More on the Top?

Hello and happy Saturday!!

So right now in second grade, we are working on double-digit subtraction with regrouping. Honestly, this entire year in second grade math, the kids have known how to do everything already or caught on CRAZY fast. This is the first topic I've taught them where they haven't flown through it. It feels good to finally challenge their brains!!

The verbage in my book to teach this fantastical topic was so dry. So I remembered the subtraction poem I read on The Inspired Apple and taught it to them!

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After I taught them how to do double-digit subtraction, I wrote a problem for each kid on the whiteboard and then they took a dry erase marker and solved it. After I checked their work, they made up their OWN problem and we did a mini Scoot game where they'd move around to solve their friend's problem! It was fun and they loved making up their own problems.

That's all of them.... all 5 second graders.

I'm looking forward to going back on Monday and working more on this super fun concept! They are loving the challenge so far!

The Facts

Today in first grade math, we learned about fact families. My book's lesson was incredibly terrible and I know that fact families are something I've seen a million times in blogs!

I meant to look up a good activity a few days ago but I totally forgot until 1:15. First grade math is at 1:30.....

So I did a mad Google Reader search, scanned through a few people's posts, and threw this little fam together!

This was based off of Gladys's guest post at Frogs, Bees, and Under the Seas (now known as Playing with Pixie Dust!). I'd like to cutesify this up a lot but, like I said, I was a little strapped for time...

I told the first graders that I wanted to introduce them to a family - the Fact family. There is a dad, a mom, and a baby. Then I assigned numbers and explained who is who. I asked if they wanted strangers in their house - they said NO! So I said, "Neither does the Fact family! Don't let any stranger numbers come in to their math problems."

Then we wrote out our problems, making a note that Dad comes last in adding and first in subtracting.

They really got it! And they even referred to the numbers on their practice sheet as Dad, Mom, and Baby. Haha!

And on a related note, here's our math quilt for February!

It's looking a little tiny this month. Some friends didn't feel like they needed to do their quilt square after they cut out every triangle. I really need to stop scheduling math quilts for Mondays.... oh wells. I still LOVE it and I love Reagan!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaand another set of q's from the lovely Jessica at apples and papers!

1. If you could meet anyone in the world, living or dead who would it be? This one is hard! Mmmm.... I'll say Joakim Noah! Love him.
2. If you weren’t teaching what would you be doing? Honestly, I would be working at the bank I've been working at since high school! But if I had another career, I've always wanted to be a delivery nurse for some reason. I think it sounds better in my head than it might be in real life.
3. What was your favorite thing about school when you were a student? I looooved my teachers and I loved big projects. Maybe I should start doing some of those...
4. What do you wish you were better at? In my classroom, organizing and classroom management. I hope I get better with time on both of those! In my life, I wish I was better at athletic things, like running!
5. What is your favorite store to shop at? I'd approximate that 95% of my clothes come from Old Navy.
6. What is two things you need for your dream classroom? A Smart board!!!!! Or whatever brand, I am not particular. I'd also like a document camera. And a big rug. :)
7. Where do you want to travel to? Somewhere like Fiji or something.
8. Favorite TV show? Right now my two favorites are 30 Rock and Seinfeld.
9. What is your least favorite chores? Laundry and washing dishes. When I was little I said I wanted to have 7 kids so I'd never have to wash dishes. Haha!
10. Would you rather be an actor, singer, or athlete? Well I'm not a good actor AT ALL, and I am incredibly not athletic. But I love singing! By myself in the car, of course. So I'll say singer!!
11. Who or what inspires you? All of the amazing teachers in the blogging world! I want to be all of you someday.
12. What’s your favorite children’s book? Anything by Mo Willems. Also I just read Hooway for Wodney Wat (thanks for the recommendation, Tammy!!!) and my kids were DYING LAUGHING. So that's one of my new faves. Plus I do a good Wodney voice. :)

What Do You Love?

The last three of my post titles have all been questions! Wow!!

Kimberly at Funky First Grade Fun is hosting a linky party about what we love.


Here's my list!

Here are few other pictures of things I loved today.

For Groundhog Day, I combined Cara's idea with Hadar's template for these little groundhogs! They designed a burrow and wrote about what was inside. I got a random terrible stomachache right when we started this, so I would like to say that it was a good semi-independent activity! 

In first grade, we are studying subtraction strategies. Today in my Math book, it suggested that I make a real life number line and hang it between two chairs. I was like, "Aight." So here it is.

Here's a close-up. I just folded over the top and taped it and it worked great! Please ignore the paper scraps in the background... clearly we had not Found It or Fixed It yet.

We used it to solve simple subtraction problems. One kid would say a problem, like 10-2. Then they would hang a clothespin from the 10 and together we would hop back 2 with the clothespin. This was pretty fun and as you can see, everyone was paying attention! Alllll 7 of them.

I think I mentioned that our Scholastic book fair is this week. I had 5 books on my teacher wishlist and I got 3 so far! And a $10 gift certificate that I can use tomorrow!

I'll pick up on the rest of the tag questions later. It's Dress to Impress Day tomorrow - my class is NOT excited. Neither am I.... I really loved being able to wear jeans this week........... :(