New Year Rearrange

When my students return they will get quite a shock. I totally changed my room around. I think the changes will make it a lot more functional and give us space to move around more freely. I have a lot of logistics to work out such as dusting and arranging my centers. I should be able to work all those things out on January 2 when we return for a teacher workday. I finally feel at peace with my furniture placement and now all I have to do is add some bright fun details to add color and organization.

Fact Family Houses

This was a simple and cute idea I got from my teammate the other morning. We wanted to review fact families for a math riddle lesson we were doing later on in the week.  It turned out to be really fun. I made the children use numbers over 50 only. I can't wait to put these out in the hall(on display, on display, on display)!

Directions
1. You fold the paper hamburger style twice to get 4 columns
2.  You draw 2 sides of a triangle at the top of the still folded paper
3. Cut the triangle sides to make the top of your houses
4. Unfold to reveal a little home with two doors :)
* happy building- thank you Maggie for the cool idea*

Informal Assessment Log

 Right after giving a mini-lesson I like to do little flash verbal quizzes with each student to gauge their understanding.  After teaching a lesson on poetry elements I might ask a student to tell me what they think a simile is for example and log my data on this sheet.  It is quick easy and tells me right away if my students are getting it or if I need to go back and re-teach.  Your are welcome to try it out in your class.  Let me know how you like it!
Informal Assessment Log