Sunday Smorgasbord & Math Mentor Text(s)

Thanks to Michelle at Fabulous in First for hosting the Sunday Smorgasbord!  It's a new one for me, but I'm so excited to link up, because I have so many random things to say (that means a LOOONNNGGG post)!

Speedy, my turtle, laid eggs today - she has no boyfriend turtle, but lays unfertilized eggs each summer. Thank goodness we were here this year - last year, we were at the beach and came back to quite the stench!

Speedy's named after my grandpa, but we had to change her name to Speedarella!

Squirt is Speedy's quarter-sized friend!

For WEEKS I have been working on my Teacher Binder.  I'm Done!  I'm Done! (does that sound like any students you know?)  I love the way it turned out, and want to share it with you.

Everything you'll need this year is included all in one place!  My Multi-Chevron Binder includes:

• Student Roster
• Student Data Organizer
• Birthday Tracker
• Student Observation & Data Logs
• Parent Contact Information Pages
• Parent Communication Logs
• An Entire Substitute Notebook
• Common Core Resources, including standards, online resources, checklists
• Month-At-A-Glance Calendar Pages
• Weekly Lesson Planner Pages
• Teacher Organization Tips & To-Do Lists
• Faculty, Team, Committee, and Professional Development Notes Pages & Stationery
• Student-Friendly Posters for the Common Core Mathematical Practices

Here's a peek at what's inside:

All you need is the binder - it's set up for 1/4-1/2 inch comb-binding, three ring binding, or spiral binding.

Next, I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Math Texts.

One of my absolute faves has always been Math Curse!  I think it's hysterical, but my second graders don't really understand it.  Of course, it's totally NOT age-appropriate or grade-appropriate for them, and if they did understand it, I'd kind of be worried!  Still, Mrs. Fibonacci???  That, in and of itself, is hilarious (if you've heard of the Fibonacci Theory).  Then the whole book turns into a million math problems.  I LOVE it! When I taught older students, they loved it, too.  We would go through the book and solve a bunch of the problems, especially the one about the cupcakes.

So, in second grade, How Big is a Foot? is a great book to introduce measurement.

The king wants to give his wife a birthday present, but she already has everything.  What to do?  He decides to give her a bed, but, beds have not yet been invented, and he has no idea how big it should be.  He consults the prime minister, who calls on the Chief Carpenter, who calls on his apprentice, who realizes he's in deep doo-doo, because no one knows what a bed is or how to make one!  Finally, the king, "measures" the queen, using his own feet as the measurement tool.  Naturally, the apprentice's feet aren't the same length, and he's thrown into the dungeon for making the bed too small!  This book is written like a fairy tale, and works well when integrating math and literature because there are so many possibilities for lessons.  I HATE the illustrations, but that makes for the perfect visualization lesson!  The story has all the traditional fairy tale elements, so it's perfect for a genre lesson.  It used non-standard measurement, and then goes on to explain standard measurement, so it's perfect for both concepts in math.

Every year, I have students work in groups to measure an appointed queen of the group, using their feet, and then designing a bed for her.  Here's how it works:  a girl in each group lies on a large piece of butcher paper on the floor.  One person uses the toe-to-heel measurement method to measure her height and width, while another person in the group traces each step.  Then the kids all switch places to compare their non-standard measurements.  It's funny how they are amazed at the difference in their measurements!  Last, using one of the measurements, the group designs a bed, with the traced footprints acting as the perimeter (another great lesson there!).  They fancy it up, and make it worthy for a queen, and we hang them in the hallway, along with an explanation of why they are all different.  That's the "explain and defend" part of common core, y'all. Plus, they've "used appropriate mathematical tools", "used words, pictures, and objects to solve problems", and I'm sure I've covered a couple more common core standards in there, too.  In Dave Burgess' words, "they're hooked" and they remember everything about the lesson, from perimeter, to measurement, to visualization, to fairy tales, to non-standard units, to the standardization of units.

Have a great Sunday!