Voting and Veteran's Day

Hello everyone!

Today, I want to tell you what's been going on in room 3-109! Last week, our school was closed because of voting. Our state voted for Governor on November 4th. We did some awesome things to teach about voting. I created a "USA" Corner of the room. 

Look how cute it is! The little box on the left, is actually the "voting" box. Our kids did some really cute voting things. 

First, we read the books Duck For President and Grace for President.

After we read it, we discussed the difference between the two. We made the kids really think about who they would want to be their president. We of course told them they cannot discuss politics in school. We then taught the kids Amendments. That had to be my FAVORITE part! Our amendments were as followed.

Amendment 1- You must wear red shirts Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.

Amendment 2- Students will get 65 minutes of recess daily.

Amendment 3- Everyone must eat 5 broccoli, 3 celery, and 1 carrot every meal. 

Amendment 4- Everyone must wear earrings.

Amendment 5- All students must read 2 books a night.

Of course, none of these were actually taken into REAL action but it was really fun to do. 

Our voting ballots looked like 

If you want a copy of this, then leave a comment and I will absolutely send it your way! :)

Not only did we vote, but we also went to the polls in our school and they gave us a ton of stickers that we were able to give to the kids!

One last thing before we go. I want to show you the anchor chart that we are using this week for Veteran's Day. I am very proud of it.

This week we will be reading The Wall and we have some books that kids will be reading as well. I am very happy to be teaching them the value of voting and our Soldiers.

Have a wonderful week!

Rainbow Math

Happy Saturday everyone!

Over the last few days, I have been thrown many different things with our math curriculum. On of the things that came to our attention was that we MUST have all of the kids fluent with their addition from 1 to 10. They need to know it inside, outside, left side, right side, and upside down. Rainbow Math was born! I created this to help first grade teachers come up with better ways to enforce math addition skills. I'm sure I will create a subtraction version as well but for now this is it!

Rainbow Math-Addition is to help students achieve addition fluency by using a color system to track data. Students will be excited to learn their facts as they progress through the colors of the rainbow.

I created a folder (sorry about the glare)- and I labeled it Rainbow Math and their letter. That way we always keep track of who has what folder. I did give each kid the same blue folder, it keeps it easier for me when I say get the rainbow math folder out,  I can immediately tell just by the color of the folder.

Inside the folder is a plastic sleeve and in the plastic sleeve is 20 math sentences. At the top it says "Red Math Facts" so when you are testing the kids, you know exactly what color they are working on. 

In the Rainbow Math file, you will also get a file with all the math facts on it. They are double pages and you can do this in multiple ways...

1. Cut them and put them in a baggie and use these as flashcards

2. Cut them and punch a hole in them and then put on a binder ring and remove color after each level passed.

3. Cut them and punch a hole in them and keep adding colors to the ring to make many fact sentences.

After each student passes the fluency, they will be able to get a certificate (found in the download). There is also a cheat sheet for you. You can enter the kids name into your master checklist and check them off so you know who passes what color. That is great to use at conferences especially when you need to pinpoint the exact fact that they struggle with.

Rainbow Math  can be bought right on the link! I can't wait to hear all of your thoughts about rainbow math!

Stop and Jot

Stop and Jot. At one point, I wanted to scream. Like literally scream at the top of my lungs. Why? I didn't have an effective way to do Stop and Jot. I teach first graders, and they are NO WHERE close to being able to do alone and/or when they get to certain parts of their book. They will literally do it at EVERY SINGLE PAGE no matter how many times I say NOOOOOOOOO- and then die a little inside.

Then...I had an idea. My idea came from being able to sit with my kids and get a way to have a formative assessment on the kids. I created a mini book. My kids did not give me enough spiral notebooks in the beginning of the year to allow me to make 20 notebooks. That is how the mini-books were born.

The mini-books just have the title of the book that we are reading, the words Stop and Jot, and then a cute image. I stapled it to 5 lined pages so that I can just have them answer questions when I am ready for them. These are about 1/4 of a sheet of computer paper/lined paper. It all fit really nicely together.

