Christmas Time

I've decided it's time to get back into adding goodies to my blog. I realized I hadn't posted things in forever so that will be my goal this Christmas vacation. I got inspired again by looking at Mary Lirette's blog at
http://mrsliretteslearningdetectives.blogspot.com/

She's only been a blogger since early December and already has posted many things. Thanks Mary for giving me that incentive to blog again.

Kathy

You Know You're a Teacher When...

Abby (http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/) is hosting a "You Know You're a Teacher When"...

1. All of your vacation pictures relate to some SPI (landforms, animals, etc) that you teach.

2. You can go all day and realize you didn't take a bathroom break.

3. You get so excited when someone brings you old books their kids don't read anymore.

4. When you can't decide on a name for your own child because you think about kids you have taught with those names (harder when your husband also teaches).

5. You gag when a student brings you his backpack and it reeks of cigarette smoke.  UGHHH!

6. You get a note from a parent on picture day asking that you brush their hair, fix their collar and wipe their nose.

7. You arrange your kids' desk more often than you do your furniture in your own house.

8. You go to the mall with your husband and feel compelled to walk in a straight line by the color coded squares.

9. You are so excited when after spring break the "Light Bulb" comes on and children can recognized the same word each time on the same page.

10. You give thanks to God for a wonderful job that feels like you are on a mission trip all year long.

Measuring Frames

A few years ago my sister gave me some colored foam pieces and I didn't have a clue as to what to do with them.  They sat in my cabinet until this week.  I was working on measurement with my kids.  We spent time measuring everything in the room as I walked around with my clipboard doing informal common assessments. Then all of a sudden I decided my next move (no, it wasn't written in my lesson plans but I believe it is a sign of a good teacher--you know those impromptu things you do). I got the foam pieces out and told everyone we were going to be designing a frame with a picture. Every piece of foam we used, the students measured and wrote it down. We used words such as length and width and color words. So I wanted to share with you the fun we had.

Telling Time Can Be Fun!!

Making the clock with the kids was part of the fun.

It turned out to be pretty big!!

9:00

3:00

6:00

6:30

11:30

4:00

2:00

12:00

10:00

I wanted to do a common assessment on my students in telling time and took an idea from another first grade teacher (Christy Parsley).  She drew a big clock on the floor with dry erase markers so with that in mind, the kids and I made a big clock using tape.  We first put a piece of tape with string on it on the floor and drew a big circle. I told them it was like using a compass. (I have to bring one in so they can understand the concept of a compass).  Then I taped over the marker with blue tape.  I added numbers to the clock (the kids called them "digital" numbers).  Then I gave each student a time which they had to demonstrate using their body. Their legs (the longer part) were the minute hand and the trunk of their body was the hour. This was really a fun project. I could easily assess which students knew time and I loved the cheering on they did for their classmates!  I will definitely use this idea again.  Can't wait to share this idea with my teammates!

Social Studies/Science Sheets to Correlate with Reading Stories

I will eventually get them all posted here but these 1 from Book 4 and 3 are from Book 5.

Henry and Mudge
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5MjllYTA1YjEtODJjOS00YjNkLTg0NjYtZDMwZjdmNGQ4Nzkw&hl=en


Tippy Toe Chick, Go!
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5YzAyYzNkYzYtNDY3OC00MDE0LTliYjgtMDBhYjUxYzJjYWNk&hl=en

The Mole
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5MjE3ZTg4ZTYtNjgyMi00ZDZmLTllN2EtMmZhNzU1NzYzZTY0&hl=en

Dot and Jabber
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5MjAwMTMzNmItYTRhNi00OTU2LThmNGEtZTZmMzQ5ODkzM2Jl&hl=en

It's hard to believe we only have 10 more weeks of school. (only 8 Fridays).  WooHoo!!
Enjoy your week!
Kathy

Center Ideas Presented at In-Service

Hi Everyone!
I'm adding some centers that I made OR found that I used at a second grade math presentation.

Time:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5ZWY1NGE3NWYtMDliNy00ZGQyLWE5ODItYzViZjc3ZTk3ODY1&hl=en

Shapes:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5ZWJmMzYwMjctMjNmNi00NDgyLWI5ZmItNDJkYjJjYTJmNjZl&hl=en

Perimeter and Area:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5Y2MzNDNiYWEtNzA0Zi00YTViLWE5YTYtMWM2OGYyMGMxMTA2&hl=en

Transformations (Slides, Flips, Turns)
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5OWZlZThkOGQtN2UxYS00OTRlLWI3ODktNzNiNWE2NWIxMmUz&hl=en

Dominoes:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5ODA1OTYxZjctZTE2NC00NTFjLTgwMWMtOGJlNjg1MjU1YTFl&hl=en

Story Problems:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ORm1JQU2U5NjY0NjU3YzMtNzhkNC00ZWUzLWEyNTAtMTYyYzU0MzAyYjli&hl=en

Going out to enjoy this wonderful weather on my last day of Spring Break :-)

Literature in Math Ideas

I got these books off of another website and wanted to share them with you. Add them to your collection of books.

Enjoy!

Cucumber Soup by Vickie Leigh Krudwig

In this book, students learn about numeracy and patterns as they count how many insects and spiders come to the ants’ rescue; work with teamwork and how mass and force are related as all the animals push against the cucumber; and finally explore fractional measures as the ants reward everyone with cold cucumber soup. Even though the stories presented are fictional, the students are guided by the teacher to see the math connections between the fictional story and real life

Sir Cumference and All the King’s Ten by Cindy Neuschwander

This is a fun story in which Sir Cumference and Lady Di have planned a big surprise birthday party for King Arthur. Many more guests arrived than were invited. In addition to creating a seating arrangement, they also had to figure out how many people were there so they would know how many meals to make. Digits, place value, and expanded notation were used to display the numbers Lady Di and Sir Cumference counted, and divided as they served the party guests allowing the party to become a major success. 

How Big is a Foot? by Rolf Myller

In the book, an apprentice carpenter was hired by the king to make a birthday bed for his wife, the queen. When the bed was presented to the queen, it was way too small. The carpenter was sent to the dungeon to think about his mistake. In a few days, he figured out he had used his own feet to measure the queen’s new bed. So the king decided to use his own feet to do the measuring and the finished bed was correct. Using this book, students learn about standard and non-standard units of measure

I'm So Excited....Trained on the Promethean Board today!!

Today I trained on the Promethean Board and then taught my class a lesson on compound words.  They absolutely loved it!  I was so excited to add this new piece of equipment to my list of techie things to use. I wanted to share 3 lessons for those of you who have a Promethean Board.


Odd and Even Numbers
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/Resources/Item/61941/odd-and-even-numbers


Compound Words
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/Resources/Item/57539/compound-words


Telling Time
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/Resources/Item/58729/telling-time

Mentee Gifts

I am a mentor to new teachers at my school.  At Christmas time, we had a celebration for an awesome job during the first semester.  My daughter and I made gifts for each of the teachers.  Together we do great work.  I do the background painting and she does the lettering. I had to share some of them with you.

Dr. Seuss Worksheets

Here are the links to the worksheets I used with my Dr. Seuss activities.  Hope you can use them.

1. Match Addition Cards
2. Place Value
3. Green Eggs and Ham Recipe
4. Greater Than or Less Than
5. Dr. Seuss Unit (www.whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com) 

Dr. Seuss Week

This week we did lots of Dr. Seuss activities.  The kiddos loved it!!  It was great to get away from the usual monotonous routine. We read tons of Dr. Seuss books and did math, English or reading activities to correlate with them. I'm publishing pictures of my hallway outside my room where I hung their work.