Sunday, September 28, 2014

Catch Up!

Since I missed the first week of school, other than the first hour, I considered the second week to be the first.  We started working on our First Day of School Booklets from Fun in First

For math, we explored different ways to represent a number.  For example – 20 can be shown by 2 base ten rods, 20 smiley faces, $20, 20 tally marks, etc.  Students picked their own number and showed at least 5 ways to represent it in their math journals.


At the end of the day students took home a little baggie of ‘Gold fish’ with an ‘I’m officially a first/second grader’ tag.  I got this off of Pinterest and bought the Goldfish baggies to put them in.

Good Bye to my Mom

I have not been on my blog in a few weeks now.
My mother passed away on the night of September 1st; the night before school started; so things have been a bit out-of-sorts.  I have been busy playing catch-up with my class as well as other things in my life, so my blog took a backseat.  I will try to get back on track and fill you in on all the fun things we have been doing in class.


I did manage to go into school the morning of September 2nd.  I think I was in a state of shock – my mother’s death just wasn’t registering with me yet.  (It still isn’t really.)  I was able to greet my students outside.  (Somewhere around 9, they found a supply for me.)  At the bell I led my students inside.  I followed Sarah Meador’s 5 Steps for the First Day of School.  This introduces the basics of Whole Brain Teaching.  The students responded perfectly (well nearly...). 

After learning the students names, I asked who had visited the class website.  Oh, let’s backtrack...  About a week before school started, I mailed out letters introducing myself, supplies needed, the class website, permission forms for photos, etc.  I got the website set up ahead of time.  I highly recommend Weebly for an easy class website.  I have used it for 4 years now – absolutely free!  From Amy Lemons and Around the Kampfire blogspots, I got the idea for the fantastic book, “Where Were You?”, by Melanie Watt.  Our board’s library didn’t have it so I ordered it from Chapters Indigo.  I got the book trailer from Around the Kampfire and put it on my site.  It is so cute and makes you really want to read the book.
Next, I read the book to the students.  They loved, Loved, LOVED it!!!

I asked the students, “So...where were you???”  They came up with great responses, from being on a Disney Cruise, to driving from a cousin’s, to getting Tim Horton’s before school.  At this point, I had a supply teacher in my room as well as my EA.  As the students told me where they had been, I had them go to one of the adults to jot it down on a post-it and put it on our chart.  This ran nicely into my prep time.  At this point, I filled the supply in on some plans I had for the week and then I left to be with my dad and daughters.