Math Madness/Fabulous First Grade

Today my first graders were a little wiggly so I took full advantage of it. We did some indoor letter reviews with our Tucker sign. I asked my students to line up, but at the other door...the door to outside. They were so excited and very curious to what we are doing. I grabbed my bucket of sidewalk chalk. On each wide rectangle on the sidewalk I wrote on of our letters, the capital and small letter. I just went down the sidewalk writing a different letter on each of the rectangles. I was asking the students what the letters were while I wrote the letters. After I was done I handed each of the students one piece of sidewalk chalk and they got to go down the sidewalk and also write the same letters. After they got done I handed them a different colored piece of chalk. We did this a total of three times. I collected their chalk and told them to run to the other cement slab about 15 feet away. The boys lined up on the other cement and I joined them. One by one I asked them to run to a certain letter. As one boy was running I would ask the next boy to run to his next letter. If they were having trouble with finding a letter I could would give them a hit, like Tucker sign or word that began with the letter. If that still didn't work I asked the other boys to help their friend find the correct letter. Besides running I asked the boys to do other funny things such as: "Do the chicken dance to the letter "M"." or "Do the crab walk to the letter 'K'." The boys had a blast doing it. The activity seemed to help get the wiggles out of the boys, yet it was an education outdoor lesson.


Math Madness:
What a day in math. This week I have 2 new students that have joined my group. They are not quite in routine yet and have a lot of their own issues to figure out. My regular little boy has been out all week and supposedly is moving at the end of the week. Here is what my math group looked like today:

Student A: Just changed from general ed to our special education classroom. He has many attention issues and is having a hard time getting used to the new routine. During the math lesson he was looking around the room, hardly paying attention. No matter how many times I said his name or pointed to his paper, he just couldn't focus. I explained a new concept 2 times then my teacher explained it again. We started our worksheet, which was about that topic, and he couldn't figure out how to do any of it. He was not listening even when he was looking at us. If I asked his questions he would either give the wrong answer or not know what the answer was.

Student B: This is our 5th grade girl who just moved to our school. This 3rd grade curriculum is a stretch for her, but we do not have any other lower math groups and at this point no other breaks in the day to teach another math lesson. During the math lesson she was either sucking profusely on her hair or copying someone else's paper. I had the other students cover their papers, and then she made the comment, "I can't do this problem because I can't see his paper." At least she isn't lying about what she is doing. This student is very inconsistent with what work she can do. Sometimes she can answer a certain question, and a few minutes later she will have no idea what is going on or how to answer the problem.

Student C: A regular in my math group, and he knows the routine well. He is bright and can do the math with not too many problems. He cannot however, keep his mouth quiet. There is constant sound coming from this student at all times. Warning and penalties do not seem to help. It is almost like he cannot control what he is doing. He frequently blurts out he answers and tells others the problem is easy (even though the others are struggling with the problem)

Student D: Absent the whole week, possibly moving. Very bright student in math and has no problems with the curriculum. He has been gone because his prescription medicine is out. Without his medicine he cannot function at all and becomes almost a terror. He has been know to roll on the floor and froth at the mouth without his medicine.

Student E: Quiet student. He has many issues with visual motor coordination. There are many problems if he has to cut anything out and has a hard time using a ruler. He also is struggling with reading the clock and telling the temperature on a thermometer.

This group today in math made for quite a challenge. I love all my students, but put them together and you just have chaos. Today it seemed almost impossible to keep them on the same page. Student C is higher than the others and has a hard time waiting for the others to finish. He needs faster paced lesson, yet this is something I cannot manage right now with the other ones struggling so much. Student A has a hard time focusing and right now I am just trying to figure out what he knows and what kind of work load he can manage. I will try to find a way to capture his attention. I am worried that student B will be struggling to much with this math curriculum. I will wait at least another week, to also figure out how much she knows consistently. Student E is receiving occupational therapy, so for now I just have to make modifications in his lesson. I have to help him with the ruler and I don't let him cut much. I try to work individually with him if he is trying to read the thermometer. This week's information is quite varied in it's nature and Friday will probably be a review of the material. I think I will be focusing on some key elements to their lessons such as time and money.