Boosed Grader: An Android App EZ Grader

As a child, I was lucky enough to attend elementary school where my mom taught (for grades 3-5). At the time, I understood little about what teachers actually did, and often thought that she stayed an hour or two after school each day just to torture me.

My mom had a magical tool in her classroom, a mystical green rectangular wonder that somehow told her how to grade things. I did not understand this piece of cardboard, but thought it held some mystical power. 

As it turns out, I was almost right. I'm talking about the EZ Grader of course. 

I have an EZ Grader, and am led to believe that every teacher on the face of the planet does as well. This little sliding piece of cardboard really makes the job of grading easier. I bought mine at the local school store right after accepting my first job, and have used it timeless times since. I like to have students help grade papers (only the ones who want to), and even teach them to use this simple little device.

As great and timeless as the EZ Grader has become, sometimes you don't have it with you. A simple calculator always works well in a pinch, but for those teachers who like to have all the percentages right in front of them, you do have some options.

I've used a few different Android apps that are EZ Grader clones,

and the best one I've come across is called Boosed Grader. Boosed Grader is great because it's free, and has a very simple, minimal interface. If you use a Droid smartphone, I highly recommend this great app!

Boosed asks you simply to input the total amount of points in the assignment you are grading, and in turn gives you a list of the percentages given the number incorrect, just like EZ Grader. I like this tool because I always have my cell phone on me, while my EZ Grader is in my desk at work. Plus, I always love the price of free apps.

Our Finished Social Studies Fair Projects

Last month I posted about a project based learning research project that we do called the Social Studies Fair. Obviously this isn't a unique idea, as there are national social studies fair societies, and teachers all over the world have been doing these in different forms for many years.

In any case, I've spent a few years refining the requirements for the fair that we put on at my school, and you can access all of the documents and requirements by clicking the link that begins this post.

This post showcases some of the projects that were presented. I wanted to do something a little different and share some of the photos from our fair in an Animoto video (to learn more about Animoto, click HERE). It was a great social studies fair, the kids were proud to share their work, and I was genuinely impressed with the overall quality of the work presented.

My Thoughts on the Tragic Events of Today

Like everyone else, I was completely shocked and saddened by the events that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut this morning. Upon hearing of the events, I was in class with my 5th grade students. I immediately thought of the 500+ students that were attending class in my school, and how, as teachers and educational professionals, we are tasked with keeping these students safe (among the many other things we are responsible for).

But how do you keep things safe in the face of such evil actions? Are schools doing enough?

My school is what you might define as rural, but we're definitely not out in the middle of nowhere. We exist in the oldest area of a city with 100,000+ people living in it, but we are out in the quieter part of town. We've always taken our safety for granted, and have never had a major incident, like most schools in the country. The shootings that took place this morning are tragic, and shocking. Almost every person who comes to this blog is a teacher (or you're probably in the wrong place, I cater to and write directly for teachers), and one thing I know about teachers is that they love children, and would die for their students. Some of our own died today protecting their students, and are heroes for that.

The children who died today leave this earth never realizing their full potential, their little lives robbed from them.

Now, how do we proceed? Obviously students will be attending school on Monday all across the nation, and many of them will be in fear, fear that grows out of watching the news and hearing adults talk about the shootings at Sandy Hook. What is our job as teachers?

On Monday, I'll address school safety and our roles at schools on an "if it comes up" basis. If students enter the building scared, it will be addressed. You never can be too careful when your entire job revolves around the fact that you are a de facto guardian of other peoples children for 7 hours per day.

On a personal note, I feel so much pain for the parents, families, and surrounding community that felt the loss of those children and adults who died this morning. In the coming months, there will obviously be talks that center on the politics of gun control, school safety, and mental health services. I don't think the time for those talks is now. Now, it's time to mourn the loss. My two year old son is sitting next to me right now, and I can see my seven and ten year old sons sitting on the sofa in the next room, and I cannot fathom the pain that I would feel if they were taken from me.

My heart goes out to all affected.

My Oregon Trail Story of Survival and Daring on the Apple IIe

I sat down tonight to write a post with great materials for the unit we're currently doing in social studies. I got a few sentences in and realized it all seemed very familiar. So, I paused for a minute, and went digging into my blog archives, and found out fairly quickly why I was struck with this sudden sense of deja vu.

I already posted the entire unit, over three months ago. Yikes. I've officially reached the point where I can't remember what I've already done on this simple little blog of mine. I guess simple isn't the correct word. It's not exactly Wikipedia, but with over 110 posts, it's getting big for me.

In any case, what I wanted to share is a quick story, and a link to a great online game that kids love.


I grew up in the 80's and 90's. When I was in elementary school, we had a computer lab. We're specifically talking about 1989-1990 here, so it was a magical time before the internet, the era of the Apple IIe, the ones with the green only screens. The first computer game I had a chance to play, and master (or kill all of my friends through various ailments and injuries). Of course, I'm talking about the original Oregon Trail.

As a 3rd grader, I couldn't get enough, this game was fantastic. It was the right balance of strategy, trail riding, and friend bruising. We got graded based upon our performance. It was great, my first experience with digital learning.

Now, here we are, in 2012, in the middle of the golden age of the computer and internet. My students have access to the knowledge of the human race within the walls of my classroom, although they don't know that, all they care about is Youtube videos and Angry Birds... who am I kidding, that's all I care about as well. All joking aside, let's move this little story along.

I teach a unit on Westward Expansion each year around this time (you can find that unit HERE). We watch a great documentary about the Donner Party (check it out in that unit if you're interested), and they do a research project on some of the major trails that were used to make the journey west, as well as the Homestead Act, the California Gold Rush, and a few other major events/laws.

One thing seems to stick with them more than anything else every year I teach this unit. You see, on day two of the unit, I fire up the laptop and projector, and we play a game together. We play the original Oregon Trail. For the first ten minutes or so, the kids look at each other and giggle at how completely and totally honky tonk this game is. The graphics are ancient, the sound effects are ridiculous, in short, this is exactly the kind of game that students of today picture their parents playing when they were kids. But they sit and watch.  They see me enjoying the game, and laugh as I make a ridiculous epitaph on the gravestone of the first member of my party to die.

Finally, they get their own crack at this gem of a game. And without fail, they play this game during their free time for the rest of the school year. Right now, my students are literally begging me to play Oregon Trail.

So, how can you play Oregon Trail? The first way is to go buy an Apple IIe, hook it up, and go find a floppy disk (remember those?). If you don't want to do that, and trust me, YOU DON'T, there's an easier way.

