#MyMathJourney

Oh Sunday....

How I both love and hate you.

I don't know about you

but lately I feel like my weekends

are so packed, that Sunday becomes

a mad dash to get everything done that needs to get done. 

I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

for A Peek at my Week! :)

I'm trying to stay on top of things for this next week----

and that starts with #MyMathJourney

Recently my district has adopted Math Expressions. 

I'm in year 2 right now. 

The process for me is slow. 

It has taken some time for me to get used to teaching differently---

but I've seen great progress with kids so I'm excited!

There's so much to get in and teach

 that the majority of my math block has been whole group instruction. (ICK)

This year I have a very large divide in math skills

that my students possess

 as we start learning the concept of multiplication, 

and whole group all of the time....

well....

it just isn't working. 

So after so much blog stalking....

(here are two that I keep going back to for help)

and TpT purchases....

I'm gong to try to run things just a bit different this next week. 

Math Plans-  I plan to run both whole group and small group instruction this next week in math. I will utilize our math intervention time to work with small groups of students that needs some extra help. While I do that I also have on-level and enrichment activities to both practice the current skill that we're learning in class and also topics that we've already done to spiral them back.  It's a very large work in progress but here's a small overview and what I hope will happen.  

Mini-Lesson: We will discuss the topic of the day for each day at the beginning of the math block. After that, I will send my higher level students off to do some independent work on the topic just taught, and I will then work with small groups of students who will need more instruction.  When its time to rotate I will send my small group to do some independent work and continue.  Students who aren't working with me will work on the following: 

1. Independent Work (work that covers our topic being taught right now)

2. Fact Practice- This will consist of a computer website this week, but will change as the weeks go on to practice facts in different ways.  This week we will do digit whiz. If you haven't used it yet, I recommend that you check it out. Kids LOVE it! And, it's free, so what could be better?

3. Centers- This is an activity that students will work on if they finish up their independent work early. They will be different each day. Some days will be extra work on our current skill, other days it may be a math journal or a skill that we are spiraling.  Activities include partner work, games, or writing. 

4. Small Group- This will be with me for additional teaching and practice. I will also then cycle around the room as students work on independent work to check in. 

The end of the math block will end with a closing/ mini-lesson as well so we can do a small formative assessment. This way I can see where we are from today and decide what we will move forward with as the next day approaches. 

Due to the length of this post already, I'm just going to leave math at that. Next week I'll share more in-depth on how it will look as I have a week under my belt and can talk more about the actual teaching going on and the concepts being taught!  

Reading- Small groups are starting this week as my students are all trained in Daily 5 and area ready to go. I'll be working with small groups on story elements (a review) and comparing and contrasting. We will be using the story: The Three Little Pigs to help us do that. Based off of book levels, different groups will get different stories.  We will be making Venn-diagrams to compare stories as the week goes on and then sharing the different versions that we read with each other.  Some of the books that I will be using are: (click each picture to go to amazon)

I have more... much more.. but I'll stop there. This is getting long. If you stuck with me, thanks!!! Hope everyone has a great week!

News from New York!!! Five for Friday! 9*25*14

Happy Friday!

I must confess... this week is going to be 2.5 for Friday x two.

I had a post almost ready for last week and never posted.

So I'm doing some from last week and some from this week!

Totally in the rules, right?? 

The first is from last week. 

It was a major #fail. 

Seriously!

I tried to do something hands on in math

with my kiddos. 

The goal was for my students to try to see patterns of the different count bys.

I used hundreds charts and watercolors.  I've done this in the past,

but never have I had to have so many students redo because of not following directions. 

I'm happy to say that they are all done after several attempts.

The plan is to compare the different charts to talk about multiples of numbers

and also discuss patterns in the skip counting. 

It only took me a month (well not quite, but it's close) 

and I finally got some things organized in my room.

Here are two different things that are finally D.O.N.E.

Source
Thanks to 4th Grade Frolics for these FREE log-in loops for my kids!
I've finally put them all together and they are being used to store all of their
usernames and passwords!

I'm just loving my dots for the guided reading table.
 

We are using Jivey's Mentor Sentences for the beginning 

of our writing block warm-up. 

I am thrilled with how it's looking after just 3 weeks. 

The kids love it, and their favorite part is finding different parts of speech. 

Who knew??? 

