First week done! Pictures and more pictures.

We returned to school year in Ontario on Tuesday and had a nice 4 day week to ease us back into the routines to school. This year is a little very odd for me because I am only returning for the first 2 weeks of the year!

I decided to focus on curriculum rather than routines because I have no idea how the teacher coming in will want the class to be set up...at least curriculum is constant and by completing some expectations they will be able to focus on the typical beginning of the year community building. 

Here is the makeshift calendar that I created (only using chalk...blah). The first math expectations I have been covering with the class are place value to 1000 and skip counting...nothing too complicated.

I have been reading picture books that focus on the theme of inclusivity. First we read Odd Velvet by Mary Whitcomb and worked through the structure I followed last year after reading The Power of Retelling.  I love following this structure because it keeps all of the comprehension strategies fresh in the student's minds. 

The first writing unit in Grade 3 is procedural writing so we did 2 different shared writing procedures to provide some examples for the students. These are the only real "classroom routines" I have tried to implement for the new teacher coming in. I hope they are okay with it. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I asked the class to make a mind map of everything they could think about math...and they came up with so many good ideas!

Here is a chart I made to illustrate the math goals we have been covering during our calendar time and during different class discussions. 

On Friday, we made this class bar graph about our birthdays. The other curriculum expectations that are covered in the beginning of the year is graphing and sorting so I thought that by making a bulletin board bar graph the students would have a HUGE anchor chart for how a bar graph should look...and it created a small sense of community when we could see when all our birthdays fell during the year. 

My biggest goal of these two weeks was to create a portfolio of diagnostic work to help the new teacher have a sense of where the students are academically and not feel as though they are coming in super late...it's what I would want someone to do for me. So in addition to the diagnostic tasks we have been working on creating a portfolio cover. I blogged about this art assignment a few years ago when I taught my own art (oh how I miss that!)

Lastly, we brainstormed all the things a good classmate is/ does/ says and is not...a great idea I found on Pinterest(!!) but is originally from Using My Teacher Voice. Hopefully, the new teacher coming can use this to create the classroom rules they want to have posted in their room. 

Well, there's my first week in a nutshell...and tomorrow I start my last week! What a weird feeling. 

Organizing Calendar and Your Math Block

Do you follow Janaye over at Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes? 

Because if you don't, then you really should.

I mean, WOW!!

I started off this year organizing my math journals according to the setup she described on her blog here and now I love doing them. People are so impressed when they visit my class and I so wish I could take credit, but alas it is the impressive Janaye!

Now, she has posted about her morning math meeting time...and in such detail. I am in heaven and will be starting to integrate some her ideas into my morning math meeting as well. Can't wait.

Go here to check it all out.

Daily Math Calendar (Freebie)

As many of you know I participated in the Guided Math book study this summer and have been attempting to incorporate some of my learning into my math program. I didn't want to overwhelm myself so I set some long and short term goals. If you are interested in reading my previous posts about this topic please click the following two links:

Morning Math Meeting/Math Stretches (Freebie)
Math Stretches and Calendar (Freebie)

As per my goals I have implemented Math Stretches and Calendar, or as I call it, Morning Math Meeting everyday this year. I have found that the Math Stretch is a a great way to get my students on task as soon as they arrive each day and we are able to gather on the carpet immediately for a small bit of community time as well.

I feel like I am learning new things about my student's abilities everyday during our quick Math Stretches. I have seen that the same students struggle repeatedly with completing a number pattern or skip counting which has allowed me to easily target who needs a little extra practice. In addition, our discussions about the Math Stretch has provided information about who is comfortable communicating their knowledge about math in front of the class as a group and who tends to hold back and let others do the talking.

Our Morning Math Meeting (Calendar) has not been done as consistently as our Math Stretch due to the fact that there were certain days in our timetable where we only had 20 minutes in the morning before my students had a rotary class (gym/music/art/etc) but after receiving a new timetable this week that small problem may be fixed!