Head to Virtual Apple, make sure your Java is updated, and enjoy the game right there in your browser.

You know you want to. Go ahead.

Our Finished American Revolution Video (A Masterpiece)

As I discussed in my plans for Social Studies Unit 3: The American Revolutionary Period, the entire unit revolves around a video that students work on that includes re-enactments of various major events from the American Revolution (click that link up there for more information). Well, the video is done. Now, a little disclaimer on this. The video making software I use is not free, and takes some technical know how to master (it's called CyberLink Power Director). I did most of the video editing on my more powerful desktop computer at home, and the student clips and sounds were all filmed on, believe it or not, my smartphone (sadly, it was my phones swan song, I went and got my new phone just a few days after we finished filming). The videos that I added in, and songs as well, were taken from Youtube. It's a grey area in my opinion, taking copyrighted material and using them in educational videos. It's a discussion I want to see out there more often, but in my own opinion, there's no profiting from the video, it's simply educational, and students loved this one.

I used a few websites to assist me here. For the songs I needed, I found them on Youtube, and converted them to mp3 using Youtube to Mp3. It goes without saying that I deleted these files when the video was completed.

Also, for the Youtube clips, I used KeepVid, a great tool that lets you download videos from Youtube in high quality.

Later this week, we have invited parents to join us for a showing of the video, which will be shown in the cafeteria on the big projector screen.

I wanted to show off this little gem here as well. I'm adding it here from my Google Drive, the file itself is a 1.3 gigabyte .mpg file, but it should stream. Check it out! Thanks go out to everyone who created the material we researched and borrowed from for this great learning experience.

Teaching Your Students Blooms Taxonomy: A Gateway to Projects Based Math

This past weekend, I attended a workshop run by a married couple that I consider great mentors of mine, they constantly challenge my thinking and inspire me to take my class to the next level.

To make a long story short, I've been racking my brain thinking about how to create effective project based learning opportunities in mathematics that wouldn't just throw students out there, but would give them the tools they need to succeed. I had thought and experimented with various ideas, and was met with failure each time (of course, as a teacher trying new things, failure is ok, but you just have to keep going). I was beginning to feel like I'd hit a brick wall, and then I got the inspiration I needed. It comes in two words, BLOOMS TAXONOMY.

No, the inspiration wasn't for me to go home and brush up on the levels... I mean domains, so I can better reflect on my instruction, the inspiration was to teach my students Blooms, and how to move through the levels... I mean domains, on their own, and create their own learning. I can take absolutely no credit for this, but am pretty excited about it.

I'm obviously at the beginning stages here, but the first step is, of course, to teach my students the levels... er, domains (sorry, I always forget to use the new terminology, it won't happen again). If you're old school (older than 25... years old, not years of experience) then you probably still remember the Blooms domains as knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation at the top. BUT, there's a new list, and I like it much better. The terminology is much more kid friendly, and... well I'll just show you:

There it is, the new domains up next to the old domains.

What I like is that I always thought creating should be at the top, because when students are able to create something new and original (in their own mind) from the knowledge you have given them, or the knowledge they have obtained on their own, that's about as good as it gets in this world. 

So, I'm at step one, sharing this with my students, and having them practice creating their own work climbing up what we'll call the Blooms Ladder. If you'd like to join me on my journey, download and give one of the following documents to your students. These are kid friendly definitions of the Blooms domains, both in .doc format. I have both:

OLD BLOOMS KID FRIENDLY DEFINITIONS

NEW BLOOMS KID FRIENDLY DEFINITIONS

Reading Interest Survey (Best Title I Could Think Of)

About four and a half years ago, I posted an interesting "Reading Interest Survey," a post that was titled Reading Interest Survey (I know, it was one of those interesting titles that just grabs your interest).

I was looking through some old posts, and decided I would take the survey again. This is one of many iterations of interest surveys that can be done with students to get some valuable, qualitative information that can help you better understand the needs, wants, and learning styles of your students.

Here are my responses. You can also click the link I have provided to be taken to a .doc version of these questions that is ready for printing: READING INTEREST SURVEY .DOC FORMAT

1. Do you like to read? I enjoy reading very much. I don't read as much for pleasure as I would like, especially during the school year, but during vacations I end up reading quite a bit.

2. How much time do you spend reading? During the school year, not much. In fact, I'll sometimes find myself going months without reading for pleasure. When I find something I'm interested in, and have time, I'll read an entire book in one sitting.

3. What are some of the books you have read lately? I just finished reading The City of Ember to my students, and we are currently reading Holes. Personally, I am working on Lucifer's Hammer, an old sci-fi classic. I'm looking for some zombie stuff so I can get back into that genre.

4. If you are going to buy a book, where would you go? My personal favorite is the used book store here in Las Cruces called Coas. It's a huge used book store that takes trade ins for credit. I can go in there and buy a basket full of books for a few dollars.

5. Do you ever get books from the school library? I'm a teacher, so yes. Usually not books for reading, but instead I usually check out books to assist with research in the classroom.

6. About how many books do you own? I have about 250 books at home, and about 600 on my shelf at school (not counting all the textbooks/dictionaries/etc.).

7. What are some books you would like to own? I REALLY want to get my hands on the entire collection of The Walking Dead comics.

8. The kind of reading I like best: Zombies, history, science fiction.

9. Do you like to read the news, either online or in the newspaper? Yes, I usually read the news either on my cell phone or on my tablet. There's a free local newspaper called the Bulletin that I like to read as well.

10. What parts of the newspaper do you like? Columnists, headlines, sports, comic strips, politics, current events, and editorials

11. What are your favorite television programs? The Walking Dead (I bet you didn't see that coming), Jeopardy, King of the Hill, Open Court, Breaking Bad.

12. How much time do you spend watching television? During the school year, probably 2-3 hours a night, during the summer, probably a lot more than that.

13. What is your favorite magazine? Wired

14. Do you have a hobby? If so, what is it? Yes, reading.

15. What are the two best movies you have ever seen? The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Inception.

16. Who are your favorite entertainers and/or movie stars? Matt Damon movies are always awesome, Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio makes good movies, and believe it or not, Brad Pitt, his movies are always good.

17. When you were little, did you enjoy having someone read aloud to you? Yes, I did. I still do.

18. List topics, subjects, etc. which you might like to read about: Zombie fiction, I love the stuff and can't find it. The Holocaust, I am immersed in the genre, and am always trying to find more.

