Hi, my name is Whitney and I'm a math junkie.

There. I said it.

It really just feels a lot better to get that out there. My dad always tells me that no one is normal and everyone is a nerd about something.  I'm 100% sure it's to make me feel better, but there probably is a little bit of truth too.

Well my "nerdy" self loves math.  Being asked to solve a math problem makes me giddy inside.  For reals. I try really hard to act like I don't enjoy it, just so I can "fit in." But who am I kidding?  Coming up with solutions to math problems makes me feel better than any mountain climber who has just conquered Mt. Everest.  I wish I were kidding.  Really.  If there were a Math Junkies Anonymous, I'd totally be the leader of my local group.  Totally.

Because I'm a math junkie, I love learning more about how to teach math.  At my last math workshop someone said something has has stuck with me haunted me for the last month:

Whoah. Pretty sure I haven't been able to stop thinking about that quote since January....  This math junkie was put in her place.  There is still so much that I need to learn about teaching math.

I've always used anchor charts in a MAJOR way in both literacy and math.  We always start off the year charting ways to use our math tools during our math mysteries time {Math Mysteries is what we call our math story problem or CGI time.  You can read more details about that in this blog post.}

Then, we chart the expectations that I have for my kiddos during math mysteries.  This is super important for me to do at the beginning of the year because it helps set the routines and what I want to see from my kids' work.
Darn Promethean Board pole has hidden #5.  But it says, "Use efficient strategies." Grrrr....

Once my kids become more fluent with math mysteries and I see that they are trying to use equations to show their thinking, we start the Math Symbols chart...I chart these with the kids during our share time as we "discover" friends who are using symbols in their work.
This picture is a little older.  Just recently, someone else figured out the need for the division symbol, so we have just added that one to our chart! Woohoo!!

The flip flop chart? That's our commutative property anchor chart.
This usually comes about from the kids too as we are doing true/false equations during our math wall time.  I will write a true/false equation during math wall like 2 + 3 = 3 + 2 and ask the kids if it is true or false.  Sometimes it takes several days, weeks, or even months before the kids realize on their own that it's always going to be true if you just switch the numbers around.  It just depends on my group of kids.  This year's group figured commutative property out super early and have been using it to help them solve their math problems faster!

And these are just a few of our anchor charts we've done so far this year.  But I'm learning that there is So.Much.More I need to be giving my kids.

One thing I've not fully understood until this year is how to use the Standards for Mathematical Practices.  How can I expect my kids to be using these standards for math if I don't even know them very well? My kids can't learn what I don't know. We have been studying and analyzing these standards in our monthly math workshops.  And I've been thinking about how to use these standards to set more specific goals for my kids.  And because I'm {{{obsessed}}} with anchor charts, I used the information we learned and created some Kid-Friendly Standards for Math Practices.  It has standard posters and then "I Can" posters that can be used for anchor charts.

I have already charted out Standard #4 {Model with math} with my kids and it has totally changed their thinking and purpose during math mystery time.

I started by setting our goal for the week, "I model with math."  I did not write anything but the title on the anchor chart until sharing time.  This gave us a chance to see how our friends were modeling with math and record it on our chart.  My firsties that got their "modeling" posted on our anchor chart were so proud.  Still, several weeks later, they are still claiming their modeling on our anchor chart as "the one I shared!"

My firsties quickly started using the phrase, "Model with math" during our launching time at the beginning and during our share time at the end of math mysteries.  They are able to look at friends' work that is shared and tell how they modeled with math.  They are able to differentiate drawing illustrations and modeling with math.  They are more focused in how they show their thinking.

Next week I plan on focusing our math goal on attending to precision {read it HERE}.  I sure do have lots of kiddos who are making silly counting mistakes, using the wrong symbols, and not focusing on the math vocabulary in our story problems...and we need to fix that!  I'm hoping I have fast results with this focus like we did for modeling with math.  Stay tuned...

This math junkie loves a good anchor chart and I can't wait to start charting more of our math goals!
We continued our weather unit and reviewed the water cycle from last week.  We sang our water cycle song {click here for the original source}.  The kids absolutely LOVE this song!  Then we made our own water cycle collaborative posters.

