Phew I made it!

Yay! Made it through the first day back!  The first day back is always usually the easiest.  Kiddos are well rested, ready to get back to learning, and on their best behavior.  Well, {most} of them are!  Ah yes, I did have 2 little ones who pushed my buttons a bit today.  They just can't sit still or stop talking!  Bless their hearts, they are just so full of energy & always want to share, share, share.  As crazy as they drive me sometimes, no matter how much I want to rip out my hair, I wouldn't want my room any other way.  We never have a dull day and I usually have a good story to tell!

My laugh today... When we sat on the carpet this morning I noticed that the carpet was like super close to my chair.  I felt like the kiddos were right on top of me.  So I just happened to be like "Whoa, y'all are REALLY close you're kind of in my bubble a little bit" to which one of my little lovelies replied, "We're like your little minions!" MINIONS? You are 7 how do you even know what that word means!  I couldn't help but give a little chuckle.  Later- my fiancee politely reminded me that minions are the little guys in Despicable Me. Duh!

Onward...Monday's are super long days for us.  No break from 7:35-12:20 Yuck!  So today we did lots of reviewing rules, routines, & expectations; reading our favorite books, writing about our holiday and vacation, and practicing keeping our room clean (I hate, hate, hate when it gets messy- which may surprise you when you see my "Clutter-Free Classroom Week 1 challenge pictures).  One thing that we did today in Math was start our graphing unit.  I'm like 2 weeks behind 2 of the other teachers and about 2 days ahead of the other, so I'm squeezing this unit into 1 week.  The kiddos basically get it already so no need to spend too much time.  So this is how we started our unit.  I SO wish I took pictures during this because it was just great, but totally forgot to whip out my camera.  Sorry guys :(

I posed them this question: 

This weekend, I went to the store and bought a fun size pack of M&Ms.  Now I want to compare the colors in one pack to see how many there are of each.  How can I figure out which color has the most and which has the least?  

Then, I gave them each a fun size pack of M&Ms and asked them to solve it.  Of course about 3/4 of them put them into piles but the other 1/4 put them into rows.  Then comes my coaching, "Oh WOW, Marissa is putting them into rows.  I can see without even counting that in her pack there were 2 more reds than greens.  Joshua put his into piles. I can still figure out that his pack had 1 less brown than yellow, but it took me a little longer because I had to count." BAM- everyone starts putting their M&Ms in rows.  I LOVE to pose these problems to them because they start to question their thinking and try to understand others *Common Core Math Practices!*  Last, we transferred our info to a graph with a title & labels.  And don't forget to eat the M&M's.  They had a blast! Of course I was "the best" because I brought them candy for math. WINNING! Tomorrow we will practice the language of comparison & solving word problems using graphs.

While we're on the topic of math, here are some Common Core Math Practice Task Cards.  {This Set} is for K-3.  Use these task cards to help your kids use the 8 mathematical practices to solve their math problems.  Great to use for math journals & quick assessments!  {This Set} is for Grades 3-8.  It comes with task cards to use for each practice before the students solve the problem & after.

Hope you had a great first day back if you started back today, and if you were unfortunate enough to go back last week, hope you had a great first Monday back!  Check back soon for my collection of  my crazy Clutter-Free Full room!