Last week, we had a PD session with Jennifer Lempp, where she went through the ins and outs and how to's of Math Workshop. I also got to see Jen this summer when she came to Rockingham for a 2 day summer professional development session. I got to spend the first day of the 2 day seminar learning things that reignited my passion for teaching math! One of the biggest things I learned that day were all of the different possibilities of number sense routines that replace the old-- 5 question warm up that leave some kids feel defeated before the math block even officially gets started. At MVES, we had been doing number talks for about 3 years, but much not to your surprise, doing the same routine day in and day out can lose it's effectiveness. Enter Jen Lempp's ideas on number sense routines discussed at our summer institute and at our school's PD! 1) Which does not belong? 2) Number talks
7) Dot Patterns All of these are simply awesome! My favorite one right now is the Which One Doesn't Belong? This week we did WODB with even and odd numbers! The beauty of this is that there are multiple answers and every student can find something to participate! Check out some of the ones we did this week! My favorite thing that happened this week with this number sense routine, is when I made them I planned about 3 possible answers, each day my kids impressed me with finding 6 or 7 different answers! Check out below some of our number sense routines for this week! Check out some helpful resources!
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Our thematic unit of study focused on friendship. During the reading phase of our unit, we read stories about friends that were unique: between animals, people that were complete opposites, people with different backgrounds, and between humans and animals. We looked at how friendships survived arguments, parents getting divorced, peer pressure, differences, and judgement. It was our goal that reading these stories would help students see all the ways in which friendship can be created and last. Some of our Reading Titles! This lead into our first personal narrative of the school year. After having read multiple stories of friendship, we asked students to brainstorm around six seed ideas of friendship. As we filled out the brainstorm, students would share the ideas they were able to come up for their lives, which helped spark ideas for other students. Then, students were asked to think about which idea from their list seemed to be the most "life changing" for them. This allowed students to narrow their brainstorm into just a few, before choosing one idea to write about. Prior to writing, we studied the elements of a personal narrative. One way we did this was through a video from YouTube. We followed up this video by identifying the key elements in picture books like The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant, Roller Coaster by Marla Frazze, One Green Apple by Eve Bunting and more! We collaboratively read the books in small groups, identified our elements, and then jigsawed to share with others! After drafting, we began revising. To do this, we used our narrative anchor chart checklist and google docs! After typing, students were asked to identify elements they wanted feedback on. Then I got onto their document and began conferring adding suggestions and questions to help guide students further! Check out some of the suggestions below and some of the finished products! The majority of my students are finished with this narrative and have begun writing their next narrative. I'm still debating if we'll write our next narrative under a theme or if it'll be pure student choice. I do know some of our next writing mini lessons will be on creative hooks and show don't tell detail writing! Another goal for our next writing, is having students do peer revisions before conferring with me! Overall I felt like the stories my students were able to share were honest, raw, heartwarming, and ones that pulled on your heart strings. In my opinion, I felt like this unit was a huge success!
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