19. What does the word 'reading' mean to you? Reading means interacting with language without speaking, with written words. That's the simple definition I guess.

20. Say anything else that you would like to say about reading: Reading opens door, it changes world views, and it has the power to shape lives.

New Mexico SBA 2012-2013 Testing Dates

I've recently started getting inquires from teachers here in New Mexico about the dates for the standards based assessment (once called the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment, or NMSBA, and now referred to as the SBA, until they change it again next year, and probably the year after that).

Like anything else that involves a states Public Education Department, it's not simple, and in this case, the state has provided a window in which districts can set their own schedule. So, for New Mexico's 2012-2013 Standards Based Assessment, the window is from March 18 - April 5. I grabbed this information from this memorandum posted on the New Mexico PED website.

In Las Cruces, I've seen the schedule in a few different places, so I don't think it's a secret, the dates as I've seen them are March 18 - March 21. I know this might differ not only from district to district, but from school to school in some cases.

In any case, it'll be here before you know it. Now, if you're in a state other than my home state, and you're having trouble finding the information for testing in your area, just let me know and I'll try to hunt it down for you.

5th Grade Social Studies Fair Projects: A Great Presentation Based Project

Next up in a growing line of project based research and presentations that are based around social studies will be the schools 5th grade Social Studies Fair. I've been doing the social studies fair for my entire career, and this is the first year that my colleagues in 5th grade will be joining me for this great project.

We've already done two presentation based projects this year, the 50 States Presentation, and the just finished Famous Individual Presentation. Both projects involve a ton of research and synthesis, and the major burden of work and learning on these projects falls on the shoulders of the students. These are great because while I consider them "social studies," they involve reading and writing, and are multi-disciplinary to the point that I had students working on them at all different times during the school day.

I am again going to ask students to cite sources and complete a bibliography in the APA format. I had a few parents who looked at me like I was crazy when I told them that their children would be completing APA reference pages, but they have done them, and done them correctly, so we're moving forward. I have already posted some great Research Project Resources that can get any teacher started with having students research appropriately and go the extra mile in documenting their research in any area.

This project mimics the presentations that students all over the world do for Science Fairs. Students will be purchasing a science tri-fold board, and either working alone or with a partner to complete their project board.

This project was left pretty open ended. First, I explained the emphasis of this project, either history, culture, invention, geography, or ideas. Students were not allowed to do a state, the cultures we have already studied, or any famous individual that was researched for the last project. Topics range from the history and evolution of computers to research about Pearl Harbor. I make it a point to push students in the direction of topics that aren't too broad, but not too obscure, they need to be able to find sources out there.

When the day comes for the presentations, students will be setting up, again in Science Fair format. We'll set up all the poster boards, and will invite guest to join us. Other classes from the school, parents, the community, and dignitaries will be invited to view their great work. Each student or pair of students will create some note cards to guide them in the presentations they will be making numerous times on the day of the Social Studies Fair.

I have included photos of two poster boards done last year. I will post some of the ones that will be done this year (we just began work today), they should be a little more in depth than what I had my students do in previous years.

 



Finally (and what 99% of you are here for), I have the documents for download:

SOCIAL STUDIES FAIR PROJECT (pdf): This document is what we're using. If you like what you see, I recommend downloading all of these documents in the zip file below so that you can modify it in any way you see fit.

SOCIAL STUDIES FAIR PROJECT ZIP FILE (this file contains all the pages of the above pdf in .doc format.

Please check back around the second week of December when I will post some of the students finished work and pictures from the social studies fair.

Polygon Practice Mega .pdf Document of Great Practice Pages for 5th Graders

I recently published 5th grade math unit 3: Area, Perimeter, Volume, Prisms, Pyramids, Polygons, and Circles. It's a huge unit that involves a lot of vocabulary and targeted skill practice. You can see that unit listed in my Math 9 Week Plans, in its own Unit Page, and in the more popular post titled 5th Grade Math Unit: Area, Perimeter, Volume of Prisms and Pyramids, Polygons and Circles.

I scoured the internet over the last couple of evenings, downloading pdf documents of practice pages that could meet my students needs. Currently, we're working on getting the vocabulary up for unit 3, and it's a huge task that involves over 30 definitions that are necessary for understanding and success in these skills.

I took the best of what I found in freely available online pdf documents and created a mega document that is 49 pages long and 1.4 megabytes in size. It's the practice pages that I'm intending on using during these upcoming weeks, and I believe that it could be of service to any teacher teaching these skills.

To download the document, which is available through my Google Drive, click:

POLYGONS MEGA DOCUMENT DOWNLOAD (pdf)

5th Grade Math Unit: Area, Perimeter, Volume of Prisms and Pyramids, Polygons and Circles

5th grade math unit 3 (which you can see listed in my subject specific page for MATH) is a huge unit. It covers area and perimeter, the volume of rectangular prisms and pyramids, polygons up to ten sides, and circles. The main bits of this unit get down to the vocabulary, practical application of the necessary formulas, and conceptual understanding of each concept.

The unit is available at its own page HERE, and is also posted here in its entirety. So without further delay:

5th Grade Mathematics Unit 3 is all about 3-Dimensional Geometry, including Area, Perimeter, Volume, Attributes of Polygons up to 10 sides, Circles, and Parallel / Perpendicular Lines. It's a big unit, but we always manage to pull it off with pretty good results. So let's get right to it!

Unit 3 is split into three portions:

UNIT 3.1: AREA & PERIMETER

The first portion of this unit is very simple, it's all about area and perimeter. We spend the majority of the time doing area and perimeter of quadrilaterals (especially area), but it's also a good opportunity to refine measuring skills by going outside, in the hallway, or measuring the classroom.

The assessment that I use for this cycle of instruction is very simple, and can be found HERE.

The PDSA (again, it stands for Plan/Do/Study/Act, and is the current form of lesson planning that my school does) can be found HERE.

Now that the nuts and bolts are out of the way, I'm going to list some great online resources that could help any teacher out in the classroom when teaching area and perimeter:

First off, I have already done a fairly lengthy post on Area & Perimeter, titled Area & Perimeter Teacher Resources: Worksheets, Games, and Activities.

• Interactive Shape Explorer: A Java based activity that can range from very easy to quite difficult. 
• Area & Perimeter Formulas: I'm printing this out and will use it with my more advanced students to study formulas and their relation to geometry.
• PBS Kids Cyberchase Airline Builder: An interactive game involving area and perimeter. 

