Finally Teaching, FALL, and Math

   Oh, my! I feel like there has been a huge void in my life not blogging every couple of days. The past couple of weeks have been CRAZY in my school life. There is so many ASSESSMENTS, changes, ASSESSMENTS, training, ASSESSMENTS, assemblies, oh and did I mention ASSESSMENTS?!?!? I have mentioned before that I teach in a small school district in northern Colorado. Being in a small district has its advantages and disadvantages. I have loved every minute of working here the last three years, but the past couple of weeks has been a struggle. A struggle to maintain my love of education. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE teaching and always will. I love my classroom kiddos to pieces.
   I have always thought long-term, not short-term. And some of the decisions and direction that education is taking is making the fun and excitement turn towards draining. But that does not mean I give any less to my kiddos. They deserve the best and not be "guinea pigs" of the system! My district is implementing two more assessments and literacy interventions. My teammates and I are going with the punches, taking out more, and putting in more time for these assessments. BOO! But, I finally think I can fully begin my Walk to Read rotation this week with our second grade intensive kiddos with all three teachers TEACHING!!! Only five weeks into the school year my precious kiddos can finally get the attention they need!
   The weather the last couple of days here in Colorado has made me so excited for fall. I love to be able to pull out the boots, leggings, and sweaters. I am so excited to be able to take Caden and Ashton to the pumpkin patch, play football outside, and bake anything pumpkin! My classroom kiddos are getting excited for fall too. I love how they mention every morning during math when we graph our weather the changes they see and feel outside. This week we will be using my Pumpkin Nonfiction Unit to write about the pumpkin lifecycle. I will be posting it in my TPT store this week once I get some pictures added from each of the activities and crafts we will be completing. Here is a little peak...

   I am so excited about the direction my math block is going. I know in earlier posts this summer I expressed my deep concern about teaching math as not teaching it last year. But, I am pleasantly surprised...actually pleasantly is an understatement! My kiddos are ROCKIN our math block! This past week our Georgia Unit was working with add addition and subtraction strategies. Here is a look at us using links and connecting cubes to solve equations...

I am so proud of my kiddos trying to get away from using their fingers to add and subtract!



   My teammates and I have 90 minutes in which we complete calendar, warm-ups (songs and videos), our whole group lesson, from the Georgia Units, cooperative learning, and Daily 5 Math. We have been spending the last three weeks building our Daily 5 Math stamina. My kiddos know that the countdown is on to fully implement all five rotations of Daily 5 Math on October 21st. Almost all of my kiddos have become experts at Math with Self and Math Writing. We have spent two solid weeks practicing what Math Writing looks like. My teammates and I are using my monthly math journals and then when our kiddos finish they get to go into the math center and pick two number cards, an operation card, and setting card to write their own story problem in their math notebook. We have really been pushing the three parts to a story problem; the story problem, pictorial representation, and equation with label. Here is an example of the three parts we have been practicing...



  And here are the two math journals we are using for the month of October. We differentiate the two journals using the word problems for the kiddos that need more math intervention and the other journal for our kiddos that can complete higher level thinking math activities. You can click on each image to be taken to my TPT store.

   Our plan in math this week is to introduce more in-depth activities with a 200s chart. We will also introduce our Math Work bins during our Daily 5 Math time. We have already used some of the place value activities in my Apples Centers during teacher time, but we will really explore all of the activities as well as incorporate my Halloween math activities during this time. You can get both at my TPT store by clicking on the images below...

   Enjoy your week and celebrate the fall season!