I did find that the Calendar board I had created for September didn't quite fit all the needs I had for this time with my students. There was nothing wrong with the board per se but I just wasn't super happy with it! At times it seemed almost too easy for my class, (i.e. when we were using small 2 digit numbers) but then other times they really struggled with completing the tasks (i.e. using a 3 digit number). I decided to stick with it for the month of September just to get some routine under our belts and then change it up a bit.

So here is the new board I have set up for October. 

If you choose to download this freebie please remember that feedback and comments are always appreciated.

In other Math-y news, I think I am going to attempt to go whole hog next week with Math Workshop! I am going to jump right in with 2 feet. I have noticed that quite a few of my Grade 3 friends are getting lost in the crowd and just can't concentrate during a whole group lesson so I am going to get together some games and independent practice work this weekend. First thing Monday morning we are going to jump in and see how it goes. Nervous? Yup!!

I did a small trial where I had my class divided into 5 groups- while I met with one of the groups the other 4 played games. It worked well except for the noise level in the class. However, this is something I have been working on with my students in almost every setting and I feel like if I wait until we are totally perfect in this area I might never get Math Workshop off the ground!

Have you tried Math Workshop yet?

Math Routines and Settling In

Things are finally starting to feel normal...my class is settling in and we are getting down to the business of curriculum. Things are feeling good in Grade 3. I was very nervous (and still am a little) about teaching such young friends but I must say that apart from a few moments of frustration I am really enjoying being a primary teacher. Now, I will fully admit that things are slooooooooow going. How can it take that long to write one journal entry?? I mean, really? But I am getting used to it. On the flip side, my former teaching partner moved from Grade 4 to 8 this year and he is shocked by how fast his students complete their work and how much he has to have ready for them to do!

Anyway...

Math!! I am loving it. Who knew that I would ever love teaching math? Not me. But in the past year or so I have learned so much from other blogs and professional reading that it has become one of my favourite parts of the day.

I have fulfilled a few of the goals I created for myself after reading Guided Math as part of this summer's book study already. We have been doing Math Stretches every morning when my students enter the portable. I have a dry erase easel that I have been using for this and planned to take pictures of the different stretches we did each day this week but, unfortunately, I kept forgetting and erased it at the end of the school day in order to get ready for the next day! So sorry! I am going to try to remember all next week to take a picture each day and post it for you. Here is the last one we did this week.

My students were struggling with the concept of "place value"- the idea that the location of a digit determined its value, or how much it was worth. This Math Stretch and the following discussion really seemed to help cement the idea for my students.

The discussion that follows each of the Math Stretches is one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole exercise. So far at least one student has made a small mistake each day but that seems to really be a good thing as it gives us a chance to talk about how to correct mistakes and re-clarify our thinking. I have also been able to see which students are hesitant about math and or are struggling with certain concepts. Isn't amazing how much information can be gathered from such a simple exercise? 

We have also been doing our Number of the Day exercises each day. I am not loving this. 

It takes a long time unless I pick a pretty simple number. I can't even imagine how long it would take if I asked my students to write down anything during this time! Here's a picture of what it looks like so far. It's my own adaption of other Calendar Boards and Number of the Day's I've seen posted in a variety of places. This will definitely be a work in progress and something that will probably change relatively frequently in my classroom as I try out new ideas and bring in new concepts. I welcome any and ALL suggestions people may have for things they are doing in their class that's working for them. 

We have also got our Math Journal up and running. I used the amazing posts from Janaye over at Frogs and Cupcakes to set up and organize my journals this year. I loved all the organizing tips and ideas she has shared.

This is inside the front cover- the rules of our math journals and the start of the Table of Contents.
I also saw a great post awhile back about creating a web of numbers that related to each student as the cover of their Math Journal and I loved the idea....unfortunately I can't remember where it came from. If you know, please leave me a comment so I can give credit where credit is due. Here are some pics of how ours turned out.

Our first two entries include an anchor chart and a short check in question so I can assess how they are doing so far with place value.

 And that's it so far!! On Monday I am going to try a mini-workshop type class. I will be having different groups of students playing some math games while I call others over for a lesson on number lines. It's a little warm up for me before I dive in full force with a math workshop structure. Wish me luck!

