Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Greetings Blogging Friends!
Heather and I have been stressed to the max the last few weeks and therefore MIA.  Details for our stress and changes that we are enduring will be kept to a minimum.  However, we do have a few changes happening and could use some advice.  3 weeks ago, one of our co-workers made the decision to take an extended leave of absence until May of this year.  Our county has been left very thin with certified sub positions available.  After several weeks of managing the situation, our administration has decided to dissolve that teacher's class and split the class evenly between the four remaining teachers.  What this means is that we are going from on average 20 students per class to 25 students per class (Heather actually will have 26) for the remainder of the year.  We will have an assistant to share and a substitute who will float between the 4 classes and help us for large chunks of the day.  This will be a new adventure as we welcome these new babes into our class.  Our number one focus has been to make the transition as smooth as possible for the class and to make them feel as much a part of their new class as possible.  Has anyone out there ever been in a situation in a lower grade classroom where you have had a large number of students for an extended amount of time?  Are there any tips or advice you could share with us?  We are excited for this new challenge and want to make this as painless and easy for our new students.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

I have been trying to keep up with some new activities.  We have been working on graphing and money in the last few weeks.  Last week we spent some time with coin identification as we moved into 2.MD.8.  I thought a fun manipulation station for the kids to work with would be a game working with money identification as well as graphing.  It is super cute and my class is really enjoying it this week.  Click the picture below to pick up your own copy.  The first comment left will receive this pack for free!


Enjoy!