Looking Back at Last Week; Moving Ahead for This Week

We've had a busy week!  It was a 5 day week, which was only our second 5 day week, so I had some tired kiddos by Friday.  We finished up our Nearest & Dearest unit, a unit about family and friends, and are ready to jump into Head to Toe, a unit about our body.  Week 1 covers body systems, and week 2 is about our 5 senses.

Here are a few highlights of our week:

We learned about 10 frames and practiced filling in a 10 frame with Froot Loops.  My kiddos rock at math!

We began using our MagnaTiles that I won over the summer.  My students loved using MagnaTiles to build and practice making shapes from smaller shapes.

Students are creating a class number book using the Book Creator app.  We walked around our school, inside and outside, and students took pictures of numbers they found using the iPad.  Each child is choosing a picture and adding it with a sentence about the number to our book.  We will then have the opportunity to publish our book.  They are so excited to be authors!

I am going to attempt my first project based learning piece of the year this week and next.  I have not done project based learning this early in the year in the past, so we'll see how it goes!

I could use your help:  How do you make saying a focus statement an automatic habit in your teaching?  I get wrapped up in the material and the schedule and, while I know it is best practice, the focus statements don't always happen. Your suggestions would be appreciated!