End of the Year Reflection

Well I made it! Wow, what a year! I started the school year, had a baby, was on maternity leave for about 3 months, returned for the last 3 months of the school year, and then got  moved to 3rd grade for next year! *Sigh* So yes I made it, and I'm pretty excited about it! :)
Now is the time to reflect on what went well and what needs improvement....

Success!
1. I'm so glad I taught math in small groups this year! The children made so much progress because I was able to teach them at their level.

2. Going along with Guided Math was Math Stations. I created Math Stations that could be done more than once but with slightly different practice of the skill. The kids loved them and I loved that I could set them up at the beginning of the month and leave them out. Yay for simplicity!

3. Writer's Workshop went well too. I improved my mini-lessons a bit and that really helped. I loved seeing the creative ideas in each child's writing. Do you use Writer's Workshop? What's your favorite genre to teach? My students came up with wonderful fairy tales this year so that unit was my favorite.

Room for Improvement... 
1. I'd like to make more math stations like this free place value sample station.

I'm starting 3rd grade in the fall and the main focus is multiplication. I'll need to adjust what I have to make it more challenging.

2. I need to make my reading block more structured. To accomplish this I'm reading The Daily 5 over the summer. Have you read it? I've heard great things and from what I've read so far it sounds like it can be successful if your students understand the expectations. Do you agree? I'd appreciate any advice!

3. My third goal is to blog and create more. It makes me so happy when I can share or find a new idea! There are so many outstanding teachers out there! I want to learn from them and work with them!

Thanks to Laugh Eat Learn  for having a Link-Up! Check out her End of the Year Reflections!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know this is a teaching blog, but I'm going to share some thoughts really quickly & then I'll share what the kiddos did for their mommies...
 This year was my first Mother's Day. It was truly a great day. We hosted a brunch for my mom and all her siblings. The weather was perfect, food was tasty, and the time spent was a blessing. It's funny to me how your priorities and life change the instant you have a child. Your perspective shifts, your schedule becomes based on a tiny human's needs, and overall you feel like the parts of your life (home, work, family, friends) are only getting about 80% of the effort you used to be able to put towards them. But you know what you get in it's place? JOY... pure joy. I have my frustrated, overwhelmed, "OhMyWord I don't know if I can do this" moments sometimes, but I always have JOY. My baby & husband fill me with joy each and every day. I hope that's what your Mother's day was filled with-tons of joy. The kind that makes you feel like you'll burst with little happiness squiggle marks :)

Now onto what the kiddos did for their mommies! We made a little thumbprint necklace, which I forgot to photograph-Oops! I got the idea from here. The little flower themed card turned out great. I used the fabulous clipart from Creative Clips-Krista Wallden. and we created little folded flowers. Cutting things out was the most  involved part of the card.

On the inside of the flowers the kids wrote reasons they loved their mom. The sweetest ones were, "You're the only one I love mommy" and "Thank you for always taking care of me and making yummy food." Melt.My.Heart. I will definitely do these again next year. Kids loved them & I hope the moms did too.

What did you do with your class for Mother's Day?

Farewell to Winter

This past Friday we had a fun day before our spring break. Our winter has been just awful this year! So to give winter a message we decided to have a "Farewell to Winter." A day filled with winter themed activities so it heads outta here! Haha!
We did the "snowball toss". Which was Styrofoam balls from the local craft store, 3 baskets I had in class, number cards 1-9, and a tape line to stand behind. The number cards were just on cardstock and tucked under the front of the bucket so they could switch the numbers depending on their level. They all put the big numbers in the closest bucket, but that just meant they were adding larger numbers to get their score at the station. That's alright with me! ;)

We did snowman paint too, which is school glue & shaving cream. So much fun!! Use more shaving cream than glue otherwise it takes a super long time for it to dry (learn from me). Many of the kids made Olaf  and some made the giant snow monster from Frozen.

An ice cube experiment was done as well. We put one ice cube in a bowl with a scoop of salt and another ice cube in a bowl with a scoop of sugar. The kids observed while the melting happened and then we related it back to real-life by talking about how and why snow plows drop salt on the roads.

Some other fun activities were Pin the Nose on Olaf (a huge crowd favorite & so simple with a sketch of Olaf and orange triangles), playing Don't Break the Ice, and building an "ice castle" out of blue solo cups that had tasks on the bottom. We ended the day with popsicles! It was a fun day full of learning and laughs! Here's to hoping our "Farewell to Winter" is a success! :)
I'm so excited for spring! Aren't you!?

