Critical Thinking and Collaboration

Problem posed:  "Can you put yourself in order from 1-24?"

This may sound pretty easy, but the question was posed to 24 six-year olds who have only been together for a short time!  They were given the number cards 1-24 randomly.  We stepped back and watched them figure out how to work together in kind ways to get this job done.

They really did a great job! We talked about what worked and what didn't work.  How leaders can be helpful without being bossy.
There was no pushing, shoving or unkind words.  Truly lovely for the start of the year.  Next we will try getting in order by 5's and 2's.

This was not just a math lesson or a problem solving lesson...this is one of many life lessons that I'll offer to my crew this year.

Our Newest Students

Daniela, Oliver, Brayah

Welcome to Renaissance!

Dear Crew Family,

I wanted to formally welcome and introduce to you our 3 new families.  This is their first year at REMS and each of these children are the oldest in their families.  

Daniela and her family have origins in Puerto Rico. 

Her parents names are Ivonne and Javier and she has a little brother at home. Daniela is an amazing learner who is bi-lingual.  We are excited to have the opportunity to learn some Spanish this year from her and her family.  Welcome Daniela.

Oliver's parents are Barry and Andrea and he also has a little brother at home. Oliver loves to learn and is a great addition to our crew! Welcome Oliver! 

Brayan is our third addition and her parents are Riann and Brad. She has two little siblings at home and her mom is beginning to help in the room on Wednesdays.  Welcome Brayah!

Our crew family is important to all of us.  We need each other because it does indeed take a village.  And 24 six-year olds are indeed a village!  I know you will welcome these families when you have a chance at pick-up or other school events.

One Powerful Book!

 Every year it is so hard to choose what books to share at the start of the year.  Along with the my classroom library collection I like to gather great reads from the public library.  I place these books on the rug to entice my readers.

This year I decided to include wordless picture books now.
Here's why:
Meaning:  One of my big ideas for the year is making sure the children learn that to think, "what would make sense?"
in every subject they are working on. 

Wordless picture books force them to look at the pictures and think about the story. This is the best reading tool for them to use!

While reading this book before school last week I realized that this guy Hank has a problem to solve.  I want my students to know that mathematicians do the same.

So I put this story up on the doc camera as I introduced math for this year.  There are many different ways to solve a problem and showing perseverance on the journey is one of my goals for them.  Below are some pictures from the story that show how Hank persevered through his problem and how happy he felt when he succeeded! 

The children loved the book and they would enjoy sharing the pictures below with you!  Great discussions can come from just one book.  I'll be using it again and again.

Read / Write / Explore Time

Children need choice.

I have goals for them to meet.

Every day we both get to achieve this during what I call Read/Write/Explore time. 

The children have choice within these areas:

Word work, writing, reading, technology, math, create and construct. 

During this time we also work on collaboration with a partner. For our first week the children did beautifully with this. I was so impressed with their first experience with this kind of learning this year.

The Hula Hoop Lesson

We are learning the importance of keeping our hands to ourselves and to mind our own business.  This is the lesson that I taught the children to help them with this.  I use the visual of a hula hoop.

1.  We all have a hula hoop around us. (I let them think of what theirs might look like...maybe purple with sparkles or maybe decorated with soccer balls:)
2.  Inside our hoop is our own business.  What we think, what we say, what we do.

Our only job is to take care of our own business and hula hoop.

3.  We do not get into someone else's hula hoop unless invited in.   

Now all I have to say to the children when problems arise is this:  "Are you in your own hula hoop?"  Works like a charm.
You might want to use this at home too! 

Getting Ready!

Hi Everyone,
School is fast approaching and I am the mother of a bride in 9 days!  A lot going on!
Ms. Jill and I along with the the second grade teachers Ms. Dana and Ms. Jennifer went school supply shopping for all of the school supplies for our crews this week.  It took five carts and trips to multiple store sites to gather everything.  I'm in the process of labeling and putting things into the desks so all is ready August 3!  Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Message to Last Year's Crew

It's time to move on to second grade and unsubscribe to my blog.  I'll miss you! (You may stay subscribed if you wish to of course!)

It is very simple to unsubscribe. When you get the email regarding this blog, look at the bottom of the email for a little link that says "unsubscribe".  Click on that link and follow the directions. I know your child will have a great year in second grade.  Please stop by or drop me an email to keep in touch!

Math Under the Sea: The Green Ribbon Worm

Critical Thinking.  It takes work.  
Collaboration.  It takes practice.
Together, we are better.


We practiced these skills as a crew recently.  In our worm study we came across a green ribbon worm that lives on the ocean floor and can be as long as 100 feet.

I posed these questions:

Well, I suggested that we use something we've learned about this year.  Non-standard ways to measure things.  For instance, our bodies...
We know that 1 foot = 12 inches.
How if the average 1st grader is 4 feet tall, how many inches long would that be?

They went to work. They got a feel for how many inches long they are.  And an idea of how long this worm would be.


Time to get a visual on this.
They know that correct measurement has to be end to end! 
So they became ribbon worms!


We had 16 children at school that day. 
We began adding the 4ft. of children together.  And we determined that 16 children would be only 64 ft. long! 

They were funny here...they decided more children would have to lay down end to end, but they only had 16.  Where would they get more children?  

Finally, one of them realized that they could move the children from of the front of the line to the end and keep going that way.  So fun to watch them puzzle this out.  I stayed out of it!

These are the kind of critical thinking math problems that the children love.  Authentic.  Fun.  Collaborative.

I challenge you to do something like this at home.
When you do, share it with us. We can learn from each other.