Let's Talk About My Week (NOT)!

This week we had school for a whole 2 and a half days... Meaning... snow days on Monday and Tuesday with a 2 hour delay on Wednesday. I feel like I am so far behind in everything--especially math! But, that isn't what this post is about. It is about the randomness that I somehow compiled into our "week." I also think it will make due for a 5 for Friday. :)

This week we studied a tiny bit about the Arctic. We began our study with a quick video on you tube about the Arctic ocean and then broke out a shared reading passage from Arctic Adventures by: Stephanie Stewart. We focused a lot of the vocabulary from the passage and completed some reading detective questions. I had the students work with their reading buddies to complete the questions--let's just say we need more work with answering open ended reading questions & using complete sentences!

We also made a vocabulary poster to refer to when answer questions. (Silly me tore it down today after school so no picture).

Today, we wrote down things we learned about the Arctic on an anchor chart and made them into complete sentences. Then, students worked on their fact flip books and an Arctic craft!! 

Ready for a picture overload?

Basically, what I had the kids do is choose two new facts to write about on their flip books. They wrote two facts from the passage or the video we watched and wrote the facts on the outside of the flap book. Then, on the inside students drew a picture to show that they could understand the fact. They turned out great!!

I love how this little guy totally grasped the concept of how the sun needs to face the earth for day light and vise versa! I LOVE his picture!

Sorry for the blurriness of this one but I just loved the 'wind.'

I swear to get a good camera soon and stop using my I-phone one!

This week in math we learned some new games (all we had time for) and I introduced double digit addition.

 I took some base ten blocks, a tens and ones mat and made a worksheet to help us learn this ever so important concept. I even took it so far to tell students that this is a very important thing to learn... If we don't know double digit addition then it makes it hard to grocery shop! Where did that come from you ask? I have no clue... first thing that came to mind and out my mouth... you heard first grade gasps though and... ohh... we better pay attention so we can go grocery shopping!! ha ha!...life connection right there folks!!

We began the lesson in a circle on the rug. We do have a smart board in this classroom but sometimes I really think they learn this stuff best when they get to actually manipulate materials instead of  watching me drag stuff around on a board. 

I gave students a double digit addition problem and we identified which numbers were in the tens in ones place. We practiced noticing how the numbers were lined up in the addition problem. When we were practicing the tens and ones place the students were using base ten blocks to help them with that. (Mainly for my struggling kids) I showed the students two different strategies to complete double digit addition

I showed students how to complete addition problems by simply adding down the ones and tens place. We practiced circling them together so they knew which two numbers to add together. This worked very well for some. Folks, we had a LOT of light bulbs going off in math today!! Aren't those the best days? It was hard to teach but so rewarding. :)

I also taught students how to make both numbers separately with their base ten blocks in order to find the sum to a double digit addition problem. For example, if the addition problem was 22+12 then students would first take 22 base ten blocks and place it on their tens and ones mat. Then, they would move them to the top and add 12 more onto their mat. Students combined their base ten blocks and they had their answer to the double digit addition problem. This was great for my students who really struggle with addition period! 

Next, week I am going to pull students in guided math and work on this more because it was a tough! They even said, "My brain is tired."! That's when you know you had a good day in math! :)

Here is the double digit addition problem worksheet if you would like! Yes, FREE! :)

Just click below to grab this stuff!

Something else I have been doing in math is the interactive math journals.

I love the 'real' interactive math journal stuff and all the cute fold here and fold there stuff ... but, let's face it-

-1. their confusing, 2. they take a lot of time and... 3. yeah, I don't have time for that !!

So, I created some simple and easy to complete interactive math journal activities for my kids. This was first meant just to be a few activities and then it turned into a huge packet and now I am doing monthly ones. I just can't get enough and they LOVE it! Here is some of their work!

The activities are basically mini-stations that the students cut, glue and sort! I love it because it is just so interactive and really concrete for them! They are also able to complete these totally independently which is perfect for guided math time!

You can grab a total of 54 activities below!

Be on the look out for the February version! I hope to have it posted soon!

Hopefully, I will see you Sunday with my visual plans... that is if this new and upcoming Ohio storm doesn't hit us. Someone said 10-18 inches?!!! UGH!!!! Is it possible to say that I am tired of snow days?!!!!

Now, head over to doodle bugs for some more fun reads!