Statistics FUN (Mean, Median, Mode & Range) , March Madness, FREEBIE, and MORE!

It was another busy week in 6th grade, and again, I am linking up with two of my FAVORITE linkys (Five for Friday with Kacey and No Worksheet Wednesday with the Primary Chalkboard)!   So, here we go!

This week we started statistics in 6th grade (SOOOOO MANY fun things that you can do!)  We began by talking about mean, range, median and mode and added the following page and foldable to our interactive notebooks:

This is what the inside of the foldable looks like:

 The next day we used our notebooks to do a fun Mathtivity practicing finding the mean, median, mode and range of sets of data:

You can download this activity FREE by clicking HERE in my TPT store. :)  Please leave some feedback if you happen to download it--I appreciate it.

The students used their notebooks to help remember each vocabulary word as they completed the activity.

They used the work mat which had lists of score on it to answer questions on the data.

It was a lot of fun, and I hope that YOU enjoy it, too! :)

So, again this month, I am linking up with the Primary Chalkboard for the:

I have been having a LOT of fun with this, and I truly think that the students are enjoying it, too!  In the case of this project it turned into a No Worksheet Wednesday AND Thursday!

This week we did a fun March Madness activity with our new found learning on statistics!

We first added an entry to our interactive notebooks practicing taking a data set and displaying it into a line plot and a histogram:

I then let students choose a college basketball team that I had already printed out their season scores.  The students then needed to take all of the teams scores, and write them down, then order them least to greatest:

Once the students did that, they needed to find the mean, median, mode and range for each set of scores.  We also are participating in a #tbt in my classroom where we spend a little time reviewing things that have challenged us this year.  This #tbt we dedicated to finding percents, so I had the students also find the percent of games that their team won and lost. :)

The students also needed to display their teams data in a line plot AND a histogram.

The students did SUCH a great job with these!  It covered a LOT of standards in Statistics and Probability, made learning relevant, and the students were REALLY engaged, too!  The final products turned out great!

This week we also did our monthly class team builder/STEM lab challenge!!!

This was BY FAR the best one we have done yet!!!!!  The students had such a blast with The Pot O' Gold STEM Challenge, too!  Their goal was to build a tower out of straws that was TALL and STRONG.  They then had to put their "pot" (a mini cup) at the top of the tower.  The students had to then put as many pennies (gold) in as they could before the tower fell!  I awarded the teams points for height and then points for pennies, then totaled the two to find a winner.  For example, I had 9 groups, so the tallest tower got 9 points, and the smallest received 1.  Then once the pennies were put in the pots at the top, the most pennies got 9 points, and the least received 1. 

The designs were AH-MAY-ZING, and the students were the most engaged with this one that I created then they had with the rest!  Here are some of the designs:

 The tallest tower was 22.5 inches and the one that held the most pennies held 149!!  It was great!  There are some great extension activities, teacher directions and recording/planning sheets to accompany this STEM Challenge.  We are now looking forward to our April STEM Challenge:  Easter Marshmallow Launch!

Just one last reminder that I am FOUR followers on TPT away from 500---which of course calls for a celebration! :)  If you're a teacher and would like to donate, please complete the Google Doc form to donate. :)  I thank you in advance. :)

Volume & Surface Area FUN, a FREEBIE, Linkys and MORE!

Whew!  It was a crazy week this week!  I don't know about anyone else out there, but the weather we have had in NC the past few weeks has been INSANE.  This was I *think* our first FULL week back after Christmas that we have had!  Mainly because of weather like this (shout out to my friends, Phyllis for thinking of taking a screen shot of this!):

Winter Weather Advisory AND it's currently 83 degrees!  INSANITY!

So, I have PLENTY to talk about this week!  So much so I am linking this baby up twice with two amazing blogs!  