Any time my firsties get scraps to cut and glue they are 100% engaged.  It's their favorite.  And it had a great learning purpose {use pictures to represent the water cycle}.


This took us some time, but it was so much more meaningful than any labeling worksheet or coloring page!

...And...I think they turned out so sTiNkiN' cute! I'm totally uh-bsessed with kid art!!

I love the wavy evaporation lines on this one!

And the teeny tiny clouds on this one, but the HUGE snow caps on the mountains....

After our water cycle project {plus MAJOR kid-vaccuuming afterwards...}, we added our last weather cause and effect to our anchor chart and talked about "cue" words like "because," "so," and "if....then," for cause and effect.

Then students cut and pasted pictures into this cause and effect pages and drew 2 of their own cause and effect pictures. {{{Click here for the FREEBIE!}}}

Even before I was a teacher, I loved hearing "school stories" about kids and their innate cuteness.  But it took me a while after I became a teacher to realize that not everyone enjoyed hearing my "school stories" as much as I enjoyed telling them. Oh, they smiled and graciously "laughed," but I knew that they didn't appreciate it as much as I did...

So part of the reason I started this blog was to have an outlet for sharing my school stories. For those people like me that never get tired of hearing funny things 6 and 7 year olds say.   Every time I told my mom a school story, she would say over and over, "You really need to write this stuff down!" So I am.  8 years later, I finally am writing these things down.

Here's the first installment of...

January was a short month for me in the classroom: Christmas break, 3 snow days, 2 meetings, 1 sick day with my baby and 4 days of not being in the classroom because my intern was solo teaching... So less time in the classroom, means less kid quotes.  But I think I still had a few gems this month...

After 8--yes 8!--snow days from December through the first week in January, one of my little boys said...
...why, yes, sweetie it does. Apparently Mother Nature wanted us to have a do-over...

Mr. brought my lunch by school {I left it at home} so I wouldn't starve. When he walked in our classroom, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.  One of my kids said in her best surprised voice, 
 ...*singing* I kissed a BOY and I liked it...

It's literally 13 degrees outside with a windchill of 0 and I hear, "Mrs. Shaddock, 
...No.Words...

Heard repeatedly this month:


...it's an all-time favorite.  Even if I am the only first grade teacher they've ever had.  It's the reason I come back to school each day...


That moment when your teaching week is going along grand and life throws you a curve ball and almost nothing happens that you planned to happen by the end of the week?  ...yep, that's where I am...

Last Friday, we did our first of 3 *planned* weather experiments from our weather unit over the next week.  We caught rainbows!

I have done this with my preschool Sunday School babies at church for years when we learn about Noah's Ark.  Those sweet 3 and 4 year olds get so stinkin' excited about catching the rainbow on the floor with their paper! So, I knew my firsties would love it too.  And I was right!

We filled our glasses with water and used a flashlight to shine a rainbow on our recording sheets.  The angle is a little difficult and not for the faint of heart, but my little sweeties learned perseverance and each successfully "caught" a rainbow on their paper with the help of their group. And my intern. And me... {It's times like these that I love having the extra hands of a full-time intern!}

Have you ever noticed that everything is better more engaging with the lights off?

After we caught rainbows, we inferred the cause of the rainbow together and made connections to what the flashlight and glass of water might represent in nature {sun and rain}.  I purposefully didn't read anything on rainbows.  I wanted to do the experiment first so they could "discover" some of the information on their own. And, man, that was powerful!

Then, we read a book from our school library on rainbows.  It's called Rainbows and Me.  I cannot seem to find it anywhere on the web though... We skipped around and only read about half of the book because some of the information goes into things we weren't focused on, but it's a great read for first graders!  We charted our new learning...

Students wrote their own informative writing paragraphs about rainbows on their cloud and made a rainbow too! {this little project came about as one of those after school, "what could we do to spice up rainbow writing?" casual planning sessions with my teammates.  You know, those ones you don't plan to have? I love my creative teammates! They are seriously my second family!!}

We needed something to cheer us up during these cold frigid winter days, so we filled our hallway with rainbows!  You can't walk down our hallway frowning now....they are just so happy looking!!

