Cup Stacking - Mean, Median, Mode, & Range

Hi ya'll! Sorry I have been a little M.I.A. lately, the craziness of the beginning of the second semester has hit me full on. For those who teach 5th grade in elementary school probably can relate to the craziness that is getting the kids ready for their big transition to middle school. The class scheduling, the testing, the music tryouts, the school visits, oh ya, and my kids who are scared out of their minds for middle school. That just might be the definition of craziness. Insert my therapist hat, one of the many we wear as teachers. 

Anyway, back to the purpose of this post! Mean, median, mode, and range can be tricky concepts for 5th graders to grasp. We have been working on it this past week. I couldn't give them any more of the practice problems with reading graphs, we needed to do something that required my kids to be doing something. Insert, cup stacking. 

The purpose of this activity was for students to generate their own data to then find the mean, median, mode, and range. It started with breaking my kids up into 6 groups. Each group was given 50 cups (Target brand cups were 5% off with the Cartwheel app, just an FYI). They were given 5 minutes to practice and decide how they were going to build their tower. The conversations they had were very in depth and some groups had some well thought out strategies. 

Then the fun began, they had 1 minute to build a tower with as many cups as possible. I gave them no restrictions and amazingly they all went for the triangular tower. Some more successful than others. 

When the minute was over, they each counted how many cups they used and I recorded that data on the board. The students were responsible for finding the mean, median, mode, and range of our class data. Shockingly, they went silent and got to work analyzing the data. This made my teacher heart smile.

When they were done we did round 2, the only difference to round 2 from round 1 was the time limit changed. Round 2 only gave the groups 30 seconds to build their towers. Feel the pressure! We repeated the process with me recording the number of cups used and the students finding the 3Ms and  R. By the end of the second round, some ended up like this...

The teamwork the students used during the was amazing. They were talking out their strategies and genuinely listening to what each other had to say! The math was important and the point of this lesson, but it was amazing to watch them work together!

I made up a simple recording sheet for 2 rounds of cup stacking. You can get this freebie HERE!

This was a HUGE success in my class! I hope it works for you! Below is another resource I have for practicing mean, median, mode, and range over in my TPT store. Check it out here!

Happy data analyzing! :)

Battleship

Sergeant Schaar here! This past week we have been learning all about the coordinate grids. For those who teach 5th grade you'll understand, but if you don't, fifth grade is full of fractions and decimals. Every part and aspect of fractions and decimals, we probably do it. So when it is time to move away from fractions and decimals for a little while, it is like a breath of fresh air! 

I have been planning this activity for a while. I wanted my kids to actually experience the coordinate grids, and what better way than through Battleship?! 

Set up and materials were so easy, are you ready for this? All I used was flat black sheets and painters tape. Yep, that's it! I got it all at Walmart. I used strips of red and blue fabric to let the kids wear to represent what team they were on, but it isn't necessary for this activity.

 All I did was move all the desks out of the way and simply hung the sheets with paper clips in the middle of my classroom to create the 2 sides of the game.

To create the playing board, all I did was tape the x and y axis first and added for lines in both directions from there. TIP: I used painters tape because it comes off of carpet easier than masking tape does. This makes for a quick and easy clean up!

At the beginning of the activity I had the students choose a color strip from a bag to decide what team they will be on, in my case I used red team and blue team. I needed one student to be the commander, the person who would give me  the answer and be in charge of keeping track of hits and misses. This was chosen by a simple black star on the strips of paper. Then we read a letter I created about the rules of the game. 

Students had to build the following boats with the bodies being the boats,

2 - 2 person boats

1 - 3 person boats

1 - 4 person boats

This was all the same as the board game Battleship except one thing, which was the students didn't stand in spaces, they stood on the perpendicular lines to practice their graphing skills. Each student was standing at an ordered pair and was responsible for knowing if their part of the boat was sunk. When they were still in the game, they were standing, when they had been sunk, they sat down.

Now I took this past just firing at each other. They had to solve problems that I projected on the Promethean Board, and if a team got it right they were able to fire at their opponents. If they missed, the other team got a chance to steal the firing opportunity. 

Here are the charts they used to keep track of hits and misses. This also helped them when they were firing at their opponents. 

My kids really enjoyed this activity, and I don't think they even realized they were practicing the skill we were learning about all week! I wish I could post more pictures of my kids, but most of my pictures have all of their faces and they can't be posted. This picture below is one of my favorites because they were so intense about strategizing where they were fire next.

If you have any questions about how I made this come alive in my classroom, please email me or comment below! I'd love to help you out!

Below is an activity students can play together as a math center or station! A mini version of Battleship!

Check it out here!

#2getherwearebetter GOALS & PLANS for 2016

Hi friends! This post is all about my goals and plans for 2016! Today, I am joining up with some amazing bloggers for this month's #2getherwearebetter linky party! 

I don't know about you, but I have done a lot of reflecting these past couple of days on the past year, and I think it is mostly because of the amazing year I have had. This year was a big one for me in the teaching/blogging/TPT world. I recently reflected on all of that greatness of 2015 here.

