Regrouping!

If you follow my blog you may know that I have been going through a major transition called Second Grade Math!  Regrouping has been on my mind.

Here are our recent anchor charts:

We started using tens and ones manipulatives....well Popsicle sticks and kidney beans to practice simple regrouping.  Then we moved on to regrouping with subtraction.  Finally the students are representing problems by drawing tens and ones.

I made a pack of materials to use in class that includes whole group activities, journal prompts, interactive journal activities and centers.  

Check it out on TPT: Two-Digit Addition and Subtraction with Regrouping

Have a magical night!

Jen

Back for round 9!

I can hardly believe that this is my ninth year teaching!  Welcome back to school teachers.  I saw somewhere on the internet, There's no tired like a teacher during the first week of school tired.  SO TRUE!!

Moving from first grade to second grade this year has been a nice transition.  I know what these students learned last year and it feels like a lot less gaps to fill than in other years.  I know what they know.  It's also been really interesting to see how the Common Core standards grow with the students.  I had been a part of vertical planning before but it is just so different to do it rather than hear about it.


We jumped right in to reading and writing workshop the first day of school and it has been wonderful!

Our first unit is rooted in literature and focuses on characters and story elements.  Here are anchor charts and resources that we used to start our year.

WRITING:

This is copied (seriously word for word) from my amazing coworker's chart (L. Gilman).  The story has really helped us to break down the steps to the writing process.  *It's still a work in progress*

If you haven't heard about admiration frames before it is the best thing that ever happened to my writing instruction!!!  You can read more about in this past post: Writing realistic fiction stories.  We started admiring the author Maribeth Boelts and her book Those Shoes.  It is AH-Maz-Ing!

Then we moved on to admiring the author's sitting in our very own classroom!

When writing stories my students wrote a little and said I'm done.  I knew Knuffle Bunny was a mentor text that they had read numerous times in first grade so I pulled it out to show students how to stretch a small moment.  I created a chart like this in the past but this is a new school so I thought I could re-use it...don't tell the kids ;)

As we've been revising, I found the need to expand their writing horizons with mentor texts that we have read over the first week of school.  This was our lesson today and their new powerful endings made my heart beam!

READING:

We began with reading workshop, what it is and what it looks like.  At the bottom you will seem my very quickly created Stop! Think! and Jot! chart.

Then we moved on to wise and effective readers.

Which led us straight into our post-it thinking beautifully.  *Side note:  It is amazing starting the year with students that already know how to share their thinking on a post-it!*

And now we have moved into character responses using language stems and a good ol' rubric.  At the bottom of the chart we did an additional lesson on supporting your thinking with key details.  When looking for these key details we decided it is helpful to look at actions, dialogue, illustrations and thoughts.

Here is this sheet for you: Character Response Stem and Rubric

Here is the half-sheet that supported the students with character responses: 

Character Response half-sheet

 

 MATH:

Our first unit focuses on adding and subtracting within 20.  This was a standard from first grade but now the push is to do it mentally.  Here are the resources I've created to align with the standards.

Busch Gardens pre-assessment:  Before the unit, I like to pre-assess the students.  This Busch Gardens problem is from a wise co-worker from the school I worked at last year (K. Rorem).  You'll note that this pre-assessment does not have a rubric.  It is not intended for a grade, rather a way for me to gain insight into what they are already doing as a mathematician.

 

Add to 20:  This is an assessment to show understanding of adding and subtracting within 20.  At the bottom is a rubric we use to guide our learning throughout the progression of the standard and eventually assess our understanding.  The students assess themselves first and then afterwards I discuss and circle in pen where there understanding lies.

 

Odd and Even Assessment:  Next we are moving into Odd and Even.  Again this is a real-life scenario because I want math to be something the students see as useful in their day to day life.  

 

SCIENCE:

We are starting our first lab next week and here it is for you!  The materials are easy ones, just plastic bags from stores like Publix or Target :)

Lab, Scientific Method with bags

 

This is how I display the charts we are currently working on.  Afterward they move onto a subject bulletin board.

I'm just going to end this post with a good night.  I'm too tired for more!

Adding and Subtracting Tens

When my students had trouble finding ten more and ten less on the hundred chart I thought I was in for it when adding and subtracting using place value.  Thank goodness I was wrong!

Do you ever have those, "I'm a terrible teacher!" moments?  That was what teaching ten less and ten more led me to.  I tried and tried.  I was pinning ideas and using them like crazy.  I was asking my peers what they were doing, what they were saying, what their anchor charts looked like and said.  Then finally one day they got it!  I'm not sure which trick, tip, strategy or tool that got them there but I sure am thankful!

