Pictures of the Day: April 28, 2015

Ok, I feel like I should give a warning before I start this one: this post will be a little bit indulgent.  And it will explain why I couldn’t post this update last night.  Here. Maybe this will help:

It’s been a long time coming, but I graduated with my Masters of Science in Education. The focus was on Curriculum and Instruction.  While in some ways I wish I could have finished this long ago, I am actually super excited that my kids and hubby got to share the night with me.  He shared the whole program with me, too, he’ll have his own graduation night later on. 🙂

Wish I could have gotten a better picture of me with this super smart guy (that’s a LONG story I won’t bother you with), but I had to post it anyway, because it means so much to me. This is my baby brother, who is in most ways smarter and wiser than me. I love that he’s proud of me, though, and that he was there to share this important night with me. LOVE YOU, CHUCK!!  

What important life event in 2015 isn’t documented with a selife? Pretty sure they all are. So we had to do the same. There is something that I LOVE about this picture. Mostly the people in it, but also because we are all so happy, and also just the fact that it’s a little off-center (because I probably am a little like that, too). 🙂

Picture (and Video!) of the Day: April 27, 2015

Welcome to a new week!  Let’s get started with some super pictures.  This week’s gonna be a good one. 🙂

IMG_4474We have been working on a design challenge in science lately (more later!), and this picture is of some friends working on it.  Even better, it’s a picture of first graders independently documenting their learning with videos explaining how their design works.  Amazing.  It’s cool when 5th graders do it, but when you’re 6 and 7YO and you can do that, somehow it seems better.  And now that we’re all 1:1 in KSD, it’ll continue to happen over and over.  What will these friends look like with tech and learning when they’re in 5th grade?  I’m excited to find out!

Here’s a video of this same work:

Can’t wait to share more!  Have a great week, friends!

First Grade Math-Warm Ups: Week of April 20-23, 2015

This was a short week with only 4 school days anyhow, and I was gone for one of those, so only 2 warm-ups this week, friends.  Still working on data collection….

Monday

The warm-up for this morning directly tied to our work in Math, as it was the basis for a formative assessment.  We had been working on collecting, organizing and analyzing data for many days in whole group and partner situations, and it was time to try it on their own.  It’s hard to see, but there are names signed on each side of the t-chart.  We skipped the post-its on this day to make sure the data didn’t change before we could analyze it (we do this EARLY in the day and hours pass before we talk about it).

IMG_4469Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

Ok, so we really didn’t spend 3 days doing this one, but with a strange week, we did it on Tuesday morning, but didn’t have a chance to discuss it until Thursday afternoon.  The conversation we had around the analysis is documented on the sheet; the post-its were how we “voted.”  This is good stuff here. 🙂

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Pictures of the Day–April 23, 2015

What a great day back with my friends in Rm. 202!  Besides being a BEAUTIFUL Thursday, we also enjoyed another Walker’s Club day, as well as A.C.E.S. Day, which is a Robinson favorite every Spring.  A.C.E.S. stands for All Children Exercising Simultaneously, and I found out today it’s a 15 year tradition at our school (which is actually almost as long as I’ve been teaching there–I hadn’t realized it started at the same time!).  Here’s a pic from our fun today:

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Ok, so to be fair, it’s not actually from our festivities, but is inspired by them. Sara got to participate in Mrs. Clark’s A.C.E.S. Day routine to the song “Jump” and got some pretty great glasses as a result. Awesome, right? 🙂

For more on how Robinson can shake their booties, have a lot of fun and be healthy, check out teh link to our Facebook page here.  There’s a video and a TON of pictures to enjoy!  I was too busy moving and grooving I didn’t get ANYTHING to share.  Unbelieveable, right?  Luckily pretty much EVERYONE else had a phone or a camera. 🙂

I have one more picture, and I guess actually it’s more a number than a picture, but it’s this:

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That’s our new Walker’s Club total for the April Competition.  I’m amazed and impressed with our steady work towards a goal of winning recess and popsicles (plus having fun and getting healthy!)!  Keep it up, Rm. 202 kids!

Picture of the Day–April 22, 2015

While I’d love to say I have inspiring pictures of my class saving the world and having great fun on Earth Day, alas I was at home with a sick kiddo today, and so my pictures aren’t even from Rm. 202 today. 😦

Instead, I have one of me and my boy.  My coughing-all-over-me and sniffling-all-day boy with whom I spent the day.  And yes, he’s trying to look pitiful.  Me, not so much, but it might have happened anyway. 🙂  Tomorrow will be better, friends, and include smiles from Rm. 202 kids (and hopefully me, too!). 🙂

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Pictures of the Day: April 21, 2015

Have you seen this feature yet?  I was TOTALLY into last week, but so far this week I keep forgetting I am supposed to post a picture.  That’s what I get for trying to go all in.  Oh well, here are a couple of pictures that tell today’s story:

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This pic kind of tells it all about what happened today: we worked for a long time on a design challenge, which started with solving a problem about how to organize the materials. We solve lots of problems together in Rm. 202, and often it happens on that red rug. 🙂

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More of our wonderful mess! And I wasn’t going to post this HORRIBLE picture of me, but it tells one more part of today’s story: I ran 5 laps for Rm. 202 in Walker’s Club today (hence my rolled up jeans because I was so hot!). Everyone did a CRAZY GOOD job today with racking up lots of miles for our team. 🙂

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One more: I couldn’t NOT share this pic of C.J.’s huge smile as he got started on designing something to help take care of his baby meerkat. Love it!

