Our first goal of the year is to improve our transitions. I wrote this on the board in all of the new space when I took my subject learning target space down. I added to our goal quickly and quietly. We succeeded today with the quickly part. They still need a little work on the quietly. Haha.
You read that right earlier, I took down all my subject learning target space. Instead I made a space with no frills. A small space that says "Learning Target" at the top. Here I wrote our learning targets for the day as we did them instead of ahead of time. This really helps me and I don't think there is any sense in having them up all day because you know as teachers our schedules rarely come together the way we think they will. I definitely see the value in giving students a learning target and talking about what they should be doing and learning. It helps keep them focused and me too. They like talking about it at the end. I need to freshen it up though...another something to add to the never-ending teacher list.
A really cool lesson we did today was equal and unequal. We're starting our Fractions unit. I created an anchor chart similar to the one linked here Yes, I forgot to take a photo of it! I also used the following sheet with students. They cut out the pictures and glued them in their math journals under Equal and Unequal. Once they finished they had to define those two terms: equal and unequal. I was really impressed with their thinking and their definitions. They used words like same amount, same size, one even used our new vocabulary word partition. Partition also went up on our board in all that lovely space that used to house subject learning targets.
Equal and Unequal Foodie Sheet is now 50¢. Since it is a PDF and this resource comes with 2 pages, I printed it with both pages on one sheet. Then students just got one or the other sheet so I only had to make half the copies. I also went over the lines with a sharpie just to make sure they copied correctly. To print 2 pages on one in Mac Preview you simple open the print menu and change the drop down from preview to layout and "pages per sheet" from 1 to 2. See screen shot.
We also read Smelly Socks, by Robert Munsch today. The kids absolutely loved it and I loved reading it to them. We are doing an author study with Munsch this week. We are using tumble books and all sorts of cool QR codes too. More on that tomorrow. After we read, we revisited character traits. In their reading response journals, I had the students make a stick figure and write traits around and then they could decorate the stick figure to look like Tina (the main character). We verbally shared their traits (stubborn, selfish, spoiled, crazy, weird, disgusting, gross, lazy, etc.). Then we verbally discussed the story elements (setting, characters, problem and solution). Well done class!
We are starting a new book The Chocolate Touch. This is one of my favorites and I can't wait to see their reactions.
Overall a great day! Outfit choice today (also forgot a picture) red pants, yellow mustardy top with a blue jean jacket and a great black and grey chevron infinity scarf. Yep I was rocking it first day back!
Talk to you more tomorrow or as we used to say in middle school - ttyl! :)
Jessica
