Lesson idea: Be a Classroom Architect

Perimeter and area: two math terms that pop up at every grade level, in some way or another, on standardized tests across the country, and most importantly in the Common Core Standards. While it makes sense that students need to understand the basic concepts of space, how do you help students connect it to themselves and make it an important and relevant part of their lives? A connection and investment in one's learning is important for meaningful learning but area and perimeter seem like such foreign and unimportant concepts for five to ten year olds.

A fantastic activity that I have used to help students make a connection to the idea of perimeter and area and the concept of physical space is a lesson I like to call "Be a Classroom Architect." I have a background in architectural history from my undergrad studies and have always been fascinated by places and spaces. In the spirit of "use what you know", I combined my love of architecture with my love teaching by asking my students to consider themselves architects for 40 minutes in the afternoon.

After explaining the job of an architect, I asked my students to become architects who are commissioned with a project to build the best classroom they could think of, complete with measurements of area and perimeter. This lesson comes well within our study of area and perimeter so students are able to fluently work with both concepts with little frustration.

As students begin to sketch out their plans on graph paper, they are actively engaging their higher level thinking skills. We come up with several different questions we think are important to consider as we design: what will these students need? Where will the students read, write, and practice math facts? The job of calculating perimeter and area were completed pretty quickly (area was calculated by counting squares in the graph paper at the second grade level) and then they could get down to the fun stuff. I saw water slides that were going to be used to study science and a ball pit designed to be the perfect reading area. After plans were completed, several of our "architects" presented their plans and explained their design choices.

I can't think of any lesson I love more for teaching area and perimeter than the Classroom Architect. Besides allowing students for being extremely creative in their designs, it also allows for differentiation between your students. If a student is struggling with multi-digit addition, they might have a simpler design than a student who loves to challenge him or herself with lots of walls to add up in their perimeter calculations. It's also super simple to set up: model, give them graphing paper and watch them go wild! I wish I had taken pictures to show my students so actively engaged but take my word for it, they love it!

Tech Topics: My Story App

Last time I posted for "Tech Topics" I talked about Little Bird Stories, a website that I used and loved over the summer. Today I'm going to post about an app I found through a Twitter chat and have bookmarked for big plans in my future classroom. Unfortunately, I have not been in a district that uses iPads but I know that the days of iPad-less classrooms is slowly drawing to a close and I am seeking out some great resources. An app that generated a lot of buzz and is on my "Must Download" list is My Story.

The My Story App is a booking making app for iPads. It lets elementary students create a story through drawing, typing, voice recording, and photos. The easy-to-use interface allows students (and not-so-tech-savvy teachers) the ability to imagine, create, and publish their own story. The app allows you to both share with parents through e-mail and publish to the iPad's library so that students can share their self-published books with peers.

As I said, I have not had the chance to personally test this app as I do not have an iPad. I'm sharing it here because the idea behind this app excites me. As we move further and further into this digital age, teachers must find new ways to teach reading and writing alongside with how to manipulate digital tools. I feel like this app has the best of both worlds: it still requires students to be creative and participate in the creative process while allowing them to manipulate and experiment with a different and tech-savvy medium.

In my future classroom, I would use it to excite students about the writing process because what kid doesn't love the opportunity to swipe their finger around the iPad? It would be a fantastic tool to help struggling or reluctant learners. So many students get discouraged when they aren't able to communicate through regular writing. The app's ability for students to both voice record and type would help them get their ideas out first and worry about the writing later.

Has anybody used the My Story app in their classroom? I would love to hear about your experience!

Let's Share: Great Ideas from other Teacher Bloggers

Sharing is a big learning goal for our elementary classrooms and I can't tell you how many times a day I say, "Please show me how you can share" or "What does sharing look like?" Some will get it and some, well, they just don't want to do it and you'll get blue in the face trying to make them get it. But enough about the kids, it's time for a little sharing here in my "garden". I love sharing things I love on Twitter but I'd love to share some of my favorite teacher blog posts from around the internet. I'm hoping this will become a bi-weekly occurrence here and a great way for you to pick up a few new tips and tricks from some awesome teachers. Enjoy!

* I love Mrs. Durning-Leander's February ideas. A pizza shirt for the 100th day, so creative!

* Decorating bulletin boards can be so much fun but sometimes I look at them and think, what the heck is going to go up there?! But Sunny Days in Second Grade has some fantastic craftivity and bulletin board ideas for the spring season that I've pinned and bookmarked for the future!

* I always love some guided reading tips and I was excited to read through this post about a guided reading session in a kindergarten classroom

* Has state testing season started for anybody? We still have a little while in my area, though we've been working all year long. I love Lesson Plan SOS's adorable ideas for celebrating and encouraging our young test takers

* I am in awe of this amazing unit plan for studying biographies by answering the essential question: "What is it like to be the first at something?"

* As a teacher in the Philadelphia area, I want to incorporate this study of the Liberty Bell into my future classroom

* Yoga is an amazing practice for adults but it can also be great for our young learners, especially those with special needs

Avoid the Winter Blahs: New Winter Read Alouds are Here!

Despite the radio silence, I'm still here and busy learning, teaching, and just doing! Today I am finally able to carve out a little time to share with you some great resources for Reader's and Writer's Workshop that I've picked up in my substituting travels. With the (tiny) bit of extra time I have right now without a classroom to call my own, I've been searching out some great resources to add to my repertoire. In January, I was lucky enough to make it to a fantastic workshop held by the West Jersey Reading Council which introduced me to some great new winter books and I couldn't wait to share them here on my blog. 

