Friday Tip

We have completed our first full week of school, and I feel like we have started on a great foot!  Although next week is a shortened week, it will be a very full and busy week.  We are also going to start our regular homework regime next week.


Today's Friday Tip is on Saturday, but I hope it is found to be helpful.  This tip is something I adapted from an idea I gleaned from Pinterest.  I saw the idea that some teachers glue clothespins to ribbon to display student work, but I thought why not glue two magnets to the clothespins and attach the pins that way.  One magnet is glued to the pin, and the other is on the back of the ribbon holding the pin in place.  Because the pins are magnetized, they can be adjusted for large and small projects, and they prevent holes in the wall.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Wilson 1.3

The board should look like this at the
beginning of step 1.3

We will be starting with Wilson sub-step 1.3.  In this step we will focus on short vowel sounds in closed syllable words i.e. mat, cat, rat, etc. When "making" words students move the tiles over to the other side of the magnetic journal.  In this step, words will have 3 tiles, each tile represents a sound.  Sounds are "tapped" on fingers and then the word is pronounced.  Notice that the vowels are a salmon color, this makes it easy to differentiate vowels from consonants.  In three-sound closed-syllable words the vowel is in the middle of the word.  because "qu" makes a single sound it is on one card. Students are taught that "q" is a chicken letter because it is afraid to go anywhere without its buddy "u." The "u" after the "q" therefore is not considered a vowel, but rather just "q's" buddy.

There are a lot of materials that are needed for a Wilson class, and I thought I would add a bit of an explanation about that so that there is a better understanding of how the system works.  The journal is used to write controlled words and sentences. This year I put the Student Notebook in a report cover to make it less bulky.  I also omitted the pages that the students will not be using this year from their notebooks. The notebooks are used to write notes and keep track of the patterns and rules we are learning is class. The Magnetic Journal is the journal referenced above. The reader is used for dictation, as well as sentence and paragraph reading.  Most of the words in the reader are controlled by the current sub-step.  The words that are not controlled are called "sight words." This is different from FUNdations where they are called "trick words" -same concept, different name.  We also practice writing using whiteboards.

Touch Math

Touch Math is an excellent strategy for children to use when they are adding and subtracting.  When adding, I teach the class to start with the largest number and add the smaller number using the touch-points on the chart.  I'm not using the term commutative property at this point in the year with 2nd/3rd graders, but I am stressing the fact that it doesn't matter which number is added first.  As we progress students will have a better foundation of arithmetic principles, and then we will associate the properties with their specific names.  I have found that a big reason students dislike math is because they do not understand the "wordy" lingo associated with operations.

When completing Xtramath at home I suggest using the Touch Math strategy of adding the smaller number to the larger number, even if it takes a bit longer.  At this point I think the process and building a stronger number sense is more important than making "good time" on Xtramath. Speed will come with competency.

Xtramath!

What is Xtramath, and how will it help with math facts? This short video explains the "ins and outs" of Xtramath;  if you have any questions please let me know.  I am encouraging students to start with the largest number and add on from there.  For example 9+2: say 9 and then add 2, ---- 9, 10, 11.  I will add a post about how to incorporate Touch Math soon!

Friday Tip

As we all know, kids sometimes struggle with amount control. This is a great tip I picked up from a fellow teacher:

By adding a rubber-band to the pump of a hand sanitizer bottle you can control the amount of sanitizer that kids use.  It's a very simple idea, but it works great and no more dripping wet hands!



Have a fantastic weekend!

First Full Day!

Well, I think we are all exhausted after today and the first full day back to school.  Today my reading class took the Words Their Way assessment for spelling.  This assessment will allow me the ability to better differentiate my spelling groups.  We are taking a new approach to spelling this year, and we are not going to have formal Friday spelling tests like we have had in the past.  Research has shown that spelling tests are ineffective for most students, especially students with any kind of learning difference in language.  Instead we will be assessing patterns that are found in the English language.  For example, if we are learning closed syllables with the short /a/ sound, we might have an assessment on Friday having the class spell the words, cat, hat, cab, lab, etc.  However, the students will not be given these words ahead of time, they will simply use their knowledge of language to spell the words.  I know this may sound unorthodox, but I think it will be much more authentic and be of better use to the kids.  I will be giving more information about this later, but thought I would go ahead and test the waters.  I would love to know any thoughts you have on this, so please leave comments, and we can get a dialogue started.



Today we also reviewed school rules, and read the book David Goes to School by David Shannon.  This is a good way to introduce expectations and rules without seeming to be to "preachy." After reading the story we made our own Davids and created scenarios of how to act appropriately at school.
I was very impressed with the classes coordination, and ability to create some very sophisticated characters.  I can already tell that this class is going to be amazing!

First Day of School!

We had a great first day today! I was so glad to see everyone back in school and read to learn. Tomorrow is our first full day, so that will give all of us a chance to run through the full schedule.  The idea of this picture was to have the students hold letters that when put together spelled "1st Day of School." The students made the posters themselves, but next year I think we need to use black markers. Any thoughts?

After some Photoshopping!