MathThis week in Math, we looked at bigger numbers, addition and decomposing numbers. We began by looking at a number grid. First, we recalled some of the ways that we have used the number line in earlier lessons. After that, we looked at the number grid, I explained that it may be more helpful than the number line when working with large numbers. Students were invited to compare the number grid to the number line. They said that they count up and count back by making "hops" on the number grid, similar to how they made hops on the number line. After making some connections, we played a game called Rolling for 50 to provide practice navigating a number grid. We connected the game board and the Number-Grid poster by colouring the return sweeps on their game boards. Counting on the number grid builds the foundation for children to relate counting to addition and subtraction, as children learn to count up and back from various start numbers to reach new numbers. To continue laying the foundation for relating counting to addition and subtraction the children used a number grid starting on one number and then counting up or back a given number of hops to land on another number.: We began with counting up by 1s.
The students were then prompted to count up and back by 10s. These problems encouraged children to think carefully about how they could use the structure of the number grid to help them. We learned that we could move up (or down) 10 hops by moving directly up (or down) one row. This week we also looked at counting on as an addition strategy. Most children begin solving addition problems using counters, fingers, or drawings as models and then count all to find the total. During first grade, they develop the ability to count on; that is, they start with one of the numbers being added and count on the remaining quantity from that number. This demonstrates a solid understanding of the counting sequence and helps in developing more efficient computation strategies. We played a game called Roll and Total that uses one numeral die and one dot die. This encourages children to start with the numeral die and count on the number of dots, thus moving beyond counting all to find sums. Another addition strategy we looked at this week was the "turn around rule." Students learned that the turn-around rule can sometimes be useful in solving addition problems, meaning that if the numbers seem too hard to add, children can turn around the numbers and try to add them the new way. We also learned about number bonds to 10, and how we can use turn around facts to find them all. Students were asked to name and draw things that come in pairs. We discussed how a pair is made up of two parts that go together. The children were told that they would be finding pairs of numbers that add to 10 while doing Two-Fisted Penny Addition. Each child was asked to take out 10 pennies. The children were asked to grab some pennies with one hand and pick up the rest with the other hand. The volunteers identified the number of pennies in each hand by saying: "I have _____ pennies in one hand and _____ pennies in the other hand." This language reinforces the idea that each number is a count of objects. The students then completed this activity in partnerships, recording on their slates the number of pennies in each hand. Language ArtsLast year, I came across a really engaging way to teach "plot" to students. Pixar short films! They're cute, exciting, dramatic, and, most of all, can encapsulate a mature story arc in a mere matter of minutes. I also love that there are no words. This makes things great for ELL students, but also encourages our native students (and all students) to make inferences or work on characterization. These videos do an amazing job of helping me as a teacher, isolate the story element that we are focusing on. This week, we watched one a day, and mapped our each story discussing characters, setting, problem and solution. This week our phonics focus has been on identifying short and long vowel sounds. When students learn that vowels can make short and long sounds, they immediately build their decoding skills. Vowels are the building blocks of words. By practicing to understand and hear vowels properly, students will also improve:
I have found that by focusing on the sounds of all the letters–the vowels and consonants–and by practicing our use of sound regularly, my students improve rapidly in their general English ability. These lessons also help native English students better navigate letter sound patterns. Unit of InquiryThis week our Getting Along unit of inquiry focused on the topic of bullying. Did you know that each year over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying. By age 14 less than 30% of boys and 40% of girls will talk to peers about bullying. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying. 17% of students in the USA report being bullied two or three times a month or more. I find that these are alarming statistics and that bullying is preventable . Talking to children about tough topics such as bullying can be very difficult so I used the book 'The Bully and the Shrimp' to help us talk about bullying, what we can do about bullying, and more. . In the book, 'The Bully and the Shrimp,' Noah Shrimpton who is small for his age moves to a new school. At this new school the class bully starts to pick on him. Noah starts a journal to express himself and begins drawing scenarios where he beats the bully! Throughout this book Noah makes friends, gains confidence, and stands up to the bully! This picture book deals with the issue of bullying in a way that is easy for children to relate to. We discussed the following questions:
If you would like to follow up with your child at home on this issue, here are some things you can talk about
Verbal bullying is something that we talked about a lot this week. One way we talked about it was through a lesson by Character Education Partnership. This lesson, called “Wrinkle on my Heart,” teaches about empathy, taking responsibility for mistakes when they happen, learning from them, and thinking before you speak/act. It’s very simple, but effective. Students folded their paper hearts for every mean thing that had been said to them. We then unfolded them, and tried to straighten out the creases. With that said, their hearts never looked new again. We now have them displayed in our class with the following rhyme to remind us that words can hurt. Before you speak, think and be smart, it's hard to fix a wrinkled heart. Maria Dismondy wrote a wonderful story called 'Spaghetti in a Hotdog Bun,' to show and teach children how important it is to have the courage to be different and to forgive others when they can’t understand this wonderful gift. As the story begins, Lucy is a beautiful, little Italian girl who lives alone with her Papa Gino and loves to eat spaghetti in a hot dog bun each day for lunch. However, a lonely and grumpy classmate, Ralph, uses Lucy’s differences as a way to daily torment her until a defining moment occurs in which Lucy chooses courage and forgiveness over revenge. This is a great story again about verbal bullying, and 'payback.' We seem to have an eye-for-an-eye mentality in our class, that I am desperately trying to change. After reading the story, we completed a cut and paste venne diagram activity, where students had to discuss what things and activities that they have/like and see what made them the same and what made them different. We learned that if everyone was the same, life would be boring. We also learned that we can be friends despite our differences. Our last activity about verbal bullying focused on how our thoughts are private, but that our words and behaviour is public. We talked about how we can think whatever we want to think, but the minute that we let your thoughts out of your head through our words or your actions, they become public information. A great visual to explain this was the Toothpaste Squirt. Students took turns squirting toothpaste into a bucket. When they were finished squirting it out, they were asked to put it all back into the tube. After trying for several minutes, and making quite the mess, we learned that this was very tricky to do. We talked about how once the toothpaste comes out of the tube, we cannot get it all back in. This is much like an insult or mean comment. Once a put-down comes out of someones mouth and goes into ears, it cannot be taken back. We went on to learn that for each put-down a human hears, they must hear 10 pull-ups (or sincere compliments) to get back to where they were emotionally prior to the put down. (i.e. if a child gets 3 put downs in one day, he must get 30 compliments to get back to where he was…30!) When we were finished, I reiterated that thoughts are private, but behaviour is public and the next time you think about giving a put down, think again and screw your lid to your toothpaste tube on tight! We concluded by coming up with some nice words to say to each other. Tech IntegrationThis week, Mr. Joe integrated tech into our unit of inquiry by having us get along in pairs to build a boat that could hold the most dice out of tin foil. We went back through the design cycle, and used our growth mindsets to improve our designs and make them better. One boat held over 100 dice! I was so impressed by our little engineers being so up to this design challenge.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
ASA First GradersWe are caring, balanced , reflective, openminded, risk-taking, knowledgeable, principled, thinkers, communicators, inquirers, explorers and learners. Archives
March 2018
Categories |