Joey ~ Math Whiz Extraordinaire

Ahhh, with Calico taking over my house and taking my wife from me; I'm falling behind on our class blog while I run after my kids.  But, I had to take time this morning to give a huge shout out to Joey!  He amazed me with his math skills!

Background:  We are currently working on our addition and subtraction skills.  Obviously, with the common core standards taking over, we are not doing this as it has typically been done in the past and we are attacking problems in a very different way ~ focusing on the HOW and not the WHAT.

Yesterday students were given 2 story problems to do on their own after we did some whole class examples.  While looking them over I learned quickly, we need to a do A LOT of practice!  We went over them in class and for the most part I could see the thinking process in those who shared; but, Joey's was not clear to me.  Well, it wasn't clear until we went over it in class and then I realized he wasn't confused, I was!

Joey attacked his word problem in a way I had never seen done before but made so much sense ~ I think it also helped the rest of the class understand the concept better!  I had originally highlighted the "Show your work" portion of his instructions but then had to write him a note on his paper saying he was just too smart and even "out-thought" his teacher.

Of course, humble Joey just looked at me and told me that he just did as I had taught him!  Go figure, I taught the kid to do something and then didn't understand it myself.  He actually made a connection from our place value unit to our operations unit and I am very proud of him and his thinking skills!

Calico Around the Corner

With Calico just around the corner, the Parent Booster Club has announced a new contest!  The top 3 classes with the most parent volunteers helping work Calico will win a pizza party!

I hope all of our parents are signed up to work a shift at Calico in one of the many areas available!  Not only will it help earn our class a pizza party; but, the annual Calico Arts Festival is an amazing opportunity for our classroom and school to raise money needed to provide our students with many of the special things other schools do not receive.  By working a couple hours on this day, you are making a HUGE impact for the school.

If you haven't signed up and need to know how to get connected, please contact me and I'll get you an extra copy of the volunteer form that was sent home a few weeks ago.

Also, remember, our class basket can't be a success with your help!  Please have all donations in as soon as possible!

Amazing Kids

Wow, this group of students continues to amaze me!  It's not about who has mastered what standard or who will score the highest on the next test; it's about them growing as people and taking responsibility for their actions, and many did just that this morning!

Today was the first fire drill of the year.  We worked through the procedure and reviewed what we were to do during the fire drill.  As you can imagine, children are children and several did not do things the way we reviewed.  When returning back to the classroom, we talked about the things I saw and heard that were not part of the drill (covering of ears, talking, running, etc. .  .)  When we make poor choices, we move our clips down on our clip chart.  Two students stood out and were told to go move their clip down for their behaviors during the drill.  I then asked 3 others if they were involved with the explosive talking that I heard, they all 3 admitted they were and went and moved their clips down.  That honesty was enough to give me the pride I needed for the day ~ I love when students are honest.  But, it didn't stop there!  I made a blanket statement to the class stating if others were involved in that huge uproar, then I expect their clip to be moved as well and if anyone else needed to move then please do so.  I had FIVE students walk to the clip chart and move their clip down!

Can I just say, WOW!  Most people would be so irritated to have had half their class need to move their clip down during a fire drill; but, I had to focus on the positive.  I have a class of students who know being honest about their actions is much more important than possibly getting in trouble!

My praising their honesty just wasn't enough, I called in Ms. Fagundes to report to her the "amazingness" of these students.  She also praised their integrity ~ yes, she explained what that was :)  But, I can't stop gushing over it, so I'm letting the world know how awesome these kids are!  Yes, they make mistakes as we all do; but, the important thing is to own up to those mistakes when they are made!

In case you are wondering, all clips were moved back up due to their display of trustworthiness!  Please join me in bragging on these kids and reinforce how proud we are of them for making the right choice to be responsible for their behavior ~ I may not like how they acted during the fire drill; but, I respect and admire their honesty and responsibility afterwards!

Character Counts ~ My class showed trustworthiness & responsibility!

So Proud

I am so proud of this group of students!  I was out of the class today as the K-2 teachers had a planning day to prepare for our math units.  The day was very productive for us; but, the best part of my day was coming back to the classroom and finding the note from the substitute.  The note was a great reflection of the day they had and showed what a great group of kids we have in this class!  I'm proud to say 2 group teams will be rewarded tomorrow having won a challenge the sub put before them and only 2 students will be sitting on the bench during recess ~ 2 out of 21 isn't a bad day in my book!

Great job students, you make me proud to be your teacher!

Playdough Fun

Sometimes you just need some time in the day to sit back, relax and squeeze some good play dough!  I am so thankful to the preschool teachers for sharing their recipe for the BEST play dough around.  I picked up the ingredients and made my own play dough for the very first time and brought it in for the kids.  I was amazed at the creations they made in just a short amount of time given.

My goal is to have a new batch of play dough every now and again for students to just mold in to whatever they can think of.  Maybe next time, they'll create something and have to write a few sentences about it.  I can always find an academic purpose for play :)

Alicia created an amazing butterfly!

Several students created snails.  I believe this to be Jonna's work ~ check out the details of the feelers!

Kaden and his snake!

Gavin made a waffle that looks real enough to pop in my toaster!

Joey showing off his bumblebee ~ amazing details not seen in the picture!

Smurfy Traits

Anyone who knew me as a child would not find it surprising that I have found a way to bring Smurfs in to my classroom teaching!  They'd probably be more surprised to find it took me this long to figure it out :)

While working on character traits in class, it dawned on me.  My favorite childhood cartoon and toys were all based on character traits!  Greedy Smurf, Handy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, and the list goes on and on.

I have taken the opportunity to capitalize on this and the kids are loving it!  We've begun charting different traits we have found in smurfs, in stories we've read and in ourselves.  Why the emphasis on character traits?  Well, when students begin understanding personalities, they can begin thinking deeper about the characters they read about and why they behave the way they do.  I hope this will easily cross over in to their writing also.  We'll begin seeing them develop characters who act a certain way to display a personality.

In the process of looking at different characters, our classroom has been overrun by Smurfs!  They are all over the place and it definitely makes me smile as it reminds me of my childhood fun!

How I'm feeling after this long day!

Oh This Class!

Oh the sense of humor with this batch of kids!  I previously posted about how funny they found that the Rainbow Fish was sel'fish' ~ they laughed at that for quite some time.  Today, as we were going over this week's spelling words the students just start giggling away.  I look over the words and it took me a few moments to realize they were giggling about the word 'bun.'  In all the years we've had these words I don't think I've had a single group make THAT connection!  But this group, I tell you!  They were enjoying that spelling word way too much this morning.  So, as your students begin practicing their spelling words, be warned, the word 'bun' brings about fits of laughter ~ I'll have to think up a REALLY good sentence for this week's spelling test!