Word Problems - Signal Words

We worked on reviewing signal words for addition and subtraction word problems.  While this seems pretty basic and I know that not all problems will contain these words, too many students don't understand which operation to use.  

Each student created two word problems using two different signal words for addition and then for subtraction.  They used Publisher, printed and then cut them apart.  We glued them to butcher paper to display in the hallway.  The kids loved that the number sentence was upside down on their screen.  I showed them how to rotate it and some forgot to rotate it back.  

When printing, don't forget to change the screen to two-sided.  Below is an example of page 1 in the Publisher file.

Here is page 2 as it would look on the screen.

After the word problems were checked by me, they were allowed to find a clip art picture to place on the problem.

Wish I would have outlined the pictures so you could see them better.  The first page text boxes were near the bottom of the landscaped page, the second page boxes were at the top.

Signal words we used were:  addition:  altogether, added, total, in all, plus, sum; subtraction:  left, how many...more...than, how many...less...than, difference, lost, shorter, longer

Earthquake tremors in Kansas

After feeling tremors in Kansas from the Oklahoma earthquakes, the students were really curious about earthquakes.  We did a little research and then completed a graphic organizer comparing earthquakes to tornadoes.  The information was used to write compare/contrast sentences.  Students highlighted the compare/contrast signal words.  We added a topic sentence and a concluding sentence about which they would rather experience and why.  The paragraphs turned out great.  The students used Word to publish their paragraphs.

The venn diagram in the middle of the picture is NOT mine.  I had the website address on the paper in the hallway, but now I can't find it to put it on here.  I'll keep looking as it is a great resource and the creator needs credit for it.

The sticky notes are from our instructional coach.  She wrote comments and questions on some of the paragraphs.  The kids loved it.  Thanks, Jamie!

More on Biography Project

Tomorrow I hope the students get the videos filmed and timelines done.  My students had a guest teacher today as I had professional development as part of the TRC grant.  I'm a little concerned about how much they accomplished today in spite of having a wonderful guest teacher.

At my professional development a wordle appeared as a part of a presentation and it hit me.  Those students who have everything done can make a wordle as a title page while they are waiting for the others to finish up.

I learned about making a fakepage...think that is what it is called.  It looks like a facebook page but isn't a real one.  I think pulling that into the project would be great.  I wish I used it as the timeline instead of a "normal" timeline.  If things go well tomorrow, maybe we'll try creating one.

Biography Project

We started a new project yesterday.  Each child chose a biography to read.  Today they started completing a graphic organizer.  The first part of the organizer stores facts about the person's early life such as where and when born, siblings, and any other interesting information.  The second part of the organizer stores information about why the person is famous or why a book would be written about the person.  This has been harder as the students just want to write 'famous baseball player' or 'had a son' or some other 'easy' comment.  We had a lot of discussions about this topic.  Tomorrow they will complete the opinion and question part of the graphic organizer.  They will tell whether or not they think the person should have a book written about his/her life and what would they ask the person if they could visit with him/her.  They cannot ask something that was answered in the book or that can be googled.

Students will take this information and write a short report about the person.  (We are using a second source...either History.com or Biography.com)  A title page will be created along with at least four pictures to illustrate important points in the report.  Each child will create a bibliography using easybib.com. 

The title page and pictures will be used along with the report to make a 'paper-slide video' with a flip camera.  Students will work together (we call it the production team) to video the papers as they are slid across the table as the report is read by the author.


A timeline is also being required.  Students will use a graphic organizer to log events in the person's life.  That information will be entered into the timeline feature on readwritethink.org and printed.  The timeline will be the last thing shown on the video mentioned above.

Students will be graded on the research paper, the video, and the timeline.  A rubric has been developed to grade the targeted areas.

http://mrscooksfantasticfourthgrade.blogspot.com/2011/12/flip-slide-videos.html