Day 3

I honestly cannot believe I am here blogging for the third day in a row.  I think I have a nice system set up.  I am always close to my 10,000 step goal at the end of the day so from now on, I take my laptop and sit it on the treadmill and walk those last few steps as I blog.... two resolutions done!  Here's my hump day!

1. My kids always impress me with their ability to take things to the next level.  My first graders did this last year, but I was so surprised to see my kinders do it this year.  Every morning we draw tens and ones for how many days we have been in school.  Some kids have gone back and written the numbers in their drawings.  We call it "stretching the brain."

2. During reading groups, I try to encourage the students to use our strategies.  I always ask at the end, which word did they have to use a strategy to figure out.  They never remember!  I took out some highlighter tape today and  gave them each a piece to put on the word when they figured it out.  That helped them remember which strategy to share at the end.  Right now, we are just working on Lips the Fish and Eagle Eye for most of my reading groups.

3. We started our telling time centers today!  The kids loved the centers I had for the day.  For this rotation, they get to spend one center on the computer, one center playing Memory, one center playing Bazinga, one center with Time Bingo, one center playing a Board game and one center with me where they work on a true/false activity.  I pulled all of these games from my first grade unit on telling time and just took out the quarter hours!  We had a good time!  Bazinga is my favorite (an ode to The Big Bang Theory).  This is where they pull out a card and have to read the time.  If they can read it, they keep the card and the first kid who has 10 cards wins.  If they pull out a card that says BAZINGA, they have to put all of their cards back in... womp, womp, womp.  Here is a link to my TPT unit... 2 weeks or mini lessons, games and an assessment.  Make sure you use a Promethean Board though because it is Active Inspire!

Telling time Unit

1. Tomorrow I have Guidance... which means I have a thirty minute planning block.  I don't get much planning, so I am excited about this!  I want to re-vamp some centers.

2. Tomorrow we will draw things we need vs. things we want.  I think they have a handle on it, but sometimes its interesting what kids think they "need."

1. A student gave me a picture of a Christmas Tree... so "I could celebrate a little longer."