Monday, March 16, 2015

I {LOVE} Work Days!

Today we got a work day in our classrooms!
I <3 work days! It means I get to spend a day in my room (mostly) uninterrupted getting TONS of work done! It definitely feels more like summer now that I have done some cleaning in my classroom. Summer is truly my favorite time to work in my room. I love trying to move things around, trying new floor plans, putting up new bulletin boards, having everything be nice and shiny! 

This whole morning was devoted to cleaning, grade cards and a smidge of planning.
We cleaned chair pockets out, wiped down all the tables, sharpened pencils, updated things, and made everything look nice. 

I like having everything "in its place" so to say. I find that then it is easier to be productive. 
(that's why my house is always so clean when I have grad school homework to do!) 

We went to lunch at our local BBQ restaurant ... and all ordered salads. HAHA 

Came back and started planning.
I am REALLY bad about writing down my plans. I almost wish it was a requirement so that I was sure to get them on paper.
We have SMART Notebook (for now) and I typically do a lot of screen-shots of needed materials. The program we use came with workbooks, and I've had my Tiger Tutors tear out all the pages (otherwise the kids can't do it on their own), which makes the "paperwork" side of things WAY easier.

Today I just needed to make some copies of our "problems of the lesson" and place the workbook pages in the days I wanted to do them. 

We are finishing up our time chapter this week and next week we will begin multiplication/division bar model problems. I can't say I'm totally excited to teach it, but it will happen! 

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day (and picture day for us)

Go to my store for a $2 packet! 

Have a lucky day! :) 

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Fractions

This coming week, we are starting our fraction unit. How quickly I am able to go and how many "fun" activities I get to do will depend on the first day, when we will do some of the Chapter opener that Singapore always has and I can better gauge their prior knowledge.
I'm always thankful for these days because they are like an extra day, I can sometimes use these days to get a jump on the chapter if I know that we are going to struggle and we will need extra time. 

Here are my tentative plans for the coming week: 

Barring we have no more snow... we should get through our fraction chapter in about a week and a half!

Something I have been working on this weekend has been this calendar booklet for First grade!
A buyer asked me if I could do my Calendar Book for First graders, so I obliged. I don't teach first grade, so I did my best to tailor the pages to their calendar and to activities that would help develop their number sense. 


Click on the picture to go to the calendar booklet in my store! It's 141 pages of lovliness :)

I also whipped up these: 

FREEBIE Bookmarks in my store ... math and the other side is reading. I love using partnerships in my classroom. Partner work is invaluable! 

The end of the school year is almost here (even though there is snow on the ground), which means the end of my grad school days and the end of my student teacher, the end of my internship, and the beginning of summer!
YIPPEE!