Sleet

**This post is from 4/20/18, I have no idea why it is now posting....

Last week when mother nature delivered snow to us.  We made the best of it by exploration!  In one morning, we saw snowflakes, hail, sleet and rain.  Cheers to precipitation and the climate in Northern Michigan for that was teachable moment.  It was the first time many students felt the wetness of sleet on their bodies!

Exploring landforms in Reading

Students read informational text about four different landforms: mountains, islands, rivers and oceans.  They had to decide which one they would like to explore and were placed in groups with others who wish to explore the same one. Student shared what they thought they would see, smell, feel, and hear.  We then googled each of those and looked at several images to help students better understand a landform they may not be familiar with. Students then wrote about which landform they wanted to visit and why. 

Teen number representation

Students use materials from around the room of their choice to represent an assigned teen number. Students were asked to be efficient mathematicians and to make their representation in an organized fashion. The goal was for someone to walk in the room glance at their collection and know how many were there without counting by ones. We define teen numbers as a group of 10 and some ones.  Students were able to walk around the room and take a gallery walk to see how others created the representations.  After the gallery walk, students had the opportunity to revise their thinking and to make their representation more efficient/organized.

Book club learning

Readers love their book club.  

What do we know about the character?  Where did the story take place?  How did you relate to the character? Students are learning to have a conversation about a book without raising their hands, responding appropriately even when they disagree, and thinking about others perspective.

Earth day

All week long we have been reading about Earth Day. Students have been learning about ways they can positively impact the planet. Today we use shaving cream and acrylic paint to make an earth. Students loved watching their earth change from just dipping into the shaving cream in transform once the shaving cream was wiped away.

Readers read in the dark

Say!
In the dark?
Here in the dark!
Would you, could you, in the dark?

Number partners

A huge part of mathematical understanding is rooted in the vocabulary in math.  Each day students practice using the vocabulary accurately to explain their thinking. As their mathematical thinking and understanding develop, their vocabulary and explanation of their thinking does as well.

Currently, we are working on finding number partners to numbers 2-10.  Number partners are pairs of numbers that can be added together to create the total.  

Example:

Total: 5

Possible number partners: 0+5=5, 5+0=5, 1+4=5, 4+1=5, 2+3=5, 3+2=5

Questions you can ask to extend their learning:

What are number partners?
What are switch partners?
Can a number sentence start with a total (5=0+5)?

1st grade music performance

We got a sneak peak of the 1st grade music performance this morning.  The kids were so excited to  see the performance and the faces of all of  their friends.  If you are coming this evening, you are in for a treat!  Way to go Mrs. Wiliford!