Wednesday, December 17, 2014

All Aboard the Polar Express!

On Monday, students got their tickets. 


They were all invited to come aboard the Polar Express! Dress code: pajamas. 

When the time arrived today,  we had to turn our seats into train rows (naturally) and get those tickets punched!  (I didn't do any fancy punching like digital Tom Hanks.) Once I punched their tickets, students hopped aboard. 



 Hooray! No one lost their tickets! 

 Had to get some row-by-row shots! 






Just as the kids were getting settled in, it was time for some hot chocolate! (We got it!) 


I used milk in the crockpot so it would be extra creamy! Most of the kids didn't care either way. Some didn't even like it! It's okay; Jackson said "You make really good hot cocoa."  Presley said "Mrs. Richardson, your hot cocoa is awesome!" They got second cups. Don't ever let anyone tell you compliments and praise get you nowhere. 


Now we've got the background for tomorrow's "How-to" writing on How to Make Hot Chocolate, reading and comparing additional train books (like Steam Train, Dream Train), and making our shape trains in math! 

After the movie, we had just enough time to add bells to our holiday five senses book. We can hear bells, and the bell was the first gift of Christmas! 


P. S.  Check out this adorable gingerbread man one of the students decorated yesterday! 






Sunday, December 14, 2014

Testing Week

Man, ain't nobody like testing week. ;)  But really...the kids don't like a disrupted schedule, they can't stand being super quiet, and I get tired of sitting down at the back table with kids one on one instead of walking around checking work! Seriously, after Monday, I said "Bye, have a great weekend!" to a child before I even realized wait a second, it's only been a day. 

There is, however, one really awesome thing that results from testing... the student growth! 

Not that we, as teachers and parents,  don't see it on a daily basis. There's still something really affirming about kids doing as well or better on a test than you expect! They're all reading! Some are already at an I(!)  Most at a D. They're little geniuses. 

Anyway, to cancel out the blah testing feel, we did our fun holiday writing this week! Students listened to Santa's Stuck and wrote about how he'd get stuck/unstuck at their house (ugh, I forgot to take pictures of this...again, because I wasn't walking around).  They also listened to How Santa Got His Job and filled out Elf Applications (you can find tons of these online if you Google "Elf Application" and then just choose the one that works best with your class).  These will actually get mailed to the North Pole and returned to the students with an "ACCEPTED"  or "DENIED" stamp for next year's elf positions. 

My *FAVORITE* holiday writing, though, is a spin on Laura Numeroff's creative stories. Students listen to all the If You Give A...  stories and then write their own, given the title "If You Give A Reindeer a Root Beer..."

They were better this year than ever before! Students worked on them each day during writing workshop, adding and changing as they heard more of Laura's tales. Morning Work was coloring time (a rare opportunity!) for the stories, and on Friday, the kids shared them with the class. 





I only snapped photos of the covers, but some of these stories were 8 pages long and they all circled back to the root beer! I think my favorite tied the root beer to pizza, then to the beach, then ice cream, then root beer. 

Oh, we also mixed things up this week by traveling among the classrooms to celebrate Holidays Around the World in Social Studies. :) Next year we hope to have that planned a little better, with some boarding passes and passport stamps. 

And yes, Friday was my birthday! 26! Over the (little) hill.  I'm bummed that David is deployed and missed it (along with all the major holidays), but the teachers at SHES are amazing and helped me celebrate! The kids said Happy Birthday literally every chance they got. And Mandy came down from D.C. to visit! 





So, I guess testing week wasn't that bad... And now we are down to one week left before break! Where is the time going? Also, I need to Christmas shop. Hello, procrastination, my old friend. 



Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Fall

Well, fall certainly comes later in Georgia than it did in Virginia... But it still happens! This is how we spent a good chunk of recess in the last two weeks:








I love jumping pictures. I love leaves. Hooray for fall! After we made the pile and the kids took turns jumping, I said "Guys! Now we get to COUNT ALL THE LEAVES!"  They said no. No, no, no.



Sunday, December 7, 2014

Place Value with Teen Numbers

This week is all about those numbers in the teens. The ever-tricky 11-19.  Kids often write 31 instead of 13, or confuse 12 for 11. Beyond that, they have difficulty recognizing that numbers in the teens are a group of ten with x amount of leftover ones. 

To help teach this, of course we're playing some more HarryKindergarten videos! 

For writing numbers, "Numbers in the Teens... They start with a 1."



For recognizing place value," Numbers in the Teens Have a Group of 10"


We played the Eraser Challenge for writing and recognizing numerals. The kids loved this. I didn't print the number strips the game rules suggest... I just showed the numbers on the SmartBoard and told the kids to copy whichever color we were on.



We also made our Teen Number Counting Books and discussed the value of teen numbers with unifix cubes. The Counting Teens Number Mat really helped keep us organized! 

As a quick assessment to see who understood the concept of teen number place value, I made a ten frame addition worksheet: Hot Dog!

We are certainly making progress, but the true value of these numbers doesn't come easily. It's not enough to know "12" is called twelve and is written as a 1 and a 2. Kids really need to understand that 12 is 10 and 2 ones, or 6 and 6 or 5 and 7 (really any decomposition).  I've never really looked at teaching numbers quite so in depth before, so it's neat to see how the kids are picking it up and doing better at math in general as a result. 



Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Publishing Day!

We've been working on our current stories in writing for almost a month now, and today is publishing day! We broke out the colored pencils to add some detail before we read our stories to the class. 



Here's a peek at some of the stories. Keep in mind that these kids came in not knowing all of their letters! Can you believe this progress? 

Me and My Dogs, by Kyson

I put my dad's dogs on the leash. (I like that he knows they're not his dogs.) 

 Me and my dad walked two of my dogs.

Me and my dad went to put my dog back in the house. 

Popsicles, by Jackson

Popsicles come in all shapes, colors and sizes. 

They help you cool off on a hot day. 

Popsicles melt if you don't eat it fast enough. 

They are good. I like blueberry best. 


Playing, by Leanna

Kids like to play. 

I like to play in leaves. 

I like to play in water. 

I like to play in bubbles. 

Do you like to play? 

I think these stories show how much we've been working on a strong introduction and conclusion in addition to spacing and proper letter formation. Sure, we always have more work to do, but we're getting there! Bravo, kiddos.