The Monkeys and The Hat

Yesterday we read a story called The Monkeys and The Hat. The story is very similar to the book Caps for Sale which led to the students making connections and comparisons about the story elements. After reading the new book, the students shared with their neighbor what the book reminded them of. The students then divided into small groups and wrote and illustrated the story elements: characters, setting, problem, and solution. They then shared their charts with the class.

Place Value Towers

This week we are reviewing Place Value and working on identifying larger numbers. One way that we are doing this is by playing a game called Place Value Towers. In Place Value Towers we have two teams. A player from each team draws a number out of a bag. The players race to see who can build that number the fastest with Pop Cubes. The person who builds it the fastest with the correct answer wins a point. Then we take the Pop Cubes and put them together in a tower to see which one is the greatest. It is a good visual representation for the students that the number that is the greatest will have the tallest tower. The team with the greatest number will also earn a point. So, a team could earn two points in one round or they could both earn a point. The team with the most points at the end wins. We keep track of the points by using Tally Marks which reinforces skip counting by fives.

D.E.A.R.

Today we had D.E.A.R. time! What is D.E.A.R. time? It is when we drop everything and read! The students got to choose their favorite books, stretch out and relax, and read for about twenty minutes. I encourage you to have your child read at home just for fun as often as possible. Below are a few pictures of the students reading.

Turkey Descriptive Writing

Using our writing program, Write From the Beginning, the students wrote descriptive pieces about a turkey. They then colored a turkey however they wanted. Below is an example of their writings and turkeys.

Cornucopia Placemats

This week the students created Cornucopia graphic organizers to show what they are thankful for. First we brainstormed as many people, places, or things we were thankful for on a Circle Map. Then each child dot painted several pieces of fruit and a cornucopia. They then glued them onto construction paper. During guided reading, each child told me up to twelve things they were thankful for which I typed. They could use the class Circle Map to help them. Each child cut out their boxes of the things they were thankful for and glued them around the cornucopia likea Bubble Map. Below is an example of the finished product which was laminated and which will be used at our Thanksgiving celebration later this week.

Creative Clocks

As an introduction to our lessons on telling time, my colleague, Mrs. Linnabary, wrote a lesson about comparing analog and digital clocks. As a part of the lesson, the students had the opportunity to create their own creative, analog clocks. As the students created the clocks, we talked about the features of an analog clock and practiced skip counting by 5's. The students then wrote why telling time is important. Parents, you can help your child practice telling time by visiting Primary Games' "What Time Is It?" game. Fellow teachers, you can learn more about this lesson by visiting Mrs. Linnabary's professional blog, Crayon Bits. Below is a slideshow of the students' creative clocks.

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Fluency Practice

Last week I had the opportunity to learn a new blogging tool, Glogster, from our Instructional Technology Facilitator, Sharon Thornton. Glogster is like blogging but it allows you to make posters. I am hoping to use this in class, once I learn more about it, to have the students make their own poster projects over literature. Below is a Glog about our class fluency practice. The students recorded two poems this week: Phillip's Trip and Fast Crab written by Timothy Rasinski. Click on the "play" symbols to hear recordings of their poems. We used Audacity to make the recordings.

Magnets

This week we went into the science lab to experiment with magnets. We read the book What Makes a Magnet? by Franklyn M. Branley. The students first made predictions about which objects were magnetic and then went "fishing" with magnet wands to test their predictions. The students discovered that the magnetic objects all had something in common: they were made of metal - more specifically, they were made of iron. Click below to check out a few pictures from the lab. The slideshow is interactive so you can move the pictures.

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Rainy Day Recess

As the weather is changing, we have to find creative ways to give the students opportunities for fun, physical activities for recess even when the weather is inclement. One of our favorite activities is doing exercises to a video called Rainy Day Recess. Rainy Day Recess can be found on Discovery Education. Although Discovery Education is a primarily a school resource, there are great Home Resources that include homework help in the core subjects. Below are a few pictures of our class and Ms. Goolsbay's class doing Rainy Day Recess together.

As a side note, we do go outside for recess every day, weather permitting. As the weather is changing, please make sure your child brings a jacket to school each day.

Fractions

Over the last two weeks we have been learning about fractions, or parts of a whole. First graders are expected to know that fractions are divided into equal parts and be able to identify how many parts are shaded or not shaded. For example, if there is a box divided into four equal parts and two parts are shaded in, the students are expected to know and use the terminology "2 out of 4 equal parts." To help the students learn this in a hands-on, concrete way, the students created fractions using playdough, foldables, and pattern blocks. To help your child at home, visit the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives Fraction of a Whole Activity.

