Multiplication is LOADS of Fun!

I needed some sort of motivation for my students to not only master their addition/subtraction facts (which should have been mastered last year), but to master most of their multiplication facts before they leave me this year! I decided to make a giant bulletin board outside of my classroom in which students will put their name on a sticker once they master that number (i.e. passed all x1's, x2's...). The sticker then goes on the coordinating shirt of the fact family they mastered. It was really exciting and I started to see some REAL growth in the first few weeks I did the tests. Students were excited to get their name on the t-shirt in the hallway. By the time winter break rolled around (so a month into the motivational board), I had students who had passed: 0,1,2,5,10,11. That's great for my group of third graders.

Update as of Nov. 26: To have students keep track of their own math data as well, you can have students create data tracking folders where they graph how many correct math facts depending on which number they are on, i.e. multiplication 6's. Read more about how I use these in my own classroom by clicking the "Data Tracking Folders" link.

To purchase all of the T-Shirts, please visit my TPT Store.

Interesting Inventors

My third graders did an amazing multi-week unit on researching famous inventors. We worked through the long process of researching. Students had to find many different items about the inventor they selected. They did a wonderful job. They moved onto the writing process where I modeled a paragraph a day and they worked through to get 4-5 paragraphs about their inventor. Students edited independently, with a partner, and with me before typing and completing the project.

As a second part to the project, each student had to create a timeline of their inventor's life (including the main invention). They did a great job, and it was definitely student-driven. I love projects that you can tell the students did it all by themselves! They learned not only what a timeline is, but learned how to print pictures and go back to find specific dates in reliable sources. Wow!