I Survived....

Week one and half of week 2!! For all you teachers, you know how exhausting this is!! My first post, I wrote about how tired and sore my feet and legs were. I kid you not, upon waking up my first 3 days back in school...I felt as if I ran a marathon. My legs and feet were SO SORE. Even after sleeping a good6 hours. I was just not used to standing up from 7:30-2:30. Thankfully, my legs are now used to it(and hopefully will be getting in to good shape) haha.

I am so happy to say that I am a survivor of week 1! Let me tell you, I was TERRIFIED of these kids I was getting. When I watched them on the playground last year, they were like wild animals that get let loose from the zoo. The first day they came to school none of them were shy or timid..just chatting away. I quickly had to whip out my whole brain teaching techniques and my mean teacher eye (and voice) to produce what I'm so happy and proud of as of today. These past two days have been so fun and wonderful, as my kiddos are finally getting the hang of everything, are responding to my cues and we are really beginning to jump into curriculum.

Our first math lesson, we worked on four ways to write a number. I wanted to start with the basics of place value as a refresher. I began by showing base ten blocks and showing 9 ones- cubes on a hundreds chart. I then added 1 more and asked what to do? How do I show 10? They directed me to trade in the ones for a ten stick. We discussed that the highest digit in each place value is 9, then you need to carry over to the next place value. We continued this all the way up to 10,000. This really got the kids understanding the value of each place. I then showed them number disks and let them now that we would be using these instead of our tens sticks, 100 flats, etc. The kids were asked to show various numbers in picture form, standard form, expanded form and word form. Drawing pictures really helped the students when it came to writing their numbers in expanded form. In the past, my students have really struggled when it came to place value, writing numbers correctly, expanded form and knowing the value of the digit. This worksheet and continued practice with this in school has really made place value a pleasure to teach this year! Click the picture if you would like to check this out at my TPT store:

I have this boy in my class who for some reason just cracks me up! He has this need where he constantly needs to talk..even if nobody is listening to him. He doesn't mean to be disruptive and doesn't notice he is breaking the rules...NOW all I need to do is look at him and he automatically locks his mouth and throws away his key. But he always seems to find his 'key' and begins talking shortly after. Today, I asked him what happened because I thought he threw away his key...he told me that he found it. haha. SO he then asks if I can hold the key for him. He now locks his lips when he enters the room, and hands me the key. Good thing I remembered to give it to him when he went to lunch and went home this afternoon :)