Daily Math

Tomorrow we are starting Daily Math! I know, I'm crazy!!!!! Why am I putting another thing on my plate????As if Words their Way, CAFE and Daily Five weren't enough!  The reason why I decided to try this is because my kids are the most on task during the Daily Five time and it is the least stressful time of the day for me. SO... I think it may help to do so in math. I will use the PACE menu (posted on Pro Teacher). We will do three rounds and 3 mini-lessons just like Daily Five. I have 4 math groups and also a math teacher who pulls kids out. So I will meet with each group one round, every day. The other two rounds they will choose from Math with Someone (card games my student teacher and I made up to practice facts), Write Math (I want the kids to write story problem books) and Math Challenge (problem solving). They will choose Math with the Teacher (this is where they will do the Lesson Activity Book), and then two other choices. I can't wait to try it out! 

On Friday we did one round of Math with Someone. I wanted my kids to play a math game together and figured rather then having them practice wrong, we should make an I-Chart. I was so impressed with my kids, everything they learned in Daily Five was transferred to this one round of Math with Someone. It was so easy and they quickly understood my expectations. I'll blog more about this next week when we have more rounds. 

Daily Five is going well in my Cafe 48. At times I have to remind my students of the correct behavior and we will do a quick modeling. I am continuing to read a chapter book during the transitions, I feel this allows for me to begin my mini-lesson right way, before all kids are at the carpet. The kids are also anxious to hear the chapter book. We finished the Secret Garden. The kids and I were so sad that it was over. It will definitely be a book I will revisit throughout the year and refer back to. There was so much depth to it. Right now I am reading Flat Stanley but I think I may abandon it tomorrow. It isn't working for me after the Secret Garden. Although, it is short so maybe I should stick with it and then read Edward Tulane. I can't wait to read that book! So good! 

My kids are all reading The Diary of the Wimpy Kid. I think this will be the next book on my personal reading list. Seriously, I don't get these books! It is so difficult to have a conference when the kids are reading this book! AHHHHH! Maybe if I read them myself I will get it. Unfortunately, many of the kids who are reading it, I know the book is not Good-Fit. So then we have the "dreaded talk". Not to mention that the kids who are reading it probably don't have many connections or schema for the book because it is about a middle school kid (I think?). I won't say anymore until I have given it a chance myself, otherwise I am being unfair. 

This week I hope to have my students writing some sort of response to me other than post-its. They are doing so well with leaving tracks of their thinking, but now what? I want them to take these post-its and look further into them. Other wise I find my kids write on post-its, only to throw them out when they finish the book or after our conference. Doing this takes away from the value of the post-its and their thinking. I hope to have the kids glue there post-its in their Reader's Notebook in order to see the growth or their thinking. Currently I am reading the Professional Development book Notebook Connections. I hope to get some good ideas from this book. After reading this book the PD book Still Learning to Read was recommended to me. I ordered it on Amazon and I'm looking forward to it arriving in the mail. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful week! I'm looking forward to blogging next weekend with updates on Daily Five, Cafe, and now Daily Math! 

Words of Advice:

Book Recommendation: The Promised World by Lisa Tucker 

Get a good night sleep on Sunday nights :-) I'm off to bed!