investigation log.

They decorated the logs, and then we moved on to the fun part: open the pumpkin. They observed the pumpkin's insides and estimated a number of seeds, recording it on their log. I handed out gloves and we covered the tables with newspaper, but I even had a team that came prepared with a tablecloth :)

I asked them to get a handful of seeds/pulp and then count how many seeds they were able to get. They rounded the number and record it on a piece of paper (one per team). Since the objective was "students will estimate products in real-life situations", they were able to notice that estimating was more appropriate than counting one by one all of them. The students kept on scooping out the seeds and counting how many they had, then writing down their rounded number of seeds. At the end, they had a list of numbers like: 20, 20, 30, 10, 40, 40, 40, 50, etc. We noticed that they were some equal groups, so they made the connection, and instead of adding, they decided to multiply. Then, they added the products and found the approximated number of seeds that were in their pumpkin.

Estimation is really hard for students to grasp, because they just shout out numbers like "one million!", "five hundred thousand!". So by really having their hands as a benchmark, they could experience estimating.

I must say, my kids had a lot of fun! The only bad thing is that I am not a fan of pumpkin and my classroom has been smelly all day... guess that is why I have a horrible headache. After the break I'll post pictures of the bulletin board outside the school. We created some cute 3D pumpkins with 6 word problems that include multiplying and dividing. I'll be posting the word problems too, just in case you like them! :)

Anyway, today's the last day, and now off to enjoy the rest of the week with my family that is visiting from Mexico... yay!!! I haven't seen my sister in a year! I am so excited that my mom, brother, sister, a cousin and an aunt come and spend Thanksgiving with me. I am so blessed that they have a chance to come, and I am thankful for the time and money they are investing in making this trip.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day of the Dead / Día de Muertos

As you know, I am a bilingual teacher in 4th grade. We are departmentalized at my school, so I focus on teaching Math and Science. I have been teaching 4th grade Math for 4 years now, going into my 5th year. For Science is a little bit different, last year it was my first year to teach it and I did but very sporadically. This year I started committed to involve kids in doing a lot of science experiments, so here I am... trying to come up with ideas that let the kids experience more than just textbook work or word problems. 

Anyway, I wanted to do like a unit week with the Day of the Dead. Lucky for us, November 2nd was a Friday, so for a week we did different activities related to it. 

I know it is a little bit late for that, since the Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico on November 2nd. Anyway, I wanted to share with you what we did to incorporate Math skills like: measurement, practicing multiplication (arrays and facts) and symmetry. 

The Friday before I sent home permission letters, since we respect other religions/cultures and it is understood that some parents may not want their kids to participate. 

We started on Monday by watching some videos about the Day of the Dead, and what it means. The art teacher at my school did an splendid job weeks earlier on explaining to kids what the altars were and did some "papel picado" with them. So, it worked perfectly because some students already celebrate the day with their family and knew what it was about. We read some "calaveras" wich are poems dedicated to a person (alive usually), and present in a funny way how he/she was taken by the death (The Catrina). The Language Arts teacher dedicated the week to write some "calaveras" with them. 

On Tuesday, we started doing our sugar skulls to implement measurement. The kids LOVED IT! It was a little frustrating at times, since it was my first time of ever doing one! It went amazing! I bought the skull mold and the merengue at a store in Dallas, here is the link for it: http://www.lamariposaimports.com  You can find all kinds of stuff for the Day of the Dead! Even "papel picado" that I bought of course and placed in the classroom as decoration. 

If you are not in the DFW area, you can buy the sugar molds and all the material you need to make the sugar skulls on this website: http://mexicansugarskull.com , they even sell the foil paper and the special food coloring you need for the decoration paste. (I think here you can also order some "papel picado")

All the material needed and step-by-step instructions can be found here: http://mexicansugarskull.com/sugar_skulls/instructions.html

Tips
It took us two days to have the sugar skulls ready, you may want to use more time if your students are younger or if you have a complete day with them it may work easier. 

