MobyMax in the Classroom Review & GIVEAWAY

Have you heard of MobyMax?

MobyMax is an amazing program that students can access to practice Common Core aligned K-8 curriculum that is differentiated based on their acquired skills and needs.

"Moby Curriculum teaches students to be better problem solvers, critical thinkers, and creative geniuses with thousands of cognitive skill manipulatives. Moby has students think and discover rather than just be told." - MobyMax Website 

I love how students can access MobyMax on classroom computers and/or classroom tablets.

It's the first touch curriculum made for a tablet!  You can't find anything else like it!

MobyMax provides the classroom teacher with formative assessment that drives great instruction.  The program allows you to monitor student progress in real time so that you know exactly how each student is performing.  You can analyze data for all Common Core standards by student, class, school, and district.

My students are loving MobyMax.  It is a fun test prep option, great during center rotations, and useful across the curriculum!

Want to give MobyMax a try?  Enter to win a free subscription of MobyMax for your classroom!

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Good luck and check back for a second giveaway over the weekend!

Valentine Goodies for Monday Made It

Over the weekend I got back in touch with my crafty side and created a few Valentine goodies to share with you.

First off, my daughter Natalie will be bringing these cute little Valentines to daycare on Friday.

We made one for each of her friends.

I picked up a box of Teddy Graham bags at Wegmans, printed out the teddy bear cards, and stapled them on.

I also printed a black and white version on red and pink paper to use for my students.

How do they look?

Next, I created a little card for her daycare provider.

I stuck it to the back of a heart shaped box of chocolates.

Want to make your own?  You can download a copy of these printables here.

Check out all the other Monday Made It's at Tara's blog, Fourth Grade Frolics.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Winner Winner!!!

Congratulations Rebecca C for winning a copy of Ali Maier's book, Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer.

You should be receiving a copy of the book in the mail shortly.

Thank you to all who entered!

How to Use Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer & GIVEAWAY!

I'm very excited to share with you how we have been using Ali Maier's book, Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer, throughout the last few weeks of school.  As you may remember, I first mentioned this book right before Christmas break.  This book is about twins, Maggie and Max, who are challenged by their mom to write 12 journal entries together during the Summer.  The twins analyze a different event, situation, or activity for each chapter (or journal entry) which makes for a great book to focus on analyzing, comparing, or contrasting perspectives.  You can read my initial review here.

Here are my suggestions for using the book in your classroom:

Ways to Read in the Classroom:
- Provide individual copies for students to read independently.
- Read with a partner (one student reads Maggie's part while the other reads Max's.)
- Read whole class (teacher reads main text and chooses a student to read Maggie's comments and another to read Max's.)
- Project for the class to see so they can follow along with all Maggie and Max's commentary.

Using the Book to Teach Comprehension Strategies:

- Analyze characters and setting.

- Locate humor and descriptive details within the text.

- Create a list of Maggie and Max's character traits.

Initially, I recorded every student suggestion.  Then, students looked back, and debated whether or not each character trait really fit the characters.  If not, we crossed them out, and added a better fitting trait.

- Analyze perspectives.

- Compare and contrast Maggie and Max's experiences, perspectives, likes, and dislikes

Below, students compared and contrasted Maggie and Max's experiences at a hotel.

Journal Writing
- Analyze the genre of journal writing.
- Use this book as an anchor text to model positive characteristics of good journal writing.
- Use this book to launch an in-class journal writing center where students write back and forth to one another in the same fashion as Maggie and Max.
- Launch an at-home journal writing activity over an extended break (Christmas, February, April, Summer, etc...)

Want to snag a copy of this book for your classroom?  Enter using Rafflecopter below.

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Lastly, be sure to check out Ali Maier's website for more resources and information!