And to repeat some of what I've already posted:

BEGIN THE UNIT WITH AN EXPLANATION:

• Perimeter and Area Visual Explanation: An Adobe Shockwave presentation that introduces the unit. Smartboard friendly.

ACTIVITIES:

• Interactive Shape Explorer: A nice interactive where students find the perimeter and area of various, randomly generated regular and non-regular polygons on a grid. Optionally, the teacher can ask students to copy the shapes on graph paper and solve there.
• The most simple classroom activity is to have students measure the dimensions of the classroom, a chalkboard, the hallways, their desk, etc. Then use those dimensions to find perimeter and area (and later on, volume). 
• Everything You Wanted to Know About Perimeter and Area: Go to pretty much any resource listing on perimeter and area activities, and you'll probably find a link to this one. There's a reason for it, it's simple and effective. It's Smartboard/projector friendly for whole class, and teaches as it goes.

GAMES:

• Cyberchase Airline Builder: An online game where students must use the given amount of sticks to create different polygons. 
• Zoo Designer: I wasn't impressed with this game at first glance, but played it for a few minutes and actually see some value in using this in class. This one is also web based.
• Real Estate and Perimeter Game: I found that at the blog Homeschool Parent. It's a good idea for a very effective in class perimeter or area game. I'll be using this, my students always enjoy the partner games.

WORKSHEETS:

• A to Z Teacher Stuff Area & Perimeter Worksheets and Printables: Decent, but not very difficult, worksheets to use in class. A good starting point.
• The Grid Game: This is a 4 page printable, I will be using the last page (the grid game), and possibly the page before it (perimeter patterns).
• Worksheet Works.com Worksheet Designer: A nice, easy to use tool that gives you worksheets in pdf format based on your needs.
• Large Worksheet Packet: What I like about this packet is it has a table at the beginning that names many types of triangles and quadrilaterals. If anything, I'll be using that first page.
• Free Math Worksheets: A decent page with some good worksheets in a lot of different skills. 
• Measuring Perimeter & Area: An adapted worksheet packet that has some good skill building activities within a pdf document.
• Math-Aids Perimeter and Area Worksheets: A good site with various worksheets, fully customizable before printing.
• Illuminations site: There is a worksheet about finding perimeter and area, and an online geoboard.
• A full supplement pdf from Bridges for Mathematics. There's good information here if you have no curriculum to start with.

UNIT 3.2: VOLUME OF RECTANGULAR PRISMS & PYRAMIDS

I've always enjoyed teaching volume, because it just makes perfect sense right after teaching area, and it's fun and the students usually enjoy the process.

Let's get started with the assessment, which can be accessed HERE (you'll need to download it to see the attached images, they don't seem to show up in the Google Doc preview), and the PDSA, which can be accessed HERE.

First, I'm going to list some basic volume of rectangular prism (and just general volume) links:

• A great interactive lesson for volume: Has instant feedback, and it's very clean looking.
• Math Illuminations Interactive Cube Builder: I love this interactive because it lays the cubes out flat (something that I've seen referred to as a "net"), which is also how we practice this in class, by building boxes and filling them with cubes. 
• A simple pdf poster from Scholastic on volume
• Interactive Formula Teacher: It's good stuff

Now, my favorite volume activities include making cubic units. I usually have my class use rulers to make a cubic foot, yard sticks to make a cubic yard, etc. I'm not even going to show a picture here, because all you do is use the given unit to make a cube. It's pretty cool and effective.

It's also important that students know how to use the units. I count off if students don't label units, and don't use them appropriately. I teach my students very simply that for a unit to be squared, it has to involve 2 dimensions, cubed involves 3. Here's a simple visual:

I also think it's important to expand and reinforce these concepts when applicable. My students always enjoy the EXPONENTIAL GROWTH activity, where we build some cubes, starting with a 2x2x2, going to a 4x4x4, then an 8x8x8, it looks like this:

Now on to the more difficult volume of pyramids:

It's actually very simple to find the volume of a rectangular pyramid. First, take the three measurements (length, width, height), and multiply. Now here's the catch: divide your answer by 3. That's it. The majority of the work here is getting students to understanding this 3:1 relationship, and practice it.

• A pdf document of a pyramid you can have students cut out and use to show the 3:1 relationship.
• Simple Explanation of the v=(l x w x h) / 3 formula (aaamath.com).
• Worksheet Works customizable worksheets on volume, area & perimeter.
• Various worksheets on volume at mathworksheets4kids.com

In my opinion, these first two sections of the unit go hand in hand, and are fairly simple for 5th graders to get once they grasp the concept. And the concept is important, let them experiment with 3D shapes (make them out of paper and fill them up with sand or rice). These are more or less developmentally appropriate skills for the vast majority of kids at this age level. 

Now, we move on to the final portion of this section on volume of pyramids, where we discuss the attributes of three-dimensional shapes, including vertices, faces, and edges. 

We're basically talking about vocabulary for this final section, so that's how I approach it. Let's move right into it:

• Geometry attribute vocabulary cards at Quizlet: A great starting place to get ideas or have kids practice for reinforcement.
• A great online resource that is clickable and shows the vocabulary: Good for Smartboards.
• A GREAT resource at Teaching Ideas: Posters for the shapes and attributes, and great downloadable resources. 
• Primary Resources has this page of TONS of great resources, including this properties page I'll be using.

So now we come to the finale of this lengthy unit, a set of lessons on polygons (up to 10 sides), and circles. The circles part especially tends to rock the kids around for a bit. 

UNIT 3.3: POLYGONS UP TO TEN SIDES & CIRCLES

Here we go, let's get started with the assessment HERE and the PDSA HERE.

First we'll deal with the polygons, because again, it comes down to vocabulary and practice (i.e. memorization and matching):

• A page with enough information about polygons to get any teacher started. Go here and grab the definitions you need to move forward. 
• Polygon Names: It is what it says it is.
• Polygons: Regular vs. Irregular.
• Some decent naming polygons worksheets (with some other stuff that would be review at this point).
• Another worksheet, this one about regular vs. irregular polygons.

OK, now we finally come full... circle (haha... nevermind). Anyways, students will learn radius, diameter, circumference (and all applicable formulas), as well as the value of pi to two places. 

The pi part again comes down to repetition and memorization. So, I came up with the now irreverent "PI MONKEY," a mainstay in my classroom. He hangs up near the front door, beckoning to the students each time they walk out the door:

Now that pi monkey has done his job, it's time to teach some circles!:

• Definitions at Coolmath.com: You need these, they get it all started. Students can review right here on the page.
• A great PowerPoint from Mr. Lovett on Wikispaces about circles.
• Some Visual Aides at Mathworksheetsgo.com.

