What TIME is it?

It’s that time of year again…time to practice telling time…right down to the minute! Making the jump from only telling time to the hour and to the half hour has been FUN! Here’s a little of what we’ve been up to lately…



…because our current math unit only covers one primary standard, our unpacking chart has doubled as an anchor chart to compile learning. We began by discussing the importance of telling time and reviewed telling time to the hour and to the half hour. After having just completed fractions, we also color coded the half hour and quarter hour to help us tell time a little later.



Distinguishing between AM and PM sounds like a pretty easy concept…right up until a 7 year old has to wrap their brain around morning starting in the middle of the night! Yikes!!! LOL! This day’s lesson was a laughter filled afternoon of sorting and game playing. We named activities that we usually do each day and had to determine if those activities took place during AM hours or PM hours. Some were tricky, but they got the hang of it through lots of grins and giggles.

In our classroom, independent work often starts with a blank sheet of paper. Creativity, after all, is intelligence having fun! In order to show what they’d learned, students traced the lines of a piece of paper I had pre-folded for them. They labeled their headers for AM and PM being sure to add the 12 hour span of time both covers and illustrated the sky to show their understanding of what it may appear to look like during those times. After completing their headers, students drew four events from their day that took place during AM hours and four events that took place during PM hours. Lots of fun discussion…



On the next day, we prepared to begin telling time by skip counting by ‘fives’. Using an analog clock to tell time is a skill that’s quickly becoming obsolete, if it hasn’t already. Most 7 year olds check the time on mom or dad’s cell phone screen, but now…these smart cookies are some of the best time keepers on the planet and are keeping our daily schedule on track by reading our classroom analog clock to the exact minute! In order to make the transition from whole and half hours as smooth as possible, we pulled out our unifix cubes to “touch” the minutes as we counted them. Second graders are awesome little people!

Beginning with the cubes helped to make the minutes tangible, concrete…something they could touch before trying to get them to grasp the concept of abstract, individual minutes. Being able to use our circle tables for learning is just one more reason why we love them! After getting my Ron Clark on during our whole group lesson, students used numbers to build a clock face on their table top in small groups and then placed blocks to represent 5 minute intervals for counting. I often perceive myself to be just a bit taller than I actually am. Having a little platform up there might not be such a bad idea! Hmmmmmm….

Now, students have an additional resource from Really Good Stuff to help them tell time successfully. Side note: Don’t show kids everything you’ve got at the beginning of the year. Save instructional décor until you need it to teach with…then you’ll have something new to share and kids will more likely ACTUALLY use it as a resource!

We’ve kept the clocks we made on the first day of our unit to use as tools for learning. Now, we’ve also created flaps to display the time to the ‘five’ under each number on the face of the clock. Being able to tell time to the fives will help us get to the exact minute by skip counting and then counting on
to the specific time.

The kiddos have enjoyed having their own clock, BUT I think the final look of their tables have been their favorite thing so far. After each group assembled their table clocks, I taped the numbers down and used a sharpie to add “minute” marks to the tables. Yep, I wrote on the table with a sharpie! GASP!!! It comes off, lol! With a little hand sanitizer and time, it’ll be completely removable…..BUT hopefully, not until AFTER we’ve finished learning how to tell time.

NOW, each table group can work together to display time and write the digital format to match it. Tables will also double as clocks for math station activities when we return from spring break! =)

AND…our anchor chart has changed a LOT with each additional lesson too! It’s almost complete! As part of our final review lesson, before the BIG test, we’ll label both the analog clock and the digital clock with a specific time.

NOW, it’s time for this teacher mama to go to bed! I hear a fun filled day of spring break calling…TTYL! 

Smart Art: A Very Grouchy {Reading & Math} Craftivity

Hi, Friends! Has spring fever sprung in your classroom already? I think my class had bowls and bowls of Loopy Fruits before school on Friday…but I think, I think we managed to survive it!

It also turned out to be a very grouchy day in our classroom….BUT, in a good way!

 

Our smart art for the week was a fun connection between reading and math. Initially, my kiddos were wondering why we were doing math during our Daily 5 block, but after we got started with a fun interactive reading of Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug they quickly understood! Reading this book together was fun and everyone was able to participate because of the repetitive “call and respond” pattern found in the text.

This little activity helped us to wrap up our time unit, practice retelling, review shapes and use fractions in a fun way!

Each student was given a time taken from the story to represent in 3 different ways…how they would “read” the clock in words, how it would appear on a digital clock and how it would appear on an analog clock. That bold little ladybug had quite the busy day, so there were lots of times to represent!

The clock hands were colored to match our classroom set of Judy clocks. Each student had to show their time and get a thumbs up before gluing it to the clock face. After gluing the hands to the clock or ladybug’s body…students wrote to fill in their ladybug labels, then cut and glued them to the wings. In our classroom, students have creative control…so they did not all have to create their ladybug in the exact same way….BUT they had to make sure their analog time was visible after having glued the wings on.

See the whiteboard in the background? That was my little example projected onto the board to serve as a guide for their completed project.

