Multiplication Workshop Lesson

Hi everyone! I wanted to share my lastest supervisor observation because the kids LOVED it and I was super excited about that =] If I haven't told you before, we have 3 or 4 supervisor observations and 3 mentor observations per semester. It's a lot, but it definitely is making me step up my game!

So I was doing a lesson on multiplication and really wanted to do more of a workshop/inquiry-based type of lesson. I found this blog post about using anchor charts and was *iNsPiReD* to try something we did in a math class I took on-campus at UF.

I started the lesson by giving the students a multiplication word problem and telling them to solve it in their math journal two different ways. Then we talked about some of their strategies, developing their vocabulary. They had the traditional algorithm, partial products, and repeated addition. We also added arrays and the inverse operation. Then I put them in mixed-ability groups of 3 and gave each group a sheet of chart paper, markers, and a word problem. They wrote as many ways to solve it as they could think of and explained their thinking.

We taped them to the walls around the room and each group had a set of post-its. They rotated around and decided as a group one compliment per chart and any questions they had for other charts. Eventually they got back to theirs and got to read what everyone said! Then we went around as a class and everyone got a chance to answer questions on their charts. Here are some of their questions/comments. I was SO impressed!

 The kids were engaged the whole time and really developed their vocabulary! I think it stretched their brains to think of multiplication deeper instead of just an algorithm. One more observation down, four to go!

Prefix and Suffix Flipbooks

Hey everyone! How crazy has the last week been for you? It's been really crazy for us! We had a short week (only 4 days) and SO MANY OBSERVATIONS. My mentor teacher had an observation on Tuesday and one on Thursday and then she observed me on Friday. We also had a Thanksgiving feast with our kids on Friday with vegetable soup in the crockpot, cornbread, fresh fruit and berries, and cookies. So yummy!

One lesson I did this week was about affixes- prefixes and suffixes. This is important for fourth grade to learn new words they come across in their reading. We used flipbooks to teach the affixes. Have you ever seen these?

One side of the flipbook

Reverse side of the same flipbook

These are actually two flipbooks stapled back to back. This is how you make them:
1) Get some colorful paper- we had three pieces of paper per student (all different colors).
2) Cut each piece of paper in half lengthwise.

So much paper involved

3) Fold the pieces of paper different lengths, like the picture below. We kept one as a model while folding and folded the rest to match it.

Pictures are really needed to explain this part!

4) Stack the pieces of paper, one inside another, like a Russian doll, and then staple across the top.

Booyah

5) Staple two books back to back so you can do prefixes on one side and suffixes on the other.

Once the books were made, each student wrote a prefix (or suffix) on each flap with the definition under the flap above. We did all of these together. Then they went to different spots around the room to read their independent books. As they read, they had to find one example of each in the book and write that, along with two examples they could think of, under the affix. They had a total of three examples per affix and then we went over everyone's and talked about what examples we found.

Sometimes we fit two on one flap.

The examples for mis- and non- are on the yellow.
The examples for un- are on the other side of the orange.

I love these flip books! They're great resources for the kids to keep and a lot of fun to make. I just used the list of affixes from the standard for Florida, but you can do whichever ones you need. I would recommend making them for the kids ahead of time and then having them fill them out. Also, I wrote sideways, but it would probably be easier to write normally. Live and learn, right?

This week we only have two days of school! Two days of school and five days off? Can we do this every week???

Confession Time

Wanna hear my sad and pathetic confession? I had zero idea what teachers did during planning week. If I was forced to guess, I would offer up a weak "um... plan?" and then shrug and hand over my elementary ed diploma in shame. But fear not. I have learned what planning week entails. BOY HAVE I. All of you teachers out there are emphatically nodding your head and now I understand why. Announcement: planning week is not just decorating bulletin boards and sorting manipulatives (though that definitely happened). We just went through four solid days of hardcore meetings. Everything from faculty meetings, to meetings about common core (the new nationwide standards), to meetings about VAM, RTI/MTSS, FAIR, DRA, and CCSS. Y'all, remember when I said educators like acronyms? I wasn't kidding! But in all honesty, I found the meetings really interesting and was so proud of my widdle program at UF because I felt totally prepared to handle everything they threw our way. I was like "Oh! I know what that is! Oh! I know what that is, too!" It was so exciting!

In between all the meetings, we had some time to set up the classroom and would you just look how cute our bulletin board in the hallway looks?! (Recognize the saying? It's one of the 7 habits!) It's so fun seeing all the second grade rooms in our hall. Our hall bulletin boards are the best, though. We have turned our children into bees, frogs, owls, monsters, and safari animals. Just another Thursday in the life of a teacher ;)

You can also see we have a little owl from the board across the hall!

Teacher milestone! My first time introducing myself to the parents! In the past, I was in and out of the class so often we didn't bother introducing ourselves to parents, but this year, I got to add an addendum to my teacher's note and write a little hello. I feel like I shouldn't be this excited..... but I am! haha

Can you see my sweet little paragraph at the bottom? I felt like a celebrity signing 20 of these

Other than that, everything's been busy, but exciting. A lot of the teachers on my team are new or fairly new, so we're all asking questions and I feel a little less of an outsider. I can't wait to meet the kids tomorrow at registration and then start school Monday!