Last year, I created simple close reading checklists for my students to use in the classroom. The goal was to help students slow down and think about the process of reading through a passage or text that was new to them. The process of going through "steps" really worked well for them. We only had to use the checklists for a few lessons before the students could mentally go through the process in their heads. The students could verbally talk be through the steps, and it was evident that they were applying the strategy when they looked at a text. A few weeks ago, we began our double-digit subtraction and addition units. The kiddos worked so hard, and really made me proud with their willingness to persevere through the math problems. However, I found that as we began to work on mixed problems(addition and subtraction together) that they would become confused. They were not looking at the math symbols nor thinking about if they should regroup/borrow or just solve. So, I ...
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Field Trip to the Arboretum
Can I just tell you how amazing our field trip was last week? It was epic. Seriously. Here is how it happened: My team this year is just fabulous. We literally come up with last minute ideas during lunch and then we do everything in our power to make it happen. This field trip is the dream of one of those lunch talks. As I mentioned here, I have made it one of my missions this year to really "beef up" the amount of social studies and science in the classroom. In college, I made a leaf collection book after we did a unit on how to incorporate plant life cycles into science in the classroom. This made me want to do the same thing with my students as we finished up our unit on plants. My students are so hands on this year, and they LOVE science. A local college near our school has an arboretum. I mentioned to my team that it would be awesome to be able to take a field trip there so the students who look at the different trees, their leaves, and learn about ...
A Little Bit of Geography
Greetings! We had a packed week of learning in the cottage this week. Everything from QR codes and math word problems to geography and the continents on which we live. Shew. This teacher was TIRED when Friday night rolled around, but we had so much fun! Here is a little recap of what we did. As I mentioned in a previous post, we are really stepping it up and adding a lot of science and social studies into our reading curriculum this year. That means making the curriculums blend into one another as often as possible. I am really excited with how well everything has been going, and the students are learning so much in the process. This week, we began our two week unit on Geography. We talked about the continents, map keys, compass rose, equator, and hemispheres. On Monday, the students spent time exploring the names and important facts of each of the seven continents.We started the entire unit off by creating a KWL chart on continents. We had one fact for the K ...
