October OLW (Carving Time Out)

The field behind our home-thanks to all the farmers!

Secrets told....my least favorite holiday is Halloween.  Always was even when I was little girl, continued with our own two children (thanks mom for making their costumes all those years) and even as a teacher it is the one party I truly dread. I try to be excited for my fifth graders since it is the last time they will have a Harvest Party at school.  I do however love the change of seasons especially autumn for so many reasons.  I love pumpkins, combines, changing colors in the trees, cooler temperatures, planting bulbs for next year's garden and most of all the end of October in my classroom.  

Just last week, I told Sarah that I finally am really teaching with a huge smile on my face.  I finally checked off those lists that all teachers have to start our year.  I'm not going to type the list here, but I finally completed my last round of parent teacher conferences.  Then CHECK!!  My list is complete. Smiling like a Jack-o-Lantern.

At least one pumpkin grew in our garden.

I chose my One Little Word (OLW) in January and now that October is coming to a close. I am proud of myself for sticking with writing my reflection blog on the last days of each month.  Just last week, I thought about what I wanted to reflect on for this month, and I thought of pumpkins.  Carving out time for something new this year was what I have tried to do this school year. Often I find that I always lean toward literacy PD (professional development). So this year our principal gave us a choice, so I chose math for my PD this school year.  That way I have a chance to grow in math.

My goal was to learn how to manage my new 80 minute block of time (last year I had 60 min).  I wanted to implement a math workshop and start with a "rich" problem of the day.  I knew I had the old standard activities (word problems, intro. video, vocabulary etc.) but I wanted a richer intro. for my students.  I spent time this past summer thinking about math and found some great resources through #5thchat (the BEST chat around).  Here are a few of my BEST resources that I found.  

Doing Math in Morning Math Meetings (K-5) Love this for simple easy ideas. Great for differentiation.  I have used 2nd grade ideas.

Edgar Allan Poe's Pie: Math Puzzlers in Classics Poems  (Great poems that we do on Poetry Friday-great connections)

Wumbers which is a fun book that I purchased on my iPad so my students can project it on my Smarboard and we can discuss words + numbers = Wumbers.  They LOVE it!! 

Arithme-Tickle: An Even Number of Odd Riddle Rhymes  (another fun book to share on Poetry Friday)

Thanks to Mary Lee at Year of Reading for summer conversations about Number Talks.  This is a professional book that is designed around morning routines that involve conversations about building and solving different equations. 

And don't forget about Math Wonders @wonderopolis always a great way to start a math meeting with an inquiry question.

#190 What is a Prime Number?
#162 What is Pi?   

#411 How Many is a Google?