Sunday, September 4, 2011

I am a slacker...

but only in blogging :)  The first weeks of school absolutely drain me, and to make matters worse I am always "volunteering" myself for extra activities.  I am sure none of you can relate to the inability to say "no" to extra work.  This summer I spent three days in the lovely city of Montgomery taking part in a workshop on developing math curriculum guides for advanced students based on the new Common Core Standards. Part of my requirements to be paid for this workshop, and yes I did say paid...was to create activities for gifted or advanced students, and those activities were due this past week!  So I have been working extra hours to get these finished. These activities are for your kids who already know everything you are about to teach on a specific topic.  Or it may be a child who just masters the concepts much quicker than most of your other kids.  As a part of differentiating your instruction, it is important that these students do not get MORE work, they just get different work.  So my post tonight is to share with you a set of Fraction Thinker Keys that I developed to help those students who are ready for a challenge in fractions.  The ideas behind this activity is that the child should be able to work on this independently, with minimal guidance from you.  It is meant to deepen their understanding of fractions.  This is the first set of thinker keys I have created, so I do not profess it to be FANTASTIC, but I do think they are pretty fun and I hope your kids will too! 
If you are new to thinker keys (like me) here is a great informational piece by the thinker key creator:  http://www.tonyryan.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/Thinkers_Keys_Version1.pdf

My Fraction Thinker Keys...free on TpT: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fraction-Thinker-Keys

Blessing!!
Mrs. J