Tuesday
1. We did a rectangle instead of a square, just because I wanted to review its attributes, such as parallel lines and angles. They cut a 5in x 7 in using the back cover of the construction paper packets. They wrote their names on both sides of each cardboard.

2. I played the video on how to make a sugar skull, and set expectations as a class. You can see the video here: http://mexicansugarskull.com/sugar_skulls/index.html

3. I pulled 5 kids at a time to my round table, and walked them through the process of mixing the ingredients. Since they needed a cup of sugar, some students brought a coffee cup of just the complete bag of sugar, so we talked about how a measuring cup is used and why.  They poured the sugar in their own plastic container (a big one!), then they added 1 teaspoon of meringue powder. Once they mixed it completely, they added 1 teaspoon of water (yes, that's enough!) 

4. We packed the sugar mixture in the mold, and then scrap off the extra mixture from it using the cardboard. With the same piece, we placed it against the mold and then flip it really carefully so the mixture stays in the same shape. We did the same for the front half and the back half of the skull. One cup is enough to create one full sugar skull, you may decide to have them do only the front part, but it looks really nice with both. 

5. Let the sugar skulls to dry at a safe place (not humid) for at least 8 hours. We left them from one day to the other, so it worked perfectly. 

Wednesday
I made the royal icing in advanced, as well as the colored royal icing for decoration. With the royal icing we "glued" both halves of the sugar skulls, then we let it dry for the day. 

Thursday
I placed the colored royal icing in ziploc bags, since I did not have icing bags... not a good idea. The kids squished them too hard at time and it got out of it really bad... anyway, it was messy but still the kids loved it. We used foil to put the names of the people they were dedicating the sugar skulls to, and then "glued" it by using the royal icing. They came out good for the first time! 

Friday
We used the sugar skulls to make up situations by using multiplication and division. We used it to represent the operations and modeling arrays. They LOVED it! I put them on display outside my classroom for a week. Of course, they are not eatable... but it is a fun way to use ingredients that are easy to get ahold of and make something pretty and celebrate their culture. 

I also printed some skeletons and they used fabric paint to decorate them. Agains the windows the color really pop out and we arranged them in rows and columns to practice a few multiplication and division facts. 

I am a huge fan of the Catrina, so my lovely boyfriend helped me come up with the name of "Factrina" and made a coloring Catrina using multiplication facts (are you getting the hint of what we are focusing on Math: ;)). 

You can find the Factrina at my TpT account as a Freebie!: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Donaji-Salinas


As well, we made "papel picado" using tissue paper. The original colors are purple, orange and pink, but I only had a few of those in my classroom. So we used what we had available. We included symmetry in this activity, by making half circles, half hearts, half rhombus, half squares, etc.! I played the video before so they could get a gist of what they were doing, then we did what the video shows step by step. 
The video I used is in Spanish, but you can always just follow what she is doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP-Ms2AWfHM and we only did the first and the second style. 

I found this one in English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psmc1D2ddQo

Here is how the display table looked outside my classroom. 

We even ate some "pan de muerto", it was a great experience! :)

Hope you like it! :) thanks for reading!

- Donaji
  

Test, test... 1,2,3!

Hi! My name is Donaji Salinas and I am new to blogging. I hope to make it fun and post what I do as a teacher in my classroom, that has helped my students.

I was born and raised in Mexico, and have been living in Dallas, TX for 4 1/2 years now. I am a bilingual teacher in 4th grade, teaching Math and Science. Who could have figured that they would be my favorite subjects to teach! I used to have such a hard time with Math (especially algebra and fractions!) and now I know why... I guess as a student I did not have the opportunity to experience the concepts through different ways. So, this pushes me to keep improving and become a better teacher for the students.

I will post pictures, ideas, and activities that I have used in my classroom that I have seen worked with my students, and hopefully you enjoy them, too!

Anyway, keep having an amazing weekend meanwhile I figure how to work this out! :)

-Donaji