Man, we were on a R*O*L*L with these science experiments and integrating them into our writing.

Next up in the plans was this "making a cloud" experiment while learning about the water cycle this week.
 
And then I had two all day meetings that snuck up on me, so my intern had to do it without me...{insert sad face here.}

I saved this "Cloud in a Jar" experiment for Friday because my intern wanted to see it and they have University classes on Thursdays. {{EDIT: read about this experiment from the next year HERE}}
And then Thursday night at 7:50 we took my 15 month old to the doctor and found out he has croup.  So I stayed home Friday.  My poor firsties are missing this one altogether because it was not one I left for my intern to do since it is an "all hands on deck" experiment...{wink}  The next two weeks are my intern's solo weeks. So, this poor little experiment is going to have to be shelved until next year.  Boo!

I traded Friday's planned science experiment in for this...

Some times messed up plans, foregoing experiments, and surprise meetings are frustrating.  But sometimes they're okay.  When my week ends with day long snuggles with my normally busy 15 month old baby boy, everything else can wait.  I hate that I didn't get through all of our plans and didn't get to capture what I know would have been some awesome learning moments for my firsties.  But....some things are just more important...
I've spent the last 2 days in 2 different meetings about math.  Any of the precious people I teach with can tell you that I'm a total math nerd.  Numbers are how I think.  I like things to be logical and orderly. And math is absolutely one of my favorite things to teach.

All that being said...16 hours of math meetings makes even my nerdy math brain hurt! Ya know what I mean?!?! One of the meetings I was in is a monthly leadership meeting with our Ed Coop about analyzing content, curriculum and progressions in math.  It is a 3 year project where we are looking at the different strands of math to deepen our content knowledge and then trying to decide as a school district what an appropriate progression will be for our kids in K-5.  It's an awesome project...but it is quite an undertaking and most months I leave with so many ideas swimming through my little brain that I have a {bit of a} headache...

I should probably back up and tell you that our district and our region is heavily trained in Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) {affiliate link}.  Here is the research that this teaching philosophy is based on...

If you're not familiar with CGI, it is a way of teaching math that completely breaks traditions in math instruction. No textbooks, no teacher guide, no worksheets with 20+ addition or subtraction problems, no timed math tests...

CGI is based on the idea that kids come to school with a natural understanding about math.   My job is to facilitate student learning through word problems and problem solving that matches how kids naturally think about math.

One good example is base 10.  We use story problem types that are teacher-written that will help kids think in 10's and understand how to compose and decompose 2-digit numbers into 10's and 1s....or 100's, 10's and 1's.

When I was in school {many moons ago}, we were given math problems from our textbook and taught to borrow, carry, etc.  But that is not how kids naturally think about math.  I can ask several of my first graders to add 67 + 24, and they will say with no prompting or direct teaching from me, "60 + 20 = 80 and 7 + 4 = 11, so 80 + 11 = 91." There are fewer mistakes with my kids and they have a better understanding of number sense and operations.

I went through my first CGI training 6 years ago and I immediately fell.in.love.  I knew this would change how I taught math, but I knew it would be for the better.  It is a lot of work on me as a teacher.  I'm writing story problems for my kids based on what they know and understand and purposefully giving them problems and numbers that will deepen their thinking.  But I've seen the fruit of this research-based instruction and I wouldn't go back for anything.

As great as CGI is, there are some areas that are more difficult to cover in a "word problem."  So, we also have a non-traditional "Math Wall" time each day where we cover essential skills that are not taught through CGI or need to be reinforced for fluency purposes {like time, shapes, measurement, rote counting, etc...}  I absolutely love it!  We do it Monday-Thursdays for about 30 minutes on our Promethean Board.  In that 30 minutes, we cover 12 {count them...TWELVE!} Common Core math standards.  It covers building 2-digit numbers with base 10 blocks, counting on/back, skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, mentally adding and subtracting 10, comparing numbers, true/false equations, dividing shapes into halves and fourths, non-standard measurement, telling time, 2D and 3D shapes.  My kids love {really LOVE!!} how interactive Math Wall is too! They love getting to write and move manipulatives on our Promethean Board.  They love the You Tube songs and dances embedded in the slides.  They are totally engaged and not even realizing that they are learning math along the way!

