The One with the Surprise

Surprise!

You ready for your field trip in 15 minutes? Good! Sounds fun. By the way, you get a new kid tomorrow!

Well, not so new. He's from the other class. The one that laughs at consequences. The one that causes trouble. Yep, coming to your room!

I almost wanted to laugh, but at the same time I felt fairly calm. I know these last 16 days I can't do much to change his behavior. He's been the same all year for his original teacher, and his kindergarten teacher had the same trouble. If I'm lucky, there will be a honeymoon period where he does well for me. I have to get over the fact that I may not get the turn-around I would want in a mere few weeks (the LAST few weeks of school, mind you). However, I have to try, don't I?

Honestly, it kind of wakes me up. Especially at this time of the year. I feel this cheesy, strange, renewed sense of purpose. Even though I have the lowest class size, and he wouldn't fit in in the other rooms, my principal would not have given him to me if he didn't think I could handle it. Fingers crossed for us in the last stretch. More to come when I've had an actual experience with this kid. I'm excited to learn more about him.


On another note, we broke out our big new number line today! The collective gasp when I rolled it out. Ha! We were working on missing addends, and I told the kids that my favorite strategy to use is the number line. I can see the number and I can see the jumps, so it's what works best for my brain.
My fabulous instructors in college always told me that making personal connections makes things more meaningful for students, and I have found that to be true in application. The kids are always fascinated by the little pieces of you that you reveal.

So, we brought out the number line and worked on a few problems as a class. We talked about what was the whole and what was the part that we knew. Started at the whole, counted the hops to the part we knew, and BAM! There's your answer. They loved it. I then sent them off to work on this really awesome set of problems from Miss Emily Rose on TpT.

I used this one with my high/middle kids. The great part is that the FREE pack has different versions of the same thing if you ever want to practice it again. They could use the number line in the front of the room while they were working. It was really funny to look over and see their little feet hopping down the number line to solve the problem.

I wish I had taken a picture of some of the work we did on this with my low kids in small group. We used the above sheet and they ROCKED it! I modeled the first problem and we worked together on the next two. I had them circle the whole so they knew how to fill in the ten frame. They then had to underline the part that they knew. This told them how many dots to cross off from the ten frame. I set them loose to solve the rest and I saw them circling, underlining, and crossing off like champs. It was a beautiful sight! They actually understood what they were doing and how it got them to the answer. I live for moments like that!

The most important part is that I met them where they were. I could have struggled and tried to force them to use the other page, but what good would that have done? I would have been frustrated, they would have felt unsuccessful, and nobody would have gained anything by it. Differentiation is one of the best things you can do. You're not just "making it easier." That's not differentiation. You're still teaching the same things, but modifying it to meet the needs of the kids. Trust me, it can be difficult sometimes to make three different sets of the SAME thing. If I didn't though, I wouldn't have moments like I did today that were stellar. End rant.

We also went on our field trip to the aquarium today. I won't go into too much detail, but the kids LOVED it. It was particularly special because the kids had done research on ocean animals a few weeks before. They were able to see their animals in action and were amazed at meeting them. They were spewing facts about what they ate, where they lived, etc. My little scientists!


All in all, I'm tired, I'm sweaty, and I need some chocolate.

Ms. K