Katie Woo

I have a new series of books for us to explore - the Katie Woo series. Katie Woo is a series of early chapter books about a first grade girl who has many of the same adventures and problems that our crew has - being bossy, losing a tooth, going camping, having the flu and more. To learn more about the Katie Woo series of books, click here. (To view the video below, you will need to go directly to the blog.)

Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Ballet Cat Series

I have been searching for more books that first graders will love. I read an article that suggested a list of series for kids who love Elephant and Piggie. The list included Ballet Cat, A Pig in a Wig and A Pig, A Fox and a Box. We have been sampling these series and have really enjoyed them. The biggest hit (much to my surprise) was Ballet Cat. The whole crew loved this series. One of the books in this series is called, "Dance, Dance, Underpants".  I knew that it would cause a big round of the sillies so I decided to wait to read it until the very end of the day and then send the silly children home with you. Ms. Diana came by and I showed her the new series that we were enjoying and she asked if she could come back that afternoon to hear, "Dance, Dance, Underpants". I told her that not only could she come back but that she could read it to the crew, too. I knew she would do it in grand "Ms. Diana" style. She didn't disappoint. She came in carrying a large pair of underpants and put them on over her clothes before she began to read and the giggles began. This all happened last Thursday. You might remember because we were rather late coming out at the end of the day. The book lasted right up until the end of the day and then we learned that it is hard to gather your gear and get out the door when you are feeling so silly. But it was totally worth it because we learned about some great new books and also just how much fun reading can be.

I was too distracted by the story to get a good picture but this is Ms. Diana with green underpants over her clothes.

Important Dates
2/10 Author visit 10 am in the library
2/25 Winter Voyage ~ day trip only
3/2 Life is Art Artists Edition 4 pm
3/5 Life is Art ~ Adult Event 6 pm Kirk Hall
3/19 - 4/3 Spring Break
4/4 No School ~ Teacher Work Day


Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Roscoe Riley

Our current read aloud is Roscoe Riley Rules #1: Never Glue Your Friends to a Chair by Katherine Applegate.   The books in this series are all tales of how Roscoe ended up in the timeout chair - nothing outlandish, just his mishaps and mistakes that will feel familiar to most first graders. In this book, Roscoe is trying hard to help his teacher, a first year teacher, manage the behaviors in his class. His plans don't always work the way that he hopes that they will often with very funny results. Ask your child to tell you about this book.

MinM (Minds in Motion)
Our MinM class next week is Performing Arts/Music.


Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Learning Basic Math Facts

As I am sure that you have noticed, we are really beginning to focus on learning basic addition and subtraction facts. Some of us are just beginning to learn them while others of us are much more comfortable with them. This is such an important skill to practice at this age. Familiarity with the basic addition and subtraction facts will make such a difference in your child's math career. I know I have mentioned this before but I have taught grades 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 (including Algebra). I can tell you that those students who had a solid foundation with their basic facts were so much more ready to tackle new math concepts and to use those basic facts to solve more complicated problems.  Now is the time to practice those facts with your child for a few minutes each day. We have begun to learn new games - both online and offline that will help us practice our basic facts. You can also help by quizzing your child on facts as you are driving in the car or play various games both online and off to practice (rules for one game you can play are below). You can use whatever method you and your child enjoy. It's just important to work at it a little bit each day and to keep it fun and interesting.

Having said all of that, I do want to emphasize that what I feel is most important for students to learn in math is how and why things (like addition) work the way that they do. I want to develop their mathematical thinking and problem solving skills. If I had to choose between learning basic facts and developing mathematical thinking, I would absolutely choose mathematical thinking. Thankfully we don't have to make this choice. I will, however, always focus more on mathematical thinking in class and spend smaller amounts of time learning the basic facts. In our every day lives, we have so many tools at our disposal that can help with basic facts but we don't have tools that can do the deeper thinking and understanding for us so that is where my focus be.

Addition Top-It

The game is played with a deck of number cards, 4 cards for each number 0-9. (This can be a regular deck of cards with the face cards removed.) As many as four children can play, but at first, children should play the two-player game.

1. Shuffle the deck and place it on the desk with the cards face down.

2. At each turn, players turn over two cards and call out the sum. Players should check each other's sums.

3. The player with the higher sum takes all the cards. In case of a tie, players turn over two more cards and call out the sum. The player with the higher sum takes all the cards from both plays.

4. Play continues until there are fewer than 4 cards left in the deck. The player who took more cards wins.

Last year I ran across this article about learning basic facts that I thought you might find interesting, too:

Learn math without fear, Stanford expert says 

Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Prefixes and Suffixes

We have been learning about prefixes and suffixes. These are small chunks of letters that are added to the beginning or the end of words to make a new word with a new meaning. We have been learning the meaning of some prefixes and suffixes and hunting for them as we are reading our books. We are learning lots of new words along the way.

Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Gift from Lorelai and Her Family

Lorelai and her family donated her old Duplo Lego's (which include a train set) to our crew for our Build and Create Station. These have also been a big hit! Thank you Lorelai and family.

Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Volunteer
Ms. Michelle, Lorelai's mom, has been coming in to teach us some new games to play at recess. She has been teaching us a variety of clapping games that can be played with a partner or in a group sitting in a circle. She also has been helping out in our classroom during reading and writing times, too. Thanks, Ms. Michelle!

I accidentally left the photos below off of yesterday's blog post about the gift from Riley. These photos show the flexible straws and connectors.

Gifts from Riley and His Family

During the holidays, Riley and his family gave our crew a gift card for Amazon to purchase a gift for the crew. Ms. Wendy and I did some research and found a couple of additions to our building materials that we felt the crew would really love. We got some flexible straws and connectors and a marble maze set. They have been a big hit already. Thank you Riley and family!


Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Important Dates
2/5 Vision and Hearing Screening
2/25 Winter Voyage ~ day trip only
3/2 Life is Art Artists Edition 4 pm
3/5 Life is Art ~ Adult Event 6 pm Kirk Hall
3/19 - 4/3 Spring Break
4/4 No School ~ Teacher Work Day

Volunteer
Our volunteer today is Ms. Katarina, Kaisa's mom. Ms. Katarina comes in and helps us shelve books in our book room. It is a big job and we so appreciate the extra help. Thanks, Ms. Katarina!