To help organize this post I am linking up first with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching, for her: 

This week we have been finishing our geometry unit, and we ended with surface area and volume.  Now, in retrospect I would PROBABLY change around the order I did these two activities because I think the one I am about to talk about would have worked better AFTER the activity I talk about in number 2. Live and learn, right?

So, I saw a post by Jen, from Runde's Room about making Angry Birds to teach surface area and volume.  LOVED IT!  However, I also spinned it a little because I thought--what else makes a nice 3-D shape that students could use the net of?  Minecraft characters!  I got the patterns that I used here:

Angry Birds

Minecraft Characters

I used a student recording sheet that I created, which you can download HERE:

This is the process that I used:

I technically don't think I needed to use the Angry Bird pattern, you could easily just use the net of a cube to make almost all of them.  I did take the patterns I included above and increased the size of them on our copier before I put them onto card stock.  However, the Creeper pattern I copied onto green construction paper, so the students could just cut and create. 

Honestly, THIS was the most difficult part!  As you can see, the recording sheet I have attached looks a little different than the one I used in my classroom because they REALLY had a hard time measuring length, width, and height.  I feel as though THAT was the trickiest.  Also, this is why I would have done the activity posted in number TWO, first.

They loved looking up what their character looked like, and recreating it onto the one that they made!

 I loved how they turned out!  The creativity that some of the students took was awesome!  It is definitely a project that I will do again!

I loved this linky idea when I saw it a week or so ago maybe to link up with The Primary Chalkboard--NO WORKSHEET Wednesday!

The next activity that we did was I had around 12 different boxes from common household items that I had cut apart neatly to create the net of that shape.  I wanted to extend the challenge from our character volume and surface activity and allow my students to have more practice.

I had the students work in pairs to sketch first of all the net of the box that they had, measure the actual box, and record the measurements onto their dry erase boards (graph paper inside of a clear plastic sheet).

The students after awhile REALLY got the hang of the surface area concept because they were able to fold and unfold the net of their figure to actually see length, width, and height. Also, they got to connect the top/bottom, side/side, front/back concept that they were struggling with when they were asked to find the surface area of a 3-D shape folded up on paper.

We recorded all of our data on the board, and it was really cool to see that the measurements were really quite close (which was a GREAT formative assessment tool, too!).

We are using this same data this week to learn and practice mean, median, and mode--which may be my NEXT No Worksheet Wednesday post! :)

I have also joined up this past week with my bloggy buddy Lindsay from Miss Johnston’s Journey to be a part of her HUGE 25^th Birthday Bash! 

She is giving away a LOT of great clip art FREEBIES, gift cards, TPT products, and MORE!  Head on over if you haven’t already to enter to win some awesome things---including a $10 credit towards items in my TPT store!

In other news, it is AMAZING to think that I am less than TEN followers away from having 500 TPT followers!! As a follower you get access to updates on new items, freebies, sales, and MORE!

Ever since I got my Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, I have been thinking of ways to put it to use!  With all of the demands for rigor in the Common Core State Standards, I have really been enjoying creating materials, and I am so incredibly honored and blessed that almost 500 people believe in what I am doing, and enjoy my creations.  I have gotten the chance to be featured in the TPT newsletter for my freebies, be a part a holiday e-book compilation with other teachers, and will be guest posting on a famous teacher blog SOON! J  I definitely thank you ALL!

That being said, the last time I have a HUGE giveaway extravaganza was when I reached 100 Followers, so once I hit 500, I am ready to celebrate even BIGGER and BETTER than the last time!

Would you like to be a part of that celebration? 

Please fill out THIS FORM if you would like to donate towards the celebration-and I thank you in advance!

One of the things that I am most proud of creating lately is my Seasonal STEM Labs.  These tend to be my BEST sellers, and I have a blast thinking creatively about what to do and how to create it!

I have two that I have recently invented (for more information just click on each picture):

They are a BLAST and a perfect "holiday touch" to add to your lesson plans!  They make GREAT class builders, teamwork activities, and of course STEM Labs. 

