The Thief of Always Breakout

Looking for a great read aloud for your upper elementary or middle school students? The Thief of Always is a great book that the kids love! It's creepy and thrilling, but also filled with great themes. 

Escape rooms are becoming more popular both in and out of the classroom. On weekends, people take their friends and families to escape rooms for fun. In the classroom, escape rooms are also becoming trendy.  BreakoutEdu has digital breakouts that involve critical thinking skills.  There are even Breakout kits where students can unlock and crack codes. Since The Thief of Always involves the main character being trapped inside and eventually escaping the Holiday House, I wanted to create an escape room that involved the book.

My school district follows the Lucy Calkins curriculum, and this story is the read aloud for Lucy Calkins 5th Grade Unit 4: Fantasy Book Clubs: The Magic of Themes and Symbols.  After reading aloud the book to my class, I planned a breakout room in which students have to escape the Holiday House, the main setting in the book. I used skills from Lucy Calkins' Learning Progressions for this breakout.  Students also use math, art, and critical thinking to solve the problems.

The breakout includes the following educational skills:

• Themes
• Character Traits
• Author's Craft
• Setting
• Perspective
• Internal & External Quests
• Converting Time

The clues also involve:

• Emoji Code
• Riddles
• Decoding
• Sketching

Below, you can see a Twitter post in which students are engaged in the challenge:

Broke out of the Holiday House today! Breakout room for our Thief of Always read aloud! #TCRWP pic.twitter.com/5FDJVADBHl

— Mrs. DiPasqua (@MrsDiPasquaOJR) June 3, 2019

The full breakout is available for purchase on DiPasqua Education's Teachers Pay Teachers page. The package includes:

• Lesson Plan with Breakout Directions
• Answer Key
• Student Map
• Student Answer Recording Sheet
• Breakout Clues
• Hint Cards
• Room Labels
• Escape Cards

Here's how it works:

I printed out and laminated all the materials. I sorted each of the challenges into folders, and labeled them with the appropriate room label. I acted as Mrs. Griffin, dressed in an apron, baring the "Mrs. Griffin" name tag.

I paired students in groups. This challenge can also be done in partners. Each group received a sheet to record answers, and a map.  All students started with a folder containing the first challenge. Once students solved the first challenge, they came to me -- Mrs. Griffin -- to check their answer. If their answer was correct, that room on the map was stamped. They also received the folder for the next challenge. If their answer was incorrect, students kept working until they obtained the correct answer.  Students kept working until they advanced through each of the rooms.

Students had opportunities to move to a different room if they were stuck. Before the breakout started, each group received a "Hall Pass" card, and with the help of the cats from the book, could move to another room. Students could redeem the card only once, so they were advised to use it only if they were really stuck. Students could also earn a "Hint Card" by completing bonuses for certain challenges. 

If I noticed that groups were moving too quickly, I gave an individual from that group (typically the one giving the most help) a "Feast Card" so that they would have to sit out two minutes to "enjoy a meal" with Mrs. Griffin, since that was another big idea in the book.  This allows other groups to catch up.

Once students solve all the riddles and get all their rooms on their map stamped, they breakout, right? Well, that's not 100% the case. Students then are asked to help another group escape. Just like Harvey went back into the House to help others escape, students are asked to do the same thing. When they help one group breakout, then they have officially escaped.

Students seemed to really enjoy the breakout. It is a change of pace from other regular activities.

If you purchase The Thief of Always Breakout, please leave feedback so we can improve for future updates!

CHAMPS Classroom Management

Are you looking for a new classroom management system for the new school year?  Try CHAMPS!

CHAMPS stands for:

• Conversation: the voice level at which students should be at
• Help: how the students should ask for help
• Activity: what the students are working on/what they should be doing
• Participation: how the students can participate
• Movement: where students should be, or where they can move
• Signal: how the students will respond to the teacher/attention grabber

CHAMPS can be changed for each subject, class period, activity, etc.

According to Mark Logan of DirectEd Educational Services, "The goal of CHAMPS is to create a learning environment where students are responsible, motivated and focused on a task."

CHAMPS expectations should be clearly posted in the classroom so that students know what to do. This will help with your visual students. For students who are not following CHAMPS, you can quickly reference the display to remind them of the expectations.

If you are looking for a CHAMPS display, check out our CHAMPS product on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I will say that following CHAMPS is time consuming. You will have to take out time throughout the day to go over the CHAMPS expectations. However, being upfront about the expectations for each activity could prevent disruptive behavior.  Once students know the routine, less time will be needed for CHAMPS.

March Mathness

Image Source: NuSkool.com

Get your brackets ready! March Mathness is on its way!

Download the March Mathness PowerPoint on TeachShareNet's Teacher's Pay Teachers page.

Here's how it works:

• Every day, two "teams" (math word problems) will go head-to-head.
• The team with the most points (the math problem with the largest answer) will move on to the next round.
• Teams (math problems) will keep advancing through the bracket until a winner is declared.

These math problems were intended for 3rd grade students, but they could still easily work for 4th and 5th grade students.

Teacher Input:

I did this as a warm-up with my 3rd grade students in March, 2017. They absolutely loved it! I replaced our regular math warm-up problems with this, so it did not take much extra time into our day.  While students were getting ready for math, they were excited to see what the problem would be. There was instant engagement!

Future Updates?

Teachers are always reflecting and looking for ways to improve.  I already have a few ideas in mind for a future update.  Depending on the feedback, I'm thinking about making some future updates to the slides. Perhaps each "division" will be its own math operation problem? Also, instead of having the same problem in the next round, making an adjustment to that round. For example, if the LeBron James winning problem moves on, the next problem will include a new problem about LeBron James statistics.

