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! :)

Sketchometry-a FUN Way to Practice Area and Perimeter!

I haven't blogged in FOREVER!!! :(  I apologize for that, however, I did want to share an AWESOME online resource that I used this past week for our lessons on area and perimeter!  It's called Sketchometry. It was a wonderful, HANDS ON way for my students to create irregular shapes, measure the sides, and find the areas and perimeter.  It's always hard finding unique area and perimeter of irregular shapes resources.

We have 1:1 Chromebooks in our classroom, so we started with the app, but had some technical difficulties with it, so one of my students suggested we try the online beta version--which worked MUCH better for us!

I had my students draw out the shapes (in this case we were working on finding the area of trapezoids using the area of a triangle and rectangle and combining the total).  They used the ruler on Sketchometry to measure their shapes sides:

 I loved how they had to incorporate decimals into this activity, because as we ALL know---STUDENTS LOVE DECIMALS AND FRACTIONS. :)

I had the students sketch their shape onto notebook paper and then find the areas of the different shapes.

 You can even put multiple shapes onto one screen which was also great.  The students had MUCH more fun making their practice their "own", and it never hurts when they get to use technology, too!

I hope that you will be able to incorporate this resource into your next lesson when you teach area and perimeter!

You Oughta Know About Making Learning RELEVANT to REAL LIFE!

I am so excited to be back blogging with my blogging buddy, Jasmine for her You Oughta Know Blog Hop!   This is becoming one of my FAVORITE link ups, because everyone has such great ideas!

This month, I want to talk about how I make learning math AND science relevant to my 6th graders!  I don't know about anyone else out there, but I am CONSTANTLY being asked "When will I use this in real life???"  I have been asked that MULTIPLE times right now with my unit on Algebra,  So...this month, I want to talk about things that I have found that work well in my classroom to keep students engaged knowing that what they are learning CAN be used it real life. :)

First, I'll start with a bulletin board that I have in my classroom.  It's titled "Math and Science in Real Life", and silly me, took pictures of what is ON the board, and not the board itself. :/  So, if you would like to see the actual board, I plan to add that on this week at some point. 

This is how the board works:  There are two slips of paper that students can choose from (you can get them HERE).  One is for how they have used/witnessed science in real life, and one is for math.  The students then take one of the slips, fill it out, show me, and then share it with the class as they post it to the board.  

My students have REALLY enjoyed this, and it is amazing how excited they are when they see something outside of school used in the "real world".  They have brought in coupons, internet stories about science things that we have learned, and even sales papers when we were learning about unit rates!

The second thing that I try to do to make learning relevant to the real world, is USE real world things and places to teach math!  We have already done a GREAT sales paper activity this year that I blogged about, and recently we were learning about graphing inequalities (which CAN be a pretty dry math subject). 

However, when I had them go to three different theme park websites, and pick four different rides with four different height requirements, they had a BALL, and told me that this was the BEST math activity we did all year!

Of course, once the math part was done I had to give them 5 minutes to watch the roller coaster videos. :)  It was by FAR one of the most engaging activities that I have done all year!  I plan on creating this with task cards with QR Codes, so stay tuned to when I get that posted.  In the mean time, I will post back here on Wednesday with the link of the ones that I used for this project.

I hope that you enjoyed these ideas, and I would love to hear how YOU keep learning RELEVANT to real life!  Don't forget to check out these other AMAZING teachers, and their GREAT ideas that You OUGHTA know about! 

An InLinkz Link-up

A Bloggy Buddy Giveway and NEW Creations

I just wanted to take a minute to tell you all a few things:

1.  My friends over at The Teaching Trio are having a HUGE Giveaway to celebrate their 500 Followers!

There are some GREAT prize packs up for grab!  I'm part of the intermediate one--you could win $6 worth of products from my store...along with LOTS of other great things, too!!!!! :)  Click on the picture above to head over their way!

2.  I have been hard at work on 3 new products.  I haven't blogged lately about anything I've made, so I think I'm overdue. :)

First, I made this game to practice solving Algebraic Expressions.  It was a hit!  This can easily be the ONLY thing that you use to reinforce your lesson, because this ONE game can be adapted and differentiated EIGHT--yes, EIGHT ways!!!  It is cooperative learning, engaging, and depending on how you differentiate-CHALLENGING! :)

I also worked on some Valentine's Day WORD PROBLEM Task Cards, too! :)

If you enter the Teaching Trio's Giveaway---these could be YOURS!