Five for Friday--Sight Words, Following Directions, and Addition with Regrouping!

Hey there. I remembered to take pictures this week--woohoo! That means you get a peek at my first week back after spring break. As I said yesterday, it has been quite a struggle to get back into my groove. I'm sure next week I'll feel like I'm back on track!

1. Super Sight Word Check-In

I use our Super Sight Word Packs to give my struggling readers extra practice. After testing them on the lists, I print cards for each student with the words that need more practice. They practice reading them and eventually writing them--which they love to do on the table with dry erase markers! :-) Fridays are perfect for this because I usually don't meet with my Daily 5 groups.

2. Following Directions Game - Morning Edition

So this one is a bit of an "aha moment." I have blogged before about what I consider the easiest, best, and most loved management trick ever. 

Every year, I have had to remind kiddos to do their lunch choice or check their GO Books or do whatever else I have posted on the board. 

This week--probably because it was my first week back from spring break--I just couldn't take it anymore. 

I wanted to shout a few of the following things...

"Read the board!"

"Follow the directions!"

"Why are you working on your work folder when there is a spelling page listed on the board?!?!?!" 

"Why have you forgotten everything over spring break?!"

I did not shout. I promise I did not. I mean, I rarely raise my voice and with this particular class barely have to use my "let's get serious teacher voice." After giving them a few days to "remember" the morning routine, it dawned on me that my handy, dandy "Following Directions Game" would totally work! Oh, the success! Why didn't I think of it before?

Seriously. Go read about the game and try it. You won't be disappointed.

3. March Teacher Birthday Lunch

Every month we celebrate staff/faculty birthdays with a lunch of their choice. We all bring in the requested items and it is always delicious. This time, I signed up for dessert--chocolate pie and crunchy caramel apple pie. Yummy!

4. Regrouping Scoot

I threw in some "fun" math this week. We reviewed addition with regrouping and place value with these scoot cards. This game can be found here from Teaching and Tapas.

We also did an activity where we made a robot on graph paper and found the area and perimeter of it's head, body, arms and legs. That, however, did not turn out as much fun because apparently we need to review area and perimeter...moving on...

5. After-School Visitors

Our secretary has two little sweeties in our school. The one in blue is in my class. The one she is reading to is in Kindergarten. I don't mind them visiting me--especially when it includes reading! On this particular day, she was reading to her little sister and then showing her how to take a Book Adventure test. :-)

That about covers it other than a funny story about me getting stung by a wasp during my most rowdy music class but no picture and you probably had to be there, so...I'll spare you.

Go link up with Doodlebugs if you have a blog!

Enjoy your weekend (and your spring break if you are off this week)!

Christmas Brains, Compound Words, and Adding THREE Two-Digit Numbers

This happened yesterday--really.

"Even you have the Christmas brain!" I said to one of my gifted students.

She looked at me with a funny look.

My para explained, "It's not good."

Moments later, I did something silly (can't even remember what exactly, but you know...couldn't find something right in front of my face or forgot what I was doing...). After which I cried, "I have it too!"

Are your students experiencing the "Christmas brain?" You know, where they can't remember how to do things like alphabetize and think the rules no longer apply to them. 

All I can say is what a week! We made it through our Christmas program Monday night and it was all downhill from there. Ha!

One more week...

So here is some learning we actually accomplished this week despite our "Christmas brains."

Compound Words!

Our spelling words this week were compound words. On Fridays during Daily 5, I let the kids play a learning game during Time with Teacher while I'm conferencing one-on-one with other students. I pulled out this quick and easy "center" type activity and let them work with a partner to complete. 

I put our Compound Word Cupcakes on sale for only $2.00 if you'd like to snag your own set!

Adding THREE two-digit numbers - WOWSER!

I made a little INB activity to practice adding two-digit numbers. 

This first picture show this group was doing some heavy thinking! HA!

This group was all smiles!

