Spring Break!

Spring break is here and it is now almost over.   I must say I have really enjoyed being able to "sleep in" (minus my dog waking me up at 8:30 on the dot every morning).  Although, I do consider my "big girl adult sleeping in" to be 8:30-9:00 anyways. Only a few years ago in college I would sleep in until 11. Hah... not anymore...

Spring Break reminds me how much I love to craft because for one whole week... I actually have TIME for it!   So I finally finished my quilt that's been in progress since... oh lets say... September I think!  It came out super cute but I need to do a few touch-ups since I washed it and found out that I didn't quite sew the pieces together with tight enough stitches.  Oops, sure won't be making that mistake again!
I plan to post the pic when I fix it. (That is if I don't get lost in the classroom for another 5 months)

So switching from 2nd to 1st grade this year has been sooooo much harder than last year.  I was and still am having a hard time adjusting from the one measly year.   Or at least that's what I though it was going to be, just one year age difference.  Nope, it's a whole different ball game!   Well, after many many many different techniques for my math block I have finally come up with one that works well.  Go figure when there's only 2 months left of school I figure it out.  Same thing happened to me last year...
Well here's how I'm doing my math rotations.   4 groups of 4-5 kiddos; we make all four rotations each day. The first rotation is of course small groups.  I decided to combine our writer's workshop into the math block since we just didn't have time to get to it after, not to mention my kiddos have writing workshop down like nobodies business so it's a guaranteed 4-5 of my kiddos independent for 20 minutes. I'll take it.  :)   So that is one of their rotations, the next is their "rug" center.  Pretty simple they just choose one of the centers/games I have set out for them in their "rug" box and play independently or with a partner on the rug.   The next rotation was review seat work that I would go over with them before we began rotations.  Many times these would dry erase sheets or games to complete at their seats.  BUT I decided I want to have them begin a math journal for this rotation. After realizing how badly my kids weren't understanding word problems; I knew I had find a way to fit more in.  I dedicated some of my time today to create my first set of math journal entries.  I like the way they came out and I'm super excited to put them to the test next week.

Sooner or later I'm also going to make some kindergarten and 2nd grade versions. 

Whew! That was a long post.  :)

But one more thing, I'm really excited about this giveaway I found.  This looks like a really neat packet, my kids would love doing this.