Five for Fraturday!

Of course I am late for the first Five for Friday I have actually sat down to write, but here it goes anyway :)  I have been dying to share some stuff about my class this year.  So I am linking up to Doodle Bugs for the first time this year!

1. Math Centers

I have always loved the routine of our morning literacy block and started the second half of the year last year trying to duplicate it for math.  I HAVE IT DOWN!  I am obsessed with my math block because it runs so smoothly.  

We have a one hour block for math which starts out with Problem of the Day.  Each day, we work on a math problem that was given to us by the math department.  This is a nice start to get us focused on the math time.

After the problem of the day, we do a quick mini lesson.  Here is a screen shot from a pattern/sorting unit:

After we do the mini lesson, we break into centers.  Here is a screen shot:

Each day, my kids attend two groups.  Depending on the centers, they either stay there for 15 or 20 minutes.  I ring the bell when they are done and then they rotate.  They are getting really good at this.  I have 8 units/week and then on Friday we either assess or do something fun.

We end our math time with Number Talks.  I have to be honest, when we were told we had to add number talks to our daily math routine I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I LOVE them.  For the past two weeks, we have just been working on identifying numbers in ten frames:

We talk about how we see them.  For example, this would be I see two and two which is four.... or I see five in all, but one is not filled in so I see four.  I think it will really help their number sense when we get to adding and subtracting especially since we do it on a daily basis.

We finished our patterns/sorting unit this week.  I have posted the entire unit, including mini lessons, assessments, center printables, number talks and guides on TPT.  It has everything you need for a 10 day pattern unit including 12 centers.  Enjoy!

2. My Class

I love my class this year.  I am blessed to only have 16 kiddos and they have a great personality!  They are hard workers and are really trying their best :)

3. Fall Weather :)

Fall weather has arrived in Northern Virginia.  I am loving the pumpkin spice lattes and boots weather!  Since we have had such a mild summer the leaves are already changing too!

4. Travel Fridays

I love to travel and bring that into my classroom.  This week we went to Spain!  We made castanets too.  I have a lot of ELL students in my class so they were thrilled to share their spanish with the other students.  When we travel on Fridays, we pretend to fly to the country and then we talk about what we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch in that country.  We talk about landmarks, food and fun activities.  They really enjoyed Spain, even though our visit was cut short because of the weekly fire drill!

5. Life Outside of School

On Monday one of my best friends came to town from California.  I was so excited to have her and her hubby and 10 month old baby spend the evening with us.  It was so fun to have a baby around and to catch up with her :)  It was a great way to start out the week!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Annie