Remember that circumference is simply pi multiplied by the diameter (or pi multiplied by the radius x 2): It looks like: C= pi x d  OR C= pi x (r x 2). It's fairly straight forward. 

OK, we've reached the end, FINALLY. Now that we're here, it's time for the big unit test. You can grab that HERE.

5th Grade Colonial Life Classroom Book Project

Unit 2 in our 5th grade social studies (which covers basically all of American history, as you can see in the 9 week plans HERE) is titled The Discovery and Founding of North America. It is a fairly quick unit, because I like to spend a lot of time researching the American Revolutionary War era, so I have to borrow time from other places. In the unit, I reference a classroom project called Colonial Living, a research book that the class collaborates on.

Student research took place in groups, and covered the following topics:

• Colonial Towns: Buildings, layout, variety of towns, defenses.
• Journey by Sea: How the colonists / pilgrims reached the America's, including challenges, living conditions, etc.
• The 13 Colonies: A quick research on the original colonies, including founding dates, and a map of the original 13.
• Crime & Punishment: The crimes that were most common, and their punishments.
• Native Tribes: A quick research on the native tribes of the area, and their interactions with the colonists.
• Religion in the Colonies: How religion influenced life and politics in the colonies. Also, what religion meant on a day-by-day basis to the colonists.
• Colonial Food: How they grew food, and what the typical colonial meal looked like.
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke: This topic fascinates many students, so I have a group take a look at its history and present some pages on it.

It was a frantic week of research and producing work. I would like to point out that it's not always about producing a fantastic, amazing work. In this case, the book came out pretty well, but some students are great artists, others not so much. There was a lot of variety in the book, and it's gotten a good response from passers by. The images below show some of the finished book. It's a great project, simple, easy, and it really promotes group synergy and team work:

This first image shows our book hanging out in the hallway by a lanyard that I looped around a metal brad. It's a simple setup, but it works. 

A closeup of the cover of the book. It was "laminated" using tape.

The rest of these pictures show various pages from the book. Click any photo to view it larger:

 

 

 

The Giver End of Book Collaboration Project Completed

A few weeks ago my class completed their end of book collaboration projects based on the Lois Lowry book The Giver. The Giver End of Book Collaboration Project is a class project I came up with to get students working together to produce different products that show their understanding of this fantastic book. You can also download the project specifications in pdf format HERE.

I took some pictures of the things that I decided to hang up on one of our bulletin boards in the classroom:


The first two images show the bulletin board in its entirety:

These next two images show some of the art work close up.

These last two images show the triorama timeline that was made.

Bullying: My Perspective (As A Teacher)

I'm not sure if bullying is worse today than it was when I was a kid, or if it's just the flavor of the month in the media. What I do know is that the technologies that many students have access today (mainly social media) make bullying much easier and in your face. 

I try hard to teach my students respect and empathy. It's not always easy, and I can honestly say that over the last four years, I've seen a troubling trend of students coming into 5th grade increasingly unable to interact with their peers in a socially acceptable manner. I spend a lot of time talking about how they need to stop tattling on one another, stop whining at one another, and learn to work productively and cooperatively, and it's time consuming. It's October 13th as I write this, and yesterday we completed the 38th day of this school year, and I've just recently started to see improvements in how they relate to one another.

Yes, it's tough work, but that's not really what I'm writing about here. I wanted to talk about bullying. Bullying has always been a problem in schools. I remember being both bully (one time for about a month when I was a 4th grader), and bullied (on and off for years). I was one of the lucky ones, because I was always big for my age. I was a nerdier type of kid, so I took a lot of flak for that, but I also could stand up for myself.

These days, I see bullying as being much more personal, vicious, and non-relenting. 

I want to make one thing very clear. In my opinion, no child should have a Facebook account. I think this serves almost no good purpose in 90% of the cases. Yes, there are those rare cases where the child might use the account to send photos and things like that to relatives that are far away, but that's a pretty lame excuse, they can always just use a parents account.

I've personally turned in at least ten children with underage accounts and have seen Facebook promptly delete those accounts. I didn't do this because I'm a mean old man, I did this because, in each of those cases, there was bullying happening online, or cyber bullying.

Next, I believe that a lot of the bullying starts in the home environment. I definitely don't play the blame game, I am disgusted when parents point their fingers at teachers and schools when their children are the perpetrators. Don't get me wrong, I believe that it's the schools job to keep its students safe, but in almost all the cases I've seen of bullying, the bully usually has a home life where the proper boundaries aren't set, punishments aren't being utilized effectively (or at all), and discussions about proper behavior aren't happening. Sadly, these are the same parents who, all too often, point their fingers at society, and it makes me sick.

This doesn't allow schools to wipe their hands of the issue and just say "oh well, bad parenting." No, we're stuck with the problem. When parents don't do their jobs, it makes the job of a teacher much MUCH more difficult, but it doesn't absolve them of their responsibility to children, all children, even the bully. 

Bullying is a societal problem, and it's gotten worse over the years. Not a week goes by anymore where you don't read about a teenager who was bullied to the point of suicide. No matter what your personal thoughts and beliefs are about this, you can't argue that this isn't tragic. Teens being bullied for looking different, being different, or even just "because." It's one of the major problems that plagues society today. People don't know how to treat people anymore.

Even when I go out into public, I see these behaviors. People at Wal Mart pushing through one another, yelling at one another, fighting with one another. People in their cars acting aggressively towards one another. I don't want to blame society or the media, although they do play their part. It all comes down to parenting, or the lack thereof. 

I can tell you with 100% certainty that any time I've had a student come into my classroom unprepared to learn or interact with their peers, I can eventually trace these behaviors back to parenting. I do feel that the schools can do more, but if parents are not stepping up, it's a losing battle. 

I could sit here and continue to type for awhile, but you surely understand my views on this by now. Yes, it takes a village to raise a child. Yes, we all have a responsibility to the future, especially those of us in education, it's the essence of our jobs. BUT, parents are the front lines, they spend the majority of time with these children. Behaviors are a by product of environment. If school really played a big part in this, then most students would sit at home everyday studying their spelling, doing math, lining up for the restroom, and saying the pledge each morning after breakfast. But instead, they come to school tired (for lack of sleep), without their homework (because nobody offered to even so much as help), hungry (because they didn't eat the night before), and starved for attention (because nobody gave it to them at home). Yes, we have a problem, and yes it's getting worse.

