Labor Day is NOT for Laboring!

Happy Labor Day!  Hope you are resting and enjoying some down time today.

I'm spending the day with the Hubster.  He told me I needed to be home with him today.  I think he's missed me the past two weeks.  I've been spending lots of time at school.  Hey, it's the start of the year and pretty much SOP-standard operating procedure.

We completed the first 8 days of school.  The only thing that remained the same from day to day was change.  I will now focus on Reading, ELA, Social Studies and System 44 instead of Math and Science.  No pressure there.  I truly wish my class was self-contained.  My mind would rest much more easy if it was. It is not meant to be this year.


On Friday for our last day of math class together (another teacher will take over that part of the day) my students worked on place value: writing numbers in standard form, word form and expanded form using place value block models.  I put a number of place value blocks at each table group.  They then had to write the value of the model on their paper in standard, expanded and word forms.  They rotated from table to table and worked together.  When we had finished and checked our work, they asked if we could do it again.  Music to a teacher's ears!  Oh my darlings, I wish we could.  Perhaps their other teacher will do it with them again soon.  I hope so.  

I took a few photos to capture their intensity and joy!



The classroom is still a work in progress.  I will need to rethink my room arrangement because I didn't have a reading corner for Daily 5.  I will need one, and soon.  Late evenings at school will be on the agenda after this Labor Day holiday.  But establishing procedures and routines will be our top priority.

What will your priorities be for this week?

Ta-ta for now.