Learning about Reading and Writing through Author Studies

Studying the craft of writing by looking closely at an author's life and craft is a wonderful way to grow readers and writers. This is a huge undertaking but always so worthwhile!  Here is a peek into how we went about studying these authors...

1.  Lots of prep work during our study of Jan Brett in December.  I did the study, they learned from me.  This is how I teach...first I do, then they do!

2.  I collected books from these authors and immersed them in a number of books from each.  Then the children picked the author they wanted to study. I continued modeling by studying the author Ezra Jack Keets with them each day before they went off to do the work in their groups.

3. Each day I gave them a different task to work on.  These included:  

• Reading the books for enjoyment.
• Noticing text features and common threads between the author's books.
• Researching their authors by reading book jackets, reading author blogs, and watching videos on the web.  We safely researched by using the kid friendly search engine KidRex.  

Finally, the children were given 4 options for their final presentations: 

1.  Creating a ShowMe 

2.  Making a video

3.  Developing a chart

4.  Writing a letter to their author 

Each group then presented to the whole crew.  This is as important as the study...learning how to create and collaborate in groups and communicate clearly to an audience. 

Our budding artist Ziva enjoyed writing a letter to Eric Carle!

Ask your child how they presented their information!  Each of them grew as learners through this experience!  

More Math: Counting Around the Circle and Using Manipulatives

 For months we have been sitting in a circle to practice counting.  At first we practiced counting by ones up and back.  Then by 2's, 5's and 10's.  This led to skip counting, going from 10's to 5's to 1's.  Very tricky business for some of us.  This was prep work for counting coins and learning about place value.

This past week we did 2 different count around the circle activities that helped us practice skip counting but also see patterns in place value.  The first time I gave each child one of these: 

The long is "ten", the cube is "one".  These are the base ten blocks we use.  

We practiced counting by tens and ones and we came up with a total number.  I scribed these numbers as we went along to show visually how the place value was changing. 
Then we counted the same pieces the other way around the circle, and finally we swapped pieces and counted again.

We discovered many things, including that our total sum was always the same regardless and we began to notice more patterns in place value.   The second time we did this activity I passed out dimes, nickels and pennies and we did the same process.  I think this is helping us learn place value in a fun and interactive way!

 In addition, as we counted the 3 different ways, I highlighted the movement on a number grid.  You can see the 3 different colors I used to show that we counted using different pathways but every time we ended with 113.  They loved this!  

Here are a few more pictures showing the crew using math manipulatives to help them solve problems. 

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