Place Value Practice and A Lesson in "Squirrelese"

Happy Wednesday!!!
Know what Wednesday means in "Squirrel"?
Well, loosely translated- it means TWO MORE DAYS TIL THE WEEKEND!!!!

But that is just a loose translation, of course.

When the end of this week gets here, it will just shrivel up and fade away in to some weird black-hole-time-warp-space-continuum-thingy. It will be as if it never happened.
Why do i think this week will just disappear?
Because next week I have to teach it all over again.
Why?
Monday- 4 absent
Tuesday- 5 absent, 2 sent home ill
Wednesday- 4 absent.

And oddly enough, it wasn't the same children each time!! So I get to reteach it all!!!

Luckily for me, we are ten school days away from the 120th Day of School!! So they will ALL be reviewing and practicing. Reviewing and practicing. Reviewing and practicing.

And thanks to new CCSS and our standard for fluency through the 120 chart- we are making it a special day.
In my room.
I am not the only one who didn't make a big deal (didn't even mention it) when the 100th day came 10 days ago. but I am pretty confident I will be the only one who is celebrating the 120th day in my building.

I have a great resource I have been using since the beginning of the year. It is Doodle Bugs Number Practice 1-120. Check out that link at the bottom of this post!

To move through the chart( by adding one, taking away one, adding ten, taking away ten) has been a fun experience for us.
We are working on place value and watching them make that connection when they realize that they are adding 1 or taking away 1 when i have them go left to right, and that they are adding ten or taking away ten when I have them go up or down is just great!

To test their skills, this morning I had them color a 120 chart (from the Doodle Bug Pack) like Tetris pieces. The rule was there had to be at least four connected squares. They were going to cut them out, so I wanted to the pieces to not be too small.

I knew a few friends would struggle getting the coloring part done, so I outlined a few shapes for some of them.

When they were done with the coloring they cut out the odd shapes that they made.

I had them switch desks with a neighbor for a bit and had them try to put the chart back together---- they liked that they were making the puzzles for each other.

Then I had them switch back and they glued their cool shapes onto large construction paper.
And as you can see below- they had to "outline" the shape they glued down with the number that would go above, below, left or right, of the squares that were there-
It was definitely a brain tickler for some- and others breezed right through. It gave me a great opportunity to observe their thinking
(and they thought they were just making puzzles)
We're so tricky!!!

At the beginning of the year our AC gave us all a 100 chart cut into ten strips and then laminated.
Today I had pairs work together to add reward coins on top as they counted.

After they were all on, I took one off and exposed a number.

Then I did some pointing, Asking what was under the coin that may have been above it or below it- if the student got it right- he got to keep the coin. If he was wrong, he had to give it to me.
I set the timer for 5 minutes-
I only got to do this with 5 students today, but while several are working on their "puzzles" tomorrow, I can do it again!!!
This was great for working one on one and getting to hear them, rather than just reading what they did.

Only two more weeks and you get to see all the great stuff we will be doing!!!
For now though- a link to Doodle Bugs great packet!

Well "Cheers" muchachas-
I am headed off to bed with dreams of full ,healthy class tomorrow so that we can celebrate and have out Valentine Exchange!
Have a great day!