Anchor Chart Ideas

I have some anchor charts and things that I have been meaning to share, along with about a million other things, but I finally have some time to breath and blog today. =)

I actually took this picture in my teammie's classroom because her idea was so cute and told her I was going to share it on my blog! She had the students write one word that describes something they learned about each SC region on a sticky note and then she used all of the words to make a wordle! Then, she attached it to the SC region map. GENIUS! And it looks so cute! I decided I am totally doing this as an end of unit activity!

Obviously, we haven't gotten to the last two regions yet!

And here are a few math anchor charts I've made since we have been learning about place value. I think I saw one of the ideas on Pinterest.

My kids just love the Rounding Rap! You can view and listen to it HERE! It's so funny and very catchy! I've caught myself singing it WAY too many times in the last two weeks! I posted about the Rounding Mountain and CUBA method last year and you can view that post HERE for more info! I think the number line is self explanatory, though I have found this way is very confusing for some kids. We (my inclusion teacher and I) taped a number line to the floor and practiced hopping to the the rounded number when we introduced rounding.

I am leaving that last bubble blank for when we begin our addition and subtraction unit next week. I will add an equation in there to represent another way to write a number.

And I saw this fabulous idea on Hope's blog post about real readers! I did the Real vs. Fake reading last year, but I think this way is a much more exciting way to introduce it! You can read all about her fabulous lesson idea HERE! 

I have a sub for the first time this year tomorrow because I am attending the South Carolina Council for Social Studies conference tomorrow and I am pretty excited to learn some new stuff!

In other news, I finally began working on my "Boo in the Zoo: Animal Themed Halloween Unit." 

Here were some of the things I want to include:

* Animal Research (Bats, Owls, Cats, Spiders, and other creepies)

* Spooky and Weird Animal Adaptations

* Habitats Trick or Treat (Students would pretend they were going Trick or Treating in each habitat and draw or write things they would find there to add to their Trick or Treat bag) I know it sounds crazy, but I'm still in the thinking phase! =)

* Bewitching Words (Students would pick and animal and write describing words)

* Monstrous Metaphors & Spooktacular Similes (Animal related of course!)

I would love more suggestions for activities to include!

Rounding Round Up

I realized recently that my students have forgotten how to round since the beginning of the school year. Yay! Something else I get to go back and reteach!

I found a book called, Memory Tips for Math, by Donnalyn Yates. There is a plethora of information in here to help teach students to remember math concepts taught in class.

One idea to help students remember how to round is to draw the following picture:

A waved line resembling mountains on the board or a long piece of paper. Put 0, 10, 20, 30, etc in the valley depressions and 5, 15, 25, etc at the top of each peak. Write the numbers 1-4 up the left side of the mountain and 6-9 on the right. Use a magnet or interactive white board picture to simulate going on a trip over the mountain. Pick a number between 1-9. If the nubmer ends in 1-4, drive the car to that number, get out to look at the view and forget to put on the brake. Ask students what will happen to the car? Discuss whether it will roll up the hill to the next number or back down to the lower number. Talk about the fact that a car won't roll up a hill.

If the number ends in 6-9, repeat the process with the car and continue the discussion. This is so useful with your visual learners!

I used the Rounding Round Up song/chant to help me students remember when to round.

Another useful method for students who respond well to procedural methods is as follows:

What is 27 rounded to the nearest 10?

Underline the place value you need to round to. Circle the number to the right and ask is it larger or smaller than 5? If it's larger, round up the underlined number up one. If smaller, it stays the same and you replace the number in the ones with a 0.

You can use this method with the Rounding Round Up chant or the Rounding the Mountain picture.

Other chants and memory tricks I've seen:

1. 1 through 4, stay on the floor. 5-9 climb the vine!

2. Four or less, give it a rest. Five or above, give it a shove.

3. You tell a story about a criminal (the number to be rounded), a judge (the number that determines the rounding) andthe jury (the rest of the numbers. In order to find out whether or not the crimimal has to stay in jail he must go to the judge and ask. If the judge is a strict one (a number of 5-9)then he must stay in jail one more year. He goes up one number. Then the judge and the jury go to lunch and are replaced by zeros. If the judge is a weak one (number from 0-4) he or she says ahhh you can go and i won't make you change. Then he goes to lunch with the jury and the numbers are replaced with zeros. So in the number 457 - where 4 is the criminal, 5 is the judge and 7 is the jury. 5 is a strict judge and makes the 4 stay in jail one more year. The 4 becomes a 5 (because the judge is strict and makes hime change). Then the judge goes to lunch with the jury (the 7) and they are replaced by zeros. The number becomes 500.


4. Rounding Rap


Find that place value, circle that digit.
Number to the right, underline, get it.
Four and under, circle stays the same.
Five and up, add one is the game.
Now flex your muscles like a hero,
Digits to the right turn to zero.
All other digits stay the same,
Wow, you're a winner in the rounding game.


5. CUBA method
C- Circle the number you are rounding
U- Underline the number to the right
B- Baby or Bully? Baby (0-4) stays the same Bully (5-9) round up
A- Add zeros to all the places behind the circled number


Hope these ideas are helpful. Anyone have something else they use to teach rounding that you found helpful for your students?