Currently I Am...

This is so fun! Okay, here is my Currently list for November...

Thanks to Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for another super fun linky party...

I LOVE My New Design!

Just a quick post to say that I am ABSOLUTELY in love with my new blog design. Mckenna at Project 3 Designs has created a beautiful, fun and perfect blog for me.
Thank you x 1 000 000, Mckenna!

Adding by Grouping Friendly Numbers

So I've signed up to be part of a project for Math. This time, unlike the TLT that I did a few years ago, I am the test subject. Yup, forty teachers across primary, junior and intermediate grades are coming together to see how we can improve our math teaching abilities.
Hmmmmm....I forsee Math on the Brain. 24-7.
I used this Stuart J Murphy book this week to help introduce the concept of double digit addition with regrouping. It is another great math book by Murphy and the kids LOVED it. After we read it, I displayed one of the pages on my SmartBoard and we discussed math involved in the adding. The next day, I broke the kids into like-ability pairs and gave them a problem like in the book. This way, I could differentiate the difficulty of the question, and help the kids who are struggling in reading to read the question. Wow! What a fun, engaging activity.

I asked kids to pair up with another group to explain to them how they got their answer. This worked really well and gave the kids a chance to talk about their learning.

Odds & Evens

For whatever reason, my class has had a difficult time with odd and even numbers. So, I rolled up my invisible sleeves (it has been HOT here: ergo t-shirts) and got Pinning. I tried poems (which they loved), our colour coded number lines (hmmm), and cooperative games but there were still a large number of kids who were confused. I noticed a lot of teachers use the book Odd Todd and Even Steven, which looked great. No luck finding it in our school library :(  Argh!

As a last resort, I raided my own Stuart J Murphy read alouds. I bought several of his books from Book Closeouts, for a fraction of their list price, a few years ago. Cue dramatic music-I found a perfect book! Imagine that...in my very own collection. {head smack and sigh}

A little ironic to be reading it in capris and sandals, but the kids LOVED it. In a nutshell, it's about a farmer who is looking for his missing mitten. As he goes around the barnyard, he notices that many of the animals are also missing a mitten. The story goes through even and odd all the way up to ten. It is a predictable pattern book, both in the pictures and text. After discussing the book, I called up two kids and asked them to make a pair. Then did the same with three kids. Right away, the class wanted to make a group of three, but I explained that there can only be two in a pair. We did this all the way up to six kids, with the class deciding which numbers were odd and which even. We then made an anchor chart with the definition for odd and even. Which is at school on my blackboard. I forgot to take a picture of it on Friday. Basically, even numbers can be made into pairs with zero left over. Odd numbers can be made into pairs with one left over.

Next lesson, kids were given a sticky note with a number (1-21) on it. They had to show whether the number was odd or even using our anchor chart rule. I handed out the numbers so I could control who got which  one.

click the picture to get the page

I gave each child an enlarged sheet (11 x 17) and a sheet of mittens to decorate, cut out and use to model whether their number was odd or even. I got the mittens from Giving Up On a Clean House (wonderful blog) 

click the mittens to go to the page

...which I shrank on the photocopier so that I could include more on a page. This was a really fun, interactive lesson that incorporated lots of different ideas, inspirations and learning styles. We are making our Odds and Evens sheets into a class book for the kids to refer to as we have the numbers 1-21.

Whew! Hope this made sense.

Currently Linky Party

I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for her Currently Linky Party...

The Pioneer Woman is a seriously funny blog about all sorts of daily-life-on-a-ranch sorta things. I love so much about it; recipes, clothes, family stories, cowboys...

I had to chose Pinterest for my other stalking obsession because I can't choose just one blog. Cannot.do.it. Kinda like I can't choose one favourite child (although sometimes teen daughters make it a little easier through process of elimination/temper tantrums).

Honoured

I have been honoured with The Versatile Blogger award...WOWZA! Made my month...Thank you so much to Mrs Geary at Light a Candle. Here are the rules:

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
• Share 7 things about yourself
• Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs. 

7 Things About Myself:

1. I love reality TV shows. It's kinda like my guilty secret...Roseanne's Nuts is my newest fave (f.u.n.n.y) ...the judge shows also fit into my reality love affair. Especially Judge Judy-she says the things everyone is thinking.

2. I am slightly addicted to online shopping. EBay & Amazon to be exact...I have bought most of my teaching materials/resources from these two stores. I have also saved a mint buying Christmas gifts through Amazon.

3. I think Adam Lambert should have won American Idol. He's just so darn talented and cute. Even with black eyeliner...which suits him. So I like it, too.

4. I enjoy doing housework on Saturday mornings while listening to 80s power ballads. Yes, I sing along...I have been known to dance along. I also love disco, soft rock, pop...pretty much anything.

5. My 8 year old son plays safety in football. I am his biggest fan but don't understand a thing that is happening.

6. I LOVE writing essays (English major) the most of any form of writing. I am hopeless when it comes to writing narratives...they seem to go on and on and on...

7. I have a fairly new obsession with nonfiction and fiction books that are about the Tudor period. I also like to share the facts I read about with anyone who will listen. Whether they want to know or not. Even if they run away.

Here are some blogs that I have newly discovered:

1. A Day in the Life of Miss Kranz

2. A Journey through Second Grade

3. Busy Bee Second Graders

4. Persnickety Pickles

5. Second Grade Sidekicks

6. Mrs McCumbee's Class

7. The Pioneer Woman

8. Completely Delicious

9. Swimming into Second

10. Down Under Teacher

Hit the Ground RUNNING

Hello blogging world!
I spent the summer blogging, pinning and creating...now I am implementing the wonderful ideas I have been so lucky to read and see.
I will take pictures of my classroom and show you everything asap. The beginning of the year is so extremely busy-no news to anyone out there.
Here is a quick little list of the ideas I  have used compliments of the blogosphere:

• Bucket Filling (using library pockets)
• Author of the Month 
• Picture Prompts for Oral Language
• Word Work in File Folders
• Calendar Math
• Class Events/Math Bulletin Board
• Back-to-School Necklace Glyph
• Back-to-School Brochure

Hmmm...there is more but I will leave you in suspense! lol