I have several different Math Walls for kindergarten, first grade and second grade in my store.  I have created 6 Math Walls for first grade, 6 for second grade and 4 for kindergarten.  Each progressive math wall goes a little deeper into each of the standards and skills covered.  Watch this video to see how I use these in my classroom...

I also had several requests for a more traditional "calendar" on Promethean Boards.  So, last year, I made a more traditional calendar flip chart  and powerpoint option based on what I did with my first graders before Common Core.  It includes calendar, days of the week, months of the year, yesterday/today/tomorrow, ten frames, tallies, money, seasons, weather, and base 10 blocks, as well as video links embedded in slides also.

How you are you "breaking tradition" in your math instruction?
Any teacher will tell you that it is pretty much impossible to turn off your inner teacher.  So, I'm always finding ways to teach.  There are some situations where I have to engage my *filter* and restrain my inner teacher...but let's be honest:  sometimes that's just difficult!

Monday through Friday from 8:00-3:00 I teach 6 year olds.

But the rest of the time, I teach my 15 month old.  He is at that perfect age where his little brain is a sponge.  He absorbs everything we show him and is determined to figure EVERYTHING out.  So, indulge me and let me brag on my baby boy for a minute.

He can sign lots of everyday things {which makes it SO much easier to figure out what he wants and needs} like: more please, all done, where is it?, hi, bye-bye, thank you, eat, water, milk, yummy, sleep, outside, train, airplane, read, no, bath, *kisses*, and I love you.
He can say, "Mama," "Dadda" (when he wants to) and the first sounds of things that start with m, b, p, s and y.
He can follow one-step directions.
He can point out most body parts.
He can make animal sounds for: cow, duck, cat, dog, fox {what does the fox say?}, baby, and sheep.
He can sleep 12 solid hours at night and nap for 2-3 hours during the day.
He can put himself to sleep and has been since he was 9 weeks old.
He can use a spoon to feed himself.
He can tell the sounds the letters A, B, and C make.
He can work anything--ANYTHING!--with buttons.
He can dance to music.
He can point out everyone in our family, including, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents and great-grandparents.
He can turn a book the correct way to read.
He can turn pages independently.
He can point out characters and objects in books.

I'll stop there for now...

I love this stage.  But, frankly, I've loved every stage.  He is constantly learning from me and from others around him.  Seeing your baby grow through your "teacher eyes" is an awesome perspective.  I was obsessed with child psych classes in college. {I always wanted to go back and get a second Masters degree in Child Psychology...still considering that one.} So, everything Cooper does gets "psychoanalyzed" by Mrs. Mommy.  I know, I know.  I'm a nerd.  But I just love that kind of stuff.  Even Mr. has learned what "object permanence" is. And, God love his heart, he plays along with me.  Bless him!

I take teaching seriously.  But I take teaching my own child seriouslier...or more seriously.  Whatever... While the signs, animal sounds and concepts of print he's learning are amazing to me, it's not eternal.  What an awesome responsibility God has given me to equip my child to be a productive contributor of our society.  Cooper is learning from me.  My in-laws gave us this sign for Cooper's nursery.  It was in Mr.'s nursery when he was a baby.  It's a simple reminder everyday that we are his first teachers.



In college I read that 80% of the brain is fully developed before a child enters kindergarten.  80%.  That's hard to believe.  But then again, it's not.  Right now, Cooper is learning something new every day--every minute--about his world from me. And these are the things that are forever.

He has learned to trust mommy and daddy.
He has learned that we will keep him safe.
He has learned that we will comfort him when he is upset.
He has learned to smile.
He has learned to laugh and be silly.
He has learned that it's ok to fail, but to try again.
He has learned to be creative and find ways to play with things around him...even if it's not a "toy."
He has learned to interact positively with other people.
He has learned that going to church is important, but fun too.
He has learned to pray. {He even folds his hands when we tell him we are going to pray.}
He has learned to appreciate others by saying signing, "thank you."
He has learned to help people.
He is learning to be empathetic to others through hugs.
He is learning flexibility and the ability to adjust easily in all situations.
He has learned that, like our heavenly Father, his parents' love is unconditional.

