100th Day, Place Value, Read to Someone and I Have Who Has?

We celebrated the 100th day of school on Tuesday.  The kids were so excited.  For the 100th day, we dress up like we are 100 years old.  The kids always look so cute and they play the part well.  I had one that just made me laugh because when we were in reading groups, I said spoons in the bowl and in an old lady voice she said, "Where's my bowl?"  I couldn't help myself from laughing!  Here they are:

I told them that we couldn't do our normal Gonoodle since we were 100 years old, so instead we did a chair exercise break!  :-)

This week, we have been working on place value and being able to find the number in the ones place and the tens place.  After going over it, we played a game called swat it.  I had the students think of a 2 digit number and write it on their desks (I love it because we have desks that we can write on with dry erase markers).  Once they wrote the number on their desk, I played a place value song and they walked around like musical chairs.  When the music stopped they found a desk and I called out either ones or tens place and they had to swat the number in that place.  If they got it right, then they stayed in the game and if they got it wrong, they had to sit out.  It was a lot of fun and a fun way to practice place value.

I have to say that these 1st graders are rockin in read to someone in Daily 5.  I was able to snap a couple of pictures of some of them!

In small groups, we have been playing some of our I Have Who Has Games.  Every time I get them out, the kids say "Oh, I love this game!"  I love it because they love it and they are having fun and learning at the same time.  We have been practicing and then timing our game and trying to see if they can beat their score each day.

I hope all of you had a great week and have a great weekend!

Daily 5 Progress and Math Rotations - Five for Friday!

Happy Friday! 

I tell you with Labor Day off this week, I had my days all messed up and strangely it seemed like a longer week than normal. Short weeks are always like that for me though!

So here's what we've been up to in 2nd grade:

We went over Check for Understanding again before we started practicing Read to Someone. We only have one thing left for next week - Listen to Reading. 

These kids are rocking out the Daily 5! Don't hate me, but we were doing 15 minutes of Read to Self the 2nd day!!! Thank you, dear first grade teacher! :-)

Today I even tried some math rotations...

This is group is playing our I Have...Who Has...? Time to the Hour and Half-Hour game. It is our all-time best seller and I can understand why--great for 1st grade and the beginning of 2nd grade! :-) Also available in our Telling Time Mega Pack. 

This group is working in their Interactive Notebooks. They are loving these things and so am I! The students are so engaged--all of them and all the time. These pages come from the math INB pack I'm working on, but I'm kid-testing (and teacher-testing) it before I list it. :-)

This group is working with pattern blocks. First they had to cover some shapes on a paper from Saxon and then I let them explore (play) the rest of the time.

These two are practicing one of the card games from Dealing with Math Homework. I have had a great response on what I'm calling STAR Homework (idea from Amanda Madden). I've adapted it a bit for me, but the kids and their parents are loving playing these math games and the new style of homework in general.

Don't forget to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Have a restful weekend!

LOVING DAILY 5!!

So we did our first full week of Daily 5 and I am loving it!!  I feel like the kids are benefiting so much from it already.  I will have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first (especially since I'm really not a centers type of gal).  After experiencing it.....I'm loving it!!

Below you will see some pics of my kiddos working hard during read to someone.

 

I do have a question about the individual conferences and time management.  We did our first individual conferences on Friday and I barely made it through them.  I started stressing toward the end because I was afraid that I wasn't going to get to all the students.  Luckily I made it, but it was close.  What do you do during your individual conferences and any tips on how to get through them time wise?

I look forward to hearing about your individual conferences!  Hope you have a great weekend!  Kristi

Word Work

We are so excited about the Daily Five that we just started in our classrooms this year.  So far, it is going great!  We have introduced the read to self and work on writing.  Next week, we plan to launch word work and read to someone.  We were curious about the word work and wondered what others were doing as activities for this part.  Would love to hear about the things you are having your kiddos do during this part of the Daily Five.

Hope all of you are starting your year off great!  Kristi

A Read to Someone Funny - Daily 5 Chapter 5

"Teachers have no control over which students walk into their classes, what goes on outside school, or other external factors, but teachers can control how they react to those things that happen."

Hopkins (2002) page 60

I think this is one of the reasons the Daily 5 structure appeals to me. I have a very diverse group in my class each year. We are a Title I school because we have low income housing in our district, but our school is also located in a booming area of town where new houses are going up. So I have some kids who are getting LOADS of support at home and some who are getting LITTLE or NO support. Then there are those families that are just TOO BUSY to have their children practice reading at home. I can't control any of that, but I can provide students with ample practice time in the classroom.

Funny story about Read to Someone... Remember I have not done Daily 5 before, but last year I had one student who was really struggling with her AR tests. I talked with her and we decided that she needed to read her books to a buddy before taking a test so she would check with me and I would give her the okay to find a buddy.

One time two students (who did not have permission) had paired up and were reading to each other and doing a great job at it! Now I did have to tell them that they needed to check with me first, but it was neat to see that they were capable of doing this with no modeling or training.

Makes me think that introducing Read to Someone with modeling and practice is going to work great and I know the kids will enjoy it!

Last year on Fridays we would do what I called partner reading with our basal stories and the kids loved it. They each read the story and then they would read it together. Voice level was definitely an issue, but that was with the whole class doing it at the same time. I had two little sweeties that just had the LOUDEST voices - not on purpose - it was the way they always talked. They did not make a good pair! Ha ha!

I love the check for understanding part because it makes the kiddos more accountable to listen to their buddy. I also like the "Coaching or Time?" lesson because first graders have such a hard time understanding that. This lesson really breaks it down for the kids which will be helpful. I'm hoping someone has a great Coaching Sheet (maybe a bookmark) freebie for this!

Listen to Reading - I have already decided that during this time, students will listen to our basal story and then do some of the activities online provided by our reading series. I'm excited about this because last year I used this as a choice when done with work, but not all kids had the opportunity to do it (slower or off-task workers kept them from getting to choices). I only have two student computers so I will have to check out laptops every day to make it work (ugh!) but it will be worth it!

Thanks to our wonderful first grade hostess...

Oh, and LAST CHANCE to enter to win $25 to MPM School Supplies or the BEST Pencil Sharpener Ever (or so we've heard -- ours are on the way - YIPPEE!).

Graphic by The 3AM Teacher http://the3amteacher.blogspot.com/
Font by Graphics From the Pond http://frompond.blogspot.com/

You might have noticed that we are well over 50 followers now! In fact, we're over 100! Woohoo! Stay tuned for how we plan to celebrate 100+!

Have a wonderful day!

Crystal

Go to Chapter SIX