Blog Post: Math Warmups

How do you start your math class?

This past year, I took on the approach of math workshop. I'll save the whole routine of math workshop for another post, but I do want to focus on the beginning of the math lesson. The first 5 minutes of math are crucial. The math warmup is important to engage learners, review previous content, get them ready for the upcoming lesson, and get students thinking about what is to come.

My district utilizes Everyday Math, which incorporates a warmup, followed by a math message that involves critical thinking. Everyday Math's warmup is nice in that it differentiates to various skill levels. However, simply solving the problems on a whiteboard or in a journal can get old fast. Therefore, I found a few different ways where students can get those same warmup problems, but in a more interactive way.

One easy way to incorporate math warmup problems is to do what I call a "math-ercise." It is essentially solving math facts while doing exercises. I like it because it adds the "brain break" element and also gets students moving while practicing math.

There are few different ways that I integrated the "math-ercise" into our math workshop.  Sometimes, I would call out an exercise, followed by a math fact. They had to do the exercise the number of times that the answer would be. For example, I would call "Jumping Jacks, 3 x 3!" Students would then respond by doing 9 jumping jacks. Students liked verbalizing the answer and completing the exercise while counting aloud.

Another way that I included the "math-ercise" was through a Power Point presentation.  Facts would appear on the screen, and students had to call out the answers. In between every 3 or 4 slides, an exercise would appear! Students would call out the answers to the facts appearing on the screen, but then quickly spring into the requested action.

Warmup exercises are very easy to do with math facts. No matter the grade level, students need to know their facts! It is a great way to practice them in just a short amount of time, and in a more engaging way than the typical speed tests.

Other than the "math-ercise," I created a warmup called "Two Truths, One Lie: Math Edition."  Many of us are familiar with the icebreaker, but I made it math related. 3 problems appear on a Power Point slide. It is then the students' job to identify which statements are true, and which one is the lie. For those mathematicians who finish quickly, I have them correct the lie and make it true. A 3rd grade version of "Two Truths, One Lie: Math Edition" can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers page.

For the next warmup, you'll probably think of a familiar tune. "One of these things is not like the other" is something we remember from watching Sesame Street, but can also work great in math! I put 4 different mathematical pictures or equations on the slide. Then, students have to figure out which one is not like the others, and explain why. For extra fun, you can play the song in the background on repeat.

Those are just a few suggestions for starting math, whether you do a workshop style, small groups, or whole class instruction.  Have any clever ways to engage students for math warmups? Add them to the comments section!

Lesson Plan: Interpreting Remainders

Interpreting Remainders "DIRT" Anchor Chart

This lesson is intended for 4th grade Everyday Math, but can be translated to other math programs and grade levels.   The lesson is broken into different parts. The lesson starts with an anticipatory set, a warmup problem, minilesson, and then breaks into math centers (guided practice, partner work, independent).

Lesson: 6-8 Expressing and Interpreting Remainders

Objective: Students explore different ways to express and interpret remainders.

CCSS: 4.NF.1, 4.NF.2, 4.OA.3, 4.NBT.6, SMP1, SMP6

Warm-Up: Read Aloud: A Remainder of One, by Elinor J. Pinczes

Lesson Plan: Distributive Property

Distributive Property game has been updated and
is available on TSN's Teachers Pay Teachers Page

This lesson utilizes enVision Math, but ideas can be adapted for other texts.  Many of the hyperlinks will direct you to a place to download the resources used throughout this lesson. (Note: You must have ActivInspire downloaded to view the Promethean Board slides)

Lesson: 3.5 Distributive Property

Subject: Math

Grade: 5th

Integration of Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to use the Distributive Property to simplify expressions and solve equations by constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others, looking for and making use of structure, looking for and expressing regularity in repeated reasoning.

Standards

· 5.NBT.5: Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
· 5.OA.1

Classroom Management: Clip Chart Alternative

For the last two years, I have been using "A Cupcake for the Teacher's" adorably awesome clip chart.  Students have their own clothespins clipped to the chart. For good behavior, students can move their clip upward, while poor behavior results in a downward motion of the clip.  

There are consequences for clipping down, and rewards for clipping up.  If they clip up to "Super Student," they get a star on their clip. 10 stars retires their clip into the "Clip Chart Hall of Fame."  I also included a positive reward system to go along with the chart, where clipping up earned them a ticket for a weekly raffle.  The raffle winner would recieve a prize such as a homework pass, or sitting at the teacher's desk for a day (a class favorite)!

While this is an effective way of classroom management, there is a new alternative to the clip chart game. The "Character Trait Clip Chart" promotes all positive behavior.  Instead of "clipping down," this chart is only for "clip ups." Students earn their clip on the chart by displaying character traits from the 6 Pillars of Character.  Students can also recieve a certificate for getting their clip on the chart.

Character Trait Clip Chart includes 7 different traits and an award certificate

I like this alternative because it doesn't draw toward negative attention.  It promotes a positive environment, as the negative behaviors can be handled without the student "clipping down" in front of the whole class, which many bring out other negative energy.

The clipchart alternative can also be used with a positive reward system. Students can earn raffle tickets for getting their name on the chart, much like the original.  It could also be used with Class Dojo, earning students points. I like the idea of Class Dojo because negative points will also hold students accountable, and gives leighway to address negative behaviors without being centerstage.

The intensions of the "Character Trait Clip Chart" are to promote a positive learning enviornment. There has been so much hate in the world recently, and the point of this clip chart is to bring out the good in the classroom.

Download the "Character Trait Clip Chart" on TSN's Teachers Pay Teachers page.