While academics and cognitive development are important to me and I'm always proud to "brag" on his new discoveries, every now and then I like to stop and think about all of the "LIFE" things he's learning too. After all, parenting is a divinely appointed task.  To think that my Creator entrusted me to teach my baby about being a life-long follower of Jesus is flattering and nerve-racking all at the same time.

Psalms 127:3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.

What a blessing Cooper is to us.  He is truly a gift from God.  I didn't earn the right to have a child.  God freely gave me my child as a gift. I hope I never forget that.  Even on those worst of the worst days that are sure to come.  He is what we wanted.  He is what we prayed for.  I will spend my life parenting him like the perfect gift he is.

Proverbs 29:17 Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.

I have seen this truth already in just 15 short months.  Teaching Cooper makes  my heart happy.  Seeing him learn brings me joy.  Witnessing his loving personality that we have tried our hardest to cultivate has given me peace of mind about his future.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.  And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children.  Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.  Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

These verses convict and choke me up every time I read them. 

Am I being a good example for Cooper and doing the good works God created me to do? Because he is watching and learning from me

Am I instilling God's truths into my son enough? Because he is learning from me.

Do I repeat God's love over and over, again and again to him? Because he is learning from me.

Am I comfortable enough with God's Word to talk about it at home, around others, on the road, during the day, and at bedtime? Because he is learning from me.

I am doing my best.  But, so help me God, my best today will not be my best tomorrow.  I will be the best Mrs. Mommy I can be to my child.  God expects my best.  And Cooper deserves my best.  Because...he is learning from me.
So after 3 days out for S*N*O*W last week, we are finally back in a normal routine this year.  Today is Wednesday {hump day} and it's the first time in about a month that I've worked 3 days in a row... now that's just crazy!

We're diving into our unit on cycles and weather this week.  Here are a few things we've been up to...

First, we read this book on weather.  This comes from a Scholastic set of weather books that are fantastic readers for first graders.  They're perfect non-fiction books.  Easy enough for first graders to understand, but beefy enough to teach good information.  I love these books so much that I have a set for our animals unit we do also! They have lots of simple non-fiction features too {bold print, table of contents, glossary, captions and labels}. **Note: I'm not sure why the link goes to such an expensive set of books.  I bought mine through book clubs for less than $10 for the set...


As we read our weather book, we charted weather words on our "cheery" weather words chart...hey! I had to think of some way to bring a little warmth and sunshine into our lives.  Mother nature certainly wasn't doing her part last week!

We also started an on-going chart on Earth's natural cycles.


I absolutely love doing this chart because it lends itself to such great conversations: what cycles are, the difference between cycles and linear events (weather types versus water cycle), natural cycles versus unnatural cycles (like recycling)...  The kids love "discovering" cycles during our unit as I strategically lead them  on their own. :) The following may or may not have been heard in my classroom in during this unit in past years:
   
      "Our schedule is the same as it was yesterday!"
   
      "So, it was December and the end of the year before we left for break and now we've started ALL OVER again in January. Hmmm."
   
      "You mean after 12:00 it's 1:00 AGAIN??'

Yep, guilty.  It's just so much more meaningful when the kids "figure it out" on their own!  Also, they love getting their name on each of our cycles papers we add so they can claim their discovery.

This week we did a carousel activity where students rotated in groups around our room to write about what they already know about weather types.  We will go over each of the charts as we talk about them whole group so we can find misconceptions, and new learning.  They had 1 minute at each station to write what they knew about sunny, snowy, icy, cloudy, partly cloudy, sunny, windy and stormy.  While I've used the carousel strategy for several years, this particular group was 100% lovin' this activity!  I'm going to be finding more ways to use this carousel activity in our classroom because they were hooked from start to finish!  Because I'm a color-coding *freak* I gave each group a different color pen.  Have you ever noticed that writing in pen is super awesome? Because it is. To six year olds anyways.  Everything is better in pen.  But, the "real" reason for colorful pens was so I could see that each group was adding to the poster.  It makes it easy to see which groups are contributing and which are not...

Of course all of these activities and tons more are in my weather unit!

Sending warm thoughts your way...
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