Winter is Here!! And with it comes a long post...

I realize that many people live in areas of warm(ish), sunny weather all year round and I just have to say I am JEALOUS! As a Michigander, we never quite know what to expect, and apparently, well, today is a wintery, cold and snowy day! (Not a fan). I was perfectly happy with the 40's and 50's we were having for the last few weeks, but oh well!


I wanted to highlight a few friends' posts because they are just great! :) 


Mrs. Reynolds at Oh, my Little Classity Class (love the name) posted some great math games! Ever played the card game called Left, Right, Center..? She found some inspiration to turn it into games for spelling practice and math practice! Love it!!

She has two different files on her blog - one for single digit addition and one for double digit addition! Make sure to check her out and leave some love! :) 

Yvonne at Sassy in Second made ice cream with her class!! She included a great recipe - I think we'll do this next week!! Note to self - take pictures! YUM!

Lisa at Stories from Second posted about her homework policies. I am super interested to hear about what YOU do for homework in your classroom! I know this may  never change but as a second year teacher, I just feel like I have SOOOO many ideas and I can't even get my head around them! I want to do so much, but there is too little time! Last year, teaching a split (and being hired in a week before school began) I never quite felt settled enough to make huge overhaul changes to anything! I kind of just kept whatever policies and systems I started with! I'm not too happy with my homework methods, so I'd love to be inspired by your methods!! 

Here's what I am currently doing:

Spelling: 12 - 14 spelling words a week (including bonus words) that I take from Houghton-Mifflin; I have students practice by counting syllables, putting words in ABC order, writing them out to practice handwriting too, and put them into spelling boxes. Here are some files:

                                

Obviously the word list changes from week to week. So I have to alter the documents. 

Reading: Typically, I try to send home a story with before and after reading activities (often Thinking Maps), I will slip in some Grammar pages or other practice pages; I also include a Reading log for the week.

Math: I don't care for the Math Homelinks included in our math curriculum so I have begun to make my own. I send home 3 - 5 pages that will help to practice skills needed for the lessons of the coming week. This has started to get overwhelming (creating all 3-5 documents - most likely on Sunday night...!)

Ok - so what do you do?!

I just had to share some of the inspiration that I found in the bloggy world this week. Gosh, I sure do love seeing everyone's ideas especially when I can use them with my kiddos! 

*Amanda