Building Mathematicians One Day at a Time

I'm knee deep in 2nd grade.  Let me first just acknowledge that 2nd grade is NOT 1st grade.  Nope.  Not even close. With that being said, I think I'm falling in love with a new subject.  Math.  Those of you who know me in my real life are probably shocked.  Reading is my passion and has been from day one.  I'm just as surprised about this as the rest of you.  

My kids have always done alright in math.  I do get excited about it.  I like math manipluatives; I once spent an entire weekend painting hundreds of Lima beans orange.  On the orange side of the Lima bean I used a black Sharpie to draw pumpkin faces and on the other white side I drew ghost faces.  That's dedication right? I've added and subtracted with my share of Goldfish crackers and I've glued every food imaginable to paper.  My new found love of math is different than first grade math.  Thanks to Amy Lemons, I am inspiring Mathematicians in my 2nd grade classroom. I am excited that we are really getting into number patterns.  We are exploring numbers to the thousands place and actually coming up with multiple strategies to solve problems.  I enjoy seeing how my students are deciding what strategies work for them and which ones don't.  Recently there have been a lot of light bulb moments and what more could a teacher ask for? 

This is me hard a work. It's as though you can just feel the learning right?! 

Look at us! We're headed into the thousands place!

I'm so proud of how well my 2nd graders picked up this concept! 

Here is a little one hard at wok on her October math station. 

If you want to check out what I've been doing in my math and literacy groups click on the units below!