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of April 13-17, 2015

Just like the focus several weeks ago was Walker’s Club, and last week’s were about data, these are data-focused as well.

Tuesday

This one was kind of a freebie, but was supposed to get kiddos ready for the work we’d do later on in the day (which really is the focus of how the Math Warm-Ups are meant to work anyway. 🙂 ).

IMG_4454 Wednesday

The warm-up on Wednesday was a little different from previous ones lately, whereas instead of them collecting the data, kids were asked to analyze the data and tell what they have learned from the data I’ve given them.

IMG_4453 Thursday

This one’s all about the chart Mrs. Appelbaum shared with us about the many ways we can represent the data we collect (which is exactly what kiddos would be doing later in the day!).  This one got them thinking early in the day, and also served as the introduction to our math lesson.

IMG_4452  Friday

This one, you can tell, is not about data (directly), but IS about Walker’s Club laps and is a SUPER HARD one for first graders (our benchmark for addition is 2-digit numbers up to 100).  But you know what?  They TOTALLY KNEW WHAT TO DO!!  Those strategies we learned and used for 2-digit numbers?  They work for hundreds, too!  Way to go, Rm. 202 kiddos.  But you know what? I’m not surprised.  You’re pretty much always awesome. 🙂

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Picture of the Day–April 20, 2015

Boo.  I only have 1 picture today, and it’s not even really from today (I know, I could have not told you that and you’d never have known.  Oops.), but it works for today as well as it did for Friday.  I was going to use it in a Walker’s Club update, and also for Math Warm-Up post, but alas I CAN’T GET THE PICTURES I NEED OUT OF MY PHONE!!  I am not someone who curses or hits things, so I might spit.  Or frown alot.  Or just say, “THIS IS SO STUPID!!”  But then that wouldn’t help anything, so I’ll stop throwing a fit and just show you my picture.  The one picture that DID upload from my uncooperative phone:

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I hope you can see that not only did some super great kids in our class use our numbers to make 10s again, but our total for just Thursday was 70 (our best single day so far), our weekly total was 124 (our best weekly total so far!) and our grand total is 351, which is THE LEAD FOR FIRST GRADE IN OUR COMPETITION!  Oh, and you probably can’t tell that I added 3 laps on this particular day which is my best total to date.  Wow–lots of best happening around here lately!  So technically this picture was not taken today, and the laps weren’t walked today, but there was an announcement on our school-wide news today announcing the standings so far.  Does that count?  Let’s say it does.  And I’ll do better with pictures tomorrow. 🙂

Pictures of the Day–April 17, 2015

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!! I wish I could share my amazing Spring weather with you (although obviously some of you are enjoying the same warm temps and sunshine as me….but for those of you that aren’t, here’s what I see outside my end of the school:1428698639931And then there are the other pictures I chose for today.  They all include big ‘ole smiles that show how happy a place Robinson is. Happy Friday!

This smile come from a SUPER example of how Peyton used one of Marla Frazee’s craft moves in his own writing: just like the pictures in Roller Coaster, he added a detail to his picture of Fredbird from his Cardinal story. It says, “The Cardinals won and Fredbird goes CRAZY” and his feathers are falling out because he’s so excited.  LOVE that he’s using the examples of authors we’re learning about–exactly what we’ve been talking about!

We were working on another text in interactive writing today, and I wasn’t going to include another picture of our MANY words we’ve been writing, but there was something about this cute face that changed my mind. Great work, Landen!

There’s not a lot I need to say about this picture except look at that great crown and that AMAZING first grade smile! Say cheese, Sara!

Remember how I said that Robinson is a happy place to be? Here are three more reasons why–my other two teammates Rachael and Rochelle, and the fact that people just show up and give you ice cream and say Happy Friday! What a treat on a beautiful day. 🙂 I LOVE MY JOB!!

 

Pictures of the Day–April 16, 2015

This is day 4 of this feature, and I LOVE IT!!  I know I will always write long posts (because that’s just how I roll, plus sometimes there’s a longer story to tell), but I love how the snapshots we’re sharing give you a quick peek into life in Rm. 202.  Hopefully you feel the same! Here today’s gems:

After yesterday's picture of Emily, the group that finished the construction paper rules chart wanted to be in on the fun. Look at all of those words!

After yesterday’s picture of Emily, the group that finished the construction paper rules chart wanted to be in on the fun (see how she’s there again? 🙂 ). Look at all of those words!

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Check it out: we finished our rules today and we were SUPER proud of all of the words that we put on there! It’s a theme that has come up many times this week: how many words we have all around our room. I should post a video of tour of all of the authentic kid-writing that graces our walls. It’s pretty amazing what these little people can do!!

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Today was a Walker’s Club day, and since teachers’ laps count in our competition, I went out to do my part for Rm. 202. I was SUPER proud to be able to add 3 LAPS today! In flip-flops. And a dress. AND I ran some of it. So far I’ve only added 2 laps per week, but this week I got to put down 4 for Rm. 202’s total. YAY!! 🙂