Rain, Rain go away...these first graders need to go outside and play! Here's to hoping the sun comes out (or at least a lull in rain) by recess tomorrow!!
Although it's (very) grey outside....inside we are bright and cheery and full of learning! We have been focusing on adding and subtracting strategies during math. Children are sharing their ideas and learning from each other. Our math discussions are very collaborative. During writing time we are learning how to notice and try out craft moves from our mentor author, George McClements. During read aloud and reading table we are noticing non-fiction text features and thinking about an author's purpose in writing a nonfiction text.
Writing
The last two weeks we have really been trying to bring our stories to life by incorporating various craft moves into our writing that we notice other authors using. This week in particular we studied our mentor author and created a chart of some of the craft moves he uses. We noticed that using ellipses builds excitement and writing exact actions helps to make a movie in the reader's mind. Children went off to try to use some of these moves in their own small moments.
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| Writer's hard at work adding exact actions to their stories |
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| Making characters "talk" |
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| Using ellipses to ... add excitement! |
Math
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| I posed these questions for partners to discuss. |
This week we spent a lot of time focusing on how to solve the problem and how to show your work. We pair shared our strategies after solving a problem in our math notebook. Then a few children used the document camera to showcase how to show their work.
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| These partners are using pictures and words to show counting on. |
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| These children are using a number line to show how to count on.
After children had a chance to share we created this anchor chart of strategies that children will use as a future reference.
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We followed a similar process as we began to discuss story problems in which the action requires subtraction. We talked about some of the important vocabulary to look for when reading a story problem including take, gave, how many were left.....These may indicate that the answer will be fewer than the number they started with.
A lot of children will follow the same natural progression solving a subtraction problem as with an addition problem. Many children will start by drawing a picture, then crossing out the amount that was taken away. Some children will start with the larger number and count back. Others will use known facts or relate it back to addition. Through our math discussions children will be exposed to all of these strategies and in turn apply the one that best suits their developmental stage. As children progress in their mathematical thinking, so will their use of efficient strategies.
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| Counting back on a number line |
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| Using a picture to cross out the part from the whole |
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| Counting back on fingers |
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| Using a known fact and relating it to addition |
As your children work to solve these story problems at home and at school you can continue to support them by using the same vocabulary they are hearing at school and by asking them to explain their thinking. Even when they say known fact I always ask them to expand by telling me what the known fact is and to make sure they are recording a strategy that best resembles their thinking. It is a mathematical process and we are only 2 months in, but already they are growing as mathematicians. Woot! Woot!
Have a fantastic weekend!