A way to combat the classroom winter blahs is to inject some snazzy read alouds into your everyday routine. Some of my old favorites for winter read alouds are Snow Day by Jack Ezra Keats, a great one for demonstrating small moments, and The Mitten by Jan Brett, a no-brainer for tons of imaginative writing and craft projects or to kick off a primary classroom author study. Here are some new books that sound just perfect for incorporating into your winter read aloud library:

A Perfect Day by Carin Berger: A great way to get kids to start writing a personal narrative about their snow days (hey New England and Midwestern teachers!)

Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed: I can't count how many times I've taught a lesson on descriptive words, from getting my kindergartners to stop say "nice" and "good" and with my fourth graders to use more figurative language in their NJ ASK practice essays. I was so excited to hear about this book which gives very illustrative and imaginative descriptions of the different types of ice you encounter over the winter months. 

Cold Snap by Eileen Spinelli: Brrr, it's cold outside! This fun and engaging read aloud talks about the winter's bitter cold and a creative idea to beat the chill. This would be a fun way to discuss or review problem/solution in a story and might spark some great writing for "If it were very cold in my town, I would..."

Don't you just love new books and new lessons?

Tech Topics: Little Bird Tales

One writing concept I was working on with my kindergartners was adding details to their stories. As we were working on this in the first part of the year, my students were struggling with spelling, conventions, and other concepts of print and storytelling that are established throughout the year. I had them working on adding details to pictures that matched a sentence or phrase that I created for them. My classroom wasn't equipped with a lot of technology or the extra help but a resource that I would love to use eventually is Little Bird Tales. 

I first discovered this website when I was working as a teaching assistant at a gifted program this past summer. I used it in conjunction with a storytelling class to create their final project. It's a very easy website to work into your classroom: students come up with a story and draw artwork, you upload the artwork and record the students reciting the story. You and the students are then able to play back their story, complete with text (if you want to add it) and art work. It's that simple!

It's perfect addition to teaching the "add details" part of your writing workshop. It allows you to use the student's words and artwork as examples of why details are so important. When I was working with my students this summer, we would listen to their story together and stop and look at the picture. Many times I've had a student give me an oral telling of their story with so much excitement and details but, looking at their picture, you don't see any of it! I was able to listen for details in their telling that weren't present in their drawings. It also eliminates a lot of the anxiety of writing and really lets kids dig deep into their creativity. A great compliment to working with Little Bird Tales would be to use a picture book and look for details in the pictures that match what you're reading aloud. 

Go check it out; you're guaranteed to love it! Also if you happen to have an iPad or iPads in your classroom, they came out with an app and you can scoop it up here!

Celebrating MLK Day with Some Good Books

Whether you're doing it this week or next, there are some great resources to explain why we celebrate MLK Jr. Day to our elementary kids. And it's not just to have a day off, though that's nice too. Here are some of my favorite books for celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.


I just snatched this book up for my future classroom and as soon as you flip open the cover, you'll want one too. Kadir Nelson's gorgeous paintings of the March on Washington are accompanied by King's iconic "I Have A Dream" speech. It's a very visual book and will help your older elementary students connect to the speech and open a discussion of King's hopes and dreams.


Written by Martin Luther King Jr.'s sister Christine, this book describes what it was like to be a part of the march and how King took his ideas and dreams and formed them into his speech. This book will help second, third, and fourth graders make a connection to Martin Luther King Jr.


Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport is a wonderful picture book biography of Martin Luther King Jr. While detailing his life, Rappaport highlights key phrases from his important speech. It will help our youngest learners connect to King as it describes his childhood and how it shaped him into being a leader.

In addition to these wonderful books, I always like to look on Scholastic to see what kind of interactive lesson ideas they have for each and every important holiday. I especially like their ideas for grades 3-5 in planning a service learning lesson. I think teaching our students to help our community is a perfect way to honor the legacy of Dr. King.

And not to forget our littlest learners: I love this video made by a kindergartner found on Chalk Talk and it's the perfect way to bring the holiday and its significance to their level.

Hope you got some great ideas for celebrating MLK day! Make sure you click on the books for a link to purchasing them.

Snowman Addition!

January is the perfect time for winter and snow-themed lessons despite the unseasonably warm temperatures around here. The elementary schools I have been subbing in have snowflakes hanging in their windows and snowmen lounging on their bulletin boards. Let's not even start with the sledding, skating, and penguins. I happen to love the snowmen and was dreaming up some different way to integrate them into the primary classroom. 

That's when I dreamed up snowman math. One of my favorite things to use in my classrooms is activity mats. I have used different types of mats for both my literacy and math centers since the kids love having a unique surface to work on. It seems to really energize their learning and improve their interactions with the material we're learning. 

For snowman math, using the mat below, students can practice simple addition of two or three numbers. You could use counters or make it even more fun with mini marshmallows. I would definitely use this math mat in my kindergarten teaching as it aligns well with the CCS of using drawings or manipulatives to solve addition problems. It can even be made more challenging by using all three parts of the snowman to practice solving three number addition problems, a great activity up through second grade. What can I say, I love activity mats and I love snowmen!

Click here to download!

Let me know if and how you use it in your classroom!