Five For Friday: February 20, 2015

It's that time of the week again where I link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for one of my favorite Linky Parties, Five For Friday!  The past two weeks, I've had a certain topic that I maintained throughout the post.  Today's post is just going to be a collection of random happenings in my classroom over the past week.

Let's get started!

Last Friday, we had a mini-Valentine's Day celebration, complete with a math activity for the occasion!  I was so surprised when one of my team members came up with this amazing math monster bag project!  She put everything together for me and even shopped for the supplies!  How amazing is that?!  

For this activity, students were given an amount of money in fractional amounts and they had to figure out how much money they had altogether.  Then, they were given stipulations on how much they could spend on each category (horns and ears, eyes, feet, etc.).  After they figured out the fractional amount that they could spend on each item, they went shopping to build the perfect monster!

The students loved it! It was the perfect way to introduce a new concept, review previous concepts (like adding fractions and adding and subtracting decimals) and give the students a break from our normal math routine.  They had a blast and it was so great to just interact with them in such a creative way!

Here are some monsters and the monster-making table!

We've been practicing synthesizing lately.  I have a superhero theme in my classroom so, of course, I jumped on the opportunity to bring a superhero into my synthesis anchor chart.  I originally saw this idea on a handout and I made it into the anchor chart for the topic.  It adds a nice tough of decor to my walls right now.  My students have been working so hard on synthesizing their ideas and they're going to put all of that knowledge to use next week by writing their own essay about the invention of the TV!

We started multiplying fractions this week and it has been very challenging for the class.  I made this anchor chart for them to reference and it really helped get the information to stick!  Once the chart went up (and I used to for reference during teaching- of course!) the synapses really started firing!  I was happy to see them succeed with multiplying fractions by a whole number today!

However, we're still having a hard time with simplifying fractions and converting from an improper fraction to a mixed number.  I'd love to hear how you teach these fraction concepts!  

We're busy getting ready for Dr. Seuss' birthday this week and my students started their Cat in the Hat artwork.  Again, I take no credit for this adorable idea.  The school has done this school-wide for years.  Many of my fifth-graders still have their art from second grade.  I love how they can keep each one and compare it year after year.  We decided to put our own spin on it and we're using watercolor for the background and hat.  There's going to be a great final touch at the end too but I don't want to spoil the surprise.  When I brought out the cat to start the artwork, they were so excited to do this project again!  

I just love the wash of color that watercolor paint gives!  Some students have really great multicolor and ombre backgrounds.

Last, I'm busy preparing for an exciting blog hop that kicks off tomorrow!  I'm going to have a really great post on this, so please make sure you check back here tomorrow for all of the blog hop information!  I'm writing about a really great classroom resource that you can use to save all of your links, pictures, and videos for quick access.

Thanks for reading!  Come link up with us and leave a comment!