Here is our 'notice it' and 'label it' section for this week.
I keep it on the back whiteboard all week, and when
we can get a few minutes we are always working with it!

Here are some student imitation sentences based off of
the book 'Enemy Pie' from last week. 

Daily 5 is in full swing. 

My kids are doing great with practicing right now,

so great that we can officially start rotations 

and guided groups next week. Cross your fingers!

Here are some of our stations!

Here we are doing some partner reading!
They are rocking at it!
I must say, they are one of the chattiest groups I've had....
but partner reading is going the best it's ever gone!

Practicing using our chromebooks to listen to stories online.

Here is a word work practice station.  She is writing with sharpies
on pieces of lamination that is left over from the machine at school.
We call it 'stained glass.'

Here is my writing prompt book being used in the work on writing center.


You can find check it out here at my TpT store!  My kids are loving the
different prompts, and not once have I heard 'I don't know what to write about!!!"
You can do a new one everyday. It comes with 180 various prompts!

We officially got our first postcard this week

from the postcard exchange I signed up for. 

I'm so excited for the journey this is going to take

us on as a class! 

I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching today for Five for Friday! 

It's a great linky to share things that are going on during the week 

and to steal gather some awesome ideas! Be sure to stop by! 

Student Made Expectations

Happy Weekend!

I'm so shocked at how fast these days are flowing by...

I'm just finishing up week 2----

and I feel like I've been back forever!

Today I'm linking up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching

for some Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!!!!

I'm trying to do things differently this year in many ways and for many reasons. 

One main difference is that since I've been at this for 8 years now, I want to stay fresh and different with my teaching and ideas. I also want to incorporate the kids as much as I can in everything that I do, which is why I've done things differently this year. 

If you've read anything I've posted this last week, 

you will know that my room still isn't 100% ready,

 and for the first time in history, I'm ok with it.... well kind of ;)

It's still driving me crazy, but I'm learning to be ok with it. 

I've had students do things that I normally do. 

Hence my Student Motivation this week:

Student Made Expectations!!

In the past I've always had us 'come up' with our own rules and expectations and then take home all of the notes and make a pretty poster with what I think are the best things for classroom rules and expectations. Well, I'm at the point with a new school year and a new baby where I don't have time for that. So this year, it truly was a student led process, in hopes that they will take even more ownership of their actions, and hopefully spark their motivation to follow the expectations that we have made together for our class. 

Buy on Amazon

We started with reading Officer Buckle and Gloria 

to put a funny twist to rules and importance of following them. 

After that we started making a list of things that we should 

always remember to do as people working and learning 

in a classroom environment. 

We made our notes on post-its and then grouped them together. 

It just so happened that they came up with breaking apart the expectations 

for different parts of the day.

They came up with their own consequences too....

Not exactly what I would have done but, like I said, 

we're going with all student led at this point....

We also have one big brainstorm chart that we made with everything in one place that is being hung over our classroom door so we can see it each time we exit the room. I am sorry to say that I forgot to take a picture of it. I love how it turned out though, so we can always use it as a reminder when we go out somewhere into the school. 

I'm not saying this is going to work 

any better than classroom rules/expectations have been done in the past,

 but I'm trying to do it a little different. 

I would have NEVER been caught putting 

posters that looked like this up in my room,

 because in my mind they aren't 'pretty' or 'crafty' enough. 

So this is new for me and very different. 

However, I'm hoping that this will help the students remember

 exactly the process and steps

 that we took to make these expectations up together 

and will think twice before not following them. 

How are you trying to spark motivation in students 

to follow expectations or take charge of 

taking responsibility for following expectations?

Student Made Name Tags {Tried It Tuesday} 9-8-14

Well, it's the beginning of the school year

so I'm back in full swing with trying new things 

in the classroom. 

Source

I'm excited today to link up with Holly 

from Fourth Grade Flipper for

Tried It Tuesday!

Be sure to stop by to see what others are trying out.

My 'tried it' isn't anything groundbreaking today....

but it is something that I've tried differently 

this year as we get started. 

Student made name tags:

I've always had ones that have been purchased 

with tons of resources on them

that take up the whole desk. 

Since the resources are all up in the room anyway

and most have their own personal copies of things to store

that I could try something a bit different this year. 

I really love how they turned out!

They took their time and really put in 

a lot of effort!

