The One About 100 Day - with Pictures

The big day!

Well, last Thursday was 100 Day.  I'm sure you're busy planning your own 100 Day as you read this as I doubt there are that many people who started as early as we did.  One of the perks of being in a private school.  Sure, we may start earlier than everyone else.  But that also means we get out earlier!  No school in June for me!  It also means that 100 Day falls toward the end of January.

So, what are your plans for 100 Day?  As mentioned in the previous post, (sorry it's been a week again) I spend the entire day celebrating the big day.  The kids had a great time and it just so happens that this week we are studying number patterns in Math.  You know, counting on a hundred cart, skip counting, etc.  So last week's festivities were the perfect introduction to that.  They loved making the Froot Loop necklaces, as always, and the little book I made for them too!  Another hit was the 100 Day snack.  Although it came with its own frustrations.  For the first time ever, after 9 years of doing this, I didn't have everyone bring in what their parents signed up for!  I was 3 items short!  This wasn't 70 Day!  Luckily, after some rummaging through the Early Childhood snack supplies and a re-purposing of a bag of Lays potato chips (hey, I was desperate), we had our 100 items!  You've got to roll with the punches people, you know what I mean!  

I took some pictures of it all but I'm only going to show Braeden's face since he's mine.  I'm going to have to get creative next year when I don't have my own kid in my class.  I've blurred the faces of some friends out below but it kind of creeps me out.  Maybe a cute smiley face?  Anywho, I'll figure that out later.  On with the pictures:

Some friends working on their necklaces.

Another friend with his 100 year-old self

Two students reading our 100 Day books: The Night Before the 100th Day of School & 100 Hungry Ants!

Braeden making his Froot Loop necklace

Braeden and his 100 year-old self!

Braeden showing his 100 Day Project - a Lego car made of 100 pieces!

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Another 100 Day project: 100 buttons on a shirt!

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100 heart stickers, in the shape of a heart!

So, it was a ton of fun and by the end of the day I was exhausted and felt 100 years-old myself.  But the kids had a blast and we learned a lot.  100 Day is one of my favorites!  The other, Groundhog Day, is coming up!  But that's a post for another, hopefully soon, time. What are your plans for 100 Day?  Dressing up?  Projects?  Snacks?  Froot Loop necklaces?  Whatever your plans, I hope they're great!  100 kinds of fun!  :)

The One with a Math Journal Freebie!

Happy New Year!  Again!

Well, today we returned to school after a very short Christmas break.  How about you?  Did you return today?  Tomorrow?  Or are you one of the lucky ones who has off until next week sometime?  Anywho, it's no big deal I guess.  Returning for a 3-day week has its benefits I guess.  It will at least give me time to get all of my mid-year assessments and running records done.  It can also serve as a smooth transition back after a break rather than jumping in head first.  

All in all it was a good day.  My kids were super talkative and very excited to see one another.  You'd think it had been weeks longer than the 9 short days since they'd seen each other.  We took it easy, not starting too many new things.  Tomorrow and Friday we'll get a bit more into things and then fully begin all of our subjects next Monday.

One of the new things we began today was time.  Ahhhhh telling time.  A biggie in 1st Grade.  One of the reasons I enjoy teaching time, and money for that matter, is the fact that the kids get so excited.  They feel special, like they've finally been privy to some grown-up secret.  The ability to read and control time, and money.  It's cute.  Today we started off with the basics - vocabulary, how it works.  time to the hour.  You know, nothing too intense.  Laying the groundwork.  It did inspire me though to finally crank our the January Math Journals that had eluded me the entire Christmas Break.  I truly meant to finish them and have them posted to TPT before the new year, but oh well.  

So, given a new drive, I was able to pound them out today and I'm pretty excited about them.  As I've blogged before, my kids do love Math Journals so much and I find they are a fun and easy way to reinforce some of the basic concepts we are working on in Math.  This month I chose to work with both addition and subtraction word problems, time (to the hour and half-hour), money (pennies and nickels), and growing patterns.  I intended on starting them Monday, but I may begin tomorrow.  One of the first things my kids asked when they walked in this morning was, "Where is our Math Journal?"!  Ahhhhh, I love me some routine!  I was so proud of them/bummed that I wasn't prepared!  That also served to kick me in the butt and get them done!

While I was making them I thought it would be fun to offer up the first week as a Freebie at my TPT store!  You know, to ring in the New Year and to apologize for getting them out late!  Click on the picture below to download the first week of my 4-week January Math Journals.  That or you can head on over to my TPT store here to get it, or to get the whole month!

So, now that I have that finished I can begin working on some other things I've been meaning to make and post!  Hopefully you'll be hearing about those soon.  Until then I hope that you're enjoying the remainder of your Christmas break or enjoying being back in the classroom with your kiddos.  Whichever pertains to you!   

The One About Math Journals

So, Math journals.  Do you use them?  Know what they are?  I have to admit.  I'm still somewhat of a newbie when it comes to them, but I am totally addicted.  I'd been hearing about the concept for a little while, but never made the time had the time to check it out.  However, in October, one of the sellers I follow on TPT was posting weekly Math journals for free!  Free!  I love me some free stuff.  T-shirts, food, and classroom resources.  So I thought, why not give it a shot?  I loved the format and it seemed like a fun way to enrich my Math curriculum.  I dove in and haven't looked back.

I'm sure there are a gazillion different types of Math journals out there and just as many ways in which you can use them in the classroom.  However, for me, I have found that using them as Morning Work is the best.  Since the kids come into the classroom at varying times, the activity should be easy to grasp, self-explanatory, and not too time-consuming.  So that's what I do.  My kids know to come in, unpack, and work on the Math journal entry for that day.  Then, before we begin our Math lesson each day we go over that day's entry together on the ELMO and we have a chance to discuss it and the skills/concepts covered.  It's worked beautifully in this way and my kids have really responded well to it.  They will even go back and work on previous days' entries if they were absent.

So, I used the October freebies and fell in love.  But I begin thinking to myself, I could do this.  I could make my own Math journals.  Not that the ones I had downloaded weren't great, they were, but if I made them myself, I could ensure that they would tie into the skills and lessons we would be working on that month.  So I was inspired.  I made my first set for November and posted those to TPT.  By now my kids and I were hooked.  Toward the end of the month they were already asking me if I had the December ones ready (they know I make them myself as I may or may not have used that to increase the "oooooohhhhh" factor for them.)  November flew by and before I knew it Thanksgiving had passed and I didn't have my December Math Journals completed (or even begun to be honest).  Remember though, I told you I was an addict, and I needed a fix.  Plus, I love me some routine and procedures so I couldn't just not have Math journals!  Gasp!  That would be horrible!  So, I pushed it and used every spare minute of the day I had to get another month done.  Luckily December is so short once you factor in Christmas break, I didn't need to create a full 5 weeks as I had for November.  

Tomorrow we begin them and I am so excited to have them ready to go on the students' desks in the morning.  This month the 5 skills I've covered include subtraction, tally marks, place value (tens and ones), even/odd numbers, and probability (certain, possible, impossible).  As I did with November, each week's entries are progressively a little more difficult while maintaining the same format.  Just in case I've swayed you (as a Math journal convert) or have piqued your interest (as a current Math journal junkie) I have a freebie for you to preview.  It's the Monday and Tuesday entries for the first week.  Click on the picture below to download it.  If you like it, head on over to my TPT store and check out my whole December Math Journal packet!

So, what are your thoughts on Math journals?  Intrigued?  Eager to try them out?  Do you already use and love them?  How do you use them in the classroom?  I just had to share and post about this since it's one of my (many) new addictions!