Building arrays, state report projects, and more ...

This week was a crazy week, as you can see from the previous posts I've already made. My brain has been going so crazy with ideas, reflections, thoughts, and concerns. We have so many things going on in room 9, and we are learning so much. We are having fun, and we are also ready to "start over" on Monday. We will spend a significant amount of time re-learning procedures and policies and practicing them over and over again. I think it's always a good idea to revisit these procedures and to practice again, but I think now is a perfect time for us. We are comfortable with who we are, our classroom community is fabulous, and we love each other, BUT, we are also wasting time because we have forgotten about some of the procedures and I have not done a great job of reinforcing, so hence ... Monday - we start over! :) 

This week, we finished our "day in the life of" books which focused on writing a schedule. We had to write a rough draft schedule of our day, it could be real, or made up. We, then turned our schedule into a book titled "A day in my life". They turned out super cute, and for the most part, the majority of students grasped the concept of the functional text - schedules. 

We also spent some time learning about the specific multiplication properties. We have touched on these as we have been learning multiplication and division, but we haven't really broken the properties down until this week. I have to share this picture of the board. I am NOT an artist, but I was pretty proud of my art work to display and show the connections between properties this week! :) 

Next up --- Multiplication by arrays. We have been doing a lot with arrays and equal groups and I think the kiddos are finally starting to really reach that mastery point. (hopefully --- we get there for fluency eventually too!) We built arrays with marshmallows this week, and had a lot of fun doing so! Some kiddos really challenged themselves with some BIG numbers! :) 

Most of all -- they LOVED seeing them on the wall, and finding their own array, and pointing them out to their friends. This made my heart happy. I LOVE when they take and show pride in their work and their learning. It's something truly special when a child LOVES what they are learning, how they are showing what they are learning, AND can explain it to their peers. Happy Teaching moment! 

We have been working so hard at Mystery Skypes lately, and I wanted to take it to another level... we have found Mystery Number skyping and are very excited to find some classrooms to join us in this challenge and adventure. I am hoping to get a classroom from my home town in Michigan to join us! It will be a great challenge and very fun opportunity for my kiddos to use their skills and knowledge to find mystery numbers with new friends from all over the country! Thank you #MysterySkypes and #SkypeInTheClassroom Here are some pictures from our AWESOME skype with a class from Clinton, Oklahoma this week! :) 

 Going along with our Mystery Skype challenges lately, I wanted the kiddos to take their learning a lit bit farther. We have been focusing so hard on functional text the last few weeks and non-fiction functional text that provides a purpose and gives us information. We decided we would use these concepts together with our Mystery Skype projects and we would chose a state to research, and make an informational poster about our states. We had a lot of fun reading, and finding information to accomplish this task. Here are some pictures from the beginning states of the poster making, I'll have to share final results next week--- we are going to display our state posters in the library! Thanks to our fabulous librarian for the suggestion -- yet ANOTHER way for my kiddos to feel such a great sense of pride and accomplishment in their learning! Here is a link to the rubric I used for the assignment -- I gave the students complete control of their project outcome -- they had to check off each part of the assignment as they completed it. US States Project Rubric 

We will also be presenting these this week before we place them in the library, maybe we will record our presentations and make another video! :) 

Of course, as a teacher, sometimes you have GREAT days, and sometimes, you have rough days. It's not secret that I have had my fair share of rough days this year. I have a great set of students who respond so well to my rough days though. They are so caring, and honest, and can certainly turn my day around with one hug or smile. BUT, I have a few girls who are SO loving, and even when I'm having a great day, they can find a way to make the day EVEN greater! I have to share the notes they left for me Thursday! Love love love these kiddos! 

I am so so so lucky to have been blessed with this group of kiddos. They make my job, and my life so much easier.. which is weird, because it's not easy. But, I can't imagine my job, or my life if I didn't LOVE these kiddos the way I do. 

So, What's coming up next week?

Well.....

We are continuing with multiplication and division, only this week we are focusing specifically on using the inverse property to help us solve and check our answers when multiplying and dividing. We will be doing some problem solving, and work with story problems. I am hoping this will help us to distinguish when we are reading story problems if we need to multiply or divide (This was pretty confusing during our last CFA). We will also focus more on the properties of multiplication and division again, and how we can use those to help us solve problems. We take a big CFA on Friday and I am really hoping for some positive growth and learning! :) 

In reading/writing, we are moving our focus back to fiction in a sense. We are learning about plot, and how to compare and contrast plots across stories. We are also simultaneously learning about graphic organizers and how to use them to help us better understand and comprehend the text we are reading. We will be filling out graphic organizers, answering questions, re-visiting character traits, identify setting, and problem/solution in stories, and will end the week with being able to correctly sequence a story with a graphic organizer! 

Phew! Lots of learning left in Quarter 2. Welcome November, I can't wait to see what kind of fun we can have, how much learning we have ahead of us, and how much personal growth we can attain! 

Happy November!

~Ms. Niehaus