There was a mix up with our order of name tags this year

so instead of using all different left over ones,

{and because I just plain ran out of time} 

I decided to have students make their own tags.

I'm not sure if they will get just as beat up or not

as the year goes on,

but I'm hoping that since they took the time to make them

they will take some more pride in taking care of them. 

I'll have to let you know!

Happy Tuesday! Hope you're having a great week so far.

Tips to Tame Em'

Hi There, and happy Tuesday! I'm here for a quick post today in-between cleaning and the napping of a crabby two month old.  We got our shots yesterday so we've been a bit fussy since last night.  Just when a good routine get established...something changes.  It's a lot like school too, isn't it? Just when you think they have something down you have to go back and establish a routine or procedure all over again.  With that being said I'm linking up this evening with Kelli from 'Tales of a Teacher' for her summer weekly linky called 'Tips to Tame Em'  I was really excited to start thinking about the first several weeks of school and reflect back on how to get students into the routine and procedure of the classroom.  

Here's the weekly schedule for the next several weeks if you are interested in linking up! I'm looking forward to seeing what advice everyone has. I know each new year brings a whole new group of students and challenges when it comes to routine and procedure.  Some groups are just more conscious about certain things than others and what was a big 'issue' this year may not be next year.  

This week's question is: 

This big thing here is modeling and consistency for me.  Often times I feel like I'm so used to how things are at the end of the year in third grade..... they certainly are different than the beginning of the year.  They grow so much, but it's so easy to forget the little things that they need to be reminded of or taught.  For me remembering that I need to model for them and show them what is expected sometimes is my biggest challenge.  I get so excited about something and am two steps in when I really should be at the beginning stages of something before expecting them to just know.  I show them what I need them to know just by doing it over and over and over again.  It's so important to model everything for them!!!  Even how to check in for their lunch choice in the morning.  It may seem simple, but after summer vacation, and not having the same teacher as the year before, it's different for them.  It may be the same you've always done, but for them it's new!  I also think that being consistent with the things that you're expecting is important. You can't establish a routine one day and then change it everyday the following week.  I do understand that sometimes things need to be changed up, but giving them time to be established as a routine in important.  

Just a few of the big things that I have to model at the beginning of the year are:

1. Daily Check- In Procedure
2. Lining Up
3. Morning Work
4. Transitions to and from centers and/or carpet
5. Hallway expectations
6. Names on Papers
7. Turning in Work
8. What do do when you need teacher assistance
9. I'm done...Now what Can I do???  (We all have those students!)

For me the most important things the first week are procedural..... I could literally name a million of them but I thought that I would just share the most important ones today. 

1- Student Numbers: I have to admit that at first I was totally against assigning numbers to students.  I was more worried about parents thinking that I was referring to their child as a number and not a person...however I got over that quickly when I realized how much of a time saver it is and also a great way to keep things organized.  I assign a number to each student.  They can use it for a number of things (no pun intended....)  First they put it next to their name when they write their name on their papers.  I teach them to always put their name and number on everything.  We practice that a lot during the first weeks of school. This helps me to put their papers in number order to see who I'm missing or then figure out a no name paper too. It's also a good list to have in case of an emergency.  They have to get in number order for a line when we get outside after a fire-drill, or I call off the numbers in order for them to say that they are in fact there. Then I know who is missing.  

2- Chants- I think it's important to have some classroom chants so we all know when we need to be focused on the same thing. I run a lot of my day in small groups and centers, so there is usually always a hum of noise going on.  When I need their attention I expect it to be full.  So there are a few chants that I use.  We practice them so much the first few weeks of school.  

This first chant is my go to when I have students working in small groups or centers and I need their full attention. It also works if we're in another classroom working or in a larger group setting. They all know when then hear it that it's 'Our Class Chant' and know that they need to stop what they're doing to listen. 

Teacher: 123    Students: Eyes on Me

Teacher: 456    Students: Lips are Zipped

The second chant I use when students line up to go in the hallways or to come in or out from recess. I use this chant. When they hear it they know that I'm expecting them to be hallway ready.  They are in a line that is short, silent and ready to move. 

Teacher:  Third Graders Line Up            Students: Line UP

Those are just a few that I do at the way beginning that travel with us on our whole year journey!  I hope you have some ideas to share as well, or these can help you in some way! Have a great night!!!!