Bugs and Bullies

Remember that quote from my first day about the lice?.............Yep, just got an email.  And the fun begins. Not the same student but apparently it was some foreshadowing. 

I had a major confrontation with a parent for the first time EVER. I won't go into details but she was shockingly aggressive out of nowhere.  NOTHING had happened but I guess there was history from last year. There was a point that I purposefully put my hands on my hips like, "READ MY BODY LANGUAGE. INTIMIDATION WILL NOT WORK WITH ME!" Kinda like making yourself bigger during a bear attack.  I remained professional and turned things around but the adrenaline was flowing there for awhile. Guess after 14 years of teaching I was due.

On a more pleasant note, let me show you some of the adorable self-portraits my students made.

 Love the last one! This was the most finished product I have gotten out of him so far!

I think I may have posted about this before but first I read ISH by Peter Reynolds.

It is a story about a boy who loses his love for art after his older brother makes fun of his drawing. Since he can't make his pictures look perfect, he crumples them up in frustration. Until, his younger sister shows him that she appreciates that his drawings are vase-ish and he learns to let go of his need for perfection. I found this book back when my son was in first grade and he would be reduced to tears when forced to draw as part of his homework. Now, when I draw in front of my class I will say something like, "Not a perfect cat, but is it cat-ish?" and of course the sweeties agree. Soon, you can hear them saying it to themselves.

SO, the first big test is this self-portrait. I do have the oval for the head pre-drawn just to start the sizing right but after that I walk them through every thing else while I do it on my document camera. They go over the pencil lines with a sharpie and then color in with oil pastels. I make mirrors available since it always cracks me up how many kids don't know what color eyes they have!

Congrats to Liz Sheils Howard for winning a copy of my Dot Cards! My dot talks are going really well and my students are so into them. Click on the picture to go grab a set for yourself.

I am so excited to have a 3 day weekend! We just realized my sons have never seen The Princess Bride so I'm off to have a movie night with my boys. Love that movie!

Dot Talks

How do you know school has started? Your 12 year old comes down with a 105 fever! And of course my husband is out of town so the fun is all mine.

My 2nd week of school was okay except my kidlets are too chatty. Looks like super strict is on the agenda for Monday.

They are also having a hard time remembering to use the restroom at recess instead of missing class time. I finally gave them each a stick with their name on it to use as a bathroom pass. This is their one freebie. After that, they have to put their clip down. Amazingly, the number of bathroom requests decreased.

I  have been incorporating some of the strategies I learned at my Common Core math training.
If you would like to try a Dot Talk (a version of a Number Talk), make a dot pattern with dot stickers (or use a bingo dabber) on chart paper, multiple times.

 Call on student to tell how many they see. List all answers, even misconceptions, on the right. I think some of my friends knew their answer was wrong but just wanted to share. I am told this will lessen with time.

Then I called on a student and asked, "How did you know?" The student describes how they arrived at their answer and I transcribe on the chart. Then I ask, "Who saw it a different way?"

What I love about this activity:
1. Students are learning to verbalize their thinking- a HUGE part of the Common Core.
2. Students see that there are multiple solutions to a problem and not only one right answer.
3. By putting their name on the chart, the student takes ownership and we end up referring to it as "Kyla's way." How empowering is that?!

Dot activities strengthen number sense by practicing subitizing.  Subitizing is the ability to immediately recognize the quantity of a small number of objects without counting. This starts with easy patterns like those on a dice but then can be expanded to decomposing larger numbers (10 is 8 and 2.) You can see how this is a precursor to knowing the parts of a number.

I also started using Dot Cards to first have students practice building patterns with counters on a work mat and then later to "Tell Me Fast" when I hold the card up quickly. I didn't want to deal with storing plates or stickers coming off so I made my own digital version and laminated.

 I made 32 large flash cards in different configurations for the numbers 1-10. Included in the download are directions for 2 different activities and a work mat. Click {HERE} to purchase from my TpT store.

Eventually I will put these in a math tub for partners to flash at each other for more practice.

As usual, I will give a free copy away if you would like to enter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School!

Hey strangers! I have not visited blogland in a week due to school starting. That must be a record for me. I still don't have time right now but I wanted to hop on to tell you I contributed my Daily Editing Math Word Problems to the First Grade Fanatics Back to School Giveaway so go check it out!

My new class has some interesting characters I'd love to tell you about but I'm not sure how much I can?? I 'm trying to decide if I don't use names or pictures is that okay?

I leave you with my favorite quote of the week:
"My hair is black except it looks blonde when the lice is in it."
I wish I could have seen my expression.

I'm going out on a date with my hubbie but I hope to be able to visit with all of you soon! I hope you all are doing well at the crazy time!!!

Hey Girl!

 I get a kick out of the Hey Girl sayings floating around Pinterest so I made a couple in honor of the big TpT sale. Feel free to pin if you wish.

 How many items on your wishlist? I am currently at 37 ;-) You may want to take advantage of the BTS sale Aug. 12 & 13th because TpT won't throw another any time soon! Everything in my store will be 20% off and you can get an additional 10% off if you enter the promo code BTS12 at checkout.

Here are some of my newest & best sellers if you need some ideas for your wishlist. You can click on the picture to go check them out.

Sight Word Superstars

Checklists available for K, 1, 2, or 3

Book Club Packets for various levels

Many different math games!

Today was my first day back to work. Getting up at 6 AM was torture. My district had all elementary teachers meet at the Fairmont hotel for a kick-off speech and then break-out training sessions. A continental breakfast and lunch were provided. They reasoned that other professionals are treated this way and we should start out our year treated that way, too. Although I enjoy the sentiment, I couldn't stop thinking about how much it cost and how that money could be better spent making our class sizes less than 30 or getting much needed technology into our rooms.

Speaking of rooms, my classroom is nowhere near ready! I have training on site tomorrow and meetings on Monday. That leaves only Tuesday before the kidlets arrive. I have our annual Cub Scout family camping trip this weekend so I can't work on my room this weekend. I was determined to decompress after the stressful year I had last year and I think I did too good a job. I can't seem to get stressed that I will only have one day to work on my room. That is very unlike me. The stress will kick in, the question is, when???

Mega Giveaway Winners

Congrats to the following lucky 24 winners of my Mega Giveaway!!! You will get an email soon!
Arin Carter, please send me your email because it was only partial.

 

A HUGE thank you to all my wonderful bloggy friends for donating such terrific items!