Place Value Math Station and Resolutions

It's January 5th and I've already "broken" one of my resolutions. I knew it would happen, but I really was hoping that I could make it just a *little* bit longer! What was my resolution? To leave school by 5:00. We get out at 3:00, can leave at 3:30 and yet, most days I stay until 6:00... or later. Have I mentioned I generally get there 45 minutes to an hour early as well? Some of that is due to the fact that I don't bring any work home, some of it because I'm an overachiever and a perfectionist, some because... I don't have any kiddos at home to rush home to! That being said, I finally realized during my winter break that I might be a better teacher if I also have a little of my own personal time too. Just to decompress a little and come back each day refreshed. Last semester I got into this routine of staying until 6:15ish, followed by an hour of Pure Barre class, then grocery store or other errand, then make dinner, then eat dinner... then fall into bed and wake up at 5:30 to start all over. I felt like all I did was sleep, eat, school. Because IT WAS all I did! So... I stayed until 6:15 today, but in my defense I spent about an hour of that chatting with a teammate so maybe I could have been on time if I hadn't been socializing! Anyway, the real purpose of this post is to share what I worked on this afternoon for my next round of math stations/centers/tubs/whatever-you-want-to-call-them. We're in a place value unit right now and my kids are truly masters of place value. So much of this unit has been front loaded through calendar activities since the first day of school and it's nice to see all that extra time paying off now! In order to differentiate and meet different levels in my classroom, there are two different versions of this station. It's a simple activity that you can make easier/harder by changing how many cards are in each set or by mixing up the formats or likewise, keeping them in like sets. I created a recording sheet but I typically either have my students record in math journals, or have their station partner check their work. I hope some of you will find this useful!

Ordering With Pictures, Numbers, Words, Standard Form - Challenge Set

Ordering With Pictures, Numbers, Words, Standard Form

What resolutions did you make for 2012? How are you sticking with them so far?

Using Menus for Homework

If you saw this post by Mrs. Claborn a few weeks ago, then you already know that she's using menus for her second graders' homework. After just 2 weeks of homework in first grade, I decided it was time to change ours up too! First grade is now also doing menus for homework and the feedback has been GREAT! This is our very first homework menu, so it's a work in progress. Like Mrs. Claborn, we're using the Laurie Westphal Differentiating Instruction With Menus for inspiration. Our principal got a set for each grade level and they are a fabulous resource! I created our menu to look like a restaurant menu with three categories: Entrees, Appetizers and Dessert. Within each category, there are 3 choices. The students choose one from each section to complete throughout the week in addition to their reading logs. We just sent the first menu home on Monday and on Tuesday morning the kids were SO excited to tell me what they'd chosed to work on so far! I can't wait to see what they bring in on Friday! Anyway, you can check out our menu below. When we send it home, it has a reading log on the back and a list of about 30-40 example short o words for them to study for our spelling test on Friday. If you're interested in how we do spelling, check out this post.


October 3

Making Spelling Meaningful

As a student, I hated spelling. I was good at spelling and thought it was a waste of my time. It wasn't too far into my teaching career when I realized I felt the same way about giving spelling tests. I would get so frustrated when my kids would study the words all week, get them all right on Friday... and not have any clue how to spell them the following week. Someone I knew had once told me that his daughter who was in junior high in a private school took spelling tests based on spelling patterns and one day it came to me... bingo! First graders can do that too! Instead of giving my students a word list, I give them a target sound and spelling pattern. We brainstorm words, create anchor charts and do word work with our sound and pattern throughout the week. When Friday comes, they know I will call 10 words based on those skills. I love testing this way because it requires that my kids think about and apply the skill, rather than just memorize. This week our sound is short /i/ and our spellling pattern is CVC, so I might call words such as big, lip, or kid. As we go through the year and study more sounds, the words may get more complex. After we've studied things like blends and digraphs, I might call words with those as well as the target vowel sound and spelling pattern. I really feel like my students are better at spelling as a result and are able to spell more words than just a 10 word list correctly. The great thing is that you can still differentiate your spelling words to meet the level/readiness of your students. For example, some kids may be ready for short i words with digraphs and blends like chip, ship, whip, or slip, while some stick to the short i words I listed above.

It's always easier to start something new like that when you can get your whole team on board with you, so I explained my idea to them and being the fantastic teammates they were, they were willing to try it with me. We started by sending a letter to explain the new method to our parents. Getting them (the parents) to understand why we would want to do it this way and how they can still help their children study for the test was really important.

Here are some examples of what I've sent home to explain this method to parents. My google docs keeps signing me out so I'm trying something new and uploading with Scribd... hope this works! The first file is text that I pulled off of a slide from my curriculum night presentation. The second file is a parent letter that I used last year when we made the switch from word lists to word families. Feel free to use it in your own classroom!

Spelling Test Policy

New Spelling Test Letter

How do you make spelling meaningful for your kiddos?