Area Animals

The students created various animals on one inch grid paper using color tiles. They the colored their animal on another sheet of grid paper. They then paired up with another student to compare the area of their animal with the area of their partner's animal. They then recorded which animal covered the most space and which animal covered the least area.

Parts of a Set: Names

To review parts of a set, the students colored their names in blue and red. They colored the vowels blue and the consonants red. They then counted how many vowels and consonants they had in their name and recorded it as fraction. It was a fun and easy way to practice parts of a set while also reviewing consonants and vowels.

The Foolish Tortoise

As a part of our study on Eric Carle, we read The Foolish Tortoise. The students created a Story Map to record the characters, setting, problem, and solution of the story. They then colored a drawing of the tortoise to display with their Story Maps.

Measurement: Capacity

The students worked in small groups to compare the capacity of various containers. They poured beans into the various containers focusing on leveling the top to make sure they were filled to capacity. They counted how many cups it took to fill the containers and also transferred from one container to another to see if there were beans left over or space left over.

Fraction Caterpillars

To review fractions and parts of a set, the students created Fraction Caterpillars. This idea originally came from The First Grade Parade. The students used dot stickers to create a caterpillar and then recorded how many of each color they had out of the set.

Comparing Eric Carle Books

In addition to reading The Mixed Up Chameleon, we also read The Grouchy Ladybug. The students created three-flap foldables for this book as well to write the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They also created Story Maps for the book. As a class we compared The Mixed Up Chameleon and The Grouchy Ladybug on a Double Bubble Map. The students then created their own Double Bubble Maps. They used their own Double Bubble Map to create a four-tiered foldable to write one way the books were the same and two ways they were different.

The Mixed Up Chameleon

As a part of an author study over Eric Carle, we read The Mixed Up Chameleon. The students created a three-flap foldable to record the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They then created a Story Map to record the characters, setting, problem, and solution. We also talked about how Eric Carle is both author and illustrator. The students painted a drawing of The Mixed Up Chameleon to display with their Story Maps.

Chicken Life Cycle Diagrams

The students drew the life cycle of a chicken on an egg template to assess their understanding:

Fact Family Flowers

A former teammate of mine had a great idea to have the students create Fact Family Flowers. Each student was given a set of three numbers that would create a Fact Family. They had to decide what two addition sentences and two subtraction sentences they could create with those numbers. They recorded their numbers on the flower petals. Their flowers were added to the garden display along with their garden research and frog life cycles.

Frog Life Cycle Diagrams

The students created these frog life cycle diagrams to go along with their garden display:

Garden Habitat Shared Research Writing

The students researched the garden habitat a while back. These are the final products for their shared writings over their research.

Comparing Area

To practice comparing area, we created large rectangles and squares on the tile floor. The students were asked to all stand in the rectangle that they thought covered the least area. They quickly realized that they could all barely fit inside the rectangle. They then moved to the rectangle they thought had the largest area. They realized then that they had much more room to move around and were not as crowded. They then counted how many floor tiles each rectangle contained to confirm their findings of which covered the most and which covered the least area.

Rainbow Days

Each Monday a volunteer from Rainbow Days comes to each first grade class to teach character education and life safety lessons to the students. Ms. K., our fantastic volunteer, teaches the students lessons such as who the boss of their body is (their brain), the safest seat in a car (the back), when you become an adult, and ways to say "no" to drugs and alcohol. The lessons are taught through engaging stories.

Life Cycle of a Chicken

As a part of our study of life cycles, the students created a diagram of the life cycle of chickens. Here is one of the examples:

 

Sorry the picture is sideways. I tried to rotate it a few times but it was not cooperating. But, you get the idea.