How do we fix the problem? It's not an easy one, because our society is breaking. I read articles everyday about parents who spend more time on their phones than with their kids, or playing video games than with their kids, or out partying than with their kids. These are the same parents who ask the schools and society to do more and more for them. Well this teacher is standing up and saying ENOUGH, GROW UP!

My 100th Post

This is my 100th post on this blog, a minor milestone. Aside from those 100 posts, I also have created 32 static pages, which now span two different blogs (I had to creatively work around the 25 static page limit per blog and create a second, nearly identical blog to continue these pages).

Over the first 100 posts, I am proud to say that I've had many teachers who have taken the materials posted and used them in their classrooms. My goal as a teacher is to reach my students and give them opportunities to love learning and take control of their own education. By sharing my ideas, and the great ideas of others, on these pages, it is my hope that other teachers can reach their students and see them learn independently, and challenge themselves.

My philosophy behind this blog is to offer free items to teachers in the upper elementary grades. All too often, these grades get ignored. Much of what comes into elementary schools is meant for the primary grades, and the intermediate (3-5 grades) teachers are asked to adapt  resources to their students. I don't accept that, it's a cop out and a reason not to go the extra mile. I work to hunt down (or make) resources that are intended for this age group.

And finally, it's all about free. Teachers Pay Teachers is a great site because it allows teachers to make a little extra money for their ideas, but I'm not about that. I believe that my ideas should be freely shared, education isn't about profit, it's about learning, and I'm glad to see that there are so many out there who agree with this. So, thanks for coming, thanks for reading, and here's to another 100 posts!

5th Grade Social Studies Unit 2: Discovery and Founding of North America (Colonists)

5th grade Social Studies unit 2 is about the early American colonists and pilgrims. This unit focuses on the journey, hardships, and early society that was developed when founding the initial colonies in America. This unit is listed in my Social Studies 9 Week Plans page, and has its own Unit Page. For convenience purposes, I will post the entire text of that unit here as well:

Unit 2 of 5th grade social studies covers the discovery and founding of America, focusing heavily on the colonists and pilgrims.

For me, time is usually a focus on this unit, because I like to spend more time on the American Revolution, and the 19th and 20th centuries.

With that in mind, I provide three days of instruction on the front end, familiarizing students with the topics and major events of this time period, then I hand over the learning to my students for some project based research.

The project students work on for this unit is a whole class collaboration that is presented in book form and titled "Colonial Life." The project is done in pairs, with each group preparing two pages "textbook style" on their topic.

What I mean by textbook style is a stylized presentation like that of most textbooks, in which the content, photos, illustrations, graphs, etc. all exist in the pages together.

I do not write up any student information handout for this, and they are graded on the simple research rubric that we utilize throughout the year (access the simple research rubric in either .pdf and .doc format).

The topics that students cover in their research include:

• Colonial Towns: Buildings, layout, variety of towns, defenses.
• Journey by Sea: How the colonists / pilgrims reached the America's, including challenges, living conditions, etc.
• The 13 Colonies: A quick research on the original colonies, including founding dates, and a map of the original 13.
• Crime & Punishment: The crimes that were most common, and their punishments.
• Native Tribes: A quick research on the native tribes of the area, and their interactions with the colonists.
• Religion in the Colonies: How religion influenced life and politics in the colonies. Also, what religion meant on a day-by-day basis to the colonists.
• Colonial Food: How they grew food, and what the typical colonial meal looked like.
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke: This topic fascinates many students, so I have a group take a look at its history and present some pages on it.

I'm going to present a few links to assist teachers and students alike in research or teaching of the colonial era of American history:

• America 1607: Jamestown Interactive: This fantastic interactive map on the National Geographic site, which is a companion piece to a feature the magazine did on Jamestown in 2007 titled America, Lost and Found, is the best place to start if you want students to learn about how the first colonies were built, and the challenges they faced early on.
• Colonial Williamsburg: The site is full of resource and catchy visuals, including a tour of the town, period specific recipes, and a kids zone.
• Interactive Map of the 13 Colonies: Each colony is clickable and provides more information.
• Tour the Mayflower: This site, hosted by Scholastic, is another great visual with easy to grasp information.
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke: Start with Discovering the Lost Colony, and show the Lost Colony of Roanoke. 

Finally, watch these videos in succession. These are taken from the America: The Story of Us documentary series.

Again, we normally pace this unit fairly quickly. Each group of students is responsible for a two page contribution to our "Colonial Life" book. Finally, if you like how your books turn out, head over to Student Treasures, and order a few free publishing kits. This company will make a free classroom hardbound copy of the book, and your only obligation is to send home a letter to your parents asking them to buy a copy of the classroom book. There are no buying requirements, and the classroom hardbound copy is free regardless of how many parents order. It's a great opportunity that we'll be taking advantage of.

5th Grade Teacher Simple Research Project Resources

I expect my 5th grade students to be able to produce on topic, appropriate, properly cited research early on in the school year.

Yes, I know that there are many college students who can't do this, but that's not really my problem, or yours. When you get right down to it, research really isn't that difficult, it's just another process to teach and practice until it gets done correctly.

The type of research I'm talking about here is non-scientific, I'm talking about basic research on a topic in social studies, literature, etc. It's all about gathering information, deciding what's important, and presenting that information in an efficient manner.

The following documents are for any teacher who is ready to get their students researching: 

• SIMPLE RESEARCH RUBRIC (pdf or doc): This rubric is good for pretty much any type of topic research. 
• BIBLIOGRAPHY CARDS (pdf or doc): These cards are great for teaching students how to track their sources and how to cite them in a proper APA style bibliography. I've seen graduate students not know how to do this, but it's ok, 5th graders can, you just have to demand that they do it.
• BIOGRAPHY HELP PAGES (pdf or doc): I've previously shared this packet in my Famous Individual Project post. This can come in handy to anyone doing any type of biographical research.
• STUDY SKILLS ACTIVITY BOOK: NOTE TAKING (pdf): I also shared this source in my Famous Individual Project post. It's a great packet of activities that help students learn how to find and pull sources, what is important and not important, and how to cite different sources. This is seriously a gold mine!

You are free to take these documents and change them for your own needs (with the exception of the study skills book, that one isn't mine). Just remember, it's all free, and should remain as such.

