Tried it Tuesday...Math Journals, Bio-Poems, and Color Coded Cards

Today I'm linkin' up with my buddy Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.  I was so excited to link up my post for Monday Made It yesterday, but haven't had a chance to check out everyone's posts.  I've decided that I'm going to take a nap before I go check out everyone else's Monday Made Its and Tuesday Tried Its.  Please forgive me...you know how much I need my afternoon naps!

#1 Tried It:
This year I have decided to start using Math Journals in one of my Math stations a few days a week.  I got the Math Journals from K-5 Math Teaching Resources.  They have journals for each grade level for purchase.  They are Common Core aligned and so far I am really enjoying them.
I have the journal entry written in my lesson plans on my Planbook.  I project this on my SMARTboard which is located in front of my teacher table.  The kids copy the question and write an answer.  After they are finished, they share the response with their group.

Some samples: This is still a "Work in Progress".  We are learning to be very specific and detailed.

Math journals in action:
 
Writing  Math journal entries at my table.

Sharing with the group after they are finished to see if they agree or disagree with the responses of the group partners.

#2 Tried It:
One of my students actually came up with this idea on her own and shared with me yesterday.  I thought it was brilliant.  Each week I have my students write their Vocabulary words on index cards.  This student chose to color code her words by Parts of Speech to help her study for her Vocabulary test.  I make the students identify the Parts of Speech.

Pink is for adjectives, yellow for nouns, and orange for verbs.

#3 Tried It:
  My fifth grade neighbors did Bio-Poems last year created by Laura Candler and they are FREE.  I decided to jump in on the action and had my kids fill out the graphic organizer.  Then they each typed their Bio-Poem and got to choose their font and size.  I hung these up next to the sunglasses that I blogged about last week. My hallway is officially full and complete for Thursday's Open House.  I just love how each one is so very different and the kids really got to express themselves.

Nap time...then I'm comin' to read what you all have been up to also!