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Friday, February 26, 2016

Five for Friday February 26, 2016

1)  Sharing our work with partners!
This week we had fun sharing our math thinking with appointment cards.  Sometimes it's easy for me to get in a rut with how I have the kids give feedback and share.  Lucky for me though this quarter I have a student teacher and I want to model some fun, effective ways for the kids to share their work.  So, I made the kids these "appointment cards".  After they completed their math work, we all came together. I passed out the appointment cards and then I told them to visit their first appointment and share their math thinking.  After a few minutes I directed them to their second, then third appointments.  They LOVED it.  I put accountable talk stems on the board to help guide conversations, had out our success criteria for word problem solving, and I walked the room to hear the conversations.  Eventually, I want to get them to the point where they make their own appointments, but for their first time, I chose the appointments for them.

2)  120th Day

Since our wonderful kinder teachers celebrate the 100th day with so many exciting things, our first grade team decided to celebrate the 120th day (since our firsties need to master counting to 120).  We had a blast.  They could bring in 120 things, dress like a 120 year old, or wear something with a 120 things.  As you can see above, these adorable kids got creative. In class we made rainbows with 120 fruit loops!  It was a fantastic day!

3)  Figurative and Literal Language Made Easy!
We are beginning our study of plants and we are using paired texts.  To go with plants we chose the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, such a wonderful story.  It is rich with so many things.  One of the great things about this book is the figurative and descriptive language.  I'm trying out my unit that I wrote for it right now before I post it on TPT and I was worried that this lesson would be tricky, but I am SO excited that it was a hit.  I have so many English learners this year that I knew I had to make this content comprehensible.  I love this little guys reaction. I'll post the unit soon!

4) Quote of the Month (for me)!
This is ringing true in my life so much right now.  Especially with my own kids who are trying so many new and exciting things, facing challenges, and overcoming.  I love how my little guy doesn't leave the basketball court after a game until he has shot every basket around the world.  I love how he faced going back to baseball after a tough last season. I love how he pushed through on his 2500 page reading log goal (even though he FIGHTS reading almost every day).  I love how my beautiful daughter is running each day to make track.  I love how she pushes through in physics and math, studying yesterday (even though she wanted to go to the beach).  I love how even after cheer practice she goes to the track to catch any time with coaches.  I also love how this quote is carrying me through my marathon training.  This quote is my motto this month!

5)  Gratitude!
To end my 5 for Friday I am grateful for so many things.  I am grateful for my loving kids, my parents, sister, brother, and friends who always seem to have my back.  I am grateful for my students who put up with (and embrace) our daily gratitude.  I am also grateful for all the little things like the heart garden I passed on a run in our neighborhood.  I am grateful for running and how it helps me stay calm, carry on, breathe.




1 comment:

  1. Love your post! I included a kids sharing idea in my five for friday too! I think I'm going to try the appointment cards idea! Thanks!!

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