We have new math standards in TX this year…the ending of the story worked very well for explaining “about time” or how we use quarter hours on the clock too. As the little ladybug flies through the story picking fights she moves from hour to hour. At the end of the story, she harasses a whale every quarter hour, which made for a great “teachable moment”.

After leaving for lunch and recess to let our little ladybugs dry, we returned to the classroom to retell the story. Each student grabbed their little ladybug and we sat in the hall in front of our lockers. Our intent was to sequence the times in the order of the events of the story {and hang them on the lockers] and we DID….BUT, HOLY MOLY did it look busy once we were done! I couldn’t even look straight at our lockers without getting dizzy! LOL!

Sitting in the hallway added a little novelty to the lesson too! With spring fever in full swing, finding new spots to learn in will be definitely be on the agenda!

See?! BIIIIII-ZZZY! Look away….scroll down, before your eyes begin to cross!

Whew! Much better!

If you look very closely, there are two little empty spots. Smart art is serious FUN, but also serious business. Students ONLY get to participate in smart art IF they have completed the two “must do” activities from work stations during the week. If it is not completed, then they must use their smart art time to become, well……smarter…and complete the work that was required of them. NO “must-do”, no smart art.This practice prevents students from being rewarded without having earned it. In our classroom, we have a lot of fun. Students are rewarded well, but it is because we make things look easy by doing the hard work, first. =)

Feeling grouchy? Click the pic above to grab this little activity for your class of ladybugs!

Happy reading! =)

Five for Friday~SNOW DAY!!!

Hey, ya’ll! It’s SNOW DAY Friday!



We woke up to SNOW! Real……SNOW!  My friends that live a little further north of the Texas state line will most certainly get a real giggle out of the frenzy we went into over a couple inches of the frozen stuff. We didn’t dare venture any further than our yards today because we have no idea how to get around in this stuff! My son didn’t even make it out the front door before he was flat on his butt!!!



Now, here’s the real kicker! On Monday, we had on shorts! The forecast for tomorrow…70! Yes, that’s how drastic our weather can be, but we wouldn’t have it any other way! We live in the only state where we experience EVERY season of the year…….weekly! Ha!!!



With only 3 days of school this week, getting a chance to snap a pic or two was tough. These first two weeks back have been used to complete mid-year assessments. They’re D.O.N.E and now we can move on to the fun of teaching and learning again! Yahooooo!!!

Things are getting a little harder, moving a little faster….expectations are, dare I say {more rigorous}. One of the little changes we’ve made is switching the dice on our fact family slide from 6 sided dice to 10 sided dice. By doing this, we’ll practice adding and subtracting to 20 rather than to 12. Each day, our fact family is randomly selected by clicking the dice to name our addends, adding to find the sum, then writing the 4 equations for the fact family. This also meets the guidelines for our new TEKS (state standards) update that rolls out next school year. This is one part of our daily calendar routine.



Because my kiddos did such a great job working like little church mice during testing and running records, math time was a little more hands on and active. Well, um…if I’m completely honest……….math time in our classroom is ALWAYS hands on, active, and loud! I believe in structure, but I also believe in balance. We start our day quietly….reading requires thinking, concentration…., math gets a little rowdy with music, games, manipulatives….then we end the day with writer’s workshop that goes back to quiet. Balance. It’s key!

Also, having a class that’s made up of mostly [the cutest] firstie boys….I have got to keep them moving or they will move on their own! One of the ways I use that energy rather than fight it, is by completing write the room activities. One way we ‘write the room’ is to review math skills, work in pairs to share “thinking” strategies, and to encourage “math talk”.



Cards with review problems are printed, cut apart and hung around the room. Student pairs…….each with a response sheet, pencil, and whiteboard (to write on the back of) in hand scoot around the room solving problems and recording their answers. I get total engagement, they get to move, talk, and learn…..all at the same time! Win/win! While students are working, I float around the room checking in, questioning, and {smiling}.



Want to really see their little faces light up? Write story problems that include their names! They go totally bonkers every time I tell them we’re working on story problems because they want to see who’s name is going to be in them! It makes a tough skill a LOT more fun to learn. When I’m reading stories that connect well with our classroom community, I do the same thing. I wish I could’ve recorded us sharing Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a Big Deal! There were laughs and cheers and screams of encore! I would’ve read it again, but YOU KNOW, I didn’t remember who’s name was read where, LOL! Couldn’t give myself away! Try it sometime and watch your kids' faces light up like a Christmas tree!



Prepping for the week? Snowed in too? Click the pic to grab the little set we used to review telling time to the hour and half hour. Enjoy and I’ll see ya on Sunday with lesson plans! Have a great weekend! =)

 

End of Year Wild Things

Hi, Friends! It seems like its been for.ev.er since my last blog post! The last few weeks have been crazy busy, but alas the tick tock of the clock has signaled the end of another year! That makes lucky number 13! WOW!  I wasn’t sure that this year was ever going to come to an end, but once it was finally here, it was definitely bittersweet and a bit surreal.



