Five for Friday

It's time once again to link up with Doodle Bugs- Five For Friday linky party.

1. I got word this week that after calling "room 12" mine for the past 10 years, my classroom is moving for next year.  I will still be in first grade... whew, but I'll be moving down the hall to a bigger room with more storage, woohoo!  The downside is that this better room is only available because my mentee, work wife, and partner in crime for the past two years is being let go because of decreased enrollment... boooo!  DF, I'm going to miss you more than you can imagine.   

So this means that I have to reconfigure my room arrangement that after all this time, I finally perfected.  Change is good... change is good... I just have to keep telling myself that!

2. We are adopting a new math program next year- My Math by McMillan McGraw-Hill.  We got training in the program a few weeks ago and our administration gave us the go ahead to pilot the materials.  Let me just say, I love the simplicity of this program.  And man did I see results!!! We tried a chapter on two digit addition and subtraction (which was never covered in our previous program).   Each lesson was clear and had a predictable routine (we all know first graders love routine, LOL).  All of the manipulatives are available digitally on my smart board.  All homework had wonderful explanations for parents on how the material was presented so that they could work with their child using the same techniques presented in school.  The response was awesome.  The kids, parents, and I really don't even want to return to our previous program to end the year, but it's only for a few more weeks.  If your school is looking to adopt a new math program (Common Core aligned), check it out!

3. As a wrap up project for our math chapter, students wrote word problems with a picnic theme.  I think they turned out adorable.  We had done A LOT of practice with solving word problems in our pilot chapter.  We had practiced underlining what we know and then circling what we need to know.  They drew the conclusion that most word problems consisted of two statements and a question.  Woohoo!  So we spent a lesson doing shared writing of word problems.  We brainstormed topics for story problems that had to do with picnics.  Then my kiddos were ready to give it a go on their own.   I did help them make corrections to their draft before they recopied it on this sheet.  

Here are is an example of the completed project.

After using the papers with the kids, I modified the size of the printing lines so that two pages would not be needed.  You can get the freebie of this project by clicking here.

4. I just completed my Superhero Math Centers.  You can purchase them through Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking the picture below.

5.  Tonight the whole family is off to the circus tonight to celebrate my baby's 6th birthday.  Where does the time go?!  Have a great weekend!