It starts with an H...

Walking to the car after school...

Magnolia: Mama, today was super exciting.

Me: Why? SASH? *see footnote  

Magnolia: No a bonus. 

Me: I don't know.  

Magnolia: Kaleia doesn't have it. It is new for 2nd grade.  

Me: You'll have to tell me.  

Magnolia: It starts with H... 

Me: Health? I think I remember they start health in 2nd grade along with PE. 

Magnolia: No...it ends with a k... 

Me: Homework. 

Magnolia: YES! My first homework!  

*SASH stands for Science, Art, Shop and Homeroom -- this happens once a week and is always anticipated with excitement.

First Day of School 2015

I still can't believe these two are both in elementary school.

Kaleia
Favorites
Food: Pizza with pineapple and ham
Treat: Chocolate Pudding
Color: Blue
Book: Bob books and The Book with No Pictures
Movie: Rio 2
Song: ABCs
Activity: Draw

My best friends are Natalia and Eleanor (but these rotate regularly).

This year I want to:

• learn how to read. 
• try to do a whole sentence by myself. 
• start playing the guitar. 
• make a big stuffed animal. 

When I grow up, I want to be vet or a doctor and I will still be a Mama.

Stats
43.2 pounds ~ 3 feet, 10 inches ~ shoe size: 12 ~ age: 6 years, 2 months

Magnolia
Favorites
Food: Fondue, then crepes
Treat: Mud Pie
Color: Coral
Books: The Secret of the Ginger Mice
and The Spies of Gerander
Movies: Big Hero 6 and Rio 2
Songs: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams,
"Volcano" by U2,
"Ship to Wreck" by Florence and the Machine
Activities: Learning and Sports

My best friends are Clementine and Nivriti.

This year I want to:

• learn about the forest and the brain.
• try to find a fidget that will help me but not distract me.
• start going to chess club.
• make a forest model.

When I grow up, I want to be a doctor and have a farm.

Stats
54 pounds ~ 4 feet, 2 inches ~ shoe size: 1 ~ age: 7 1/2 years old

I guess I had a first day of school too -- my 33rd one.

Last Day of School 2015

I can't believe these goofy girls have finished another year of school! 

And that we are now done with the Beehive (kindgergarten)!

Attempt at a "normal" smile for Mama

I'll definitely take this one home!

Chillin' with a popsicle

"I don't want it to end!"...Or maybe it was "I don't want anymore pictures!"

My big girl finished with first grade!

Always ready to learn even on the last day!

Food Museum: Goats

The Catlin Gabel first grade class spends the spring studying food for their science and social studies units--farm to table style. In groups, they choose a type of food of interest (fruits, vegetables, bread, meat, dairy) to research. They conduct interviews while on fields trips to a local grocery store and a farmer's market. Parents come to class and teach each group how to make a food from their category: dried fruit, jam, pickled veggies, loaves of bread, jerky, yogurt, and ice cream. Then groups create a "Food Museum" with activities and informational posters. 

This was one of my favorites from this year: "chickens and things you make them in to." 

Originally, Magnolia choose dairy, but then she wanted to specialize in goat products. Her teacher allowed Maggie to branch off from her group to create her own food museum--I love that about our school! Now, this girl is now passionate about goats. 

She worked hard during work time and some of her free time on her exhibit, agonizing each evening, worried she'd wouldn't finish before the parent viewing event. Magnolia, and her teacher, were incredibly proud that she pulled it off. When I got to the event, as she showed me her museum, I realized why she had been worried, and was overwhelmed with pride myself.

She didn't just create the one required information poster or activity. Magnolia had made three informational posters,

an Interactive "Fun Fact" board, 

AND a goat game to test your new knowledge!

She really knew her stuff!

Some things I learned about goats from her exhibit:

• Goats have rectangular pupils to help them see in the dark
• Goats discovered coffee beans
• Goats are picky eaters
• Each breed of dairy goat gives a different flavored milk

It is finished!

Extra curricular activities, including housecleaning, came to a halt recently as I frantically worked to finish my renewal entries for my National Board teaching certification. Last year was just too hard, on too many levels, to take advantage of the first opportunity to renew, so this was my only shot. The process was less rigorous that the first go-around, but now I have two kids and a more demanding job. I finished my four papers, which included videos and work samples from my teaching, with 43 minutes to spare! That sentence makes it sound too easy. To provide some perspective, my mother's day and birthday present requests were for time to write and editing services. I've skipped the girls soccer games and fallen very behind in every area of my life.

