Father's Day Board Books with Instagram!

So this is the first year both my husband and I will be celebrating Mother's Day and Father's Day since Max was born in April.

For Father's Day, I wanted to make my husband a board book that he can read with Max throughout his toddler years.  And since it's Father's Day, I wanted to make something specifically about the two of them.  Here's the final product!

Student & Baby File Organization

Ok, so a couple of years ago, my school had an auction as a fundraiser and each class was supposed to create an artistic or recycled item to auction off.  I wanted to come up with something useful that anyone could bid on and have it not be too specific to our classroom.  A room parent, knowing my freakish need for planning ahead and organization, donated an older file cabinet and asked if I could use it in any way.  Yeah!  On top of that, she helped me with the creation of the project.

Haha, quite fitting that the picture of this file cabinet is in front of my "Get Organized" poster!

I feel students don't mind staying organized if they had something "fun" and it applied to them.  So I thought about myself as an elementary and high school student.  What sorts of things did I keep?  What would I need to keep track of that I may not think about at first?  The answers to these questions led to the files I inserted below.

The Time Has Come!!!

I gave birth to baby Max on Saturday, April 5, 2014 at 4:24 PM.  He weighed in at 5 pounds, 8 ounces and was 18.5 inches long with a head diameter of 13.25 inches.  He was a bit on the small side, but is healthy and has been putting on weight since!

So all my long term sub planning went really well and even though I delivered a week early, I was pretty well prepared.  My sub and I spent the week working together before that Saturday and when I knew I was going into labor, I felt GOOD (about the class being left to someone else)!

Spring Break - A MUST for Every Pregnant Teacher

Yup, right about three weeks before a due date & after a LONG stretch from winter break until spring, a week off is definitely nice.  Not that I didn't work, of course!  I had some last minute logistics in the baby department as well as long-term planning to take care of.  It was nice to have the time to do all that not after being on my feet all day.

Anyway, here's who's been keeping me busy & from posting so much...stinkin' karate kid!

I'm about 38 weeks now.  This belly is HUGE! He wants OUT! But, hopefully he'll be like his dad and be a little late; or wait at LEAST one more week so I can transition back from break with my long-term sub.  Here we are figuring out our FIRST diaper change and infant car seat belt adjustments:

              

So other than some last minute house clean up and baby purchases, I really wanted to go over my long-term sub plans to ensure I was ready for anything!  My original post about how I got started long-term planning can be found here.

Finalizing Long-Term Substitute Planning

Stop Babying Kids!!!

Okay, so I get that there's not always a clear line on when to help your child and when NOT to help your child.  Every kid is different and will need various supports throughout his/her lifetime.  So, it's true.  You kind of have to play by ear.

For example, if I had a student who is great at getting things done, but tends to rush because she doesn't read directions carefully, I will simply grade the work accordingly, give it back to shock her, and then talk about what she did wrong before I give her a chance to redo the assignment (usually for the first few assignments only).  This mini lesson is usually enough to get her thinking/double checking the rubric the next time.  However, if I had a student who consistently does not receive support at home and struggles with prioritizing, I know she may not even turn in the assignment, so my lesson on "checking the rubric" after the fact will do no good.  Instead, I may even help break down the assignment with the child as in this post.  That way, I am addressing the rubric and supporting the child through the process.

I came across this poster on Pinterest, which I think I will use for next year as tips/advice for families trying to help their children at home.

Here is the printable version that I found on this site.

Fraction February - Hands On # Line of Division w/Remainders!

Ok, I thought this went really well, especially as an introductory lesson!  AND, it's still Fraction February!

I had taken notes and planned how to teach the modeling of division of whole numbers by fractions WITH remainders, and we're finally here.  I knew this would be a difficult concept for the reasons I mentioned in this other "Fraction February" post. Therefore, I wanted a way for students to "see" the model in a way other than following my notes under the document camera.

Here's the problem:  Mrs. H had 2 pounds of dog food.  Her dog eats 3/5 pound per meal.  How many meals will she be able to feed her dog with the 2 pounds?

They had already modeled division problems like this where the answer fits in evenly, so they knew the process.  We had also talked about the "pattern" they see in the division... essentially, what is the algorithm?

When I gave them this problem, they all did exactly as I expected.  They drew a number line and did everything just right, but got stuck at the leftover spot.

NOT the correct answer.

Some answers they came up with were simply "remainder 1" or "1/5," the latter of which I knew was going to be the most common.  When I asked what 1/5 represents/means, they said it's how many pounds are left in the bag.  Then I said, "Yes, 1/5 means the pounds left over, but that doesn't answer my question.  The question is how many MEALS I can get out of a 2lb bag, not how many pounds are left."

Since they have already figured out the "pattern" to the algorithm, we just did it.  Yup, we multiplied the inverse of the 2nd number to get 10/3, which was 3 and 1/3.  I asked if they could see the whole 3 in their model, which they all could.  When I asked where the 1/3 came from, I got silence.  I even questioned, "In the original problem of 2 divided by 3/5, fifths is the unit we're working with... so where did we get this 1/3, which is the correct answer?" About two of my highest math kids could tell me, but that was it. I could tell the rest of the room didn't get it based on their explanation, which needed to be refined.  So we did this hands on number line whole group.  This picture below was the end result.

I pulled popsicle sticks to have each child do each part.  They had to work together to partition the number line as evenly as possible.  Note: Our #line went all the way to 3 for the purpose of "seeing" the remainder.  They labeled the whole number & fractional parts on the bottom of the #line. The chalk was used to show the 3/5 jump for every meal.  Then we labeled the #line by meals on the top.

Cleaning Cards Update

So, if you read my post about creating these cleaning cards, I had to tweak it a bit.

They still work great.  However, some lazy (yes, I don't mind using that adjective to describe them) kids like to just do their job and then continue to chit chat or goof off.  So... the cleaning was done but I didn't love the end of day routine.  It wasn't as smooth as my anal self wanted it to be...especially when I'll be having a long term sub in a couple of months.

Solution???  See my slides below: