Travelisfun

This is a grab and go, self-directed project. Students will create a salt-dough topographical map of California. They will label the regions. This slide presentation has detailed instructions to allow students to do this from home. The ingredients are listed. Instructions go step by step. It is a STEM project that they can work on from home with their parents.

It's ready for Distance Learning! This is a turn-key project. Assign it to your students and let the parents work with them. They can present it with pictures or video. The format is Google Slides, so you can alter it any way you see fit. There is a list of features that students must label. From mountains to bodies of water, basins to rivers, the goal is to get them familiar with the landscape of the United States. I am using this as a GATE enrichment project. But, it can be used with

This is a collection of four formative or summative assessments. Included with this is a page that teaches Wrong Answer Analysis. The focus of the first quiz is on separating dependent and independent clauses using commas and semicolons appropriately. This second quiz, on Commas, Colons, and Semicolons quiz is straightforward. This can be used as a formative or summative test. Teachers can give students a “Retake” opportunity. Quiz #2 is nearly identical. They have the same types of ques

I have written for PARCC. But, my class tests in SBAC. There are five extremely compact review lessons (very dense in format.) This is spiral review of both ELA and math. Each lesson contain over a dozen questions that are modeled after the SBAC and PARCC practice questions. These are mini-lessons-- daily practice using the format on the practice portal. Each ELA passage is original Questions match the format of the SBAC and PARCC. There are 5-6 ELA questions and 8-10 math questions.

What do we do at Thanksgiving to plan for the meal? First, we need to find out how many people will be coming over for dinner. Then, we need to plan for the turkey. Plan on serving ¾ pound of turkey to each person. You will need to need to plan for the right amount of turkey. Then, shop to find it. Next, you will need mashed potatoes. But, potatoes come in bags with varying size spuds. So, you will need to figure out how many pounds of potatoes you’ll need and pick out the right numbe

Have you ever wondered why the size of graham crackers keep getting smaller? Did you know the boxes are also getting smaller? And yet, the crackers are more expensive. How much smaller? How much more expensive? We will explore this in class. MATH. Engineering? Why do homebuilders use triangles to construct homes? We will explore this too. Powdered sugar will be our glue, and graham crackers will be the building material. Students will use candy and other foods (like pretzels, coconut, etc)

Project Based Learning. What do we do at Thanksgiving to plan for the meal?  First, we find out how many people will be coming over for dinner. Students will make a list of people to invite.  Then, they will need to plan for the turkey, potatoes, cranberries, drinks, dessert and more.  They will need to need to plan so they are prepared with enough food to feed every guest at their party.    Then, they will need to shop to find it! There is an interactive store where students will choose the

This is an entire STEM activity.   Have you ever wondered why the size of graham crackers keep getting smaller?  Did you know the boxes are also getting smaller?   And yet, the crackers are more expensive.   How much smaller?  How much more expensive?  We will explore this in class.   Not only will they work through the math to figure out the answer to these questions, they will write a letter about these three problems. Why do homebuilders use triangles to construct homes?  Engineering!  We w

There are standards that require students to be able to follow technical instructions. This type of test question requires patience in looking for details to eliminate wrong answers. This activity helps students with wrong-item analysis. It scaffolds the process of slowing down and focusing on the details. There's a job application, a series of open ended questions, and a series of multiple choice questions. I am a middle school teacher and a professional test writer for a large corporat

This is a warmup activity with a lesson on character. Looking at the character of 3 girls from a brief description, students make generalizations about what they do. First students generate a list of traits for each girl. Then, they figure out, based on the traits, which girl would most likely fit each of 5 scenarios. It creates great classroom discussion. My goal was always to have student see character beyond the classroom and to understand how we make inferences about people.