Here is the stack of them waiting for the kids to start using them. At the end of the week, I am able to look at their book and determine if they understood the question and answered it correctly. Then I will be able to have a formative assessment on the kids. Hopefully, my next post will allow me to show you what I do with the formative assessment and how I collect the formative assessment. If you would like a master copy of this and editable then leave a comment so I can email the master copy to you!!

Enjoy!!

Erin Condren

I LOVE Erin Condren. Not only is she the cutest CEO ever but she makes the most amazing things. Check out Sparkle the Moon post about her Life Planners. Since I am in an Erin Condren mood... I am going to show you her Teacher Planner. I want to state that I am not affiliated with EC, just a fan.

Here is the cover of the planner. It is very sturdy and pretty thick! She uses a laminate on this to make it sturdy and very durable. 

When you open it- of course you are going to see a super awesome quote- but you will also see several cool pages. You will see your year at-a-glance. Personally, I use this page as a way to track events and birthdays.

After that, you will find the month. This is just a view of the month. A few tabs later you will be able to add things to your lesson plans. A note on the tabs. They are laminated. Yes. Laminated. I was so happy because that keeps it so strong that you are ecstatic it doesn't break. You will have to enter in your own dates to this. I also put some important dates here as well...

Once you turn the page, you will see three full pages of a place for you to take notes. I this as my notes for faculty meetings, staff meetings, or even a quick *REMEMBER.* 

After you go past the monthly events, you will get to the lesson plans. Unfortunately, it is not filled in and silly me forgot to get the pictures of last years planner! However...on the left side is the date, and the top is the subject. At first honestly...I HATED it! But then when I labeled the top of the planner (last year) I realized how much I loved being able to see the entire week's lessons.

Not only do you get all of the amazing things...you ALSO get stickers. I love stickers and I love that it is the perfect size to fit in the boxes. Amazing!

I hope that you are now running (or typing) as fast as you can to get to ErinCondren.com !!! You will not regret it!

xoxo,

Ronnie

Numbers

Happy 4th of July!!! Okay-well it is the 3rd but tomorrow is the 4th! Of course as being a true American {and awesome shopper} I have decided to have a sale ONLY until July 6, 2014. Teachers Pay Teachers has my sale and it only lasts for 3 days!! Let's move forward.

I have a new awesome item that is on sale today! I am really happy to share with you the new item. Last year, I posted about BUILT which was modified from BUILD to fit my own classroom. I used it in my classroom this year and the games I created and printed last year were AMAZING!!! However, you can read about that later on and not right now {stay tuned for more} about BUILT.

This year-going into Kindergarten, I don't have the prior knowledge of what is being taught. With that being said, I have also heard through many people that the kids need to know their numbers. Of course this is where they get their foundational knowledge from. Since I can't create so many games over one summer- I have decided to change up my math block. Here it is!!! I will start off with a basic time like 8 am and I will show you how I do it in an hour or in 45 minutes. Be AWARE- BRAIN OVERLOAD!

Hour Block

8:00-8:15- I do-Teacher directed

8:15-8:30- we do- class & teacher

8:30-9:00 you do- students {centers/BUILT} **This is where we can cut off that extra 15 minutes**

*WHAT! 30 minutes of them working alone? UH-NO! It's okay! Relax! It will be fine! Are you a teacher that checks homework for completion or for the actual work? I, personally, check for actual work. I like to use it as an "intervention." I look to see if they understood it while doing their homework. If they understood it, then I do not call them over to me during small group time. I will pull my students who are not making gains on level and will do a quick reteach. But what are my other kids doing? I will show you! Usually, in 4th grade world, I would have educational games set up and worksheets based on what our particular skill is. However, in KindergartenLand, I worry that they won't come with the knowledge of how to work in groups (until maybe January). With that idea, {and totally mental break down for the thousandth time} I freaked and tried to figure out what I could do with 5 year olds during the time that I pull the other students. This is how my numbers program was born. 

After days of being OCD, I created this product. Once the kids finished their work in the math book, then they will be able to start working their "Mathematician Know It All Book." I thought it was a cute name to make them feel like real mathematicians! What is inside the book?

In this twenty page PDF (that you download from TpT)- you will be able to get pages just like this all the way up to ten. Don't worry... I will get you some up to twenty and even thirty. I hope you enjoy it!

xoxo!