Morning Math Meeting/ Calendar Time (Mega Freebie)

After reading Guided Math this summer as part of the book study I have created a few goals for my math program. I know it is unrealistic to implement everything at once, especially since I am moving to a new grade, so I have some short and long term goals for myself.

Short Term Goals

1. Start Math Stretches and Math Meeting  (Calendar) during the first week of school.
2. Integrate more games and small group work on a daily basis.
3. Use weekly math homework to practice necessary skills not just the strand we are currently working on.

Long Term Goals

1. Look towards starting Math Workshop (a freebie will be coming soon!)- I am thinking that about the start to middle of October I will be planning on moving towards a math workshop model in my classroom
2. Learn more about math manipulatives and problem based learning
3. Look into completing my Math Part 1 Additional Qualifications (very long term)

Whew...don't you always feel better when you set some goals? 

So in order to achieve these goals I have been working on creating what I will call Morning Math Meeting. Since I will be teaching Grade 3, not a lot of our time will be focused on an actual calendar so I didn't really feel that calling it calendar would work for me. However, as I have been perusing the blogosphere for ideas, I can tell you that it's basically going to be calendar. 

If you are new to Thinking of Teaching, then you may want to check out my previous post about Math Stretches and my Calendar Outline. I have some freebies posted there as well.

This year I will be teaching in a portable, which is what we call those small (very small) trailer type rooms they put outside of a school when they need more space. I've taught in one before and actually kind of like it, and I'm not worried about being segregated from the rest of the school because.....my school has 20 of these!!! We are waaaaaaay over capacity! It's a whole second school outside the main building. But I digress...

Since I am in a portable with limited wall space I have decided to put my Morning Math Meeting board on a portable cork board. I have all the pieces ready to be printed, cutout and laminated but just haven't had the time yet with the baby arriving and the wedding tomorrow. But, I didn't want to make you all wait for a freebie! Especially since it is Friday!

This is what I envision my Morning Math Meeting will entail in September. I plan to make it an ever changing, flexible part of our math program and even hope to integrate Science down the road. I am still thinking about how much writing my students will be doing, versus orally communicating together. But perhaps, that is a post for another day?

So, without further ado here is the freebie. I would really appreciate any and ALL feedback from you if you choose to download this freebie. Comments are wonderful and help so much! Thanks.

The clipart in this freebie is from Scrappin Doodles and the font is from Kevin and Amanda.

My calendar/math meeting was inspired by:

Primary Inspired

Teaching in Room 6

Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshots

Mama Jenn

Teacher Planning Binder: Information and Forms (Freebie!)

I'm still plugging away at my teacher planning binder. So far everything is just on my computer or in my head, but I am still 4 weeks away from starting school again so I have time to compile everything. When that is done I will definitely post some pictures for you all to see. 

If you missed my first two posts about my teacher planning binder ideas click on the links below...

Teacher Planning Binder Cover Pages

Teacher Planning Binder Extra Cover Pages

I do feel like this is going to be an ongoing process, or at least should be an ongoing process. As the year progresses I will be adding and removing items from my binder as I need to and as it suits my teaching. Some things I plan on NOT putting in this binder are:

1) My guided reading plans- I hope to create a "Pensieve" a la the Cafe book 

2) My guided math plans- still not totally sure what I plan to do here. I know I will be keeping my Math Stretches and Calendar Math plans in one binder/or spiral bound as I outlined in this post.

Click on the picture to head to that post and pick up those freebies if you haven't already!

Other than that I keep my math units in separate binders (or have in the past) based on the unit/strand I am covering.

My Teacher Planning Binder is (hopefully) just going to contain the most vital information needed on a daily basis. As I see it right now, I plan to have the following information in my binder:

1. Assessment Profiles- I moved from a class list style assessment sheet last year to having one sheet per student for assessment. This way I can see my students' achievement in all the areas of their academics in a glance. Don't worry...I will be posting about this soon!