Math Stations

Hello all! Well, I'm back to work after my maternity leave and I finally feel like I'm getting back into the groove after two weeks. It is go-go-go all day but I'm getting much better at managing my time so I can spend as much time as possible with my family and still have engaging lessons for the kids! This week I introduced the new math stations for March. The kids really love the math stations. I put out 12 stations to be used for the entire month. The stations are open-ended so they can be completed more than once, but the practice is always different for the student. I use a lot of spinners, number cards, and dice. Before I let the kids use the stations on their own I have a "game day" where I put out the stations that I think will be the hardest to understand. I let the kids move through about 5 stations very quickly while I'm walking around asking if there are any questions. This gives me time to show the kids how to complete the station. It also gives me time to see if the station will work or if it needs any more supplies. I just started "game day" this year and I'm SO glad I did this. The kids have a much better understanding of the expectation & their practice becomes so much better during station time.

I put the directions in the lid of the stations box. All the stations are in plastic containers with latch lids (I got them from Wal-Mart). Putting the directions in the lid helps it stay organized and the kids always know where to find them.

If there are any manipulatives such as money or shapes  in the station I try to put them in small containers inside the station box so they stay organized. The little plastic containers with twist on lids are great for money

I try to include a lot of games that practice a skill. The kids are always more engaged in games which means they're more likely to choose it. My students have a checklist and a math station buddy (someone from their math group). They check off the station when they go to it and then they get a new checklist the following week.

I am able to meet with four math groups per day (for 15 minutes each). The first rotation is always a mixed practice math sheet and number of the day. When a student is finished he/she chooses a math station from the shelf. It took a lot of practice, but they all know they must talk about math and complete the activity while at stations. I think it has really benefited them. As I rotate through the math groups the children take different stations.
How do you have your math stations organized?

Snow Day!

Hello everyone! We had another snow day!! I can't believe it!

I think everyone in the area has had enough of the snow so in the spirit of that I'm attaching a shamrock math fact freebie & a fun shamrock tens frame paper for my K-3 friends!
Maybe mother nature will take the hint! Ha!

This is also my last week of maternity leave! I have been so blessed to have the ability to stay home with my sweet baby for this time and now it's time to get back into the school groove.

I am looking forward to seeing my sweet little second grade friends and also feeling sad to be away from my little guy. If only we could be in two places at once...

I hope you are having a great week! I heard spring is only 29 days away... Let the countdown begin!



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100th Day Headband, Tie, & Winter Freebie!

Hey everyone! The weather seems to be improving slightly, but I hear we're expecting another round of snow. We are getting prepared for more possible calamity days. 

We've already had 6! Yikes! 

We are preparing activities called "Blizzard Bags". It's basically one activity from every subject we teach and the students complete these at home on a calamity day. I created one that has some math fact practice, reading graphic organizer, weather journaling (to cover writing & science), and an informational text about a social studies topic with some comprehension questions. You can use these for everyday practice too. Click HERE for the winter freebie!

 

Next! As I've mentioned before I'm on maternity leave and loving the time with my sweet little baby but it also means... I'm missing the 100th day of school!

It is truly one of my favorite days of learning and fun!

So in celebration of that I'm attaching my 100th day headband.  

You have to be able to print on longer copy paper (8x14 I believe).

Here's what I do with them... the headband is broken into 10 sections. During my 100th day centers I have the children use bingo daubers and put 10 in each section to equal 100 dots in all.

It has to dry for just a bit so I have the kids decorate a tie (also on legal size paper)

while they're waiting. I use yarn as the attachment and some handy scotch tape.
 

Once the hat is dry have the student cut on the gray lines up to the horizontal line. Then it looks like floppy hair when they wear it. I've also had kids gather all the crazy strips and staple together at the top so it looks like a chef hat. Note: I usually have to attach a strip of thicker paper to one end of the 

Then once it's decorated I staple the other end of the strip of paper to make the headband/hat fit each student. You can prep these ahead of time. I copy all the headbands with some extras (because you know one of my little friends will cut one in half by accident) and I attach that strip of cardstock to one end with a staple. Then the making it fit process goes much more quickly! You can do the same thing with the tie. Tape one end with the yarn the day before so the fitting goes faster!

What is your favorite 100th day activity?