Common Core Excitement!

This school year is flying by at top speed. There are officially 18 school days left.  I am already thinking ahead to the up coming year & summer PD.  There are so many Good Changes heading our way!  Yes, I said it "Good Changes," a.k.a... Common Core. 

Where did this burning desire to explore common core come from?  Amazon of course.  It doesn't take much to make a nerdy teacher happy!  

I received a box of fan-tabulous math related picture books today.  Each book addresses a specific second grade math concept.  It's my summer goal to create common core lessons for each of the books.  Each lesson will address specific standards, provide cross curriculum resources, hands on options, and performance based assessments (formative & summative).   Wooohooo! Summertime here I come.

The first three choices for this common core adventure relate math to students' everyday world by using some realistic examples and some wild imaginary scenarios .

What would you do if you woke up on different days and faced a variety mathematical dilemmas?

The little boy in these stories wakes up each day to a new mathematical adventure.

On "One Odd Day," his shirt has three arms.  There are only odd numbers on his clock.

Everything on "My Even Day" turns out even.

When the little boy wakes up on "My Half Day," half of his hair is missing, along with 1/2 of many other things!  

Twelve Snails and One Lizard is a fantasy tale of "Mischief and Measurement." Two silly friends must discover different ways to measure inches, feet, and yards.  The essential question here is, "What is the most efficient way to measure?"  

Measuring Penny is a realistic fiction book that helps children apply measurement in a very relatable context.   A little girl measures her dog Penny in variety of creative ways.  

"How Big is a Foot?" is a short fairy tale about a king that wants to build a bed before beds and standard measurement were invented.   

Finally, I'd like to share one more great resource that I stumbled upon today.  It's a downloadable, printable common core resource book.  There is a free sample & the price is $39.99 for the complete download per grade level.  I am considering using this resource to create literacy work stations. As we have just adopted a new reading series, I am redoing everything.  This would give me a head start on the process.    www.commoncorestandards.com