Five for Friday - October 16 | Grade 2 Hullabaloo: Five for Friday

I am officially on fall break! It couldn't have come at a more perfect time. The weather is going to be pleasant, and I have a to-do list a mile long. Number 1 on the list is resting! Here are five random things on my mind right now.

My announced observation was on Wednesday. Our GO Math chapter focus was on addition and subtraction relationships. It wrapped up with a few lessons on arrays. I chose one of these lessons for my observation. The day before the observation, the children found real life examples of arrays in the classroom. They worked as partners to take pictures of them with our two iPads. I also gave them an optional homework assignment of emailing me a picture of any arrays they found in their homes. I printed the pictures to use as a review in my observation lesson. The main activity, after the required GO Math! lesson (it's a district mandate that we use the new GO Math! series with fidelity), was having the children partner-up and make their own array with dot painters. Below is our hallway display of all of the arrays. They did a great job, and the arrays they found at home were so clever! In this day and age of high technology, it's great to be able to connect home and school so easily! If you'd like a copy of the Hooray for Arrays set, here you go!

Note: If you use GO Math!, this complements lesson 3.11 very well!

We had fall parties this afternoon. My room mom and I decided that it would be great to have it outside if the weather cooperated. The weather was perfect! My super room mom had the egg and spoon relay, tug-of-war, pumpkin hockey (with broom hockey sticks and real, small pumpkins), wrap a mummy (with toilet tissue) and a game of Duck, Duck, Goose! This woman thought of everything! She brought blankets for the kids to sit on as they ate their monster donuts and other goodies. I think there was at least one parent there for every one of my students. We even had a grandmother! It was an awesome party!

There was one bittersweet part of the party; one of our classmates is moving, so we had a little going away present for him. It was a kickball with our signatures. His classmates made cards for him. I think he was a little overwhelmed with everything. We'll sure miss his sweet demeanor, but we'll keep him in our hearts.

Have you heard of Shipt? It's a grocery shopping and delivery service. I hate to go grocery shopping! Hate it with a passion! So, when I saw a piece on the local news about this service, I decided to give it a try. There is a Shipt app that has about 40,000 grocery items listed. Usually, I'm happy with peanut butter, cheese, bread, apples, bananas, cat food, kitty litter and Diet Dr. Pepper. In just a few minutes, I downloaded the app, signed up, selected my groceries, and BAM! Groceries delivered at the one-hour timeframe I designated. The young man who was doing the shopping even texted me a couple of times to verify information or to ask me about substitutes. The monthly fee is $14, or I can subscribe for a year for $99. That's for unlimited deliveries! I think I'm in love!

I had the post conference for my announced observation yesterday morning, and it went very well! My principal is a stickler for going by the state TEAM rubric (as she should be!), and she was very impressed with the level of higher order thinking my sweet kiddos are doing. I guess all those How? and Why? questions are beginning to pay off!

By the way, there are twelve instructional indicators of the instruction rubric, and three for the planning rubric. Talk about intimidating! My 30-minute observation was evaluated on all fifteen indicators. Writing the lesson plan took about three hours. There is also a rubric for professionalism and environment. If you'd like to take a look at the instruction, environment and planning rubrics, you can view them here. Does your state use the same rubric or something different? I would love to hear about it!