An Open Letter From A Teacher To All Parents of Students

**Note: This blog is no secret, and I openly sign my name to it. Many of my students and parents know about it and follow it, to keep up with classroom happenings. This letter is not personal in nature, and simply discusses what I see and believe in general towards parents of school children all over the nation. I love my job, I care deeply about my students, and I work hard to earn and keep the respect of their parents. For a child to be successful in school, it involves a partnership between the school system (mostly teachers and administrators) and parents. I've been wanting to write this letter for a long time, and these are thoughts and ideals I've held for my entire career, they're not related to a single student or parent, but an overall reaction to what I see in the media, what I hear on the national stage, and what I believe**


Dear Parents,

On the first day of school, I did some math with my new students. We took the amount of hours in a year (8760) and subtracted the amount of hours an average child sleeps during a year (we came up with 8 hours per night, for a total of 2920 hours). What we discovered is that the average child is awake for 5840 hours in a year. Of these 5840 hours, children at my school spend 1125 hours in school. I took these two numbers and did a mini-math lesson with the class. What we discovered is that children at my school spend 19% of their waking lives in school during a year.

19%, that's the time that a teacher has with children. Of course, we had to calculate in lunch and recess (40 minutes per day, which adds up to 115 hours per school year), the time that they spend at special classes like PE, Art, and Music (135 hours per school year), and time we spend doing non-classroom related things, like restroom breaks and cleaning up at the end of the day (we came up with 15 minutes per day, which is 43 hours). Take all of this together, and the time I actually have to instruct my students in a given school year is 832 hours.

832 hours. That's exactly 14% of their given waking hours.

Let's think a little more about this. If they're at school for 19% of their waking hours, that means they're with you for the majority of that remaining 81%.

Let's be honest with ourselves here. Your impact on your child far outweighs mine. If your child is a success in life, it's going to be because of you. If they fall short, and things don't go as planned, it's (trust me on this), also going to be on you.

My job as a teacher is to help you out. I want to do this job. I signed up for it knowing that it would be difficult. I went through years of preparation, knowing that this job is a thankless one, full of hard days and a stressful existence. And yes, I am smart enough that I could have majored in something else. I chose this job for a reason, just like the engineer and the doctor chose theirs.

We live in a day and age where more and more children are coming to school unprepared, unmotivated to learn, or have no idea how to act in a public place. These things make my job much more difficult, but I still come to work every day, to teach your child.

You need to know that I want your help. I need your help. If you look at school as just a place to send your child while you go to work, then alright, I'll still do my best, but if you aren't following through on your child's education, how is that my fault? I can't move mountains if you don't care. If you do care, and you do follow through, my job with your child is so easy that I don't really have to do much other than provide a challenge. Just for the record, teachers like the latter kind of parents a lot better (but don't tell anyone, it's kind of a secret).

I'm a pretty good teacher. I know what I'm doing. I knew a lot about your child just a few days into the school year. I know about their reading level, math level, I know how they learn, how they don't learn, and how long they can sit still. By October, I know at what time they're going to ask me to go to the restroom, I know if they come to school when they're a little sick, or if they ask to stay home for any reason. I also know if you're the type of parent who asks your child to tough it out and go to school, or if you're the type of parent that allows your child to stay home for any reason (some teachers might call that parent a pushover, but not me, I'm a nice guy).

There's a few things I wish all parents would do, including:

• Be consistent, if you make a promise to your child, keep it. If you promise a punishment for wrong doing, follow through.
• Never let your child have control over you. You're the adult, they need you to be in control and to look out for their best interests.
• Take their education seriously. This is the primary tool for people who are successful in life. Education is the key to a better life, you can't argue this, it's simply the truth.
• Want more for your children than you have. Even if you're Bill Gates. Work hard to make sure they get it, but ultimately, demand that they work hard. 
• Never, EVER, accept anything but their absolute best. Parents who make excuses for their children are the ultimate reason that those children sometimes don't live up to expectations.

Just remember parents, I'm here to help you. I'm not in this job for a power trip, because trust me, there's not a lot of gratification that comes with having control over a classroom full of young people. I know that children make mistakes, they're still learning how to act. It's our job to make sure they grow up the right way. I'll do my best with my 14%, but what will you do with your 81%? 

Finally, don't blame me. If your child is failing, trust me here, it's not my fault. To blame me and my 14% while ignoring yourself and your 81% is ridiculous. So stop making excuses, get up, and let's get this thing right. No child is broken, if they're not living up to what you want for them, fix it now before it really is too late. If your child is a success and is doing great, don't pat me on the back. I didn't do this, you did. I'm just helping your child reach their fullest potential.

Parents, it's time for us to work together. You know where my office is. It's also your child's office. I hope to see you there soon. My door is always open.

Signed,

Mr. B

Famous Individual Project: A Great 5th Grade Research Project With Tons of Activities and Rubrics

Recently, our students in 5th grade completed their first oral project presentation of the year, presenting their individual state posters, the project they did in the 50 states unit,

in front of other students. We asked students to dress for the occasion, and graded them on everything from their posture, the volume of their voice, and the way they dressed. This ended up being a great experience, and we've decided to build on that during the school year.

Next up, we will be doing a Famous Individual project. In this project, students will be completing research on a famous individual of great character. They will be analyzing their individual according to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a program that my school began following this year. Below you will be shown the requirements for this project, including links to all necessary forms. To download everything in one packet, click here:

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE FAMOUS INDIVIDUAL PROJECT IN PDF FORMAT HERE

This project will ask students to:

• Choose a famous individual, either living or dead, who is not fictional. Once they have chosen their famous individual, they must complete the Justification Page to explain why they believe their individual showed good character and lived a life that benefited others. 
• Once the students has successfully justified why they have chosen an appropriate person for this project, they will begin research. Students will be taught how to properly cite sources and create a bibliography (this is a big step for 5th graders, but they can do it). First students will learn how to take notes and keep track of sources. I came across a great packet online to help with Note Taking that I will be utilizing. They will use the blank bibliography cards to cite sources, and then will be given the biography outline packet, which will guide their research. Students research papers will be scored based upon the 5th grade research paper rubric.
• Next, students will be creating a computer based presentation that will supplement the speech they will be giving. We will be doing these presentations in the computer lab with the assistance of our schools computer lab instructor. They will be scored on their computer presentation based on the computer presentation scoring rubric.
• Finally, in the final step of this project, students will create a short speech to go with their computer presentation, and they will be presenting these projects before other students, parents, and community members. The speeches will focus on the character of their person, their major accomplishments, and how they fit the 7 Habits. The speech will be scored based on the oral presentation scoring rubric. 

