Not a Game, Practice

I thoroughly enjoy recess. Whether it is outside or inside, I'm a huge fan. Typically I have kids in my classroom throughout each recess. I have kids on computers, finishing homework, doing research, or doing a myriad of other things. If I am in the room, kids are welcome. Some teachers don't believe in that, and that is their style (not to mention right).

When I get the chance I like to get outside for recess. During student teaching, particularly during the term where I was observing and taking classes, I would head outside to play on the playground. I actually brought my soccer ball in as well, and we'd often play soccer games every few days. You interact with kids on a different level, and they see you at play. Additionally it creates a safe place where kids feel like rules will be enforced, and everyone has a chance (not always the case otherwise).

Today I got out for a game of capture the flag. The game has been the talk of Fifth grade since early in the week, and they'd talked one of their previous teachers into playing. They'd asked me all week, but I wasn't able to make it due to other classroom things I needed to take care of. Ahh, but today was the day. Lots of fun running around the frost covered tundra. Kids are so excited to see their teacher running around just them they are. The joy of tagging your teacher, and saying you got him is palpable. It was a great time, and something I'm banking on trying to get out for (recess, not just capture the flag) every other week.

Board Games

Teaching in a split class is interesting. They are classes put together out of monetary convenience for the school district, not for the kids' learning! The funny thing is that I love multiage classrooms, and think that is how a split needs to be taught (not as a 1st grade, 2nd grade with divider down the middle!). I think the range can be wide, but it is going to be wide in any classroom. The benefits of having older students and younger students working together outweigh the range, at least to me.

As we use Everyday Math, and like many math curricular materials, teaching a multiage for math is very difficult. So we don't. That is right, we don't, or at least our class doesn't. My master teacher has the 2nd graders with the math specialist, and we take the 1st graders. Class size becomes ideal (10-13 each), and we can focus on what we need to focus on... except on Fridays! Fridays are when the math specialist isn't in, so we are all together.

I've tried to stay away from simply playing math games. While they are fun, and can reinforce concepts, I feel like they end up being 50 minutes of filler, the mathematical equivalent of empty calories. Today I've got a different plan, meshing the ideas. Both groups have worked on fractions, and both like playing games. How about using pattern blocks to make a board game? We are going to add in CHANCE spots where you can take a chance to move ahead a spot by answering a math fact question, and we are going to do some writing. The fractions come in as we identify the fraction of the total pieces (ie 5/12 pieces were blue pentagons). Identify shapes, identify fractions, creating math facts. We'll see how it goes.