MathIn Math this week, we worked on composing and decomposing 10. Decomposing numbers means to break down numbers into their sub-parts. Common Core standards has students decomposing numbers in two ways. The first is to decompose numbers into their tens and ones (focus on numbers 11-19) and the second is to show how any number 1-10 can be created using a variety of addends. Why do we expect our little learners to compose and decompose numbers? Let’s look long term. The simple answer is because there is value in students being able to see the groupings, relationships and patterns in numbers. We are laying the foundation for students to be able to eventually solve 53+12 and see that they can manipulate it: 50+15 or 60+5 or 50+10+3+2 or any other variety of ways to see the quantity as it makes sense to them. This is part of the fluency part of numbersense that we talked about on the parent evening. Now that’s the bigger picture and carries us into older grade level Common Core standards… Bringing it back down to our level, we are working on understanding that numbers 1-10 can be grouped in different ways to make 10.. Seeing numbers broken down into a pattern of their groupings of tens and then the addition of some ones makes these numbers palatable and simple. Learning how to compose and decompose numbers this way gives students a “visual” [especially when representing with ten frames} to what 6, 16 or 67 really looks like and is. We started by using 10 frames to play top it. By looking at the numbers represented in the frames, and the missing numbers or spaces, students were able to get a visual of the numbers that compose 10. I sent a copy of this game home for each of you to play with your children this weekend. Penny Plate As we continued to decompose numbers within 10, we played a game of penny plate. This game required students to visualize, count on, and become fluent with missing addends that make 10. While written statements like 6 + x = 10 are difficult to digest, this concrete example of solving missing addend problems was a great way for our students to become fluent in composing and decomposing numbers to 10. Instructions below. Explorations Mid-week, we broke into focus groups so that Mrs. Mbola and I could gain more 1:1 time with students and focus on developing math concepts. Students rotated through three exploration stations. Exploration A: Subtraction BINGO Students played a game where they had to take away, or subtract, one number from the other to find the difference. Students were told that they should subtract the smaller number from the larger number to find the difference. Mrs. Mbola observed what strategies the children used to find the differences and who was subtracting accurately, while discussing the differences that were easier and harder to calculate. Exploration B: Picking 10 Apples Children used ten frames and counters to find all possible combinations of 10 red and green apples. Throughout the activity, they were reminded that the counters represented apples and the ten frame represented a basket. Questions with multiple solutions, such as this one, provide excellent problem-solving opportunities. We took a closer look at this again later in the week where students were given the opportunity to try this independently. Exploration C: Counting Our Classroom In this Exploration, children used tally charts to model data they collected about the number of desks, shoes, and chairs in their classroom. They then used their data to answer questions. Open Response The children were asked to recall the Picking 10 Apples exploration, in which they found different ways to make 10 apples with red and green apples. Volunteers shared the pairs they found. We also looked at patterns found in our tables from earlier in the week, re-discussing turn around facts. Students were reminded that looking for patterns can sometimes help determine if things are missing. They were encouraged to look for patterns in their table and talk about them with a partner. They were to decide if all the pairs were listed. After this, students worked independently with red and green counters and 10 frames to make a list of all of the possible combinations that make 10 High Roller On Thursday, Carlee, our school counsellor came in to see how we were getting along when playing math games. Students learned how to play the game High Roller. High Roller makes use of counting on and the turn-around rule. Players played in partners. While Carlee observed social skills, I observed which children count on to add and who is applying counting on consistently and accurately. I also observed who was using the turn around rule to count on from the bigger number. Language ArtsThis week we 'unlocked' the next level of our Daily 5 program - Read to Someone. Of all the choices children participate in, Read to Someone is often their favourite. Reading with someone helps readers, especially developing readers. It increases areas of comprehension, accuracy, fluency and prosidy. It also increases reading involvement, attention and collaboration. What's more, children love partner reading and readily participate with books of their choosing. We also took a close look at vowel teams and dipthongs this week. Of all the syllable types to teach, Vowels Teams can be the most challenging for students to master. The main reason is that there are so many variations of this syllable type. There are approximately 32 vowel teams. So for this reason alone more time has to be given to teaching Vowel Teams. Up to this point students have only had to learn one basic way of spelling long vowels and that was the Vowel-Consonant-e pattern (magic e). Now all of a sudden 32 Vowel Teams appear before them, and students can feel overwhelmed. The best way to alleviate students feeling overwhelmed is to teach the most commonly used Vowel Teams and give the students activities where they can sort out the various spelling patterns by visually seeing the differences. We did this through several phonics games and sorts this week. After repetitive practice with word sorts and games, students will begin to memorize what words are spelled with what letter combinations. We will be doing this far more often once we 'unlock' the word work section of our Daily 5 program, and begin to use the Words Their Way program. You can find information on this word study program in the resource section of our website. Unit of InquiryThis week during our UOI, we talked about emotions and feelings and how we have to know them, and ourselves in order to get along with others. Many classrooms have reflection centers (formerly time out) and they are primary used as a place that children can go and reflect on the behaviour that has already happened. Reflection centers are very helpful, however, I believe it's important to have a place in the room that is preventative in nature... Enter 'Chill Ville.' As teachers, it is important to teach children productive and healthy ways to deal with emotions such as anger, sadness or frustration. By teaching students different tools they can use to deal