November Currently

I am thankful this month to be hooking up with Farley from Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for her November Currently.  I wait each month (with baited breath) to see what we will post about, and then I love hopping around seeing what everyone is up to.

I came home tonight and found soup bubbling on my stove...yumm-o!  My husband is so sweet.  He had the day off and after doing all his get the house ready for winter chores he made soup.  Once again...yumm-o!

My principal has been coming around doing observations this week...yea, I know Halloween.  Great timing.  He did skip Wednesday and Thursday...but was back around with his laptop today.  Our focus is math, so we were warned that he wanted to come watch a math lesson.  My kinders collected empty candy wrappers and today we were to sort them and compare them.  First we decided how to to sort.  What rule should we use....no, not the one that says we shouldn't rip them....which sorting rule?  By color of the wrapper?  Great suggestion (but don't call out).  Now that we have them all sorted What do you notice?  Stunned silence...Think about our math words, what do you notice about the candy?  How can you tell?  Let's think about what we could do...count, yes...is there any other way?  We can do partners while we count.  Lots of good discussions about which has more, why do you think that?  Why not the gold wrappers? (only has 4...pretty obvious)  Lots of trying to use the right words, and communicating a plan for solving the question of which has more.  Good chance to use those math practices we have been discussing in our Wednesday afternoon in-service.  It was so fun to watch the conversations.  It turned out brilliant.  My principal would have been so impressed.

The end of the quarter was this week and I have been so stressed about testing.  I seem to keep teaching and interacting with my students so much that it is tough to get enough one on one time to test.  I am not very good at planning activities that keeps everyone constructively engaged and out of my hair long enough to do all the one on one testing that Kindergarten requires.  But as Pete the Cat says...will I cry?  "Goodness No!"  In the end..."It's all good."