Math Work Station- Chapters 1 and 2

A group of great teacher bloggers are hosting an online book 

study for Debbie Diller's new book :

Although I don't have a true teaching position or classroom of my own, I still like to think I'm a teacher! I've really enjoyed reading Debbie's new book so I thought I would participate in the book study even if my responses are with regard to my dream class and classroom! I just know I'll land a job soon and I'll be super ready to implement math stations! 

 Chapter 1: So What are Math Stations?? 

A math station is an activity that engages students in independent or partner practice of a math skill that has already been introduced and taught. 

DeeDee used different colored stars to allow some students to use
smaller numbers while others can practice with larger numbers.

I feel like the biggest challenge of successful math stations is the differentiation for different leveled learners. In the book she encourages you to make differentiation a part of each and every math tub by varying materials for the levels using a color coded system that students will easily become familiar with. 

Other great ideas from chapter 1:

• USing overlapping notecards taped to a clipboard to keep anecdotal records for each student. 

Picture from http://debbiediller.wordpress.com/page/2/

• I also love the way she recommends creating the "i can" lists with options for things to do at the station as a class, then taping that very list to the lid of the math station for students to reference. 

Chapter 2: Organize! 

I'm all about the organizing but it is hard to imagine just how I would organize math stations without knowing the space that I will work in! 

However, I really like these ideas for keeping math 

stations organized! 

• Pocket Charts for Rotation Schedule! 

Idea and Picture from Swamp Frog First Graders!

• Clear Plastic Tubs for Station Materials

• Oceans of First Grade Fun's Great Labels! 

Get them HERE! 

Linking up to Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

Celebrations!

Over the past few weeks, we have been doing a lot of celebrating! And much on my behalf!

First of all, I had a birthday and turned 22! I don't think there is any better place to celebrate your birthday than in Kindergarten. The kids think birthdays are pretty darn special!

Tressie made my birthday super special in many ways! One being that she made pizza for the whole team as a birthday lunch! Awesome! Thank you Tressie! :)

Then last week, we celebrated my last day of student teaching. It was bittersweet. I am very excited about graduating but I am also in love with 15 five year olds!

I gave each of the kids a little bug catching kit and we had a bug hunt as part of our little goodbye celebration!

Then today, I was honored to receive the "Always Expect More of Aggie Teachers" Award from Texas A&M. Both Tressie and my university supervisor sent a recommendation letter in to nominate me and I won it!

So today while I was substituting, I was surprised by all the kids, Tressie, the school principal, my university supervisor, and the student teaching director who all came to deliver the award!

All this celebrating has me feeling like a pretty special gal! I want to give big thank you to all the kids and their parents for allowing me to be a part of their Kindergarten experience! AND I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Tressie! My ambition to become a teacher has grown so much stronger throughout this semester and it is all thanks to you!

I made this little video with pictures taken over the past few weeks:

Newsletter 4-11-11

We published our poetry!

To finish up our poetry unit, the kids chose their very best piece of poetry to add to a class book of poems. They were so proud of their work!

Miss Farnie put all the poems into these cute little books for each student to take home.

We spent a lot of time looking at these books on Thursday. The kids had so much fun reading each other's poems and sharing their writing with friends.

After practicing, we went next door to share our poems with another Kindergarten class:

This and That!

We have been so busy over the past few weeks!

Here is a quick recap of some of the things we have been talking about!

We've learned to identify living and nonliving things!

We've finished up our Texas studies!

During stations, we are learning more about word families!

We are learning to add and subtract!!

Transformations!

Just last week our caterpillars were just these little guys:

By Thursday they had grown to at least ten times that size and some were in cocoons!

The kids have been so excited about seeing them change! Hopefully by next week we will be be looking at butterflies!

We're Poets!

We have had so much fun talking and learning more about poetry.

Today we talked about how really great poems begin with a big idea that gives us a big feeling in our heart. We practiced by creating poem as a class.

Tressie asked the kids what a good big idea for a poem about something that gives us a big feeling would be and one student responded with, "our class family!" Pretty sweet huh?

First we created a web to jot down little moments and ideas that go with our big idea!

Then we worked on turning that web into a poem!

The kids have been really busy working on their own poetry. Each student will "publish" their best piece of poetry on Friday to share with the class!

Newletter 4-4-11

Kindergarten Rodeo

Spring has Sprung in Room 506!

At the end of last month we celebrated the first day of Spring by creating visors! I was a little worried that the kids would think these were lame. But boy was I wrong... visors are awesome!

Miss Farnie and I did a little Spring cleaning and moved things around in the classroom. The science center is looking especially Springy in it's new location with lots of sunshine!

Miss Farnie brought new fish, snails, and crabs in to add to the fish tank. The kids have enjoyed observing them while they are in the science center!

We even got new Spring nametags!

Last week we brought in a few new class pets (if you can call them that)! We now have 5 caterpillars that we hope to watch transform into butterflies over the next 3 weeks!

In the mean time, we'll keep watching our pretend butterfly flutter!

Happy Spring!

Howdy!

We have talking about Texas since the beginning of last week and it has really been a lot of fun! We've been talking about the size of our state, where it is located, and the state symbols. We've also had fun reading some fiction books about cowboys, horses, and farms.

One day we talked about how Texans joke that everything is bigger! The kids each came up with their own idea about something that's bigger in Texas!

Pizza

Pickles

Schools

Today the kids created chili pepper patterns that we hung up in the hallway because they're so darn cute!

Parents have been sending in pictures for the "Name That Texan" activity. The kids will have to see if they can name all their friends by looking at the baby pictures!

In the art station, the kids are creating cowboy sunset silhouette pictures!

Last week we made fingerprint bluebonnets.

We also read Monarch Butterflies by Gail Gibbons and talked about our state insect, the Monarch Butterfly. The kids colored their own monarch butterfly during snack and we added those to our Texas display in the hallway!

We are looking forward to the "Rodeo" on Friday! :)