Week one of STAAR review. Oh, how I've been dreading this. Fortunately for us all, it went well. A lot better than anticipated.
I cannot share pictures of my journal, as I'm using a product I paid for on TPT. Here is the bundle I purchased. I'm running through them mostly in order.
Here is how my class is now structured.
1. Warmup- I'm using the Science Penguin's warmup bundle. I'm picking through them to find ones that are directly related to what we're covering in class. The topic every day comes from the previous day's topic.
2. Notes/Review- We go through the notes page in the Review bundle above. We box in, underline, circle, and star Key Words. The kids then do the accompanying activity that comes with each notes page. We go over it.
3. The kids each have a packet at their desk with 10 questions. I used the TEKS resource system to make these. If someone knows how to share, please let me know. I just went through the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade TEKS and found questions that went with each day's topic.
Every desk has a slip sleeve (sheet protector). They place their packet in the slip sleeve and use a dry erase marker to work the HAPPIER method. I put a basket on each desk to hold their glue, dry erase marker, wipe cloths (that I sewed myself, fleece), and red pens. I made sure to put wacky 70's duck tape around my pens and markers so no one makes off with them.
The kids spend the rest of the class doing the HAPPIER method on these questions. I leave about 7 minutes at the end of class to go through them and then pack up. The kids also have a bubble answer sheet (with 10 questions for each day of the week) that stays at their desk as well. We needed to practice bubbling, as that is one major issue from the practice test.
So far, I have already seen a dramatic improvement! The kids are getting more right than wrong, and I have a good chunk of them that either get 9 or 10 right every day! This makes me hopeful that we're all improving.
Here are the topics we covered this week:
Monday- Physical Properties of Matter (they did OK)
Tuesday- Mixtures and Solutions (they struggle with this)
Wednesday- Properties of Water (great job)
Thursday- Energy (they did amazing)
Friday- Circuits (good job)
I also changed up their homework. I've been pulling two half-sheet warmups from the Region 4 warmup book, and combining them for each day's homework. The kids are taking their sweet time getting used to them. They have multiple questions per page and usually an "Explain" component. I hope they'll do better this week.
3 more weeks until STAAR!
~Ms. Kat
I cannot share pictures of my journal, as I'm using a product I paid for on TPT. Here is the bundle I purchased. I'm running through them mostly in order.
Here is how my class is now structured.
1. Warmup- I'm using the Science Penguin's warmup bundle. I'm picking through them to find ones that are directly related to what we're covering in class. The topic every day comes from the previous day's topic.
2. Notes/Review- We go through the notes page in the Review bundle above. We box in, underline, circle, and star Key Words. The kids then do the accompanying activity that comes with each notes page. We go over it.
3. The kids each have a packet at their desk with 10 questions. I used the TEKS resource system to make these. If someone knows how to share, please let me know. I just went through the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade TEKS and found questions that went with each day's topic.
Every desk has a slip sleeve (sheet protector). They place their packet in the slip sleeve and use a dry erase marker to work the HAPPIER method. I put a basket on each desk to hold their glue, dry erase marker, wipe cloths (that I sewed myself, fleece), and red pens. I made sure to put wacky 70's duck tape around my pens and markers so no one makes off with them.
The kids spend the rest of the class doing the HAPPIER method on these questions. I leave about 7 minutes at the end of class to go through them and then pack up. The kids also have a bubble answer sheet (with 10 questions for each day of the week) that stays at their desk as well. We needed to practice bubbling, as that is one major issue from the practice test.
So far, I have already seen a dramatic improvement! The kids are getting more right than wrong, and I have a good chunk of them that either get 9 or 10 right every day! This makes me hopeful that we're all improving.
Here are the topics we covered this week:
Monday- Physical Properties of Matter (they did OK)
Tuesday- Mixtures and Solutions (they struggle with this)
Wednesday- Properties of Water (great job)
Thursday- Energy (they did amazing)
Friday- Circuits (good job)
I also changed up their homework. I've been pulling two half-sheet warmups from the Region 4 warmup book, and combining them for each day's homework. The kids are taking their sweet time getting used to them. They have multiple questions per page and usually an "Explain" component. I hope they'll do better this week.
3 more weeks until STAAR!
~Ms. Kat
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