Matter, Fractions, and Letters From Kiddos

More amazing weather! Eeek! It is 73 degrees!

Of course, I had to spend some time outside, but then I had to come in to get some work done. :-(

I'm linking up short of Five for Friday...just forgot to snap pictures, but hopefully have some fun things to share.

1

Do you survey your students? Or ever ask them to write to you about the classroom? If you don't, you SHOULD! It is so helpful to me as a teacher to know what they are thinking. 

This particular assignment: Write Mrs. R an opinion letter telling me what we need to spend more time on or something you are struggling with in class.

Fluency is this little kiddo's biggest struggle.

This one cracked me up a little bit because of that last sentence. She is the secretary's daughter, a perfectionist, and has had a little bit of trouble with the Number of the Day in our HOTSHOTS. Fortunately for her, the pack comes with more than we could ever do in class so I was able to send some home for her.  :-)
I didn't think she was having too much trouble, but obviously it has been bothering her so another reason I love getting the kids to tell me what they are thinking!

Keeping it real... Here's one from one of my kiddos that struggle. The victory in this is that up until a month ago, I could barely get two sentences out of her!

 2

Matter, matter, matter! 

We have been studying matter for awhile in 1st/2nd grade science and I am always looking for ways to supplement the text book. A Venn diagram comparing solids, liquids, and gases was perfect. Students had to work together, use their text to find answers, and review all we had learned about the three forms of matter.

3

Fraction fun! 

Our fraction unit was fun AND the kiddos rocked it. In this picture, we are playing a Kagan game called Quiz, Quiz, Trade. Students "mix," pair up, and read each other's card correctly. Then they trade cards and continue mixing.

We also played the "I have...who has...?" games from Kristi's fraction pack. I just realized that her memory game card pieces would be perfect for Quiz, Quiz, Trade!

4

And finally...a sad, but happy picture of my table.

Sad because it was taken this morning which means I had to work on a Saturday--I have really been trying to avoid working on the weekends this year (and have been mostly successful).

Happy because it is all clean and my teaching materials are ready to go for Monday!

We're gearing up for parent teacher conferences this week.

 Basketball (I'm the high school assistant) is winding down--or up depending on how you look at. Big games ahead.

And I just made a hair appointment for spring break.

Doesn't. Seem. Possible.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Measurement, Perimeter, Fractions and Fun!

Happy weekend! I’m so excited to actually have a Saturday at home (well, mostly). 

Last Saturday was a very long, exciting—which means emotionally draining—day. We won the league tournament championship! This is the first time our girls have won the tournament championship since 1974 so we were pretty pumped.

 Pictured: My brother (head coach), my niece, my daughter, and me (assistant coach). 

We have spent the last couple weeks measuring. This week we added perimeter and an introduction to area. The kiddos love the actions and words I came up with for remembering them. I use WBT, so we do mirror with words. “Perimeter is…” Index fingers touching in front of my chin. “…the distance around the shape.” As I make a rectangle in the air. Then… “Area is…” As we make spirit fingers in the middle of our imaginary rectangle. “…in the middle!”

 Gotta love seeing those math helpers handy!

If you’ve followed our blog long, you know that in my building I teach 2^nd grade and K-2 science. This year the 1^st and 2^nd graders are combined for science. It has been pretty neat to organize my class in a way that encourages the 2^nd graders to be helpers. This week as we learned about properties of matter, it was the perfect opportunity to let the 2^nd graders “teach” the 1^st graders how to measure. 

Bonus: The first grader teacher is excited that they will have some background knowledge when she gets to her measurement unit!

We have spent the last couple of weeks learning all about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. The timing is also perfect to learn how to write a biography with all of their new knowledge. :-)

Fractions, fractions! I’m getting ready to start fractions with my class next week. Kristi’s fraction pack makes it easy to combine some fun activities with a few practice pages to supplement my plans. Easy Peasy!

That wraps up my Five for Friday post! 

Have a great weekend!

 

Winner, Winner!

Good evening! I just got home from my daughter's track meet and thought I'd pop in to let you know the winner of our mini-giveaway. :-)

Thanks to everyone who commented and explained how they got to the blog post. It was good to hear that we do still have readers out there! Hee hee. 

I will say I still read blogs, but during the school year I definitely don't comment on as many as I would like. I use Bloglovin' and felt a twinge of guilt the one time I used "Mark All as Read" because I just got too far behind. Ha!

So…the winner is Jayme! I'm e-mailing you the fraction pack now. 

Sleep well!

Clickers and Fractions! Fractions! Fractions!

Are you familiar with clickers?  My students absolutely love them and we use them weekly for our reading story selection test.  I also use them a lot for math review.  If you have clickers, how do you use them and how often do you use them with your kids?

I am so excited because for once I have finished something ahead of time!  YAY!  Things really seem to take me longer because I think I am always over thinking things.  Any ways, I love teaching fractions in math but sometimes our book just doesn't have enough practice. So, I finished the fraction packet that I have been working on and I have actually finished it before we have started our unit on fractions!  I have included some of the games that my kids love and beg me to play often.  The best part about it is that they are having fun while they are learning more about fractions.  I can't wait to use it this year in the classroom.  I am so excited that I'm going to discount it from $5.00 to $3.00 through this weekend!  If you are needing some extra supplement materials for fractions, come check it out!

Hope you have a great Easter weekend!