Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Crew News January 31, 2012
Sharing Our Writing
Today we shared our personal narratives with Ms. Mary Beth's crew. Yesterday we went to their room to listen to their stories. It is so nice to have a new audience for our work.
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.4 Fact Triangles
Today we shared our personal narratives with Ms. Mary Beth's crew. Yesterday we went to their room to listen to their stories. It is so nice to have a new audience for our work.
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.4 Fact Triangles
Monday, January 30, 2012
Crew News January 30, 2012
Book Buzz
I am trying to create a bit of book buzz in our classroom. I have been reading a couple of chapter books aloud to the crew. Reading aloud is fun and builds comprehension skills. We started with Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry. Next we read Ready Freddy: Tooth Trouble by Abby Klein. The books in this series are so appealing to first graders. In Tooth Trouble, Freddy is the only one in his class who hasn't yet lost a tooth. He is so distraught about this that he creates and carries out several plans to try to make one of his teeth fall out. First graders can really identify with this theme. This illustrator also provides readers with the challenge of finding the word "fin" in every illustration. (Freddy is a shark lover so "fin" is one of his favorite words.) While this book is a "chapter book", it is written at a level that would be "just right" for about half of the students in our crew. So, many will be able to read the books in the Ready Freddy series on their own. Others will enjoy them as a read aloud. Next week we will start 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. All of these books are available at the Douglas County Public Library so check some out on your next visit. Happy Reading!
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.3 Fact Families
I am trying to create a bit of book buzz in our classroom. I have been reading a couple of chapter books aloud to the crew. Reading aloud is fun and builds comprehension skills. We started with Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry. Next we read Ready Freddy: Tooth Trouble by Abby Klein. The books in this series are so appealing to first graders. In Tooth Trouble, Freddy is the only one in his class who hasn't yet lost a tooth. He is so distraught about this that he creates and carries out several plans to try to make one of his teeth fall out. First graders can really identify with this theme. This illustrator also provides readers with the challenge of finding the word "fin" in every illustration. (Freddy is a shark lover so "fin" is one of his favorite words.) While this book is a "chapter book", it is written at a level that would be "just right" for about half of the students in our crew. So, many will be able to read the books in the Ready Freddy series on their own. Others will enjoy them as a read aloud. Next week we will start 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. All of these books are available at the Douglas County Public Library so check some out on your next visit. Happy Reading!
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.3 Fact Families
Friday, January 27, 2012
Crew News January 27, 2012
Math Exchanges
Every Friday during our Math time, we do something called Math Exchanges. Math Exchanges are meetings of small groups of students who work together and/or alone to solve a math problem. Ms. Dee and I each work with small groups and the rest of the students do other math activities like working on the computer, playing Everyday Math games and other math activities. We rotate through several sessions of small groups each Friday.
The best part for all of us is the discussions that we have when meeting in the small groups. The kids just jumped right in and were willing to tackle tough problems together right from the start. One of our most recent problems was:
Jill has 10 cookies to share with her friends Mary Beth and Dee. How many cookies will each friend get?
As the first group and I read the problem together, one student immediately started shaking his head saying this won't work. The other students ignored him at first and counted out 10 blocks to begin dividing up the cookies. It didn't take long before the conversation started. They couldn't figure out what to do with the "leftover" cookie. Each group that I met with had the same issue and then had such wonderful discussions to figure out what to do.
Some groups simply refused to cut the cookie into pieces. They just left that cookie out even when I questioned them and tried to get them to look for other solutions. One student said that cookies just crumble when you cut them so you should just leave that cookie out.
Another student used the fact that the names I used in the story were teachers from our school. She decided that I should just give the extra cookie to my daughter, Abby.
One student (the student who was shaking his head when we read the problem) counted out the blocks and saw the leftover cookie and immediately cut it into 3 pieces.
One group quickly decided that the leftover cookie had to be cut into 3 pieces but had lots of discussion about how to cut it in a "fair" way. They drew lots of variations that they decided weren't fair (or "fare" as they spelled it). Finally someone in the group thought of cutting the cookie like a "peace sign" and they were all satisfied that this would be fair.
The discussion in our small group times are very lively and the students learn so much. I, too, learn so much about them as mathematicians. Another great thing is that this type of thinking and sharing is spilling into the rest of our math time during other days of the week. Below are some examples of kids' thinking about a problem that was trying to determine which number is bigger, 23 or 15 and then they had to determine how much bigger. This student made each number in tally marks to compare them
and this student counted up from 15:
The exciting thing is that the students are much more willing to write and draw out their thinking as well as share their ideas with each other than they were before we started Math Exchanges. Ask your child what he/she thinks about Math Exchanges.
Homework
No homework for the weekend. Read a few good books with your child.
IA
Our IA next week is Music.
Every Friday during our Math time, we do something called Math Exchanges. Math Exchanges are meetings of small groups of students who work together and/or alone to solve a math problem. Ms. Dee and I each work with small groups and the rest of the students do other math activities like working on the computer, playing Everyday Math games and other math activities. We rotate through several sessions of small groups each Friday.
The best part for all of us is the discussions that we have when meeting in the small groups. The kids just jumped right in and were willing to tackle tough problems together right from the start. One of our most recent problems was:
Jill has 10 cookies to share with her friends Mary Beth and Dee. How many cookies will each friend get?
As the first group and I read the problem together, one student immediately started shaking his head saying this won't work. The other students ignored him at first and counted out 10 blocks to begin dividing up the cookies. It didn't take long before the conversation started. They couldn't figure out what to do with the "leftover" cookie. Each group that I met with had the same issue and then had such wonderful discussions to figure out what to do.
Some groups simply refused to cut the cookie into pieces. They just left that cookie out even when I questioned them and tried to get them to look for other solutions. One student said that cookies just crumble when you cut them so you should just leave that cookie out.
Another student used the fact that the names I used in the story were teachers from our school. She decided that I should just give the extra cookie to my daughter, Abby.
One group quickly decided that the leftover cookie had to be cut into 3 pieces but had lots of discussion about how to cut it in a "fair" way. They drew lots of variations that they decided weren't fair (or "fare" as they spelled it). Finally someone in the group thought of cutting the cookie like a "peace sign" and they were all satisfied that this would be fair.
Homework
No homework for the weekend. Read a few good books with your child.
IA
Our IA next week is Music.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Crew News January 26, 2012
Elephant and Piggie Came to School Today
Elephant and Piggie from the Mo Willems series of books came to school today. We got to see them in the library. We were so excited because we love them! They put on a play of one of their books. Ask you child to tell you all about the pictures below.
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.2 Name-Collection Boxes
Elephant and Piggie from the Mo Willems series of books came to school today. We got to see them in the library. We were so excited because we love them! They put on a play of one of their books. Ask you child to tell you all about the pictures below.
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.2 Name-Collection Boxes
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Crew News January 25, 2012
Sight Words
Our new sight words for this week and next week are: came, make, of, was, now, have
Previous words include: as, if, my, be, all, like, she, has, how, put, don't, I'm, one, out, him, look, her, back, had, come
These are great words to point out to your child when they are reading or to have them practice at home, too.
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.1Finding Addition Sums
Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to return their library books.
Our new sight words for this week and next week are: came, make, of, was, now, have
Previous words include: as, if, my, be, all, like, she, has, how, put, don't, I'm, one, out, him, look, her, back, had, come
These are great words to point out to your child when they are reading or to have them practice at home, too.
Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.1Finding Addition Sums
Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to return their library books.
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