with these emotions in a healthy way, we are helping the child, and eliminating a potential disruption to the learning environment. The first step in doing this is being proactive and ready for a child who needs some additional help calming down within the classroom. I did this by introducing Chill Ville. We talked about times when we’re too sad or upset to think. We also read 'When Sophie Gets Angry.' I told the students that everyone feels that way sometimes and that by taking some time alone, we can help ourselves feel better. Then, when we feel better, we will make better decisions about taking care of ourselves and others. Talk to your child about Chill Ville, and the strategies that he/she now knows to feel better. "Say Sorry!" "Say it like you mean it" These are the repetitious grumbles I used to say to students before learning more about effective apologies, and the importance of explicitly teaching how to apologize. As a teacher (or as a parent), when we elicit an apology, we feel like we did something about a situation, and have then 'closed the case.' Often, however, we know that the offended still feels bitter, because the apology was not sincere. And while it may seem like the offender got off easy– not even having to show proper remorse or use a sincere tone– this child is actually the one who loses out the most. He/she not only learns a poor lesson that they can get away with lies and empty words, but does not have the opportunity to experience true reconciliation and restoration of relationships. These children will probably continue inflicting similar offenses, feel less remorse than they should, and undergo less positive character change than they could have. While this method may not always elicit a sincere apology, it makes students think about their acts, and preventative solutions for the future. Here is the format: I’m sorry for… This is wrong because… In the future, I will… Will you forgive me? After writing out these prompts, and having Imran read us a book called 'Sorry,' I talked with the children about apologizing properly. We went over the importance of tone of voice and body language; when I used my brattiest voice and spat out, “Well FINE then, SOR-RY!” they all laughed, because the insincerity was so obvious and the scene so familiar. I demonstrated the importance of body language, crossing my arms and rolling my eyes to the side as I mumbled, “Sorry.” When I asked if it seemed like I meant it, they all gleefully cried out “NOOOO!!!” in unison. I did a few more impressions of pathetic “sorries,” and then we got down to business. I shared with them that apologies were pointless and meaningless if people didn’t feel like the offender meant it, and if the offender didn’t actually plan to change in the future. Then I went over the prompts and we used puppets to practice giving sincere apologies. As a teacher, I know that asking for forgiveness puts the offender in an uncomfortable and vulnerable place of humility. However, this seemingly obvious yet widely underused phrase is very, very powerful for both the offender and the offended. It is the key to reconciliation and often the first step in restoring friendship. I also know that the second item, “This is wrong because…” is powerful in changing the longer-term behaviour of the offending child. Forcing the child to put themselves in another’s shoes will increase empathy and help them understand better how they have hurt someone else. This exercise in trying to see themselves from someone else’s perspective can be very powerful. I encourage you to use the 4 part apology prompts at home to elicit apologies to brothers, sisters, friends, or parents. After talking about feelings, empathy, and apologies, I wanted to redirect our learning back to being kind. We read the book 'The Jelly Donut Difference." This book is too cute! It is all about Leah and Dexter, two siblings that can't seem to get along! With a little help from a neighbour and some special donuts, the siblings learn what is really important in life and learn to spread kindness and smiles! After we read The Jelly Donut Difference we brainstormed ways that we can sprinkle kindness as a class! We then independently wrote about how we can sprinkle kindness and enjoyed our very own sprinkle donut! Our sprinkling kindness lesson snowballed this week and got bigger based on student inquiries. We found out that a single act of being kind creates ripples of kindness that are carried out into our world. Building on that conversation about being kind, I wanted to do an object lesson about acts of kindness, to have another conversation about how little acts of kindness can make a difference. Do small things really create movement? If our world was, in fact, water in a bucket, and if each act of kindness was something we dropped in the water, what would happen. We came up with two questions: Our first question: If small acts of kindness create ripples, can there be an act of kindness that is too small to create ripples? Our second question: Can many small acts of kindness together create as many ripples as a large one? We grabbed all the small things we could think of trying to test the theory and answer our questions. We learned how even the smallest object can create ripples. We also used our toy dinosaur to create big ripples. We, then, talked about whether all the little things, together, could make as many ripples as the single big dinosaur did. So, we tried it, putting in a pinch of each of the items.You could see the connections being made in their heads. "So, do you think that we can help others by doing little things as well as with big things?" a student asked. "Yes!" they all responded Even a grain of salt causes ripples in the water. We watched the videos below, and I am predicting that we are going to see some student action based on spreading kindness in the very near future as we begin to wrap up this unit of inquiry.
Design/TechOver the last few weeks, Mr. Joe and I have been giving students problems, and having them work through the design cycle to solve them. While this was a great way for students to begin to understand the design cycle, it was leaving out one of the most important parts, identifying problems in our lives and the world around us.
This week, Mr. Joe, asked students to find a problem in the makers space and design a solution. While asking them this, many of them couldn't hear him because of the noisy stools. The students realized that a huge problem to be solved is the noise in the space. With some help from Mr. Joe, the students got down to making a plan and designing a prototype to fix this. I was so impressed by seeing such a great and simple example of promoting design thinking and action (I am learning so much from Joe this year!). Our little learners will be identifying which design is best based on materials, ease, labour and other factors, and fixing this problem for all students who use the makers space. I am so proud of them!
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March 2018
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