2. Long Range Planning- My team and I completed our Math and Language Arts long range plans before school was out in June (awesome!) so that's done. I need to look over the other subjects I teach but as I like to integrate as much as possible it will really be a matter of fitting Science and Social Studies (mainly) in with my Math and Language programs. 

3. Monthly Calendar- I like to be able to see ahead a few weeks at a single glance so this is an important section for me! I downloaded the calendar pages from Leslie over at Kindergarten Works and so far, these are the only pages in my binder!

4. Student Information- I use this section to keep track of birthdays, transportation, allergies, and past achievements. I have a profile sheet I have used in the past to get a glimpse of my students' past grades and learning skills from their student records but, like many things, I plan to revamp this! 

5. Staff and Team Meetings- This will be new this year. I have always just grabbed a sheet of paper for meetings with my team but had a designated notebook for full staff meetings. I am hoping that if I keep it all in one place I can be more organized in this area.

And that's it!! I don't want too much in one place because I don't think that leads to increased organization...plus, it'll just be too big to lug around with me everywhere. 

So I imagine that by now you are wondering why I wrote freebie in the title...and if you are this far into the post (and have read through all my blabbering on) then you definitely deserve a freebie!

Here are three forms I've created for my teacher planning binder that all free for you!!

Staff and Team Meeting Notes

Student Transportation Form

Student Birthday Form

Do you have a teacher planning binder? 

What do you put in it? 

How did you go about planning and organizing your binder? I'd love to hear from you!!

Math Stretches and Calendar (Freebies)

I have been slightly obsessed with planning for my new math program every since finishing Guided Math and the book study. I plan to start slow, so as to not overwhelm myself, and work towards having a fully integrated guided math program. My first implementation is going to be Calendar and Math Stretches. 

By starting with Calendar and Math Stretches I think that I can get a handle on this new way of teaching math and not overwhelm myself right from the beginning. The Daily 5 will be an integral part of my literacy program and this will only be my second year using it, so I am planning to make changes there as well. As much as I want to jump right in and do EVERYTHING that I read about in Guided Math, I also recognize that I need time as a learner to adjust and stretch my own thinking. Diving right in and doing things just to do them isn't going to help my students and will probably just stress me out. As teachers, I think we need to give ourselves time to learn and grow as much as we give that time to our students. 

So, back to the freebies! Here is my initial set-up for calendar math. I went through the Ontario curriculum for Grade 3 and tried to identify what I felt were the key ideas/concepts that my students would struggle with throughout the year. Grade 3 is also one of the years that our students write EQAO (which is the standardized testing in Ontario) so I wanted to include concepts that would help them across their math studies. It is important for me to recognize that this calendar set-up will change, and should change. This is just my start-up plan to get me going and using this routine in my class. 

Calendar Outline

Click on the image or title to get your own copy!

I also plan to start each day with Math Stretches as they were outlined in Guided Math. I moved the math stretches around to the days I felt would work better for my class/teaching style and also revamped one math stretch completely. On Tuesday I will be doing "Make It Different" instead of "Number of the Day" that is outlined in Guided Math. I decided that I wanted to do a number of the day everyday as part of our calendar math routine, and that it was important for my students to have a weekly practice with composing and decomposing numbers. 

Math Stretches
Click on the image or title to get your own copy!

My next step is to print off a Math Stretch Planning template and five Calendar Math Outlines for each week of the school year and then bind them together. This way I will have a consistent record of what we have covered in both our Math Stretches and during Calendar Time as I plan through the year. However, even as I write this I realize that I plan to change my Calendar ... so maybe just a binder instead of a spiral bound book?

My one thought/question is this...I want to keep my Math Stretch and Calendar time brief and I will be teaching Grade 3 this year so my thoughts are that I will not have my students copy down anything that we do during this time for the good chunk of the beginning of the year. Instead it will be a whole class oral exercise in order to develop our math literacy! Thoughts about this??

I also plan to have my Friday Math Stretch "How Did My Family Use Math This Week?" as part of my student's weekly homework...but that is another post for another day!