Today I am here to share my goals for 2016. I have one phrase I want to focus on this year, and it is, 

I want to make sure I am present in everything I am doing in this upcoming year. If I am at school, I want to be completely present there with my sweet kids, doing my best to ignore things going on at school and outside of school. I know this will be tough because we all have our own backpacks, if you will, of stuff we bring to and from school every day, but I am in my happy place when I am teaching my kids and I want to cherish that. I also want to cherish the relationships I have and put down the phone or computer when I am with those people and be present. It is easier said than done, but my Instagram feed will be there later, and I am going to strive to live in the moments in 2016.

In the blogging world, I my goal requires something I constantly working on and that is,

I feel like I catch myself doing a lot of second guessing or worrying what others will think, so this year I want to be more confident in every aspect of my life. This will not be an easy task for me. I want to be more confident in my blog and my journey. A teacher-blogger who I look up to, always says "be you," and Ashley I am taking those words and living them this year without fear of what others will think. 

 There is one specific goal I have set for myself this year for my blog. One social media platform scares the you know what out of me when it comes to promoting my blog, and it makes me want to run and crawl into a hole, and it is Facebook. There is a fear in me that has hindered me from making my blog's page public on Facebook. So, this year I want to have the confidence to get it out there with no fear so I can continue to connect with other teachers and allow that amazing collaboration to happen! 

I feel like everyone says this, but I feel like 2016 is going to be a GREAT year for me. 

What are your goals and plans for 2016? I challenge you to reflect and write your goals down. Happy goal setting ya'll!

Another Year in the Books {2015 Reflection}

I cannot believe 2015 is almost over. So many exciting things happened to me this year, and I am going to countdown my most exciting parts of my year and share some goals I have for 2016!

1. Beginning my Journey

In 2015, I began this crazy journey of mine, just a few short months ago with Teachers Pay Teachers and my blog. I had contemplated starting a "teacher blog" for a while, but after talking with some amazing teacher bloggers, I took the plunge. I was scared and constantly thinking, "Who would want to read what I have to say? I haven't even been teaching for that long." So, I shoved those thoughts to the back and before I knew it, I had posted my first blog post and uploaded my first product to TPT. 

I have enjoyed every second of it, and I cannot wait to see where it takes me in 2016. 

2. Connecting with Teachers

Just since the last half of 2015, I have been able to connect with so many different teachers through all of the social media platforms. I have been able to bounce ideas and ask questions to expert bloggers who have helped me immensely begin my journey.

3. RON CLARK ACADEMY! 

Visiting RCA was up there in the best things about 2015. I was lucky enough to go to Atlanta, Georgia to visit the most amazing school I've ever been to. My teaching has completely changed since that visit. I am constantly thinking of ways to take my teaching to the next level, and I often do that by asking, "What would they do at RCA?"  I am beyond grateful for that experience. Read more about it here.

There were a lot of exciting things that happened in my life over this past year, but the highlights of my teaching life were definitely those three above.

I hope you had a wonderful 2015 and have an even better 2016!

Frankenstein Mystery

So the end of the semester craziness got the best of me, but here I am sitting getting my car's oil changed at 8AM. On my break. What was I thinking? It's all okay because I am coming to share a really fun math activity I did the Friday before Halloween. I got some inspiration from Pinterest and made it happen. What is beautiful about this activity is it can be used any time of the year, just have to tweak it a little bit. 

Here is the quick back story to this activity. It was the Wednesday before Halloween and I told my roommate, Brooke, that I wanted to do something fun in math, but I just couldn't think of anything. Earlier that week I had turned my room into a Haunted House (check that out here), so I was stumped. Brooke started looking things up on Pinterest and she came across a picture of balloons attached to crate paper. Then an idea was born.

The most important thing was the content. It was the Friday before Halloween, ya'll, I had to think of something engaging to keep the crazy under control. I was going to use this activity as a math review. because in the fifth grade you live, eat, and breathe decimals and fractions. We needed some time practicing and working with the skills we had already learned. 

I only needed 3 things for this activity to come to life. 

-crate paper

-balloons

-the problems

So simple. Well, my lungs didn't think so on Friday morning blowing up 54 balloons, but it was all worth it. My roommate and I stuff the deflated balloons with the problem and the secret letters, so all I had to do at school was to blow them up! 

Now the fun, why not blow up 54 balloons and put math problems and secret letters inside? Well, let me tell you the premise of the activity. Frankenstein had a chance to be turned back into a boy if the class helped his figure out the time and place he needed to be. I mixed my class up into groups and they had 9 balloons with problems they had to solve. With each problem, they received a letter that would help the class figure out the mystery. We needed every group's letters to help Frankenstein have the opportunity to get turned back into a boy. 

The best thing about this activity from a teacher's perspective is the academic math talk that was happening between my students because they couldn't get another balloon until everyone had solved the problem! 

This activity was such a hit. BEST PART-was watching the balloons being popped. I bought my balloons at Target and they must have been some heavy-duty balloons because some of them were impossible to pop! 

Disclaimer, I did go and warn my principal that there might be some loud popping sounds coming out of my room, and that she should't worry. 

This could be used for any content area, you can decide what you want to put in the balloons. I know it is passed Halloween, but if you want to see this activity to possibly use it for your class send me an email at crazinessinfifth@gmail.com and I can get you the materials.

I hope you are having a relaxing break and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather!