The Snowman

We watched the dvd version of The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. After watching the students verbally identified the characters, setting, problem, and solution. The students then created their own snowmen.

Gingerbread Subtraction

On Wednesday we reviewed subtraction problems by using Gingerbread mashmallows followed by a fun word problem lesson created by my teammate, Mrs. Timms. The students placed however many gingerbread clipart on a cookie sheet that they wanted. (My teammate used foil which was so cute - too bad I forgot mine at home that day!) They then pretended that some of them fell off of the cookie sheet and glued them all down. They then solved a subtraction word problem by identifying how many gingerbread men were on the cookie sheet to begin with, how many fell off, and how many were left on the cookie sheet. And, of course, the students then ate their gingerbread marshmallows. Yum!

Christmas Tree Addition

In the computer lab yesterday the students drew their own trees in the program Pixie 2. They practiced the skill of "click, hold, and drag" to create three overlapping triangles. They then learned to fill in the shapes with the paint bucket feature. For each new section in their tree they had to choose a new shade of green and a new texture background. After their tree was created, they again practiced "click, hold, and drag" to make circle ornaments and filled them with either blue or red. They then typed an addition word problem from the board with their specific number of ornaments. They then solved their addition problems. Lastly, they practiced using the search feature in the clipart, or stickers, section of Pixie 2 to find a star to place on top of their tree. I love the different shapes and sizes of their trees!

My Elf Self

The students created an elf on Monday using the pattern from Deanna Jump's Polar Express unit. Fellow teachers, if you have not seen it, you should check it out! I then took a black and white photo of the students and cut out their face. The students then wrote about what their elf looks like, what he or she is wearing, and what he or she can do using our Write From the Beginning strategies. They turned out really adorable!

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Holidays Around the World: Germany

As a part of our unit on holidays around the world, we read and then sang "O Christmas Tree" with the book version by Debbie Trafton O'Neal and read The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Pat Matuszak. We discussed the how the tradition of the Christmas tree began and how the tradition of using candles at Christmas time began. The students then created their own tree out of hearts (we reviewed number patterns as we created them - the numbers decreased by one with each layer). The students then added a heart and yellow hole punches to decorate their tree. They then drew lines under the yellow hole punches to turn them into candles to symbolizes that candles were once placed on Christmas trees in Germany.

Holidays Around The World: Mexico

As a part of our Social Studies unit on holidays around the world, we read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola. We talked about how poinsettias are thought to have first appeared when a child, having nothing else to offer, left green weeds at the nativity which then turned red. The students then created poinsettias of their own. (Fellow teachers, I did not take a picture of these but we just layered the a five-pointed flower shape three times - twice in red and once in green. We then added yellow hole punches to the center.)

To Make the Grinch Smile...

This is an idea that I got from Deanna Jump. In her Grinch Unit, she has several activities based off of the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This book goes perfectly with our character trait lessons. As we read, we stopped to talk about how the Grinch was acting and why he was acting that way. We also discussed how his character changed over time. Following our character trait lesson, the students created their own Grinch and then wrote about how they would make the Grinch smile.

It's Christmas, David!

Today we read It's Christmas, David! by David Shannon to discuss character traits. After reading and discussing David's behavior in the story, we created a class Story Elements Map to define the characters, setting, problem, and solution. The students then answered questions about David's character on a graphic organizer of a boy. The students wrote about what David looks like, how he acts, and what they would do if they were him. They then colored the template to look like David. (Fellow teachers, I do not have an electronic copy of this template because I received it from a former student intern. I love when the interns bring new and exciting things into the classroom!)

Fact Family Wreaths

To help the students understand related addition and subtraction problems, or fact families, they created Fact Family Wreaths with paper pattern blocks. The students chose between two different wreath patterns. These wreath patterns can be downloaded here from PreKinder and the pattern block templates can be downloaded here. After creating their wreath, they cut them out and glued them on the recording sheet. Teachers, you can download the recording sheet here for FREE. The students had to count how many green and red pattern blocks were needed to make their wreaths and then write the related math facts. We discussed how the wreaths with mostly green had to use more pattern blocks because they cover less area. Teachers, this is a great way to frontload the concept of measuring area. We also discussed that it takes three of the pattern blocks to make one red pattern block. Again, this is a good way to frontload a math concept - this time fractions.

Reindeer Application Placemats

The students filled out reindeer applications today in writing. I got the application from The First Grade Teaching blog. As the students filled out their job applications we talked about appropriate behavior and what makes a good employee. I connected this characteristics back to our class Social Contract. After completing the application, the students glued them on half of a large piece of construction paper. On the other side of the mat, they glued down a picture of themselves that I had taken and printed the day before. They then traced their hands on brown paper for the antlers. With paint, they added a red thumprint nose. We will be using these as our placemats at our festive holiday party on Friday.

Holly Wreath Puzzle Ornaments

Each year the first grade students make these adorable Holly Wreath ornaments out of puzzle pieces. This idea came from a former teammate and one of my mentor teachers, Mrs. Randall. Thankfully I had a wonderful parent (who also happens to be a co-worker) who volunteered to spray paint thousands of puzzle pieces. The students glue them down on a posterboard circle in two layers. We then add a school picture and Holly Berries with puff paint. I hot glue a ribbon on after they dry so that they can be hung from a tree.

Holly Berry Number Lines and Number Patterns

As a review of number patterns, the students created their own number lines on sentence strips using Holly Berries and Holly Leaves. The berries represented the numbers and the leaves represented the space in between the numbers. After the students glued down the berries and leaves, I worked with the students in small groups to identify number pattern rules. Each group was given a different number pattern to complete. For example, one group was given the number pattern 9, 12, 15, 18. So, the students numbered the berries from 9 to 18 in order. They then drew "jumping hills" from 9 to 12 on the top of their number line. They then drew "jumping hills" from 12 to 15 but this time on the bottom of their number line. They then alternated back to the top for 15 to 18. The reason I had them alternate the "jumping hills" from top to bottom was so that they could visually see how many "jumping hills" were between each step in their number pattern. After identifying the pattern, the students wrote the rule, such as "Rule +3" for this example, on their number line. The "jumping hills" are a little hard to see in the pictures because they drew them with red colored pencils in case they needed to erase.

Coin Values

As a part of our study on money, we created two anchor charts as a class to help the students recognize the different values of coins and the various different ways to make those values. First the students examined various coins and discussed how they are alike and different. We then learned the following poem:

Penny, penny,
Easily spent.
Copper brown
and worth one cent.

Nickel, nickel,
Thick and fat.
You're worth five cents,
I know that.

Dime, dime,
Little and thin.
I remember,
you're worth ten.

Quarter, quarter,
big and bold.
You're worth twenty-five
I am told.

We then discussed who is on the front of each coin and what is on the back. We also discussed their color and size as compared to other coins. We charted all of the information on the following chart:

A few days later we  created a class Tree Map to show the different ways to make 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, and 50 cents. The students then created their own version of the Tree Map in the computer lab using the program Pixie 2.

Santa Study

Our multi-talented Instructional Media Specialist, Mrs. Thornton, taught all of the first graders a lesson on the role of Santa Claus around the world. This was a part of our Holidays Around the World unit. Mrs. Thornton used a variety of online and print media to help the students compare and contrast Santa's role in the following countries: The United States, Germany, Mexico, France, and Russia. They learned what he is called in each country (Father Christmas, Pere Noel, etc.), what he wears, how he travels, what he brings children, and where those gifts are left. She engaged the students with familiar songs, videos depicting customs and traditions around the world, and facts found through library research. We are lucky to have such a talented person at our school who is willing to share her expertise!