Station Sensation

Wow!  What a busy week it has been!  I feel like I am just trying to play catch up.  In early December I attended the MO First and Second Grade Conference.  I came away with some exciting ideas for starting math stations.  My goal was to come back home and try and figure out a way that I could squeeze this into our already busy schedules.  So, I rearranged some time/activities that take place in our rooms and voila!  math stations have arrived in our classroom.  We didn't just start math stations, we also added another station into our daily 5 rotations.  The students now go to Read to Self, Work with Words literacy and phonics stations, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, and Work on Computers stations (once a month).  During math, the students are taught a mini-lesson before they complete their assigned work.  After they complete their math for the day, they are then able to complete the math stations.  The kids are in LOVE with the new stations and they work really hard to get through them every day.  

I have also decided that since we only have the computers for one full week each month that I would try to incorporate a little more technology into our daily routine.  Next week will be our first week for our iPad Station.  Students will use the iPad as a reading station for one full week each month as well.  Some of the kids noticed the iPads in the room earlier today and asked if we were going to use them.  They were beyond excited!  I just know this is going to add the extra something they needed to keep them motivated throughout the rest of the year.  

The following week, I will introduce iPods.  I have four iPods for fluency stations in my classroom.  Students will record themselves reading and listen to their reading.  They will then try to improve their fluency.  With the computers, iPads, and iPods our class will be using a variety of technology throughout the remainder of the school year.  Keep coming back for more updates on how this technology is improving the learning in our classroom.  

It seems as if the PTO movie night was once again a success tonight.  My daughter loved the movie {and the running around}.  We are now home lounging on the couch, however, I failed to bring my device with the pictures of our math stations and work with words stations home.  I'll do my best to get those posted by the end of the weekend.  Enjoy the coming weather and be safe.


Here are some of the pictures I got of the students doing some of their math tubs this week. A lot of these great stations have come from units I have purchased off of Teachers Pay Teachers.  Some of my favorite authors/teachers are Cara Carroll, Deanna Jump, and Abby Mullins.  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE their creativity and the students always enjoy their literacy and math stations.  I also got some great ideas for math games and daily 5 in math from Shannon Samulski.  Pictured below you will see the kids playing Bump.  There are many variations of this game, but since this was the first time the kids had played it we did the *simple* version.  {roll the dice, add the numbers, cover the sum}  This great activity helps kids with exploratory learning.  I love the idea of the kids being able to continually practice and review what has been taught.  These activities really get the kids thinking about numbers and what they mean.  LOVE!!!  You can check out her great things at Strategic Intervention Solutions.  Check her out HERE.

Kids playing bump

Coin Toss {writing addition sentences}

Non-units standard of measurement {How many snowflakes tall are you?}