Five for Friday …on Saturday (again)

How does this always happen! I came home last night ready to blog and share with you all my fun week but nope my body wouldn't have it. I started feeling sick about half an hour after I got home. Aches and pains, nausea, and a huge headache…so I marched myself to bed and fell asleep at 6:30pm and didn't wake up till this morning.

I am happy to report that I'm feeling a lot better but unfortunately, this blog post is coming out a day late! Don't worry though, all the fun stuff I have to tell you about will still be fun today!

Five for Fridays are the best, I really enjoy linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and sharing a little bit of my week with you all.

I don't really have a picture for this, unless I take a picture of my computer or me with cups and cups of tea to help me stay awake.

Being an instructional coach has kept me busy this week!  Aside from helping teachers in their classrooms we are also responsible for creating pacing guides for the new math program we adopted and creating report card guidelines for our new Common Core aligned report cards. The district I work in didn't switch from the old CA standards to the new CC standards until this year, so now we have a busy, busy year!

I got to go into a 3rd grade and 5th grade class and model doing a number talk for the teachers. This book is amazing. It not only gives you the number sentences, ideas, and strategies, itt comes with a dvd so that you can see them in action.

In case you don't know what a number talks is all about, the teacher writes an equation horizontally on the board, gives the class time to mentally think of different ways to solve it, and then records the students' thought process. The teacher encourages students to share out the different strategies they used in solving.

There is so much value in doing number talks. I love that the role of the teacher is that of a facilitator and the students are doing all the talking. Students love it when their thought process is validated. And really, with a number talks, all ways of reaching a solution are accepted.  

I've been so impressed with what the students come up with. Listening to them speak always reinforces the idea that they have so much more going on their little minds than what we sometimes give them credit for.

Do you use number talks in your class? It doesn't have to be this book, but just a form of mental math. I'd love to hear what you all use with your students.

One of the first grade teachers need to leave early on Thursday and I was asked to go and take over her class! I  love first grade, probably because I taught it for 8 years. I had to take a little time to establish my own rules and procedures and then we got to do a fun short vowel Halloween themed game.  (The picture below isn't of the kiddos playing since I didn't have parent permission.)

I made 5 sets of the game and had them play in groups of 4.  Each person takes a turn turning over a short vowel word with a trick-or-treater on it. If they can read it, they can keep it but if they can't read it, they return it to the bottom of the pile.

You would have thought they had a live grenade whenever they turned over  "Boo! Give a card away" or "Extra Turn".  Their enthusiasum was fun to see.   The kids would literally squeal with horror when they turned over the dreaded haunted house which indicated that the game was over. 

One student said it was the best game he's ever played. Don't you love first graders when everything is the "best ever"!  I don't think they ever really caught on that the whole point was too practice reading short vowel words they were to busy avoiding the haunted house.

These other two pics also show the other games in the product. Rhyming and short vowel sorting!

These games are all part of my Fun and Easy Halloween: Short vowel Activities!

For Saturday only it will be on sale 20% off!

 Head over to my store and check it out!

I am participating in Primary Essentials giveaway! Fran reached 500 TpT followers and has some amazing giveaways. Not just one but four.  There are 4 different giveaways that you can enter! That means four chances to win! Click on the image and head over to her blog.

Come back to my blog on Tuesday and check out our "Fall"ing Prices Linky Party: 2 items for 2 dollars! Lots of bloggers are linking up and lowering the prices on two of their products for $2. That is a great deal. Plus all are welcome to join, so you too can link up your blog post with 2 items that are on sale! Lots of savings to be had by all.

Well, that is my Five for Fr…Saturday. I hope you all have a lovely and enjoyable weekend!