Now we are adding and subtracting with place value.  To start this work we began with adding and subtracting tens.  I have two fun games that my students L.O.V.E. and beg for!  Click on the picture or the link to pick up your free copy.

Adding Tens Target- students drop two manipulatives (erasers, counters, cubes, etc.) and add together the tens.  (Clip art by Krista Wallden)

Subtracting Tens- Students work in partnerships, they drop one object on the left to find the whole and one object on the right to find the part they subtract.

My students used both white boards and math journals to show their thinking.

Here is our math board right now.  We are also working on a chart of strategies to use when adding and subtracting with place value.

I get so excited to see other people's math anchor charts!  I find so many brilliant ideas.  So if you would like to post your math charts to Instagram just list it with the hash tag: #mathanchorcharts

Here is the chart I posted today with the new hash tag:

(follow me on instagram @ thegototeacher)

and here is another just for fun.

Lastly, I will leave you with our adorable class quilt for the month of February!  The hearts next to them are filled with things they love.  One of them wrote 'bees.'  I guess our inquiry on bees had an impact!

Happy Wednesday!

Math: Guided Groups, Games and Resources

I am eternally making improvements to my practices and today I'm going to continue to share how I'm going about that in math.

See my first post on the topic: An Inquiry Into Math Instruction
 
Guided Groups Binder:

On the front cover I keep a copy of the CGI Math Story Problem Types

 

The very first page is my personal notes from Math Exchanges.  You can pick them up here.  The book is worth every penny!

 

The inside cover is another copy of the CGI problems and my word problem for the week without the numbers written in.  See below for word problem freebies!

 

Here is a page of my notes from a group.  Kassia says that groups should be Flexible, responsive to specific needs, students interact with all kinds of mathematicians.  So this group was created of different types of mathematicians that I knew needed support with language. So during the retelling of the problem I was really scaffolding their thinking to guided them to the kind of retelling I wanted to hear in the future. You can see that as a teacher I was trying to figure out which strategy they were using.  This kind of note taking is almost like taking a running record to me.  I am figuring out what the student is already successful with and finding areas I can support them in.

 

 

This group was formed as an extension on the fly so I don't have a printed problem.  My goal was to help them understand that Mathematicians try to figure out what they need to do....even if it's tricky.  The problem threw my students for a loop but once they made their initial error they all moved on to try something else, which is another statement we've been working on:  Mathematicians keep trying and persevering.

Here is one way a child solved our tricky problem from above. There's 3 chickens and 2 horses.  How many legs in all?

 

 

This is in the back pocket of my folder along with the articles I posted from before.  It's just a reminder of the phases students go through.  I find that sometimes I want to push them before they are ready so this is my, "Slow down, Jen.  They aren't there yet.  Let them be successful in the phase they are in."

 

 

Here are math story problems for each type of CGI problem that don't have numbers in them (11 in all).  They are great for following Kassia's Math Exchange.  Click on the picture to pick up your copy.

 

Now onto Games!  Really just one game that we play with many different focuses.  It's very simple.  

 

Right now my class is calling this game BOO! because of the holiday.  At different times during the year I change it to relate to the time of year or a topic we are learning about.

 

-Print out numbers on a page like I did above.  Depending on where you are within your standards you could print 0-10 or 0-20.  Print multiple copies to make a TON!
-Cut out the boxes and have the kids help you crumble them all up.
-The kids sit in a circle facing out.  I usually have mine sitting with their white board, marker and eraser for a place to work and solve.
-Spread out the crumbles in the middle of the circle.
-Yell BOO!, the kids will grab some crumbles are begin to solve.
-After they solve the problem on their boards they hold it up.  I use this game as a formative assessment.

There are many, many uses for this game!  Last week they added 3 addends (so they grabbed three crumbles), commutative property, add doubles (grab one and double), and doubles plus one (grab one and add the next number higher). You could also use it for count on, count back, fact families, etc.

Here are some pictures of the game:

Here is the set up.

 

This is when I yelled BOO! 

 Here is the day we did commutative property.  They grabbed two and added.  Then switched the addends and solved again.

Here is the day we were working on Count on.

When they are done they lift them up so I can check them.

 

Here is a copy of the game with a more general theme of Fall:  Go Nuts!  For this game you will yell out GO NUTS!

 

 

 

Resources:

(also on the board are my Math Vocab cards)

Here are my TPT must haves for math-

 

  Stellar Sweethearts' Math Strategy Posters

 

 Brooke Hilderbrand's Addition and Subtraction Key Words

 

  Mrs. Ricca's I Can Posters

 

 

 

And more anchor charts :)

 

 

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
Jen