This "half of the group" (if you know what I mean) was wanting more, more more! :-)

You can get the activity free here. It is just a pocket for storing the numbers and full sheet of two-digit numbers for kids to draw two or more cards and practice adding.

Enjoy! Best of luck avoiding "Christmas brain!"

Addition with Regrouping and Kahoot!

We started addition with regrouping this week and my kids are doing great! In the past I didn't always spend enough time on the concrete part of it, such as using base-10 blocks or dimes and pennies to show what was happening.

This year in my guided math groups, I took it really slow the first two days with my lower kids and we used dimes and pennies to help us. On the flip side, my high group was adding 3-digit numbers the first day! Have I mentioned that I love guided math groups???

Anyway, even my lowest group is doing awesome! I just have one kiddo who is sometimes regrouping when not needed. That always seems to be a challenge for a few. 

*time-out :-)*

Have you tried Kahoot? It is a pretty cool website that allows you to create a quiz and students answer on iPads. The answers are color and shape coded so that helps the little ones know which answer they want to choose. We've used it a couple of ways...one where each of my color teams have an iPad and take turns answering questions. This saves on time logging in, but the kids definitely prefer to have their own iPad (of course).

*time-in :-)*

Because I usually have some kids trying to regroup when they don't need to, this year I made a Kahoot! to practice making that decision. You can use it by clicking here.

Once we were pretty comfortable with regrouping as a class, I used a couple of TPT finds to practice. This freebie came from All Students Can Shine.

She has two sets of cards (one with regrouping and one without), but I put them all out. My kiddos had to decide if regrouping was needed or not to determine which side of the recording sheet to use. 

I also used another freebie called Basketball Scoot from Teaching Second Grade. Sorry no pictures! Remember my daughter was sick? Well, she apparently passed it to me and I had to call for a sub yesterday. Feeling better today (I think). I'm sure it was great though. I used it last year and my class loves to "scoot."

Well, I hope you have a great weekend!

P.S. I have made one other Kahoot! It is for verbs with singular or plural nouns if you'd like to give it a try. You can search and find some others on the site as well.

Home Improvements, a Birthday, and Addition with Regrouping!

 

Yes, this is a picture of my new furnace. I know this might not excite most of you, but I am absolutely thrilled to come home to a warm house! No more having to "work at" having heat by making sure the fire doesn't go out. Praise the LORD!

 

And...continuing on with the home improvement projects...



This is the view of my bedroom from the doorway.

This is the view of the bedroom from my NEW walk-in closet.

The closet! I can't wait to get it all set up!

I should have taken before shots...or maybe that would have been too embarrassing! We ripped up the floor, replaced some damaged floor joists and put down a new sub-floor. We tore off all the old drywall, replaced the insulation and updated the wiring, and added the two new windows you see in the pictures. The "mud color" you see on the walls is the base coat for stucco. My dad had his own business for years and hubby actually worked for him for 10 years and learned to stucco. Here's a picture of the dining room walls--just so you can get an idea of what the finished walls will look like.

 

 

One more personal note...here's my son. He turned 14 today!!! I can't even believe it. He wants to know when he can get his learner's permit now. I'm not sure I'm ready for this! ;-)

 

Now on to the SCHOOL stuff (which I'm sure is why you are here):

 

Since this is my first year teaching 2nd Grade, I was pretty excited to teach addition with regrouping. Crazy, I know!

 

Anyway, I found this catchy tune and video on Pinterest. The kids and I are loving it. You might even catch me dancing a bit. Ha!

 

I also wanted some extra practice for my kids so I went on the hunt to find some free worksheets. I stumbled upon this website: Busy Teacher's Cafe. I haven't explored the whole site, but I like what I've seen so far. Check it out!

 

Countdown to Christmas at the O.K. Corral is on... Our performance is next Monday. Wish me luck! Better yet, pray for me! :-)

 

Have a great week!