I am very excited to see our students continue to step up. They did a great job on the 50 state projects (as you can see HERE), and I expect great results on this project. 

I have all of these forms available in Microsoft Word format, if you would like any of them, please let me know and I'll get them to you. As always, this is available freely, I believe that teachers should share our resources with one another free of cost if at all possible, and will continue to share everything I make without cost to anyone.

5th Grade Math Unit 2: Place Value From Billions to Thousandths, Notations, Comparing, Ordering, Adding, and Subtracting Decimals

I recently finished and posted to my static pages Math Unit 2: Place Value, Notations, and Decimals. This unit is part of my years worth of math units, which can also be accessed from my Math 9 Week Plans page.

In the spirit of convenience, I will also include the exact text of this unit here as a post in the main posts page of my blog. I hope that you can find this helpful:



5th grade Math Unit 2 involves place value from thousandths to billions, comparing and ordering numbers from thousandths to billions, and finally, adding and subtracting decimals.

The all encompassing, end of unit assessment can be downloaded in .doc format HERE to get you started.

These concepts are important to future success in math, and are taught in three parts so that the concepts scaffold onto one another as we go. This unit comes after a large numbers and operations unit that we started the year with, one in which students identified factors and multiples, worked with prime factorization, and finally refined skills in multiplication and division.

The unit is split into its three parts here, with all necessary exams and paperwork attached:

Unit 2.1: PLACE VALUE FROM THOUSANDTHS TO BILLIONS

It's important that students have an understanding of very large and very small numbers in the 5th grade. So we start by working on place value. Place value is a good place to start because it comes down to practice, repetition, and memorization of the place values.

The PDSA that accompanies unit 2.1 can be downloaded HERE.
The Unit 2.1 Assessment can be downloaded HERE. (I should mention right here that most of the assessments I have are also available in Spanish. Just let me know if you're interested).

By applying backwards design to this portion of Unit 2, the assessment shows a need for knowledge in: expanded notation, written notation, standard notation, and place value.

Activities to meet these needs are listed below:

First, I highly recommend a great activity called Place Value Cups. I originally came across this activity on a blog titled Look+Listen=Learn. By making these cups, students are given multiple opportunities to practice place value and expanded notation at the same time. It's a great activity, and I'm excited to see the difference it can make with students who struggle with this concept.

Teaching place value and the different notations is actually quite different than a lot of mathematical concepts. By this age, it should be more refinement and scaffolding than outright teaching. Let's be honest, if a child reaches 5th grade and has no understanding of place value, they've probably never been instructed before, or had some flat out awful teachers in the past, because it's integral to 3rd and 4th grades. I've found that students benefit more from practice practice practice than anything else. So while using the place value cups, I also refine the concept of how to say numbers.

Saying numbers aloud, especially larger numbers and numbers with decimals in them, can be daunting for the struggling math student. When I say "saying numbers aloud," I'm also teaching expanded notation. I like to rely on comma naming to give students a chance to know how to say numbers possibly before they conceptually understand big numbers (millions and beyond).

I teach students that the first comma is called thousand, the second is called million, and the third is called billion. We practice this in class. Then, we practice saying numbers with comma names. The great thing about this is that students never have to actually say a number larger than hundreds. Here's an example:

324,783,013.... The student would first say three hundred twenty four. This is simple, it's a concept that has been mastered by the vast majority of 5th graders years ago. Then it's a matter of naming that comma. It's the third comma we're looking at, and its name is billion. So, three hundred twenty four billion... Then the student would continue on... seven hundred eighty three, this time it's the second comma, million... seven hundred eighty three mission... thirteen. And that's the end of that. It really helps students understand and be able to say numbers, which we then build on with expanded notation. Expanded notation is fairly straight forward. It will also be covered in the resources below:

Here's a few resources to get you started:

• Place Value Charts at Adrian Bruce's Math Stuff: I will be printing off the charts and hanging them up in the classroom to use as an example. They go up to quadrillions. I only need up through billions.
• A simple, colorful chart to help with place value and expanded notation: PDF document.
• Numerous worksheets from MathAids.com.
• A chart to help students write numbers and understand their place values.
• A pdf packet of worksheets on the subject. I especially like page 10.

Unit 2.2: COMPARING AND ORDERING DECIMALS

After we have taught place value to thousandths (and billions), we move on to ordering decimals, and comparing decimals with <,>,= statements.

The PDSA for Unit 2.2 can be accessed HERE.
The assessment for Unit 2.2 can be accessed HERE.

By using the same method of backwards design, starting with the 2.2 assessment, we see that in this particular cycle of the lesson, students will be learning how to apply less than, greater than, and equal to statements to decimals, and will learn how to order large numbers with decimals (and simply large numbers is also acceptable here) either from greatest to least or least to greatest. Finally, it's important to apply these skills to word problems. So here we go:

• Head off to Khan Academy for his lesson on Comparing Decimals. Khan Academy is great, because he teaches through video, and offers various practice problem sets. Plus, he's got TONS of stuff.
• Fruit Shoot Comparing Decimals Game: An interactive game for students to play.
• I like for my students to practice ordering numbers on hanging number lines. It's a simple concept involving string and folded pieces of paper (or note cards). 

• This document, titled Gap Closing, has some great activities to fit this unit of study, particularly comparing and ordering decimals. 
• This pdf document includes a small chart I have my students make so they can begin to understand conceptually how and why they compare numbers, and what it actually means, in terms of place value, when one number is larger than another.
• Finally, a refresher on inequality symbols (if your students don't know this, they need to know this!)

UNIT 2.3: ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DECIMALS

Finally we end this unit with a cycle on adding and subtracting decimals. The concept is straight forward, and quite simply involves lining up the numbers to be added or subtracted by the decimal point.

The PDSA for cycle Unit 2.3 can be downloaded HERE.
The Unit 2.3 assessment can be downloaded HERE. If you like to save time, as my grade level team does, we don't use this assessment, instead, we simply score the final page (the adding and subtracting decimals page) twice, once as part of the unit score, and once for a unit 2.3 score.

• Here is a nice visual from Cool Math.com that pretty much explains it all. 
• Enchanted Learning also has a page about adding decimals, with some fun pdf worksheet games to go with it.
• My favorite worksheet building site, Worksheet Works, has pages of fully customizable and downloadable (in pdf) addition and subtraction of decimals worksheets.

Just remember, the concept of adding and subtracting decimals is quite simple. It all comes down to lining up the decimal, regardless of how huge one number might be and how small the other might be. Your students also might think about using zeros as placeholders when doing this!