Some Random Tidbits

I took the day off today to go in for my 3 hour glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes again. Please cross your fingers for me that the results are negative! I've had it with 2 out of my 4 pregnancies and am really hoping to skip it this time around!

Since I had some free time, I got to work grading and diaggregating the data for our 3rd quarter Title I math benchmark. Overall I was pretty pleased with the results, but I was really tickled by some of the little things I noticed while grading:

 This little sweetie was being tested on such basic addition as "6+4=10" and yet look what she wrote (and then tried to erase!) in the margins:

I had to giggle when I saw this one!

(And please, pay no attention to the fact that the piece of toast is not square and a soccer ball is actually a sphere. Apparently the people who make these tests in our district failed basic 2d shapes! I had to explain to my students to pick the one that "looks most like" each shape lol!)


One of our resource teachers showed me this measurement idea she learned at a workshop:

 You take the one inch plastic squares that we all seem to have floating around our cupboards for some reason (really, where do these random thingys come from?! What was their original purpose?!) and arrange them in a row and press masking tape on the back. They are then stiff enough to be used as a ruler and sturdy enough to last several uses without having to exchange the tape! I thought this was a neat idea for kiddos who aren't quite ready for real ruler - and since you can tape as many together as you want you could make short ones and have them combine rulers, or make one very long one etc! Of course you don't need to make them patterned - my little guy just happens to love patterns so he made his that way :)

Final thought for today: we are turning into Sight Word Superstars! Part of it is that my students love to partner up to work on the words. This is a bonus for me, because they can't work on words unless they are finished their regular work and have "free time". Then, they either read a book, or get to help a friend with their sight words! Talk about motivation for getting down to business! The various pointers have been getting a workout and even my lowest friends are starting to catch on since their friends are so encouraging! My little ELL guy has mastered 60 sight words now - which is amazing considering he couldn't say his letter sounds when I got him in October!

Have a great night! I will be back later this week with some St. Patrick's Day fun since we are starting our big green unit tomorrow!