Brain Break Cards (Product Review)

Brain Breaks for Your Classroom!

Although I'm awaiting my own classroom after moving to Australia (from the U.S.), I want to let you know what worked well for me in my previous 5 years classroom experience.  One thing that helped with my classroom management was utilizing Brain Breaks in my class!  

I was teaching 3rd grade in Florida during the heavily testing era of the FCAT and constant student testing to collect data throughout the year.  This can get quite boring for the students AND teachers.  I tried my hardest to create lessons that were innovative and engaging that also required some movement.  (Sitting at your desk doing worksheets all day every day is just not my cup of tea!)  However, there are times you have to practice skills taught on worksheets/practice tests to make sure students are prepared come testing time.  

Since I couldn't escape this practice entirely, I incorporated Brain Breaks!  I found that my students enjoyed this immensely! They were engaged during lessons, participated more actively, could easily transition to the next subject, and used as a positive reinforcement for good behavior.

Rounding Up to the Millions Place Value

Rounding Up to the Millions Place Value packet is up on my TPT store! While teaching 3rd grade (8-9 year olds), we would always start our math curriculum with estimating and place value.  It's a skill I know they learned in the previous grade and they know how to apply the skills.  However, for some reason they always struggle with it!  (Nearly every student it seems.)  As the year would proceed and we would move on to the new chapters, we would move pass this skill.  Once we revisit this skill a while later, they have a better grasp of it and didn't understand why they thought it was so difficult.

This packet includes:
* 2 different cover pages for your mini book
* 30 pages of practice from 10s to 1,000,000s, 2 examples on each page (60 total)
* 7 blank sheets to create your own practice numbers (rom 10s to 1,000,000s)

You can either copy and staple as a packet, or cut the sheets in half and create a mini practice book!

Best for grades 1st - 4th!  You can customize your packet to meet the needs of your students, especially for struggling students and those who would like enrichment practice.

Rounding & Place Value Daily Practice

Last year, I decided to do a daily number to practice rounding to each place value, naming all the place values, reviewing some vocabulary, and so on.  I found regular practice made my students more comfortable and confident in rounding.

My students enjoyed this that they even wanted to try numbers up to trillion place value!  They really enjoyed trying to say these obnoxiously large numbers.

What have you done to improve your students' skills in rounding & place value?

Word of the Day

Word of the Day was something I tried for the first time last year with my 3rd graders (8-9 year olds).  Our new curriculum had a book of challenging words to accompany enrichment reading.  I found these words were great for my class overall since I had majority of high learners.  

Using with Writing Journals

We used mini sheets and the students filled out the information I provided on the front board (word, parts of speech, definition, and my sentence example).  Then the student would write their own sentence using a form of the word and try to think of a synonym, antonym, and the word using a prefix or suffix.  After completing this, the students would glue the sheets in their writing journals and work on grammar sentences.

We did a lot of modeling and discussing of each parts at the beginning of the year.  We would discuss that the students were to copy the word, part of speech, and definition, but were not allowed to use my sentence.  A lot of my students would get stuck on writing sentences, so I gave my example but would discuss that they can only use it as a guide to create their own

With synonyms, antonyms, and prefixes/suffixes, we discussed that not all words would have these and you may not be able to fill out all parts.  After our morning announcements, I would review the word with them and let a few students share their examples, and fill out the remaining as a class.  I also allowed time to complete the sheet after discussion to fill out the final boxes and finish up their own sentences.  

Why It Helped

My students may not have been able to memorize all or some these words, and that wasn't the goal.  I did notice that my struggling students were able to read stories and come up with similar definitions just from how the story used them and could identify parts of speech, synonyms, and antonyms.

We would read in whole group and small groups, and all my students would came across words with prefixes and/or suffixes and were able to point them out on their own.  When I would ask them to evaluate the word, they could tell me the base word, its definition using the prefix/suffix, the definitions of the base word and prefix/suffix separately.

Want More?

I'm working on building on this packet.  This is currently a free download at my TPT store, but I hope to add another packet with these sheets and a listing of 4 sets of 45 words.  This way the words and information are provided for you.  Keep a look out for that in the future!

Have you used something similar to Word of the Day?
Share your thoughts!

I'm Done! Activities

Click to view the product at my TPT store!

This packet includes activities for students to do independently when they have finished their work early.  There are 6 sheets of activities: 3 sheets for Reading/Lang. Arts activities (1 cover card, 17 activity cards) and 3 sheets for Math activities (1 cover card, 17 activity cards). This packet includes both color cards and black and white. I've also included blank cards for you to create your own.

How I Used I'm Done! Activities

I used to use the typical "read a book" or "take an A.R. test" when my students were done with their work early.  This is still a rule I use when my students are currently working on their A.R. goals.  However, I've had students who had completed their goals and wanted to work on something else.  These were a big hit with my students last year!  Some of my students would even come up with ideas to add to our cards, which is why I made blank cards.

Reading/Lang. Arts Activities

These activities focus on reading skills and expanding their knowledge through writing.  My students really enjoy writing and creating their own stories, then sharing them with their classmates.

Some activities require some materials to have on hand or pre-made: 8-page paper booklet, white boards, paper (lined and blank), Writing Journal, letter tiles, and spelling & vocabulary words of the week.

Math Activities

These focus on various math skills to help practice and build knowledge.  I made this for 3rd grade and focus on a lot of the skills taught at that level.  However, some students would ask how to do a certain card with a skill that wasn't previously taught (either in our class or previous years) and I would recommend not doing those until we taught the skills in class.

Some materials needed for these activities include: number cards (like playing cards), fraction cards, whiteboards, math facts worksheets already printed, various dice, flash cards telling time, rulers or anything to measure length, and geoboards with rubberbands.

Plus, some games you may need to learn about are Top It (link downloads Word Document with directions) with Addition, which can easily be changed to Multiplication, subtraction, and fractions (only pick up 1 card at a time). More Top It games explained at Primary Chalkboard!

What activities do you like to have available
for your students when they finish early?

The Scientific Method - Lab Sheet

Go to my TPT store to purchase this product!

After learning about The Scientific Method, you can use this lab sheet as part of your Science Notebook/Lab Work.

Fill out each bubble based on the experiment you are conducting using the labels and questions as guides.  (Your students can write quick notes or 1-2 sentences in each bubble.)

This includes 2 lab sheets:
* Lab Sheet with directions to draw the experiment and write a summary on the back.
* Lab Sheet without picture and summary.