What's Up in Math?

As promised, I am going to attempt to find the time to share more of what is going on in math!  So much to say and share and never enough time to take the pictures and teach and blog!  

In first grade we use many different resources to teach from. I want to ensure that the children understand how numbers work.  Similar to my teaching of how words can be taken apart and put back together, I'm teaching the children how numbers can be composed and decomposed.  

We use many tools to accomplish this.  In our math tubs we have lots of manipulatives to help us discover how numbers work.  These include:  ten frames, base-ten blocks, unifex cubes in friendly ten wands, red/white counting chips. 

I will try to take more photos of these and how we use them, or feel free to drop by to take a look at them and learn with us if you get the chance.  Math is from 11:45-1:00 daily and I can always use more hands for differentiation!

We do critical thinking story problems every week and we are beginning to add 2 digit numbers in this work.  We also use learning games to help us grow, such as chess and checkers, number scrolls, fact game practice,  along with iPad math apps.

Abraham is working hard on his number scroll...a way to see patterns and create a number grid. Many are working on getting to a 1000! 

I think I'll close this note here and post another blog showing counting around the circle.  We love math challenges!  

Joyous Chinese Cultural School

What an experience the children had during our day at this wonderful cultural center.

This center is located about a half hour north in Centennial.
I've noticed they offer classes that you might be interested in.  The summer classes may be doable for you when life is a bit less full.  
Here is the link to the home page of the Joyous Chinese Cultural Center:  http://www.joyouscenter.org/

Don't miss these pictures of our fieldwork!
Click on this link: https://goo.gl/photos/thX3kmd6VD4h8EtKA

A Chinese Cultural Experience

Our visit to the Asian market and Kingsland restaurant were authentic ways for the children to experience some of the Chinese culture.  

Click the link below to enjoy the photos!

https://goo.gl/photos/pBYLaExacdQa1dbh6

The Season for Giving

Ho-Ho-Ho!  It was a Santa's workshop in our room today!  Ms. Michelle's sixth grade crew came along side of us to be our school buddies in creating stuffy snowmen for our preschool buddies.  A number of wonderful parents and Grandma Chris joined us as Ms. Mary Beth's helpers. We couldn't have done it without you all...my deepest thanks!

The room was buzzing with creativity and joy. I wish you all could have seen the morning unfold.  So lovely to watch.  Adults serving big kids, big kids serving little kids. And next week my little kids will give their gift to the littlest kids over at the preschool.  A community of love. 

Service Learning: Preschool Buddies

Service Learning.  This is truly my favorite part of every year.

Teaching my children how to communicate, collaborate, create, critically think, and problem solve.  Not only with each other, but out in the world in different settings with different people.  Real world situations.  And the opportunity to be teachers themselves and for them to see themselves that way.  What joy!  

Here are my plans for the year on our service work.  I break it down into kid language and we will work on these plans each time we serve our preschoolers.  

Enduring Understandings:

• Parts impact the whole
• Interaction impacts community
• Roles impact order and responsibility

4C:  Communicating in Diverse Environments:  Understands that different learners can have different ideas

21st Century Skills: Civic Responsibility

• Demonstrates awareness of personal role in the school community by following rules and expectations

Learning Targets:

I can communicate and collaborate with a teammate.

I can understand what it means to serve

I can solve problems that arise by critically thinking

I can understand that I can make a difference my community/ world

Here is what we did on this first visit:

• Read the 5 Little Pumpkins Poem and worked on some simple math problems.
• We taught them one of our morning greetings: Hello Neighbor. We made eye contact and we were gentle in our first meeting.
• We read to our buddies. (this one always makes me tear up...to see them ALL feel so successful as readers!)
• Created: Each group was given a bag full of items that they then used to create something. This was so cool!

Click on this link to enjoy some precious photos.

https://goo.gl/photos/KMA6h3o67D89NiJL7

Making Connections: Text to World

I'm always looking for books that I think my students would enjoy.
Recently I found this non- fiction book depicting how a whale rescue is conducted.  

We loved the beautiful illustrations and we were amazed at the bravery of the rescue divers as they attempt to free the whale from a fisherman's net.

At the same time I heard about a whale rescue attempt off the coast of California.  I found a video clip of a news channel covering the event which I showed the crew.  
http://kfor.com/2015/09/05/by-air-and-sea-crews-search-for-blue-whale-trapped-in-net-off-california/

We experienced a text-world connection!  This led me to share one of my favorite books, BIG AL.

BIG AL was also caught in a fishing net but was rescued in a different way.  Now we made a text-text connection, comparing and contrasting the two books.

Good readers make connections when they read.
Connections can be:  
Text-text: connections between two books
Text-self: connections between something we've experienced and experiences in a book
Text-world:  connections between a book and the world

Look for ways to make connections during your nightly reading!

What are we Reading?

Every year my students LOVE hearing me read these two stories. 
They love that the main characters are animals.  They love that the animals are on adventures that include finding clues and solving problems.  They love the fabulous illustrations and the humor within each chapter.  

I have many reasons for choosing these great books.
Here are some of my thoughts...

1.  Great books motivate children to read.  And these books never fail to do just that.  Now that I've finished reading the first one, some of them are reading it aloud to each other during choice time.  And with fluency and character voices! Priceless!
2.  Great books keep children captivated and asking for more.  They can sit for a long time listening to these stories, but each day I shut the book just when the action gets good.  And we all yell "cliffhanger!" I love that they are getting the beauty of reading!

  I also have learning targets for the children that these books help me meet.
1. I can understand the importance of getting to know the characters in the books I'm reading and how this helps me predict what might happen next in a story.
2.  I can describe what a character trait is and I can share my character traits with other people.
3. I can write a family book including the character traits of my family members.
4.  I can notice who is talking in a story and I can sound like the character when I'm reading.

Ask your child about these 4 characters!  They should be able to describe these characters to you and share how they each help find the keys  to the Treasure Tree!