Ideas For Teaching Number Sense: Guess My Number!

Today I'm linking up with K's Classroom Kreations and Theresa's Teaching Tidbits for Math Tip Monday. This post is all about teaching Number Sense! 

I hope that my students have a decent grasp on number sense by the time I get them in 2nd grade. But, we all know that it isn't always the case. English language learners, new students, learning disabilities.. you never know what obstacles you're going to encounter with each new group of students.

Enter... Guess My Number! This can be done on a number line or hundred chart, but I typically use it on the hundred chart. 

Students will ask questions about the mystery number. The person who chose the mystery number will then answer yes or no. I encourage the students to ask descriptive questions, and they know that they are not allowed to guess a specific number, until many other numbers have been ruled out. Here are some examples of questions that my students have asked last year:

Is the number even or odd?

Is the number greater than ___?
Is the number less than ___?

Is the number between ___ and ____?

Does the number have a ___ in the tens place?

Does the number have a ____ in the ones place? 

It is a fun game to add to calendar time, and it's also easy enough to play on the fly when you find you have an extra 5 or 10 minutes!

Make sure you check out the other ideas for teaching number sense! 

Behavior Management

Oh, behavior management. This is one thing that I think I will work on improving for the rest of my career, and I must say that in the past 3 years I have come a LONG way. My management style has changed a lot over the years based on the grade, students in the class, and new things that I have learned. I can attribute it to one thing - it was this AMAZING professional development class I took 2 years ago. It's called...

Love and Logic!

If you haven't heard of Love and Logic before then you are SERIOUSLY missing out! This class has completely changed my teaching for the better, and I am beyond thankful that I took this class early on in my career. I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.. (you get the idea!) about how much I LOVE Love and Logic, but I'll try to keep it short. 

I used to have clip charts, write names on the board, and try basically every system imaginable, to ultimately have the students drive me absolutely insane and take time away from my teaching. I would go home infuriated at the end of the day because of the bizarre and horrible behavior I had in my class (to this day I am so thankful for the wonderful children I had, too, because they helped me keep my sanity) and ultimately so FRUSTRATED because of the behavior that took away from the lessons. I knew I couldn't go on like this, and when I saw a Love and Logic class come up as professional development I thought - Why not?! 

Oh.

My.

God.

If you are not using aspects of this system YOU HAVE TO START RIGHT NOW!! 

Love and Logic is a system that is based on establishing positive relationships with students, and setting and enforcing limits to keep control of your classroom. It allows you to teach, keep your sanity, all while maintaining the learning environment. What more can you possibly ask for? 

I got rid of the clip charts. I stopped writing names. I tried my hardest to keep behavior issues private, and the difference in the "health" of my classroom is like night and day. Instead of using a public display to show behavior, I came up with a Habits for Success reflection that my students complete periodically. Last year I did this every week, and then come Novemberish it became once a month. This year I told the parents that a Habits for Success reflection will go home every other week, and I think that is something that I can commit to for the rest of the year.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Habits-For-Success-2070818

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Habits-For-Success-2070818

I have the students rate themselves on how they think they are doing on their Habits for Success, and then I go in and rate them on how I think they are doing. If I disagree, then I will write a comment for why. Sometimes the students think they are doing better than they are, but sometimes they are much harder on themselves than they need to be. It's a really useful and informative tool to keep parents informed about their child's behavior, and to give the students feedback about how they are really doing!

Click the image above to grab this as a FREEBIE in my TpT shop!

What do you do to manage behavior in your classroom?

New Students

It's the dreaded phone call.. or knock on the door.. or looking back and seeing a small crowd of people in your classroom.. New students in the middle of the year! Ahh!! New students completely throw a wrench in the school day, and sometimes even the rest of the year. You never know what you're going to get! Getting a new student is pretty common at my school and the question isn't "When am I getting a new student?" but rather "How many new students will I get this year?". A few years ago I got 10 new students by DECEMBER. I had 31 students for most of that year. 

31. 

31 second graders. 

YIKES!! 

I wish I had this system figured out that year because it would have saved me a TON of time and frustration! All you do is prep a few extra bags of supplies at the beginning of the year and when you get a new student you already have the supplies all ready to go! It isn't a brand new idea, but it is one worth blogging about just the same.

