Getting down to work with Math Workshop...

I can not believe that this is the fourth Wednesday that we have been in school!! My kinders are getting into the swing of things nicely. Today I want to share my basic workshop model. I set my time into 4 sections: 1) warm-up/ number talks, 2) journals, 3) guided math/ mini lesson, 4) tubs/ small group. Now let's talk about what each of those mean to me.

Number talks are new to my workshop this year and already they are the superhero of math workshop. I have used number cards for several years now, but they always felt contrived. This summer I did some youtube searching for teachers working with dot cards and children. Some videos were better than others but what I learned is that if you are just "flashing" cards you are missing out! We have spent the last two weeks working on the procedures and talk that surround dot cards. For example when I hold a card up my children place a finger on their noise when they know the number. Right now I am not flashing cards but leaving them up long enough for kids to count. Also we are only using dot cards 1-6 right now. Why 6 and not stop at 5? Honestly, I didn't get all the 6's out of my stack when I started this year. 

I personally own Deedee Wills all the credit for math journals! Man does she rock them. We have been using her Math journal prompts and the kids are getting excited each day to see what their question is.  I love the growth we see in using a math journal. I want to dive into to math journals as it's own post at a later time. 

This is the biggest area of growth for me personally. I have always used math small groups as RTI for math. I really want to grow this area of my teaching to match what I do in literacy stations. I am working on a post for that as well. 

So there it is... Workshop Wednesday ;) Until next time...

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Before... a view of my room!

These are the pictures of my room. I was surprised when I first saw it... it is so small compared to my old room. But very quickly I fell in LOVE with it. So lets get started. This is the front door (well actually only door). I am going to use this BB for a focus wall and my birthdays. 

This view is just down from the door. I LOVE this long shelf! It has hooks under it. Now to be honest, the day I took this picture my room was FREEZING so the fan on the wall confused me.

At my old school the projector was in the ceiling and it caused all kinds of shadows and you had to use speakers from the computer to hear. I am so looking forward to having these big speakers on either side of the smart board. Oh the carpet is going down the hall to a first year teacher who has an Eric Carle theme going on. I think the caterpillar is going to be so cute in there!

This corner is where I plan to put the teacher area/ small group table. That computer table is HUGE and has got to go! I think that I am going to use that cart or maybe get a student desk... 

I have new chevron fabric to use for the curtains. And I plan to slide these computers down a bit. The book cases are going to move too...

The door there is to the bathroom. And the file cabinets are going going... 

These last 3 pictures are the shelving that I have across the back of my room. They will be cleaned up and have curtains over them. The fabric is grey and white dots.

So that is the new room. Can't wait to share the finished room!

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It's the little surprises that are the best!

WOW! Where oh where did the summer go? I am so excited to be blogging again. I started this summer thinking that I would be moving to first grade. I planned, met with the first grade team, and basically accepted that I would no longer be a kindergarten teacher (read that as grieved the move). Then in the middle of the craziest two weeks of Arkansas A+ training, I got a job offer to teach K at my neighborhood school! YEP... it was a God thing. I still can't believe that I teach 5 minutes from my house, and in the district that my children are in. I even get to pick up my daughter from school. I hope to get my classroom reveal up soon.

And here is my first day at my new school picture. 

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