November 16th, 2023

We are back with another round of lessons! Today I was back at Cannon Elementary with Ms. Moore's 2nd grade class. They were at the complex addition and subtraction section of their curriculum, specifically adding 2 digit numbers. I first started with a warm up on the smart board. I went over some of the stuff they had already learned so that way I could warm up their little brains. It was so cute seeing them on their little spots on the carpet and I got immediate flashbacks to my second grade year in Chicago and my little spot on the carpet.

The main activity was making paper bag puppets with addition and subtraction. They had a worksheet with some problems and the problems had some blanks. To fill in the blanks, they had to roll a dice and fill it in with the number they rolled. This was a way to make their puppets a little different from their peers. They then solve the equation and look at the paper with all the parameters on it. So for example, if their number was between 130 and 180 their puppet would have 10 arms, things like that. They had such a fun time with this activity! My favorite part was definitely hearing one student go, "Yes! I have a big mouth!" It was the cutest thing. After they all finished their problems and finished their puppets I had them do a show and tell but instead of having them just show their puppets, I wanted them to explain why they had gotten some of the features they did. Saying things like, "My puppet has 10 legs because my math problem gave me this answer which is between these two numbers which says to do this," or something similar. They did such a great job with this, I was very impressed. 

At the very end I passed out some stickers because they did such a great job, which is probably the reason they love me so much. Tomorrow I am going to Bear Creek Elementary for the first time with my very first 3rd grade class. I can't wait! :)