Welcome Back!
I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you this summer through conferences and in-school trainings! To my faithful followers from last year, welcome back! How did it get to be August already??? As I have shared with many of you in person, my personal goal for this year is to get better at writing blog posts. Remember to send me your questions and/or suggestions and I will be sure to put up content that you are looking for throughout the school year.
To help me make this site everything you want it to be, I am excited to announce that my dear friend, Emily Kappel, will be joining me! Many of you have had the opportunity to meet and learn from her this summer. Not only she is a great friend, she is an amazing educator! She puts 100% of her heart and soul into her classroom. I was lucky enough to be teammates with her for the last 5 years I was in the classroom. Over the past 5 years not only has our friendship grown, but our professional relationship has grown as well. She has joined me on this crazy journey of consulting and teachers have loved her trainings. For those of you who have access to some of the password protected pages, many of the activities and workstations were created by Emily. I am so thankful to her for volunteering to work with me on this site!
Now, on to this year...as you prepare to meet your new students for the first time, have you thought about how you might have them introduce themselves using numbers? From day 1 we want kids to interact with numbers in playful ways, to see that they are more than random images that appear on worksheets. Here are a few ideas to get your new year started:
For our youngest students, gather them on the carpet and develop a list of places they see or have numbers in their world. Ideas include: address, birthday, phone number, age, number of siblings, number of letters in name, sports uniform, height, weight, favorite number. After the list is compiled have them choose (or you can choose ahead of time) four to six categories for them to fill in on a "Numbers About Me" graphic organizer. Have students complete the page by either drawing a picture of themselves or bringing in a picture from home. These can be compiled into a class book and sent home on a rotation with the title "Meet the Kids in Room 203!"
For our older students they can introduce themselves using number values. Have them use the scale A=1, B=2, C=3, etc. Down the left side of the paper they should spell out their first name vertically. Next to each number they should attach its value. Now they need to see how that value applies in his/her life. For example:
K=11 My daughter's name has 11 letters.
R=18 The numbers in my address add up to 18.
I=9 My favorite number.
S=19 This is my 19th year teaching.
T=20 There are 20 people at our house for Thanksgiving.
I=9 I had 9 boys in my class last year.
N=14 My husband's birthday is on the 14th.
Then have them add up the values to see what the total value is of his/her name. For example: Kristin = 100. Have students type up their final drafts and attach a personal picture. Again, these can be bound in a book and sent home for families to enjoy and get to know the kids in your room.
I hope all of you have a fantastic beginning to the school year! Remember to have fun with numbers and encourage your students to be flexible thinkers!!