Doubles Addition Rap & Games

I am happy to report that Friday was much better than Thursday. My kids worked super hard and we had lots of fun.  I'm a firm believer that teaching and learning should be fun. I get grouchy when something ruins the fun.

Yesterday, I had one of my surprise "here comes the boss with the iPad" observations.  I think that went well.  I'm working super hard.  My kids are learning and I have data to prove it.  I am honestly doing what I'm supposed to be doing.  We'll see what the boss has to say when I get the "formal written report" next week.  Not gonna stress about it.  My boss was recently named "Michigan Elementary Principal of the Year" for our region.  We're lucky in the boss department.

We worked on doubles addition facts this week.  According to my pre-assessment, my students knew 0 + 0 through 5 + 5 fluently.  They really needed practice when it comes to the doubles facts for 6  through 9.

I taught them the Doubles Rap.  I have no idea who the original source of the rap is...and I changed to the words (at the bottom) a bit.  Here is version we use in my classroom.  We rap the bottom part first and then rap our way through the facts.

My students also played Doghouse Doubles (which is a game that I made to help them practice doubles addition facts).  You can find it at my Tpt store and in my Teachers Notebook shop.

We also played Slides and Ladders Adding Doubles game by Kathy Law (one of my favorite bloggers).  My students loved this version of one of their favorite board games!  You can visit Kathy at First Grade a la Carte.


OLW update...My OLW this year is relax. I started my day today with a 2 mile run (which was relaxing because we are having freakishly warm temperatures for January in Michigan - it was 44 degrees for my run). Then I chose 5 students and sent their parents "happy mail" (a nice email to their parents about how they are doing).  I'm going to limit myself to 1 hour of school work today and them I'm going to take a relaxing walk with my kids to the library.  When I get home, I am going to sit in my new chair and read something fun.  I will not eat the chocolate brownies that my husband received from one of his favorite students.

Happy Saturday!