Another way for students to practice counting sequences, relationships between numbers and to build their number sense is to play this type of activity at home. You can print off 100 charts (found on the right hand side of our webpage to download) and cut them into sections to create puzzles for your child to put together.
Today we spent some time looking at a 99 chart compared to a 100 chart. The kids noticed that the 99 chart started with 0 and ended with 99. They also noticed that the 99 chart had the multiples of 10 at the beginning of the rows instead of at the end of the rows like a 100 chart does. We spent some time quickly finding numbers on the 99 chart that I called out. Then students cut sections of the 99 chart apart to make puzzles for each other. Using their number sense students put these puzzles together.
Another way for students to practice counting sequences, relationships between numbers and to build their number sense is to play this type of activity at home. You can print off 100 charts (found on the right hand side of our webpage to download) and cut them into sections to create puzzles for your child to put together.
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To get ready for our field trip to Lehner's Pumpkin Farm we did some research about pumpkins. We read several books, checked out some videos and read some online text about pumpkins. We learned that there are different colors, sizes and styles of pumpkins. We learned that pumpkins need sunlight, air and water to grow and that the plant uses these materials to make food (sugar) for itself and that this process is called photosynthesis. We discussed the stages a pumpkin goes through when growing (seed, sprout, seed leaves, flower, pumpkin). Students were asked to put their knowledge about pumpkins into their science notebooks. I love using science notebooks to have the kids put their thinking down into because it allows them to showcase their understanding at their level and in a creative way. While they are working I circulate the room and pose questions to drive their thinking about what they could include in their drawings, labels and writing about the topic. Science notebooks will be an ongoing learning tool throughout this year.
First graders are working on being able to count forward and backwards within 0-100 and also tell what number comes before and after a given number. Some students are struggling with the transition that occurs around multiples of 10 (ex: 27,28,29,30,31), especially when counting backwards. Each student constructed a number strip from 0-100 and is now using it to practice counting forward and backward by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s. The act of touching the number while counting out loud reinforces what the number looks like, sounds like and its relationship to numbers around it. In an email I will be attaching some ideas on how you can support this work at home!
We had a blast today celebrating National Talk Like A Pirate Day! We got together with Mr. Keefer's 4th grade class so he and I could do a live performance of the book How I Became A Pirate! The kids then met with a 4th grader to write about what they would do if they were pirates. I must tell you most of them would quit brushing their teeth, stop eating vegetables and wouldn't take baths! In the afternoon we figured out our pirate names, played a pirate sight word game and read some more pirate stories. A VERY FUN DAY! This week we studied several wordless picture books to help us as readers and writers. We talked about how the pictures help the reader tell the story with a beginning, middle and end. We looked at how illustrators make choices like black and white vs color, backgrounds, facial expressions and distance of pictures (close ups and far away). The kids have already started using these techniques in their writing pieces. We also started our first unit of study in writer's workshop focusing on personal narratives. We discussed that personal narratives are stories about ourselves. I wrote a story about my son and I going to the Coffman football game last week to model this for them and we also read the story The Snow as mentor text. We learned that authors tell stories over pages instead of telling everything on one page. Students practiced this concept by telling a story over 3 fingers and using the words First, Next and Last to help guide them. Another concept addressed was a strategy to figure out the spelling of a new word if they were stuck. They say the word slowly while moving their hand down the opposite arm and listen to the beginning, middle and end sounds of the word. They they try writing the word and have to check if it looks right. If it doesn't look right to them they are encouraged to try writing it a few ways and then picking one. In math we worked on representing numbers through pictures, words, tally marks and tens frames to build a solid understanding of the number. Students made posters representing numbers 1-21 and worked together to put them in order on a number line to see the relationship between the numbers. We will continue this work next week. We continued to study the -at and -an word patterns this week. We did some activities to help us be able to recognize the patterns within different words. Today we used letter cards to build different -at words. We talked about by changing the first sound in -at words we can build different words. Example: If I have the word cat I could change the c into a b and make the word bat. Seeing the relationship between words with similar patterns strengthens their reading and writing skills. You can play this type of game by using Scrabble tiles, Magnetic Letters, or if you have an iPad or tablet there are some free apps with magnetic letters. Related Arts Next Week: Monday - Library Tuesday - P.E. Wednesday - Art Thursday - Music Friday - Library Upcoming Dates: Thursday, Sept. 25th - P.T.O. meeting @6:30pm Friday, Sept 26th - Field Trip (pack a disposable lunch please) Sunday, Oct. 12 - P.T.O. Leed's Farm Family Event