This week went zooming by, I have to say. On Monday, I was feeling pretty good about the week. Still did on Tuesday. But by Wednesday - whoosh! It felt like it was zooming by!
My two 2nd grade co-teachers and I decided that for 30 minutes each day, Monday through Thursday, we would switch classes and do some enrichment type activities. (That way we teach the same thing 3 times, less planning, more expertise!) One co-teacher does some technology things - computer activities. Another teacher does Social Studies - thank heavens or we'd never get it in there :) And I do some math things. My thought is to try to preview things that we are supposed to teach with Common Core.
So this week I had one of the other 2nd grade classes. Quite frankly, sometimes it's just a little nice to have that change of scenery - I mean, change of faces looking at you.
We were doing coins. I took typing paper and cut it in half. My plan was to make little books. With my class, we did coin rubbings. That was a little difficult. Most of my kids rubbed too hard and the image didn't come through. So for the other 2nd grade class, I stamped, for example, a penny on the half sheet of paper. Then we shared ideas about what made a penny special. For example: it has Abraham Lincoln on it; it's brown; etc. We did this for each coin. Even with me stamping the papers, it still went slower than I thought it would. I was hoping we'd get through all the coins and have time to do a different activity, but that didn't happen.
I did find two fun songs that we sang. One is:
Money, Money, Money - the gal that sings this has one of those nice, low, rumbly voices. We all enjoyed singing the Money, Money, Money part.
Here it is on School Tube- if your school is like mine and you can't show anything on YouTube.
The other one is called Show Me the Money. Right now, I can only find it on YouTube. I can't remember the same site I found it on before.
Anyway, I think the kids enjoy singing. Maybe because they think they are getting by with not working for 2.30 minutes :)
Well, it's a work weekend for me. My reading units have 5 lessons in each one, so I try to plan my lessons for 5 weeks at a time. That's what I'm working on this weekend. There's always something that makes planning a little challenging, and this year it's the Common Core math and the fact that we've added writing.
Ah, my little sweeties and place value. Who will be bald first from tearing their hair out - me or them? If you have any terrific Place Value ideas or songs or strategies, please leave a note. I can use some help :)
Happy Weekend to you - whether you're doing school work or not!
Sara
