Category: Lesson Ideas

Name Area and Perimeter

Grid Paper Name Area and Perimeter

Name Area and Perimeter- As my third graders were working on learning area and perimeter I had the children design their names on grid paper. As they made their names tracing the outline of squares on grid paper, they colored the squares in and traced with either marker or black crayon around the letters. We had just finished learning about the section on perimeter and moved on to area. I suggested that they only use the full squares, as we had not yet learned how to estimate using the partial squares for area. I  used half inch grid paper so it was large enough to work with.

The children were then were asked to find the perimeter of each letter, and then their whole name. The same thing was asked of them to find the area of each letter and then the whole name. It was a great way to reinforce the concept of finding perimeter, and learning the new concept of area.

We then compared our names to see if any names had the same area and perimeter. It was interesting to see how shocked they were to find other students with different names but had the same area and/or perimeter.

Patterns to find Name Area and Perimeter

Another idea that could have been done was to have them color their names in patterns, such as a,b,a,b, where “a” is red and “b” is blue. They can find the fraction of red and the fraction of blue squares, either for area or just plain fractions of a set.

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area and perimeter mosaic self portraits

I just saw a post on http://iwanttobeasuperteacher.blogspot.com/2012/05/perimeter-area-and-fraction-math.html I Want to be a Super Teacher blog about making a mosaic using colored construction paper self portraits and finding the name area and perimeter of these pictures. How adorable is that?

My school does not have bulletin boards, but this name area and perimeter project would have been a great bulletin board! Student learning in action!!!

Name Area and Perimeter- see sample below.

Sample of Name Area and perimeter

name area and perimeter

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End of Year Activities

End of Year Activities

As the days are getting warmer, the end of year activities are bouncing around in my brain. Packing up the classroom, end of year records and files, meetings, planning for next year…..sound familiar? The sound of the ocean is calling, but so much to do before it is a reality.

I was thinking about what to do with my class this year. In the past I have had the children make their own yearbook just by stapling papers together, decorating the first page, then collecting their friends autographs. We usually have several days at the end of the year that are shortened days, and this makes a great activity for those days.

End of Year Activity- All About Me Lapbook

Of course we have field day, and signing shirts, too. So maybe I can do a lapbook of “All About Me.” I downloaded several examples, so I have to choose which one I will use. You can try looking for one at www.homeschoolshare.com.

There is a cute All About Me lapbook displayed at http://my-lilbeans.blogspot.com/2012/10/all-about-me-lapbook.html that was made by the blogger. It is cute and colorful. You could possibly copy some of their ideas.

I just found this site called Doodle Art Alley http://www.doodle-art-alley.com/quotes-coloring-pages.html. There are lots of printable pages of doodles. The page I put the link in is of famous quotes with about 50 different choices. On the right side of the site is a link at their page of End of the School Year Printables. Here are some examples of these doodles:

1240602_orig4351323_orig 7288734_orig 7535163_origHow great would these be in a memory book. There is even a doodle that says autographs. I hope you check it out. There are so many categories, you can find something!

Here is a great idea and end of year activity for your class to make their own class yearbook. When our children get their school pictures we receive back a sheet with all of the kids pictures so we can place them in their permanent record folder. This photo sheet has about 4 pictures of each child. You could place one photo of each child on a piece of copy paper. Photo copy this sheet of photos for each child. The children can then put copy paper together in a book form and they can cut and paste the photos of their classmates in the pages. They can also use it as an autograph book!!

The Movie, “Frozen” End of Year Activities

I have also been mulling over having a Frozen Day as an end of year activities. I figured that by the end of the year in June it would be so hot that watching the movie Frozen would be a welcome interlude. I also found a marshmallow launcher at a yard sale. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a snowball fight with marshmallows? Or target practice using the marshmallow launcher?

Here is a link to make your own marshmallow launcher with PVC pipes. It could be very simple to more complex. http://ohamanda.com/2011/10/06/how-to-make-a-mini-marshmallow-shooter-gun-from-pvc-pipe/

end of year activities Marshmallow Launcher from PVC Pipes

Marshmallow Launcher from PVC Pipes

Here is a link for a Frozen Scavenger Hunt clues to download: Scavenger Hunt Clues

Here is a link for a Frozen Bunting Banner: Frozen Bunting Banner

How about pin the nose on olaf?

Or, dividing the class up into teams. Give each team a roll of toilet paper. The first team to make one of their team members into a snowman, wins. Have hats, scarves, etc. on hand to place on the human snowman.

I was at a shower one time and the game was melt the ice. A plastic baby was frozen in ice cubes and the first one to melt the cube to get the baby was the winner. What if a figure of a Frozen character was frozen in an ice cube. The child who melted their ice cube first to get the character first is the winner! Christof would love this game!

A cute snack is melted olaf- a cup with ranch dressing in the bottom, a carrot and pretzel sticks!

Blue Jello- after the jello is mixed, pour into a shallow baking dish. Cool. Cut into cubes.

In the winter, Scholastic had their Dollar Days Book Sale. They had children’s book for a dollar and more. I was thinking the theme of winter in June- following the Frozen Theme. I bought lots of sets of books for $1 each about snow or winter. There were Animal Ark, Cam Jansen, a couple more about animals, I just can’t remember exactly which ones. Sorry. So this week, I will have the children read the winter books, since it finally got to about 80 today.

 

What do you do for the end of the year activities? Please share….

 

 

3rd Grade Lesson Plans – Brain Explosions!

How many times have I gotten an idea on the fly, about 2 minutes before the children enter the classroom? Those are the best lessons, for some reason. It doesn’t matter how long I spent planning those 3rd grade lesson plans, or that I had all the effective strategies of teaching in it. My brain explosion ideas are the best!!!!

How about you? Would you care to share some of those brain explosions?

 

Here are some of my 3rd grade lesson plans after a brain explosion.

Multiplication Baseball– can substitute addition or subtraction.

Set the 4 bases. Show students flash cards. I usually set a time limit to help with their fast facts. If the student answers correctly within the time they advance to first base. If they do not answer correctly or run out of time they get an out. It plays just like baseball. As the students move from base to base, when they get to home base they put a tally mark. Count the tallys at the end of each inning.

 

Candy Bar Graphs– using the children’s take from Halloween, have the children collect data about the most popular candy. They should tally chocolate, chewy, hard candy, etc. The next day the students can make a graph using MS Exel, or Google Sheets.