Happy New Year! I am back in the classroom this week and boy is it exhausting! I am linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five For Friday link up.
One
We are learning new math games this week before we get back into he groove of learning any new math concepts. One new game that I introduced was race to the penguin. It is basically like race to 100, but my kids loved it. They roll the dice and collect krill. Once they collect 10 krill, they trade them in for a fish. A fish is worth 10. They continue to collect and trade until they read 100, which is a penguin.
We are beginning place value next week, so this game fits in nicely. You can find this game in the Penguin Math Center Pack.
Two
With the start back of school, came a week of rain! I am not complaining, California needs it. We spent a lot of time on Go Noodle this week. We loved the news videos and also danced to our favorites.
Three
I started a new rainy day activity choice system this week. It got really loud when I had 8 boys playing with Lincoln Logs, so I put a limit on the amount of kids at each activity.
It worked! There were no arguments, and the noise level was at a decent amount. I didn’t have to remind them that we were inside. The dots at the chart represent how many students can go to that activity. The clothespins have their number on them. It was so simple!
Four
We are continuing our kindness project for the whole year. We have some fun ideas in the works that I will share later. I did begin kindness bracelets this week. When I “catch” a student being kind, I gave them a bracelet. I wrote a quick note as to how they were kind on the back. They were so proud!
These are part of the Teacher Junk Drawer 2017 pack.
Five
My son had a friend over and they played Bean Boozled (affiliate link). Have you seen this? It was hilarious to watch, but oh my word I refused to play with them. So basically, each person spins a spinner and eats the color bean that it lands on. So if it lands on white, you eat a white bean. The tricky part is, the white bean might be coconut OR it could be spoiled milk. GROSS! But to 9 year old boys, it was the best game ever!
My students were talking about this jellybean game, and I had no idea what it was. It does seem like it’s always sunny in California in all the TV shows ~ that’s why I think everyone must want to live there ~ perfect weather all the time! Happy MLK Day!
I like the race to 100 game!
Allowing choice that is structured is great for inside recess or even choice center practice times. I like to see what other classes do for inside recess times. Thank you.