Here are some of the things I put in my new student bags:

Welcome Packet from Meet the Teacher Night 

Student Gift from Meet the Teacher Night (So long as it's still good, of course)

Journals and Folders

How do you handle the arrival of a new student?




P.S. - I've been in school for 3 weeks and I already have 2 new students. Well, 3 if you count the one that I unexpectedly got at Meet the Teacher Night. This has already saved me each time and is a HUGE time saver in the long run!

The Corriganite Nation

This post is all about The Corriganite Nation.

Well...

What IS the Corriganite Nation?

What IS a Corriganite?

I'm glad you asked!!

This idea comes from my amazing mentor teacher. She came up with the word "Corriganite", and if I get married then I'll have to go back to her to come up with the new name. Anyways, it is all about building community! I tell my students that my room is "The Corriganite Nation" and that they are all members of The Corriganite Nation. I am the leader, and they are my Corriganites! 

Last year I had a student tell me that he wanted to be a Minion instead of a Corriganite. My answer to him was NO!! He grew to like the idea, and at the end of the year he was proud to be a Corriganite. :)

How do you set up your classroom community and get the kiddos to "buy in"? 

One Day Sale

I'm just stopping by for a quick post to announce that my TpT store is on sale for 20% off today! Use the code MORE15 when you check out.

Click the image to visit my store!

Meet the Teacher Night

I love Meet the Teacher Night! I love meeting my new students and their families, and each time at the end my face hurts from smiling so much. I'm always so excited to meet my new Corriganites!!

Here's what my Meet the Teacher Night looked like this year:

I had about 1 second to take this picture. I didn't realize that I cut off the 2 in 2nd grade rocks. OOPS! I had my past students come and take down their guitar from the wall when they visited me on Meet the Teacher Night. 

Sign in sheets, Meet the Teacher Checklist, iVolunteer sheet, Wish List (on hearts) and a parent gift. I believe that if I invest my time early and show the parents that I appreciate them and all of their hard work that they will be more willing to volunteer and help me out later in the year. I ask a lot of my parents, so this pays off big time in the long run! 

The red folder holds all of the papers they can take home and read. I included a getting to know you form in this folder, and some parents will fill it out that night while others prefer to take it home and send it in on Monday. 

Meet the Teacher Night Checklist

Getting to Know you Packet

Parent Volunteer Information

Check out the FREE and EDITABLE versions of my Meet the Teacher Night Resources in my TPT store!

Meet the Teacher Checklist

Getting to Know You Packet

Parent Volunteer Information

Have you had Meet the Teacher Night yet? How did it go? 

Or if you haven't had it yet.. How are you preparing for it?

Five for Friday

This week was the first day back with our students. Man, that first week back sure is EXHAUSTING! 

The weekend before school starts, Matt and I were able to go to Flagstaff to celebrate one last weekend before I go completely crazy once school starts enjoy the cooler weather. We went on a drive up to Snowbowl in Matt's new car! It's hard to picture the scenery all covered in snow in the winter!

My face at the end of the first day of school. W.O.W. That was a long one. I have my work cut out for me this year!

But at the end of the day if my desk is the messiest (and luckily the only messy) area in the room it won't be tooooo bad, right? 

Side note - I absolutely LOVE my class. They're great. I just have a few little MAJOR challenges this year. 

We had rainy day schedule on the 2nd day of school. Mother Nature why did you do this to us?! Rainy day schedule on the 2nd day of school should be considered a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Luckily, I signed up for GoNoodle this year and I am already soooo thankful for this!! It really helped the kiddos get their wiggles out and it was super fun to do, too!

I'm trying really hard this year to set up an environment where my students cheer each other on and encourage each other to do their best. I had to kill some time during testing and students were in and our out of the room, and played around the world with my students. They had a blast, but by far the best part was when my most challenging students started cheering for their classmates out of the blue! I hadn't said anything to my class about encouraging each other since kids were in and out of the room - I thought it would make the most sense to do it when they were all in the room. It was one of those moments when you have to go with the flow, and we had a quick pep talk about cheering each other on. They all jumped on the bandwagon after that! I hope I can keep this going the rest of the year!!

I just wish I had a picture of it now.. 

It's an old picture, but this week Matt and I had our 5 year anniversary this week. Where did the time go? #love