Wednesday, Oct. 15 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Click on the Links Button above to sign up for one) Friday, Oct. 17 - NO SCHOOL Wednesday, Oct. 22 - Fall Picture Make-Up Day Thursday, Oct. 23 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Click on the Links Button above to sign up for one) Still looking for some classroom volunteers! If you are able to help in the classroom please click on the links button above to sign up! WHEW! That was one LONG blog post! Sorry! Over the past few weeks we have discussed expectations for everyone when in different places in our school (lunchroom, gym, hallway, etc) which aligns with the first grade citizenship social studies standards. As a culminating event students created presentations about different parts of our building and the expectations for that space. They then presented to the Kindergarten classrooms to assist them in building their classroom promise (class rules) next week. This week we also started our very first word study unit together as a class. We are focusing on the short a sound for the next few weeks and I introduced the -at (as in cat and sat) and -an ( as in can and and) patterns. More on this next week! We have continued to be able to read to ourselves for 20 minutes at a time. This is now a habit of ours! Overheard this week - "I can't wait for read to self. I've got a great book in my basket!". We grew in our stamina when reading to someone. Students had their first experience in Word Work which are activities that reinforce word study concepts. Related Arts Next Week: Monday - Music Tuesday - Library Wednesday - P.E. Thursday - Art Friday - Music Upcoming Dates: Thursday, Sept. 18th - Fall Picture Day (forms were already sent home) Friday, Sept. 19th - Field Trip Permission Forms and Money Due Today we started exploring our understanding of numerical place value. In order to build a solid foundational knowledge of number sense we need to understand how place value works. We had a GIANT place value chart with a tens frame drawn on the ones side. Every time we rolled the dice we put that many people onto our tens frame. As soon as we filled the tens frame we GROUPed the kids together and then MOVEd them to the tens place. Most of them got the idea from this activity! We will continue to build this f WE DID IT! We were able to do Read to Self for 20 minutes straight today! This is wonderful! Now our goal is to be able to do this for the rest of the week to make sure we have turned our training into a habit. We also have been working on defining our roles when doing Read To Someone. The reader has one job - READ! But the listener has several jobs: think about what is being read and help the reader when they are stuck. When the reader is done reading a page the listener has to check their understanding by saying "I heard you read..." and then fill in with what the page was about. Also, the listener has to help the reader when the reader is stuck on a word by asking "Do you want coaching or time?". When the reader wants coaching the listener assists them as best as they can in figuring out the word. When the reader wants time the listener has to sit quietly so the reader can think. As you can see in the picture we have created a reminder chart for us to use. These lovely ladies were our models today in showing us the reader and listener roles and did a wonderful job! We continue to practice and build our stamina with these routines to allow for our reading workshop model to be successful when we get it off the ground and running very soon! This week we continued to review some concepts about print (text) to help us with our literacy skills. Students are now able to explain the difference between a letter, word and sentence successfully. We are now working on being able to know which letters are small, tall (stretch high) and fall (dip below the writing line) when writing. This is important for their writing as it increases legibility and also helps them be able to write the letters automatically so they can focus on the thought they are trying to transfer to paper. We have built our read to self stamina to 18 minutes! We are 2 minutes away from our goal! THIS IS AWESOME!! We have built our stamina for read to someone to 8 minutes. Also this week we worked on comparing numbers to see which is more, less and the same as. A simple game to play at home to reinforce this concept is to use a deck of cards (without face cards). Split the deck into two piles (one for you and one for your child). You both flip the cards over and compare the two numbers. The higher number wins the hand. Then you can ask your child to figure out how far away the number is from the number 10. This game is called Closest To Ten. We also started working on creating tally charts to compare numbers. Have your child practice making groups of 5 with the tally marks. One way to do this is to give them a handful of cereal or something small to count and tally. Related Arts Next Week: Monday - Art Tuesday - Music Wednesday - Library Thursday - P.E. Friday - Art Upcoming Dates: Sept 18th - Fall Picture Day Sept 19th - Field Trip Form and Money Due Sept. 26th - Field Trip Reading has taken off in our classroom! We continue to build our reading to self stamina daily and now are reading about 15 minutes at a time. This week we learned the procedure and expectations for reading to someone. As you can see from the picture they are loving it! So far our stamina for reading to someone is about 5 minutes. We tend to get noisy enjoying books together! When reading with someone we learned that the listener has a very important job - to listen and to THINK! When the reader gets to the end of the page the listener needs to check their understanding of what was read by saying "I heard you read..." and then share what was read. The reader has to check the listener and if need be go back and read the page again to help the listener understand. |
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May 2015
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