You can find the complete set HERE (just click on the picture):

I hope that you all have a WONDERFUL WEEKEND! :)

Five for Sunday Scoop :) Multiplying and Dividing Fractions Frenzy!

Happy Sunday!  I'm doing a double link-up today to talk about my past week!  Normally I link up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching on Saturday at the latest, but today I'm pulling a 5 for SUNDAY--eek.  

We are still hard at work using our homework notebook strips!!  This is still one of my most FAVORITE products and ideas that I have ever had!  If you follow me, you know that I have talking about this a LOT, but I can't help it. :)  It has just saved me SO MANY copies this year already, but still giving my students worth while homework that is challenging, and allows me to give them higher level word problems, too---AND not have to lug around a giant math text book (which I still haven't TOUCHED yet this year!!).  

So far I have an entire unit done under the Number Systems strand for the CCSS for 6th grade:

You can use these strips for ALL SORTS of things--they don't JUST have to be homework.  They are also perfect to put into interactive notebooks for a proof or independent practice, exit tickets, or classwork!  This unit is only 5 pages of actual SHEETS of paper--it's a condensed version of over 15 worksheets!!!!!  Now THAT's a saving of copies right there!  So, there are over 150 questions packed into strips to save YOU on copies (WITH answer keys!!)!  It also keeps all of the students work in ONE spot instead of having separate worksheets shoved in a million different places.

If you're interested, I plan on adding the rest of 6th grade CCSS strands throughout the year!  On the item listing on TPT, I have also listed what TOPICS I cover in case you do not use the CCSS. :)  

I will be updating this file soon with some Number Systems spiral review strips, which will make this packet over 200 questions (an equivalent to 20 worksheets), so be sure to get it when the price is low! :)

This week we worked, and worked, and WORKED on multiplying and dividing fractions!  The concept of multiplying and dividing isn't really a new thing for them, but they were struggling.  So we played some fun review games with cards:

 They played a sort of "War" card game, flipping over two numbers, creating a fraction, then multiplying or dividing (depending on what they decided on), working out the problem and saying the answer in simplest form.  First person to say the correct answer won! :)  They really loved it, and the room got LOUD (in a "we're all learning" way). :)

Then, we moved on to WORD PROBLEMS...yikes.  This was a struggle.  Sooo, instead of moving on to LCM/GCF like the plan was, we spent a few days with this.  I made some task cards for the students to use.  They were a MIX of multiplying AND dividing fractions, so they had to decide what operation they would use.  This was a challenge!!!  We really got into some good discussions of number sense, practicality, and the students did some GREAT discussions with each other!  It was great!  

We played Showdown for all of you Kagan buffs out there.  We plan to finish up Monday, because they did not finish on Thursday.  There were really some higher level questions, and these cards would be great for grades 6-9 depending on your students.   They are a mix of proper fractions, whole numbers, AND mixed numbers.  Some are division and some are multiplying. It makes it a challenge for the students when they don't know the operation outright.  You can get theme HERE if you're interested, or by clicking on the picture below. :)

I'm also linking up with The Teaching Trio today for their Sunday Scoop! 

So, here is mine! :)

So, since I worked on that earlier, I have accomplished number 3 on my HAVE TO list:

If you follow me on Instagram (@immixingitupinmiddle) you will have already seen that picture. :)

I'm in the process of gearing up for my FIRST science unit test as a 6th grade teacher!  Tomorrow we will be playing Jeopardy to review.  I'm super excited!!!  I'm also excited to next week post my Halloween decorating pictures, so STAY TUNED!  Also, us NC teachers have an exciting Facebook hop planned soon (I have also recently updated my Facebook Fan Freebie, so be sure to follow!), so be sure to keep in touch for more details!!!

Monday I am also getting a new student in my class that is from my home state of MICHIGAN!  So I am very excited about that!!!!  Have a great week everyone!!!!!