One thing I love about the last week of school is how the pace of things slow down just enough for enjoying each other to be the priority over squeezing everything in, testing, or gathering data. Now, let me just keep it real and say…….. my class was ready to go their separate ways by the last day of school because the {sibling} tattle tongues were running rampant! Lol! Nevertheless, our last week was all about having fun and enjoying our few remaining days as a little family unit.

Our Kinder friends stopped in to get a quick preview of what first grade will be like. We let them sit in our “big kid” chairs at the desks, and each student read one sentence to tell why 1st grade will be the best grade ever!



We read, we sang, we laughed and they left reassured with a smile!

www.buildyourwildself.com

For W Day of our ABC countdown, we created our wild selves. Have you ever used this little site? It’s super easy, informative and the kids *LOVE* it! We wrapped up the year in science learning about different habitats so this was the perfect, fun culminating activity! After the first friend shared how to use it, kiddos were sent to the computer station in groups of four to create their wild selves. What was the rest of the class doing?

Wellll, that’s where classroom management a.k.a the “quiet game” comes in! It is amazing how quietly friends will sit, in order to be the friend who gets to build their “self” in front of the whole wide world! After the friend at the laptop finished, they got to go over and choose a friend following rug rules to build theirs. The friends at the computer station did the same thing.

Unless we’re completing an assessment, I don’t feel like my whole class absolutely has to be doing the same thing at the same time. This little project had three steps and as long as they were engaged in completing one of them, I was one happy, happy, happy teacher.

After building their wild self, they illustrated it and wrote about what they would do as the wild self they built. With the inclusion of so many different animal parts, the activity lent itself to some fun, creative writing and an opportunity for students to share what they had previously learned about habitats.



Behavior during the last week a little wild and crazy, you say? Don’t fight it! Channel it…build your wild self, push back the desks, work on the floors, let students pick their seats, allow them to work on projects together, write the room, work together, sing, read, chat {with a purpose} and most of all have fun! Afterall, they may never see some of these friends again. It’s a very special time of year.



Annnd, pull a little something new out of your bag of tricks. I had been promising my kiddos…all year long…(time flies when you’re having fun)…to add a clock to our classroom floor. FINALLY<-------------THEIR WORDS, NOT MINE, lol, I added one during the last week to review telling time in a fun way. We used Jack Hartmann’s ‘Hip Hop Around the Clock’ to play “musical chairs” with the large clock on the floor.

Students walked around the clock and stopped as he gave a specific time during the song. As he gave the time, the student closest to the hour for the time stood on it and got a sticker. The person who got the sticker, then moved to the carpet with a small Judy clock to show the time from the song and sing to cheer on those still in the game. I was dizzy as I don’t know what watching them go ‘round and ‘round the clock, but they were so happy that it was definitely worth it ANNNNNNND it started my wheels turning for next year!

ANNNNNNNNNND guess what? I made some REAL numbers to put down on the floor to match the color scheme of my new classroom! Yep! I’m one of those crazy teachers who just got out and is already thinking of what I’ll do differently for next year! Cray, cray, I know….



I’m going from a dark purple accent wall to a sunny yellow one, so 2013-2014 is literally going to be so much brighter! If you think you might be able to use these little babies, click the pic to download them! Can you tell what my color scheme is going to be? Chevron *LOVE*….

 

What a week, CURRENTLY, & a sale!

The week started out GREAT!



The heaven’s opened and one of my little struggling students had a wonderful “lightbulb” moment. I love this kid to pieces because he’s almost as stubborn as I am! He’s very creative about avoiding reading, but little does he know, he’s met his match in a teacher that’s just as determined to see him GROW!

On Monday, he sat down to read with me and was so excited to have successfully read his guided reading book. It was one of those moments, where I seriously had to fight back tears! I’m a big softy for “my kids”. After he did such a fantastic job, I sent him to read to another teacher. His face lit up like a Christmas tree and my heart just melted into a big ole blob of proud.

When he came back, he told me to hold out my hand and then gave me the stickers that my team mate had given him! {tear} He said that I had worked really hard to help him and he wanted me to have it! {Insert content sigh-------------------------->here.} I wore those stickers ALL afternoon!

THEN, I was voluntold to help with benchmark testing and had to leave my beloved land of firsties for two days. No biggie, I just hated having to press “pause” after having the type of breakthrough I’d been working for all.year.long.



In math, we worked on telling time. The kids had the most fun working with the practice clocks, but were very insightful during our discussion about analog and digital clocks. They realized that most of the time, we don’t use analog clocks. Most of the time, we don’t even use clocks at all…..we check the time on our phones, ipods, ipads and computers!



In Science, we’re currently engrossed in objects in the sky. The kiddos really enjoyed creating sundials and learning how they related to telling time! This was the brainchild of one of my coworkers and took a minute for me to understand, so I was glad that my kiddos enjoyed it so much. I’m not sure who had more fun checking the position of the shadow during the day…me or them!

And now…..wouldn’t you know! Another month has come and gone! It’s time for CURRENTLY! =)

 
Click the pic to check out the great links at Farley’s Oh Boy, Fourth Grade! I’d better run and get those lesson plans written AND set up for the BIG SALE! That clone seems to be on back order!

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