Four Names

It's spring break here so I'm just doing this one post for this week (but I think it's a really great idea for all teachers and maybe coming back from spring break would be the perfect time to implement it)!... and if your spring break has come and gone a while ago I also think any time would be the perfect time to implement it.

The post was originally from the Momastery Blog and it was actually written years ago but because I only just discovered it I'm going to go ahead and assume others haven't seen anything about it either.  I also really believe that the ideas in the post are still very much relevant today. 

I think you should just click on that link and read the full story but because you might not or you might just want a quick version of it here's my summary.

A teacher asks her students every Friday to write on a piece of paper the names of 4 others in the class that they would like to sit with the following week.

Then the teacher reviews what others has written and is able to see who's name is never written down, who's name is always written down, who's name was written down a ton last week but not at all this week... she's seeing who is lonely, falling through the cracks, and potentially being bullied.

It could be powerful.

It could change lives.

And all it takes is getting them write down 4 names and reviewing it.

This Week At School

Despite not feeling the greatest all weekend I managed to pull it together enough to work every single day leading up to spring break!

In one of my classes this week I hadn't been in since September (it was actually the class I subbed in for my first day of work this school year). It was nice to go back and see them but it was especially nice because I only had 8 grade 4 students (and after lunch we lost 2 of them and only had 6)! It was a nice relaxing day. I even taught them how to play my favourite game to play while substitute teaching - Snake 

At one of the schools I was at this week one of the teachers apparently brings her dog to work every single day... which is a lot less of a distraction than one might think (I guess the students are used to having the dog come to class with her). Anyways, she came into my class for one period and when she read a book to the class on the carpet the dog (which was a border collie) was sitting watching her read the book and looked just like one of the students... eager to see what the book was all about. while it sat and looked at the book.

The kids in this grade 3 class had what they called "science hats"

Science Hats!

I asked them what they were supposed to be and they kept telling me science hats so I'm not at all sure what that green stuff is supposed to represent... my guess was grass but they thought this was preposterous.

We did an Easter tanagram activity in math class that I thought was great and had them super engaged

Easter Tangrams

They coloured, cut, and remade the egg. Then they tried making those other shapes at the top of the page. Just remind them to be careful when cutting because the cuts have to be fairly presice for it to work well. The activity is from Mathsticks (and when searching for this tangram activity I actually found a bunch of other egg/Easter related activities so you might want to search it out!)

I ended the week going to swim and gym one last time with the one rural school I frequent that goes to this. It was the students last time there so we stopped at McDonalds on the way for a treat or in their case, lunch (my husband, who attended the school many moons ago, says they even did this when he was attending the school so I guess they've kept the tradition going). 

It was an easy end to the week as I was in the same class for 2 days and the list on the board was pretty simply: reading, math, and a science test were the harder things to do that we managed to get almost completed by the end of the morning of the first day.

And with that it's Spring Break!  

I'll be taking a break from the blog next week (although there is one post for next week ready to go so watch for that) and will be back to the blog (and school) after Easter.

Have a safe and happy Easter (and spring break if you happen to be on it)!

Spring is Here!

Spring is here so let's celebrate the beautiful weather as we search to find the spelling words.

Hop on over to Education.com for more printables and learning resources just like this!

Psst... after today there's just 1 more workday until spring break!

Multiplication and Division in Grade 1?

A couple of weeks ago I posted this picture:

Math - groups of

saying that it had something to do with math...

Well, the students had actually done all the colouring and lines and numbers on this page prior to me being in this class (which was either a grade 1 or 2 class... sorry... I really don't recall which right now!) so I'm not 100% sure on how their teacher told them to group the circles but I imagine she asked students to find similarities in the pictures (you can see that this student coloured #4 and 12 the same colours at least).

The day I was with them they were discussing what they had discovered.  

Someone said they noticed that 3, 9 and 15 both had circles in triangles

Another said that groups of 2's showed up in 2, 4, 6, and 10

Someone else noticed that groups of 4 (or circles in a square shape) showed up in 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20

Then the other teacher in the room asked them about numbers 1, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, and 19

One student noticed that they were easy to spot because the circles all formed a larger circle. 

No one was really seeing that no other numbers go into those numbers (and I mean, honestly, why would they?  They are in grades 1 or 2 and haven't learned about multiplication or division)

So the teacher had 4 of them stand up and form a square like the picture for 4.

She asked them to then put themselves into groups of 2 which they could easily do and everyone had a partner.

Then she asked them to put themselves into groups of 3... someone was left out.

Next she had 6 of them stand up and asked them to make groups of 2 and 3... which we should know worked fine.  Then she asked for 4's and it didn't work.

Finally, she had 7 of them stand up and form a circle like the picture.  She asked for groups of 2 and someone was left out.  She asked for groups of 3 and someone was left out.  

And then we ran out of time.

But those students were thinking.

They were beginning to notice that 2 doesn't go into everything (or 3 or 4)

They were beginning to think of things in groups

They were wondering why they weren't able to form smaller groups out of 7

They were beginning to learn about multiplication and division in grade 1 (or 2)!

Wow.

I would be interested if anyone has ever come across this lesson anywhere because I would definitely love to see what else happens throughout it!