Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

See you next year!!

Card Making for projectsbyjen.com...

Our trip to Bethabara!!

Week of December 1, 2014

Reading:  We finished up our unit on Our Neighborhood at Workcommunity by reading a story about Mr. Kang's grocery store.  The kids enjoyed discussing what types of jobs Mr. Kang must do to take care of his store.  We also got the LeapFrog globe out and looked at where Korea is in Asia.  This week we also read a story about firefighters! 
Next week? We're starting a unit all about weather!


Math:  We have begun our unit on time.  First graders are expected to learn how to tell time to the hour and the half hour. During this past week I pre-assessed each student to see what they know about telling time.  I found that most of our class understands how to tell time to the hour, but we are still working on telling time to the half hour.  
     We began using our STACKS guided math rotations during this week.  So far I've found that I like the small groups, but I think I may go away from having "set in stone" centers for math and instead give myself more freedom so that I can have them all doing games if we need or only have two centers when needed.  
     During the next week we will begin a unit on surveys and reading graphs.  Each student will ask a question to conduct their very own survey.  

Look what was outside our window!

Our 4th and 5th grade chorus got to sing at a local Christmas tree lighting and yours truly was able to accompany them.  : ) 

Christmas time is here...

Guess who is visiting our classroom from the North Pole? It's Garland, Santa's scout elf.  She's visiting us until Christmastime comes and she has to return to help out Santa.  Watch out! Garland flies back home each night to report to Santa who's been good and who's been bad.  And you never know what mischief will ensue when Garland's around! Here are a couple of things we've found in our classroom this week:  

Thoughts for the week:

Thanksgiving Party!

December 1, 2014

Look who's visiting our classroom!!

It's Garland! Our class' elf on the shelf.  Who knows what mischief she might create in our classroom each morning?! The kids know that Garland is watching to see if they should be put on the naughty or nice list.  She does get to fly home to the North Pole each night and report back to Santa!!

We also have some new additions to our math block...

This is the guided math rotation chart that we have started using.  I downloaded the pieces from teachers pay teachers (such an amazing site!).  The kids are divided into small groups based on math understanding and then are assigned to a different rotation each day.  We go through all five rotations in a 5 day period.  The rotations consist of:  teacher-led small group, number work, technology, math notebook, and math games.  I will be adjusting these based on what we need and what center activities I have.  Basically each 5 day rotation will have 4 center-type rotations with another rotation where the kids will see me in a small group.  We'll see how this goes to see if we need to adjust things.  

We didn't start on the rotations today, but we instead did a whole-group introduction to our new unit about telling time to the hour and half hour.  We learned some new songs and then completed a worksheet to see how much we understand about telling time.  

Below is my new math word wall.  It's a little crooked (I must have been half-asleep when stapling!) and these words are the vocabulary words from the previous unit.  My goal is to have all the math vocabulary on laminated cards that have pictures illustrating each concept.  I haven't been referring to this word wall with the kids and this is something that I need to do to make sure the kids are using this as a reference.  I might also think about tweaking this to try and have all the math words we know to continually stay up.  Now just to find the wall space...

Week 13

So I found these signs on teachers pay teachers and I just had to print them out in color and hand them around the classroom...

I love the message that it sends the kids.  I've even posted them near my discipline clips just to remind the kids that they are still loved even when they're not quite so lovable.  If they learn nothing else in 1st grade, I want them to leave my classroom at the end of the year knowing and believing that this is true.  

: )

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go to a state math conference where I was able to learn SO many new ideas! Below are a couple of the things that I bought because of different things that I learned at the conference.  I'm really excited to get these into our guided math centers so that the kids can begin to enjoy them!

This one is a ten frame train.  The kids take turns spinning the spinner and trying to fill up the ten frames.  There are many ways that these can be used and several different game ideas that come with the package.  I really like that the ten frames take the kids beyond just 20.  They are able to begin to see how continually adding 10 keeps growing the number.  This is especially important since they are expected to be able to count to 120 by the end of 1st grade.  

I've already showed the kids these, but they've not had the opportunity to play with them yet.  They're called Learning Wrapups and they help to reinforce the addition facts the kids are learning.  Each card in a set teaches one fact such as +1 and the sets go all the way up to +12.  The object is to wrap the string around the card, matching it to the sum on the other side.  I'll be interested to see how well the kids can use these.  I think there will be somewhat of a learning curve for them but at least in the beginning they will also be practicing some fine motor skills with the manipulating of string back and forth.

  

This is a hundreds chart mat that is placed on the floor as a HUGE visual for the kids to manipulate.  I really like that the chart goes all the way to 120.  There are also several cards and squares that can be used to block out or highlight numbers in order to guess answers or see patterns.  I also really like that there are a couple of the 4 way squares that can be placed upon a number and then show +1, -1, +10, -10.  The inflatable dice will be a valuable tool also because we can used them to play games with the mat.  I could also probably just use the dice for a game also.  This isn't something that I can see working for a whole class lesson, but I could use this when working with a small group and possibly teach the kids to responsibly use the materials well enough to use them in a student-led small group.  We'll see...

Now for some pictures!!!

Hello Kitty

Decade Day!

Friday was out school-wide decade day (I attempted a Rosie the Riveter costume) and this little firstie came in bright and early as a flapper! Too cute!

And then there was this cutie... She was dressed as a pink lady, but I didn't get a chance to get her picture with the complete outfit.  This is how I found her at the end of the day.  I turned around and there she was up on the counter! : )

When I asked her what in world she was doing she said, "Well, I couldn't reach the paper towels, so I decided to sit on the counter."  That's problem-solving for you! : )

Two of the boys also dressed up:  one wore tie-dye and another wore his dressy clothes to be a guy from the 70s.  : ) 

It was one of those days so I didn't get their pictures unfortunately. : (

So we're in for a 2 day week this week.  We're going to have our Thanksgiving party on Tuesday afternoon and then I won't see my little class for 5 whole days! How ever will I manage! 

: )

They make it all worthwhile to get up way too early and go to school.  Even on Mondays!

Have a great night! Get some sleep so we can enjoy our 2 day week.  : )

Love, Ms. Carter