Early Finishers and 5 x 10 Update

I have a couple of children who always seem to finish work to a high standard, and very quickly, so I turned my little shopping trolley into an early finishers cart. It's full of activities to extend those children, and I will add to it as they go through the activities (which are more challenging than my writing options, spelling options and "make & do" box.

I also saw a giant game of Boggle on Pinterest when I was looking for ideas for moving toys, got inspired, and made one for the classroom. This is a hit with the children, and might help the likes of William, who consistently gets 0/6 in his weekly spelling test. In fact, his results are so bad that I think I shall have to take it right back to rhyming words and focus on letter sounds, blends and vowels with him for a bit. Anyway, I need to purchase a 3 minute egg timer, then the children can run the game themselves in little groups when they've finished their work.

My little 5 x 10 group finished on Friday. I really thought that they were getting quicker at solving subtraction facts to 20. They loved the quick sessions, and competing against each other. They were all eager and focused and enthusiastic. So I was a little disappointed on the last day when we had a 10 minute session and played BINGO. Bingo cards were a 3 x 3 grid with basic addition and subtraction facts to 12. My group of 4 sat with their cards, insisting that no one needed a number 4. "No, none of us need that," "I'm waiting for a zero," (she actually needed a 12 as the equation she was focused on was 12 - 0) and, " what's the next number?" were the responses I got. Every single one of them needed a 4! 10 - 6, 3 + 1, 9 - 5 and 7 - 3! I am going to really push them for the next few weeks and see if I can get some progress!
We (senior school teachers) have decided to not do maths swap for numeracy anymore. It worked well, we got results, and it was nice getting to know children from other classes. But I think keeping our own classes will work well now that we can use the talk moves, and have problem solving groups, and we're still having professional development to help us make the most of these in the classroom. It will be interesting to see what happens by the end of the year, results wise. And I am actually quite pleased, it will make reports, interviews and assessment so much easier.