WOW! This past week was exhausting! We’ve been so busy, as I’m sure you all have too. I had a meeting with our bilingual department to learn more about our district’s vision for 1/2 bilingual multiage. There was so much information shared my head was spinning for a few days.
This week was also our fluency benchmarking week and my students are tested in English and Spanish. We received our ACCESS scores a couple of weeks ago and I was very pleased with my students’ results. They are going to be so successful in third grade!
We did our mother's day project which was inspired by a Pinterest find, of course!
Pinspiration:
Unfortunately our paint was very runny and the pop bottle was dripping everywhere. So Plan B was implemented and we used fingerprints instead. BUT, I forgot to take a picture of them. Oops! They did turn out very cute, some were more interpretive than others, but I know the moms will be happy!
TIME
AND we’ve finally begun our time unit. Most of my students have fairly good grasp of how to tell time... all of our morning work has paid off! A couple are struggling when it comes to keeping the hands straight and how to know when to use the big number or count by fives...I would love suggestions for those students. I color code their sheets. Hour hand and answer space one color and minute hand and answer space another color. I also let them use a mini clock since it’s hard for them to just look at a sheet and find the answer. My big classroom clock has the 5 minute increments posted on it too. Any other suggestions?
One thing that can be hard for my students is the vocabulary associated with time. They LOVE to sound like smart second graders so we made this anchor chart to help them use the Fancy Shmancy Time Vocabulary more easily. Spelling the word schmancy escapes me...don’t judge if it’s wrong. I’m caught between English, Spanish and a maiden name that starts with “sch”.
I remembered to take a picture of this at least! The students only have had one day to use this vocab so far, but they’re getting really good at it! (Proud teacher alert!)
That’s it for now.
Cheers,
Mrs. Castro
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We’ve moved on in our money study and are officially starting to make change. I know that this has been a very difficult skill for some of my previous third and fourth graders to master…so I’ve been semi-dreading this.
I've thought a lot about how to present it to my students to take advantage of the skills they’ve been working so hard to master this year. Here is what I came up with: Fact Families. I don’t know if this is how other teachers are teaching this, my curriculum does not present it this way. It just kind of magically expects them to start counting up, while simultaneously drawing the coins that match and then adding up what they counted up to say how much change is needed…that’s a lot of steps in 1 lesson!
Here is the Making Change Anchor Chart that I used:
I talked about fact families with the kids and how if we know 2 numbers we can find the third. We practiced with familiar fact families.Then we did some really easy making change word problems all together, I plugged in the numbers always referring to the anchor chart.
Example: “Max bought a toy for 30₵. He paid with 50₵. How much change does he need?”
Then we practiced counting up using mental math or the hundred chart.
Then my students went to their desks and we did this with white boards. Students had to make a fact family triangle and then plug in the numbers in the right spots on the triangle as I told them word problems. Then they would try and find the missing number by counting up – showing me their number sentence.
This is how I started and time will tell if this is successful or not. In this very brief first lesson most of my students were getting the hang of this, but this was guided and not independent work. I’ll keep you posted!
On another note, my future teammate and I got together for another 1/2 project. This time we worked on adjectives and cognates (those words that are super similar in English and Spanish). We worked on describing the ocean, fish and creatures in the ocean. We had to think of the adjectives in both languages – this can be a challenge for all involved. I find it interesting how some words just don’t translate well between languages. Here you an see our first step:
It was fun, a little bit stressful, but overall worth it. We did our adjective work and then did a fun art project.
Step 1: Paint paper to look like ocean – we mixed green and blue and some fun sparkly paint.
Step 2: Pass out tinfoil to students. If you have rubbing texture plate thin-a-ma-bobs you can use those too! We got some from our art teacher, but it didn’t work very well. Crumpling up the tinfoil works too!
Using sharpies students draw the outline of a sea creature. We could fit 3 on our sheet. They need to color these with sharpie as well (some regular markers worked and some didn’t). Don’t use fine point sharpies, only the thick tip sharpies.
Step 3: Cut out and glue onto the dry ocean.
Step 4: Add adjective work and display!
Cheers!
Mrs. Castro
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I am definitely a newbie to anchor charts.
I've found so many good anchor chart ideas on Pinterest and other blogs, but I
definitely feel new to creating my own anchor charts. As a resource teacher I
didn't use chart paper as freely and meaningfully as I do now. That wasn't
because I was a resource teacher...it was because I was in a daze from literally
stumbling into teaching.
But Ms. M. at Ms. M's Blog has thrown an
anchor chart linky party. I think this is a great linky party! I will be able
to steal put to use so many wonderful ideas from fellow
bloggers! ;)
However, I do feel the need to
contribute. So, I looked around my classroom and I tried to find something that
was aesthetically pleasing and that was 100% my idea. I looked hard...I found
NADA.
So, I'm partaking of this linky party with
some hesitation. The item I'm most proud of right now in my room isn't
technically a chart. But it is located on a pocket
chart...which is close enough for me!
After scouring the internet, blogs and
Pinterest I really hadn't found a Daily 5 management tool that could help both
my students and me know what was going on during guided reading. I have a whole
Pinterest board dedicated to this search, but nothing seemed right for my class
and our needs.
In comes the pocket chart...see
below.
On the left hand side are the groups, they are color-coded. Station rotations read from left to right.
I have a card for:
- Read to Self
- Read to Someone
- Listen to Reading
- Work on Writing
- Word Work
- Puss In Boots - kids know that means they
meet with me, since I'm the cat lady.
- Underdog - kids know that means they meet
with my assistant, since she has dogs.
(My colleague tied hers to her university theme.)
This pocket chart has revolutionized my guided reading/daily 5 block. While previously I struggled to find a clear way of communicating the rotations, now my students know what group they're in and know where they need to go without ever asking me! With a quick glance I know where students should be and who I need to meet with.
One of my most favorite co-workers (and best teachers I know!) has stolen used this idea and had so much success - she feels much more able to manage a block of time that was previously hard to manage/wrap one's head around. When being observed by my school principal she was very impressed with this visual tool as it helped every single person in the classroom - including her - know with ease what was going on.
I switch the cards around each day, but
nothing too drastic. Generally, the slots with me and my assistant do not
change much throughout the week, rather their Daily 5 rotation changes. I have
a general daily schedule that I use to help guide me each day...but it becomes
very second-nature.
This is my contribution to the Anchor
Chart Linky Party – I hope it is as helpful to someone else as it has been to
me!
Cheers,
Mrs. Castro
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