Day of Silence

Honoring everyone affected by yesterday's tragic event. Especially the little angels. 

Some Elves and Math Stations

Here are the rest of the elves I've hid these week! Today's elf was definitely the trickiest. They couldn't find it till about halfway through the day. I'm so sneaky!!

Now here's a look at the BEFORE sneak peek of my math stations. I'll show you how I organize it all and what I actually do for stations and maybe it'll help you out or spark a new idea for your classroom.

Trust me when I saw every class is different. I know you already know that, but honestly what works with one of your classes will not always work with your next. I thought my stations worked perfectly with my last bunch. We did 2 20 minute stations a day covering 4 areas: Manipulatives, Application, Technology and Games. I love collaborating with my fellow teachers any chance I get. So when I hear a good idea, I think "I totally want to try that!". So I decided to start the year off with 3 stations a day: Teacher Table, Fact Fluency, Partner Play. This way I would see every student in a small group setting and not have to deal with a whole group lesson where some are bored and some are lost. Love the idea... didn't actually work out how I had planned. I found having groups of 5 or more in a small group was too much for me at the beginning of the year. Then I tried to use what worked for me last year... didn't quite work this year because I forgot to take into account that I taught only Math/Science so I had an entire 1.5 hour for my Math block where this year our Math block is cut in half by Lunch/Recess. It's not the best schedule but it gives them a nice break. Anyway.. I needed something new.

So, after more collaboration with fellow teachers, the fabulous fifth grade teachers shared with me their old way of math stations. To my current students and I, it's the perfect combination of getting in those lessons, really reaching your students through small group instruction, holding students accountable, giving the students choice and making it fun and enjoyable for them. See and print the actual schedule HERE.

• Monday - Introduce new concept and activity
• Tuesday - Review new concept and activity
• Wednesday - Day 1 of Stations
• Thursday - Day 2 of Stations
• Friday - Day 3 of Stations.

Wednesday - Friday I constantly pull my kids in the back and do whatever is needed. It may be fine tuning this weeks lesson, going way back and hitting a concept we've already covered but the student is still struggling on or getting in some Tier interventions. It has been working wonders and here is are some photos that showcase how I set them up as well as picture of each station for this week. Feel free to email me to ask any questions or you'd like me to send you copies of some stuff I have. Thanks! 

Station D is computers and I have no clue what happened to the picture I took of Station B... So please forgive me. It's been a long couple of days. Enjoy and look for pictures of the "during" and "after" tomorrow!

Day 3 of Elves and "I Can Find"

Today was a great Monday back. My kids were rather calm .. I want to say it was the drastic weather change here in Texas. Yesterday it was high 60s and then this morning it was snowing!

On to school stuff.. My kids needed to be up and moving so I was excited for them to do the Subtraction with Regrouping "I Can Find" from my 2-Digit Addition and Subtraction Regrouping Pack (you can check it out here). I hide them around the room so the kids have to get up and moving, find them and solve. I had them check their work 2 times before handing it to me! It paid off for some of my kiddos :).

 And for the Day 3 Elf...

I know I promised Math Stations last week but I realized this after my students had used it all. So this week I will take a picture of the before (how I set them up), the during (students hard at work) and the after (student work samples). For real this time.. stay tuned! 

Day 2 of Elves!

See where I hid today's elf... The kids are loving it!! The first thing they told me was "I can't wait to find the elf"(obviously breaking the first rule of the elves). I figure the excitement of the elves is all still new so after today I'll get more serious about the rule but for now.. I'll just let them be giddy. Not too late to pick up some elves to hide in your classroom too here.

Check back later today for another post on how we do our math stations!

1st Day of Elves!

Today marks the first day of my 12 Days of Christmas Elves! My students will be will be on the hunt starting today for a new hidden elf each day. The first one is ... pretty obvious. 

You can click on my store to the left or the picture below to purchase it. Today marks the first day but it's okay if you jump on the bandwagon a day late. No worries!

Not sure what they even are? A few days before school is out for the winter break can be pretty hectic, so this just adds a bit of fun for everyone. They need to find the Elf of the day that you have hidden around the room and write it down on the corresponding recording sheet. The one and only rule about the Elves though is "WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THE ELVES!". The reason is that at the end of the 12 days I like to see how many Elves they found and then put their name into a raffle that many times. Everyone gets at least 3 because I make the first, second and last one the easiest to find. Stop by the Dollar Store and grab a few nicknacks and then celebrate at your holiday party the day you get out!

Happy Thursday!

I will post tomorrow about how we do our Math Stations so check it out manana!

My First Linky!

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to showcase what I bought from the Cyber Monday sale on TPT.

I don't know about you but I love checking out other people's closets when it comes to clothes.. so why should it be any different when it comes to TPT? Check it out here and here.

Also, a little shout out to my new friend Anna from Simply Skilled in Second Grade for being chosen to participate in Lory Evans' 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. If you're a second grade teacher you MUST check out her page. She's linked up with a ton of great gals/teachers that I definitely aspire to be like and even better.. they're giving away amazing units!

You can also click on the picture to take you to Lory's page.

On a silly note, I'm almost embarrassed (but not really because we know how much I love Bravo) to admit that I'm totally psyched about the Shahs of Sunset premiere tonight haha.

Have a Happy Sunday night!