It was JUST as expected :)

This blog is in follow up to Amy's request to know how the Math lesson turned out. My gut instinct in taking the time for the kids to build "boxes" with the cubes by giving them various dimensions paid off. We began taking those boxes we made and then drew "plans" on centimeter grid paper. After practicing that for awhile the students were then able to do this on their own with a given set of dimensions. WOW. This went MUCH more smoothly than in years past. I think I could re-write our math book. Or at LEAST give them some tips that actually work in the classroom!!!!
Not really, but it was a very proud teaching moment.

Math Stuff...

It was a WONDERFUL teaching day. I've gone a little away from our Math Investigations program and tweaked it to fit my students needs more. Introducing Volume: We are supposed to spend 5 minutes with interlocking cubes and building different sized "boxes". Instead we spent a great DEAL of time doing this so the kids could really SEE that Volume is length x width x height. I think this way will have them prepared tomorrow when we have to build boxes based on measurements using centimeter paper. Crossing fingers...

Mission Complete

My students FINALLY presented their final project to our Native American Unit. We have used websites to research and made power point presentations to share with the class what they learned about their chosen tribe. My students also had a family project to do. They created a shelter that their tribe used, using things found in nature to build it and also had to incorporate artifacts we would find. The families LOVED this project.

The only down side to this is that it took MUCH longer to get through this project than it has in the past because I incorporated the Powerpoints. We just have such a limited access to technology it's difficult to research much less put a powerpoint together.

Overall, I will use this again next year!

Happy Turkey Day/Black Friday!

It certainly was nice to have a two day work week. We worked hard on a few more stories that will be published next week. Now I REALLY need to work on geometry.

On the homefront we had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving and I shopped till I dropped starting at 3:30 on Black Friday. I need a couple of days to recover from that. However, my Christmas shopping is finished and I can have a stress free couple of weeks. Hahaha.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving :)

Full Week :)

The Coyote Connection is exploding! All it took was a published piece and now the students cannot WAIT for their turn. We have more up since I last blogged and the feedback has been wonderful.

This last Friday, we went to The Nutcracker Ballet. I'm really proud of my students and how well behaved they were. The boys loved the battle between the soldiers and the mice, of course.

As far as my chatty class, I'm REALLY tightening up on them. I'm continually telling them my expectations and holding those that aren't following directions accountable. I'm hoping this isn't a year long thing, BUT...we are in November.

All of my Nutcraker pictures are on my computer at school. I'll post them this week.

Diving In

Well I have set up the website page that our class newspaper will be on. We've named it the Coyote Connection . I thought I'd put the link here so you can watch the SLOW progress we are making. It truly is a work in progress. I'm hoping after the students get their first articles up that it will run more smoothly. On that class newspaper there is also a link to our class website. I'm pretty proud of myself that I have it up and running. A year ago, I would have been too scared to do it.

Fun Day :)

We had a Chiefs player come to talk about character traits with our students. They LOVED it! I'm on a mission to turn my students into journalists. I have to be honest, my teaching writing skills are just not that great. We're wrapping up our huge D.A.R.E. essay and now I want to teach news reporting. Just the facts: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. I sent out my first reporters today and hope to have them podcasting and putting it up on my school webpage. I already have a couple wanting to interview our principal and a couple wanting to report on our field trip to The Nutcracker. I think I've finally given my students a purpose for writing. Hope it WORKS :)