A Little of this A Little of That

So Sorry for the lapse in blog post! Conference season can really mix up our regular routines! That said I LOVE sharing all of your children's successes with you. I know you are just as proud of their progress as I am! We are molding independent readers, efficient mathematicians, and thoughtful citizens!

Writer's Workshop

We started our week with an Author's Celebration! Children got to share their published stories with the rest of the class. It was magic!

As children read each others stories they signed the author's keepsake paper. The author's  were just so proud!! I hope you got to enjoy their take home stories too!

Science
We've started a new unit in science where children will learn all about solids and liquids. So far this week children have hypothesized about what they think makes something a solid. Lots of great ideas to start the process. Over the next few weeks children will explore a set of solids and learn about their properties.  Today we learned about color and shape. 

Math
Our new unit in math is all about collecting and representing data. We'll also practice how to sort and classify shapes and objects based on attributes, which ties in really nicely with our science! To start the unit children looked at a set of power polygon shapes.

Polygons are 2-dimensional shapes. They are made of straight lines, and the shape is "closed" (all the lines connect up).

We then sorted the shapes by attributes that the class came up with including shape, color, size, and number of sides. We've also begun a new routine called 'Quick Surveys." Children will respond to a survey question, such as did you drink milk today? We'll represent their answers using pictures, numbers, words.... then analyze the results. This is great critical thinking with a focus on math talk!


Learning about attributes....

Sorting by shape

Sorting by color

Sorting by size

Thanksgiving

I truly can't believe that Thanksgiving is 1 week away!! Next week is such a short week....the focus will be on the holiday. So far we've read a few stories that helped us compare Thanksgiving long ago and today. We located the Mayflower on our class timeline and learned it was actually Abraham Lincoln who declared the third Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. 

Next Tuesday we also get a special treat.. our class will be part of the audience at Mrs. Paget's annual Thanksgiving play, where we learn even more about the Pilgrim's voyage to New England!

Children drew pictures to compare the Pilgrim's Thanksgiving celebration with their own. No
cranberry sauce back then :) 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family both near and far! Enjoy the time with loved ones and especially all the yummy foods!

Routines, Counting Strips, and Revisions

I love the month of November.....grey as it may be! I love the slight chill in the air, the holidays that are right around the corner, and the fact that we are a solid 45+ days in and the kiddos are gaining SUCH independence with routines like Daily 3, math workshop, and writer's workshop. Hopefully, parents who have been in as literacy volunteers can attest to this!!  The fact that routines are established and more independent paves the way for successful learning.

So with that... Another BIG week of learning! In math we worked on counting and writing higher numbers. The benchmark for the end of first grade is 120.  During writer's workshop we've begun the revision process for our first author's celebration, which means you can look forward to a take home folder of your child's writing very soon! During social studies we read and learned about Paul Bunyun, focusing on words to describe his character. 

Calendar Routines
One of our well established routines is our morning meeting routine. Our calendar time is very interactive. As we progress through the calendar pages on our smart board children use whiteboards to answer questions often with a mathematical focus. This routine gets there math brains going first thing in the a.m as they solve for missing addends, determine whether equations are true or false, make tally marks, and use coins to show the value of our day. Each week I have 1 child who is the "calendar kid." The calendar kid helps run the meeting. It's a pretty big responsibility!

Math highlights
This week children worked on covering and counting the area of their foot print. They used inch tiles and lima beans. These manipulatives allow children to practice accurate counting with numbers up to and past 50 and to practice tracking strategies. They also started an activity called counting strips, where they were asked to practice rote number writing. This activity calls for students to address common errors and misconception including reversing their teen numbers and decades (for example; 21 for 12 and 04 for 40).

Writer's Workshop
The revision process started with children choosing the piece from their writing folders that they were most excited to share with the world. This was a very thoughtful process, which included children spreading out around the room and pouring over the stories in their folders.

Then children worked with their writing partners. They read aloud pages in their book, while their partners asked them questions to help with details.

A few more reminders....

Our first week of BOOKTIME has finally arrived! The children were excited to choose their just right books and bring them home to read. Please consider booktime another essential piece of first grade reading homework. Booktime books, poem notebook reading, and RAZ kids will all help your child with their reading success. Booktime books come home Mondays, please help your child return the folder to school on Fridays.

Picture retakes, for those interested, are scheduled for Monday, November 17th. Please read the Thursday Packet for updated information.

If  you have further questions you can contact LifeTouch directly at 800-697-4451. 

Finally, I look forward to sharing your child's progress with you at our upcoming conferences. Please refer to our SignUp Genius for your selected date an time. You should also be receiving a reminder from the site. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Halloween and some extra Treats

What a busy week leading up to ...Halloween!! There is a definite sense of excitement in the air as kids talk about costumes, ghosting, and Halloween parties! The children are so excited for the parade and party Friday afternoon. Parents are all welcome to attend the parade....it's quite a sight!

Although I was competing with the thought of candy overload, we did settle enough to have a very productive week! There was lots to do in reading, writing, math and everything in between. We continued to discover and use craft moves during writer's workshop. We learned a new routine in math called "Today's Number". We reviewed the short sounds of a, i, o, and u and practiced reading and writing words using several short u word patterns. We brainstormed what we know about the non-fiction genre and looked for nonfiction text features during read alouds and reading group. And finally, with engines running so high we took some time to learn and practice some new calming down strategies! 

Here is our week at a glance...

3 writers share their use of craft moves including pop out words and ... (ellipses).

Other children who used craft moves in their writing shared by giving me a great big thumbs up!

Phonics

We practiced short u patterns by reading and sorting words that end the same. Each week as children learn new word patterns we brainstorm new words, practice open and closed sorts to identify similar word endings, and use manipulatives, such as magnet letters, wikki sticks, and whiteboards to build and record the words and patterns to learn. 

Nonfiction text talk

We took some time at the beginning of the week to discuss what children already knew  about nonfiction texts. As we read more nonfiction books throughout the week we continued to add to and revise our brainstorm list. It's important for children to recognize the different genres so that they can begin to expect patterns in the books they choose to read. This kind of text knowledge reinforces that we read for meaning and with purpose!

During reading group children used sticky notes to mark nonfiction text features they found while reading including diagrams and photographs.

After reading a nonfiction text  about how to care for alligators at the zoo  these children created a web to organize the important information they learned. They shared their cooperative product with the rest of the class.

As the seconds tick towards Halloween I wish you all happy trick or treating from my kiddos to yours!

The Facts of Math

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.

Writer's hard at work adding exact actions to their stories

Making characters "talk"

Using ellipses to ... add excitement!

Math

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.

These partners are using pictures and words to show counting on.

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.

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.

Counting back on a number line

Using a picture to cross out the part from the whole

Counting back on fingers

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!