The Nature Center

Last week we had the opportunity to visit The Nature Center. The Nature Center is a district run facility that allows the students at all grade levels the chance to explore science in a hands-on manner. Below is a slideshow of our field trip.

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Math Tubbing

This six weeks I introduced Math Tubbing to the students. Math Tubbing is like Literacy Stations but with math content. Instead of going to a station, the students get a container filled with content-specific materials (games, books, manipulatives, etc.) that they can work on independently or in small groups. While the students are working on previously taught concepts, I work with small groups in Guided Math. In Guided Math we focus on the specific areas that individual students struggle in. The Math Tubs that the students are using right now include Number Recognition, Place Value, Graphing, Addition/Subtraction Operations, Shapes, Fractions, and Patterns. Students also have the opportunity to use our online computer program, First In Math. Below are some pictures of the students working with Math Tubs.

Place Value

In math we have been learning about two digit numbers and their values. We have been using Base Ten Blocks to count by tens and then ones. To help practice this at home, visit Shark Numbers game where the students count the tens and ones to identify the number. Once they count they number, they click on the bubble and check their answer. One trick we use in class to help with counting is that after we count the tens we clap to break the skip counting pattern and then we start counting by ones. For example we say: "ten, twenty, thirty, -clap-, thirty-one, thirty-two." Clapping helps them recognize the when to switch number patterns. Below are a few pictures of the students practicing Place Value in class:

Character Parade

To celebrate Red Ribbon Week (which just happens to fall around Halloween time, ha!) the students got to dress up as their favorite book character and walk in a parade throughout the school. The theme was to "Show your character and say 'no' to drugs." So that all students could participate, we decided to have a grade level theme based on the Laura Numeroff books. Our class dressed up as the black cat from If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, Ms. Goolsbay's class dressed up as If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, Ms. Pollard's class dressed up as If You Give a Moose a Muffin, and Mrs. Linnabary's class dressed up as If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Below is a slideshow of our class showing their character during the parade.

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Red Ribbon Week

Last week we celebrated Red Ribbon Week with various activities including wearing red, white, and blue to say "United We Stand Against Drugs" and wearing our favorite team shirts to say "We Team Up Against Drugs." The first grade theme this year was "First Graders 'clothes' the door on drugs!" Each class decorated their door in a "clothes" related item and slogan. Our class slogan was "We give drugs the 'boot'!" You can learn more about Red Ribbon Week and ways you can talk to your child about this important topic at the National Family Partnership. Ms. Terry, the counselor, talked with the students about the history of the program as well as the importance of saying "no" to drugs.

Pumpkin Writing

Each week we write using a program called Write From the Beginning. The program uses Thinking Maps to teach the students how to organize their thoughts and sentences. This week we wrote about real pumpkins. The students created a Circle Map followed by a Tree Map to write three sentences describe a pumpkin. After writing their sentences the students received one-on-one feedback on how to edit and improve their writing. They wrote their final drafts on pumpkin paper to add to our hallway pumpkin patch.

Noun Neighborhood

In Reading and Social Studies we have been learning about the importance of maps. One of the books we read is Me On The Map by Joan Sweeney. As we read we discussed all of the important parts of a map. We reviewed the location of our country, state, city, and neighborhood. As a part of our study, we combined our grammar lessons over nouns with our lessons over maps to create a Noun Neighborhood. The students drew their home, their favorite stores, restaurants, vehicles, and more which they then labeled with nouns. We learned that a neighborhood is "where we work, live, and play" and that a noun is a "person, place, or thing." Enjoy a slideshow of the students working on their artistic Noun Neighborhood.

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Family Traditions

In Social Studies we studied the structure and roles of families. As a part of our study we talked about family traditions. We discussed how in the past, families created quilts out of special clothing items to document special events or traditions. To wrap up the unit, the students drew one of their family traditions on a quilt square which we put together as a class quilt

Problem Solving

We have been working on addition and subtraction word problems intensively over the last week or so. We have been learning various strategies such as acting it out with either manipulatives or ourselves and drawing a picture to help us solve the problem. Below is an example of a way we used manipulatives to create a picture to help solve a problem.

You can help at home by having your child practice various word problems at home. You can use any small items at home (buttons, beans, candy, etc.) to have them act out the problems. A great website to visit for additional practice is Math Playground. The problems that are age appropriate are under the section called Addition and Subtraction - Facts to 20 Single Step. You can have your child practice sections 1 through 10.

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