Dr. Seuss Saves Standardized Testing Week

The excitement has begun... 

          ✓ PARCC practice exams
          ✓ Taking down any evidence of learning from the walls
          ✓ Moving desks apart  (cooperative learning)
          ✓ The "go to bed early and eat a good breakfast" speech

In addition to all of this fun, I noticed today, on the eve of our first round of PARCC tests, that my little kiddos had that "look" on their faces.  You know...

Those are the faces we try to avoid ALL. YEAR. LONG.  I needed a way to create an open rapport about THE TEST and how they felt about it.  

I needed them to know how I felt about it, too.  I needed to ease into the "all I ask is that you do your own best work and I am already proud of you" speech.  

(I, of course, left out how I really feel about PARCC...)

Hooray For Diffendoofer Day! by Dr. Seuss was recommended to me by a co-worker (Thanks, Laura!) This book is classic Dr. Seuss- whimsical and fun, entertaining, and an easy read.  Even better?  It attacks the subject of a standardized test in the most kid-friendly way possible.  

Students from Diffendoofer School learn all sorts of different and exciting things that aren't taught at other schools.  Their dreary principal, Mr. Lowe, announces that "all schools from miles and miles around must take a special test!"  Mr. Lowe says that if they don't do well, their school will be torn down and they will have to go to school in Flubbertown... where they do EVERYTHING THE SAME- ZzZzzzZZzzz.  

Just when the students of Diffendoofer are starting to worry....

The book goes on to show that the students knew more than they thought they would once they took the test - the school did so well on their special test that Mr. Lowe actually smiled!  He declared that day DIFFENDOOFER DAY and all the students celebrated their success!

I loved how this opened up discussion between my students and I.  I was able to put to rest some of their concerns:

"I heard if we do bad, we will go back to second grade."

"I heard if we do bad, our school will shut down."

"I heard if we do bad, we will get a bad report card."

Can you imagine those worries weighing down an 8-year old through five 75-minute tests?  Without this book, I doubt these concerns would have been brought to my attention.  Going into tomorrow, my students know that all anyone will ask of them is to do the very best that they can do.  

While my teacher-heart breaks a bit throughout testing, I'm glad that my students know how proud of them I already am - Thanks Dr. Seuss!

Don't have a copy of the book?  Here is a YouTube version to play for your students!

Good luck to everyone taking the PARCC in the upcoming weeks!  I'd love to hear of other 'easy read' recommendations you have that open the door for meaningful discussions - related or not related to test taking!  

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3rd Grade Common Core Math - Binder Covers FREE Download

Fun colors, quirky fonts, and adorable clipart can make any boring binder way more exciting!  ... Did I really just say that?  Yes.   Moving on....

If you are a third grade Common Core teacher, this freebie is especially for you today.

These binder covers coordinate with my latest resource: 3rd Grade Math - Common Core Print & Go - 300 PAGE BUNDLE.  Don't have the resource?  No prob - you can still grab the freebie for your own files by clicking HERE!

Enjoy!

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Teaching Distributive Property Using an Area Model

Math can get boring if you get stuck in the 'worksheet' rut.  The worst thing during math (or any subject, really) is to look into the 'crowd' and see a bunch of blank stares on their lifeless faces.. you know what I'm talking about!!  B.O.R.E.D.

This week, I used a completely simple and effective method to teach my struggling third graders about the distributive property using an area model!

We all know that some of our learners retain info the best when they can manipulate things, hands-on.  First, I prepared these materials for our lesson:

one class set of grid paper copies

enough copies of the formula page for my students
to each complete four examples; there are 10 formulas per page

I also gave each student a blank piece of copy paper... blue happened to be what was on hand that day :)

To start the lesson, I modeled coloring in a rectangle with a highlighter on my own grid paper and asked them to recreate the same rectangle on their paper.  Then, we all cut out the rectangle and glued it onto our blue paper

After the first rectangle was glued, I passed out the copy of the formula and had students glue it underneath the rectangle.  We talked about what we already know about finding area (length times width) and wrote down the formula and the area for the first rectangle.

Next, I shaded in another rectangle with pencil that had the same height as the previous rectangle.  Once again, I asked the students to recreate this rectangle and cut it out.  We glued it onto our blue paper next to the yellow rectangle, and tried to make ONE shape out of the two rectangles.  Then, I used marker to trace around the whole rectangle.

We did four more examples together, and they were actually bummed out when I told them we were out of time!  My students even asked me if we could do this activity again the next day... I'll take it!

As homework, I gave them a practice page from my latest TPT resource: 3rd Grade Math - Common Core Print & Go - 300 PAGE BUNDLE.

As you can see, this practice page aligns perfectly with the activity students completed in class!

Interested in teaching your students about the area model using this hands-on method?  Click HERE to snag all of the printables you have seen in this post, including a freebie from my PRINT & GO Bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Does anyone else have another effective way to teach this concept?  

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