STEM Marble Activity

Today we made marble runs. The goal was for the students to create a run for the marble. It had to land in the cup.

They had so much fun designing this. We are learning about energy in science. This was a great way to show energy kinectic and potential.

Only 3 groups were able to meet the challenge and have the ball land in the cup. We talked about how they could improve designs. Great learning experience!


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Task Cards

So I was at my son's karate class tonight and I was talking to another teacher friend about my class. I can't say enough good things about it. Working in the stations I can constantly revisit difficult topics or I can add a fun new challenging one. My children today were having quite a bit of difficulty with renaming fractions. They still do not understand how to change lets say 5 7/4 to 6 3/4. So next week we will be practicing this. I have taught them the skill they just need to practice....
So using task cards with QR Codes is great. The children sit in a station and can check their work. I only use 12 task cards because it is a 15  minute station. That takes them the whole time. I will then retest individually to see how they are doing.

Task Cards are an easy and quick way to practice. And the QR Codes are fun for the kids...they feel in charge. Check out the cards I will use...Subtracting Fractions Task Cards

A complaint I hear about stations....

I am new to teaching math in more of a workshop model. This is my second year using stations in my math class. Most other teachers think it is too hard. It is too time consuming and takes alot of work on the teacher part. Also how can you manage all the children.

Like I said I only have 2 years experience with using this setup in my classroom, but I could not imagine it any other way. May students know the routine of the stations. They know how much time they have. They know they are held accountable.

And most importantly I feel they are having fun...they love math and I truly don't hear any complaints.

I use this time so children can see how much time is left. It turns to yellow when they have a minute left and then red when done.

Are children fooling around in their stations?

This is a great question to ask. Believe it or not as a teacher you can tell what is going on in the classroom. I can tell when kids are fooling around or when they are copying from a friend. On Friday sometimes I give an individual check in to see how the children are doing. This is a great indicator of who understands what the concepts were that week. Even if the children are off task for a little...is that really that awful. Could you imagine sitting for 90 minutes (that is how long my math class is) and just focusing on math...There is more learning going on with this freedom of stations!

Students scanning Task Cards with QR Codes

When students are absent

When working in stations in math class, this gives students that were absent an opportunity to catch up. Working with their group will help them not feel so far behind. My students are always helping each other and showing each other new strategies to learn various concepts.
This also gives the children who teach the new concept a true knowledge of it. It is easy to listen to a teacher and to repeat the steps they do, but you can truly see if a child understands when they have to break down the concept and teach it.

Since all my stations are spiraling, the students never feel far behind when they are out.

Giving attention to my students

By Teaching in a math workshop model, I can give my students the small group attention that many of them need. The students who struggle have come up with strategies to help them through. Many times this includes a wandering eye! When I work with a group of 3 to 5 I can see who gets it. When certain children understand it, I might send them back to their desk to finish and help the children in need.

Sometimes I can even give children 1 on 1. Working in the small group also allows other children to help each other. Sometimes all a child needs is to hear the information from someone else. I am very open to having the children solve the problems in a way that they understand. I tech them all the strategies I know, and I let them choose what works best for them. My rule is they have to understand how I solved it, but they can pick how they want to solve it. We all see numbers differently!