Thursday, September 29, 2016

Math games

Students loved working together to learn partners of 10 playing games.  We learned Flip it, Build it and Tens Go Fish.  We are working on composing and decomposing numbers 10 and below.  Understanding the base 10 system at it's foundation will help strengthen your child's understanding as the concepts in math get more complex.  What can you do?  Play math games, directions will come home soon for a variety of fun math games to play with your child.  Make up problems in the car when traveling to and from places like, I am thinking of a number that goes with 2 to make a partner of 10, use all the numbers from 0 - 10 when playing a game like this.  You can extend their thinking by saying I am looking for a number that goes with 3 and 2 to make a partner of 10.  Using three  addens is a great way to help strengthen your child's flexibility in composing and decomposing numbers.  Play cards at home, flip a card and ask your child what is the partner of 10.   You could extend this by asking them to write the equation to match.  (You flip 3, they say the partner of 10 is 7, they write 10= 3+7, 10=7+3, 3+7=10, 7+3=10)

 

Acting out fables


Students acted out fables with their peers.  They took turns being audience members and actors who used their superior listening skills to match their actions to the words in the fables/folktales.  Be sure to ask them about The Noisy Crowded House.  


  

Flexible seating is coming our way

Stay balls have been added to our learning environment to provide
students with movement.

Students loved reading to partner at the stand up work station.
The stand up work station is an option for students to use whenever they
feel they need it.  We are learning to find spaces in the room that help us
be successful with the type of learning we are engaging in.
.

We are getting closer every day to flexible seating.  Last week we added a handful of exercise balls and today we added a stand up desk station.  Our Donors Choose grant is still out there and we are crossing our fingers that it will bet filled and every child in our class can have flexible seating options and locations in our room.  

Flexible seating is coming our way



Students loved reading to partner at the stand up work station
.  

We are getting closer every day to flexible seating.  Last week we added a handful of exercise balls and today we added a stand up desk station.  Our Donors Choose grant is still out there and we are crossing our fingers that it will bet filled and every child in our class can have flexible seating options and locations in our room.  

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Reading Buddies

Today was the first day of our fifth grade reading buddy time.  The students in our class listened to stories, read the words in stories and created stories by looking at the pictures. The kids had some great conversations about their books, they shared favorite parts, predictions and connections.  Each week our class will read with Mrs. Swan's fifth grade class.  They students LOVED it!

















The art of storytelling is like telephone

Today we talked about storytelling and how many years ago it was used for entertainment and for teaching families lessons.  The students were curious why sometimes they hear more than one version of a fable or story.  We decided to play telephone to see if they could solve that mystery.  
I started the telephone with "I like to read fables."  The message at the end was "money."  They quickly realized people hear different things and how important it truly is to actively listen others. I sense many more games of telephone coming our way this year. 

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Vocabulary fun

Vocabulary work is fun and exciting in first grade!  Each fable we read, we have one word that we work on learning in new fun ways.  So far we have explored: startled, budge, balanced, greedy and disguise.  We have balanced our books on our head like the milk maid in the Maid and the Milk Pail, I have startled the students by screaming out during quiet time like the boy who was startled in the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and today we made a disguise like the wolf in The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.  

Students share their disguise with their peers

It was fun to guess each person's disguise


David Shannon fun

We have been practicing rules and routines daily to help make the kind of learning community where everyone can learn, feel safe, and take a risk.  Mr. Hawkins and I have been focusing on praising students for all of their handwork and effort in this area.  We give specific compliments on what the student did and how it impacts our learning community in a positive way.  Be sure to ask your child what fabulous thing they did this week.  Our goal is that students will soon recognize these things in their peers and praise them appropriately as well.  We have been exploring picture books around this too.  The students loved David Goes to School and many of the students put it in their book box for independent reading time.  


Over the next few weeks we will focus on defining as a class what these mean
and how they help create a learning environment for all learners.


Students made their own "David" and created a rule that helps them to be successful as a learner
David books are a hit with a 1st graders

Book shopping excitement

Weekly the students in our classroom get the opportunity to book shop for just right books.  Just right books are books the students can read independently, may have just 1-2 new words in them that they need to solve, are interesting topics to the students and sound smooth like talking when the are read.  The room erupted with cheers when the students saw book shopping on the daily schedule.  





Ishi

Ishi is a great book about happiness, creating happiness and spreading happiness in all that you do.   We read the book, shared with our peers the goal we made for ourselves this year to spread happiness and made our own Ishi.  We passed the book to Mrs. Johnson's class to spread happiness their way, in hopes of impacting people exponentially, as she passes the book to another class.  

Take a picture of your child with Ishi spreading happiness and we will add it to our blog.  Let's spread happiness, create our own happiness and be ambassadors of happiness.  Imagine the impact we can have on this world...
We are ambassadors of happiness
I found this great shirt in Target today and I couldn't help but smile
and take a picture.  Spread happiness and choose to be kind!
Here is Ishi with a special treat for my fabulous teaching partners.  #spreadhappiness

Mrs. Swartz and our first library trip




Every Monday the students will have Library with Mrs. Swartz.  They loved hearing the story she chose for them and making connections to it with their peers.  Mrs. Swartz is a great addition to Westwoods!

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Freckle Juice Recipes

After completing our first chapter book, Freckle Juice, the students started planning their own recipe for Freckle Juice.  The giggles and belly laughter that filled the room were priceless.  Our goal is to write a recipe that includes ingredients, amount, and directions.  Stay tuned for a class copy of Freckle Juice.