TEAM Homework, Scoot, Math Games, Vowel Town, and Extra Fun Thing!!

Another week has passed and we are starting to get a routine down.  I always forget how many things there are to teach at the beginning of the year on just the routines.  I wanted to share a few things that we worked on this week:

1.  TEAM Homework-We started homework this week and the kids were so excited.  I use the Team Homework approach that was found on TPT by Teacher's Clubhouse.  I love it!  The kids can play math games with a deck of cards, read, practice sight words and spelling words from a sight word/spelling menu and/or do writing from a writing menu.  When they do one of these they put a star by what they did.  At the end of the week, we add up how many stars the class gets.  The kids were so excited to tell me on Friday how many stars they had gotten.  We ended up having a total of 61 stars....YAY!!  That was a lot considering I have a low number of students in class this year.  We will try to beat that number next week.  Here is what their homework folders look like:

2.  I introduced the kids to scoot with tally mark scoot.  They loved it and the fact that they are up out of their seats and moving is even better.  I placed the cards around the room and they went around the room and wrote down the answers.  

3.  We are still working on how to be a good partner and using our spy voices (whisper voice).  We practiced with a math game.  

4.  Vowel Town-We use Pathways to reading, so I have the vowel town on the mimio and the kids had to race to put the vowels back where they belonged.  They had fun doing this and it was a great way to practice our vowel town.  

5.  Extra Fun Thing-the kids that have all their work done and haven't moved their clip down too many times get to participate in an extra fun thing at the end of the day on Friday.  This week, we made slime!  They thought this was so fun!

Have a great weekend!

Five for...Well, Sunday!

Good morning!

We had a short school week last week with an inservice on Friday and then we will have another short week this week with PT comp day on Friday. 

Anybody else feel like short weeks are longer??? 

I don't know if it is because I'm trying to cram so much in or what the deal is, but I'm always completely confused what the day it actually is (my kiddos corrected me at least five times on Thursday for saying Friday) and completely exhausted by the end of the week! Ha!

Anyway, let's jump in to this week's photos for the Five for Friday linky from Kacey at Doodlebugs Teaching.

1

Last week, we reviewed telling time to the hour and half-hour. This week, we'll work on telling time to the five minutes. Games and practice pages from our Telling Time Mega Pack make planning easy! :-)

2

I also introduced the kids to Showbie this week for the first time. I love this app! While I don't go completely paperless in second grade (I think it is still important for them to learn how to WRITE on paper), I do like to put things on Showbie that are good review but simple enough they seem like a waste of copy paper!

3

Our math games from Dealing with Math Homework from Teacher's Clubhouse are always a hit. We practiced this new one and they loved finding the missing addends!

4 and 5

 Yesterday, was regional cross country for my son and then we rushed back for sub-state volleyball for my daughter (and the team I help coach). My hubby was ready to make a quick wardrobe switch to support them! ;-)

The entire cross country team PR'd! It was great to see them run well. My niece will move on to the state meet next weekend.

The volleyball team won their sub-state tournament, taking their record to 38-2. We will play in the state tournament next weekend. Here's a picture with a bunch of the fans that showed up to cheer us on (my daughter is #14). :-)

Have a blessed Sunday and a great week!

Place Value Grab and Salute!! Fun Math Games!!

We have been playing a couple of games that the kids have really loved in math.  The first one, I call place value grab.  The students get with a partner and put flats, longs and cubes in the middle.  One of them closes his/her eyes and has 3 seconds to grab from the pile.  When the time is up, they have to count how much they have.  If they are right, they get to keep them, if they are incorrect, they have to put the pieces back in the pile.  Whoever has the most at the end wins the game. 

 (Sorry, I didn't get a picture of this one)

The other game is called Salute and it comes from the Everyday Math Program.  This game helps students practice adding and finding missing addends.  Students get into groups of 3.  One person begins as the Dealer.  The Dealer gives one card to each of the other 2 players.  Without looking at their cards, the Players hold them on their foreheads with the number facing out.  The Dealer looks at both cards and says the sum of the 2 numbers.  Each player looks at the other Player's card.  They use the number they see and the sum said by the Dealer to figure out what the number on their card must be.  They say that number out loud.

The kids have been begging me to play these games every day!  

Have a great day!