I would not have been able to finish without my dear friends and former Bellingham colleagues, Amanda and Scott. They provided valuable feedback and support from afar. But most of all I would have been lost without Brian. He put his pursuits on hold the last few weeks to help me with my writing, handle more of the parenting, and put up with my near nervous breakdown moments. His Facebook status during the thick of the editing indicates he might have been nearing a breakdown of his own. 

I won't find out if I pass until December 2015, but that's out of my hands. For now a huge weight feels lifted and I can start chipping away at all that has been postponed. 

The Pancake Problem

Shannon: "Wow, Kaleia! Another pancake? How many is that for you?"

Kaleia: "Three!"

Magnolia: "I've had three, too!"

Shannon: "I only had two! There is one left on the plate. I wonder how many I made this morning..."

Kaleia: "One, two..." Magnolia: "Let me figure it out!"

Shannon: "Let's all figure it out in our head and share the number we come up with."

Kaleia: "Nine!"

Magnolia: "That's what I got too! I knew my three and Kaleia's three made six, then Mama's two would be eight and one more makes nine!"

Shannon: "Kaleia, what was your strategy?"

Kaleia: "I just counted in my head."

Magnolia (giddy with excitement): "You gave us a story problem!"

Shannon: "Yeah, I guess I did."

Magnolia: "Now I have a pancake story problem for you, but its not addition. It's subtraction!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Story problems can be fun!

As a high school math teacher, I was excited to find an ally in my mathematics culture change mission in Maggie's 1st grade teacher. She is supporting Magnolia and her classmates to see the value of both the accuracy of their answers and the ability to communicate their process. At the fall parent information night, her teacher asked parents to think about the ways we approach reading at home; Cozy bedtime stories, cuddled up together, reading both the familiar and the new and exciting. Yet, most of us have less than "cozy" images of mathematics. It is viewed as drudgery or punishment, and only accessible for some people. Let's change that. Kids are natural mathematicians, wondering about patterns, estimating amounts, making comparisons. We only need to wonder with them. The more we do it, the easier it becomes.

If you need some support, there is a cool foundation called Bedtime Math. They have a few books and offer a nightly email to help give parents ideas.

Wonder Week (by Kaleia)

Wonder Week is a time when you do lots of things that are hard working and you go with a teacher and get to go on the school bus to somewhere.

Click below for more details

Experiential Days (by Magnolia)

Experiential days are when you go to experience something you don't do in a regular day at school for four days. And what I did for experiential days is "We love Animals." "We love Animals" is where you learn about animals. My teacher was the fourth grade teacher who is also named Maggie. 

Click to read more about my Experiential Days

Web Week 2015

One of my favorite things about working at an independent school is the freedom to pause and do something different. Our school demonstrates its value of experiential learning by dedicating the week before spring break to learning outside the traditional classroom walls. 

Cards with Lucy

Who needs a bilingual preschool when you can play cards with Lucy outside her parents' fruit store with your Spanish friends?

Lucy and Kaleia

Magnolia, Gabriel, and Lucy playing cards

Natural Number Sense

As I am cooking lunch, Magnolia informs me that she wants three peas and three noodles.

I give no more and no less.

She stares at the plate bewildered. Then her eyes light up and she says, "Mama, I want five peas and five noodles."

Again, I oblige.

This time her confusion doesn't last as long. As she stares at her near empty plate Maggie exclaims, "Mama, I want EIGHT peas and EIGHT noodles."

This time when I hand her plate back, she is crestfallen. "Mama, I want....I want...," she stammers, eyebrows furrowed.

Sensing that the mounting frustration is going to trump our little number sense lesson, and not wanting to count large numbers of little peas and noodles, I suggest, "You want a lot of peas and a lot of noodles?"

Relieved and enthusiastic, she replies, "Yeah! I want a lot of peas and a lot of noodles!"

+++

As a math teacher, I am more and more amazed at how natural the concepts of number sense come to kids. I am baffled at how students get them so messed up by the time they get to high school (Number sense is one of the most struggled with topics on our state exam). I won't spend too much time on my education soap box here (maybe another blog in the future???), but I think these natural situations are the best way for letting kids develop a solid number sense.