I would like to begin this post, by guaranteeing that there is not another first grade class in the world that has had as much fun and has learned as much as we have in the past two weeks. MathMoney comes in many shapes and sizes. It comes in metal and in paper. Different units of money have different value. Size doesn't count, it’s the denomination that matters. Money is a form of exchange and a measure of value. Currency is a term for a country's money in circulation. Adults take these simple facts for granted, yet they're precisely the things that prove problematic for children. Learning about money is hard! Learning how to count, use, and identify coins is an important basic money skill to learn at an early age. We use American currency at the ASA, but the concepts remain the same. This week, we learned about the basics of money with the recognition and value skills of the penny through the dime. Our little learners are becoming aware of the differences of colour, shape, feel, and value. We are continuing to work with money to help improve addition and subtraction skills of the basic numbers of single placement up to two digits. We will also learn about higher amounts of money and how to use combinations of coins. Adding three numbers is one of my favourite first grade math concepts. It's one of those things that students look at and say "whoah, that is hard" and then feel so proud of themselves when they can do it. I love that! We started by working in groups, making sums to 10, and discussing how that can be done with three numbers. Afterward, we looked at number trees (pictured above) and learned that we should look for doubles facts, and 10s facts first to make adding three numbers simpler. We finished by using school supply cards (also pictured above) to write number stories involving the use of three numbers. While we are on the topic of solving number stories. This week we reviewed how to use the 'CUBES' strategy to solve difficult number stories, and make sense of the question. I encourage you to use this method when solving word problems at home (click the pictures to enlarge). Language ArtsLast week, we were invited to attend the second grade publishing party for their personal narrative stories. Publishing parties are so important, and I look forward to having you attend ours later in the year. If students know that their writing work is “real” and will culminate in a “real” book for a “real” audience, they get a lot more interested in their work. This was a great provocation for us as well for when we begin to write our stories in the new year. We also took the last two weeks to continue working on silent letters and review our phonics knowledge up to date. I am so proud of how far we have come, and how all or our learners are shooting up reading levels, and decoding tricky words. In the new year, we will introduce a few more 'sounds' and then begin our elementary school-wide word study program called 'Words Their Way.' You can learn more about this in the resources section of our class website. Unit of InquiryLast week, we went on a field trip to Mr. Kresko's beehive. It was an amazing experience to see bees in action, and consolidate our learning on bees. We saw drone bees, worker bees, and the queen bee. We learned about pollination, and the process of making honey. We also learned about man-made hives, how to be a beekeeper, and why keeping bees is important. You can view all of the photos from our trip here. After our trip, we read the book, the beeman, and wrote a thank you card for Mr. Kresko. Gratitude is an important concept that I am trying to engrain in all that we do at school, and in our lives. We also began writing research reports about bees. Research skills are one of the International Baccalaureate's (IB) approaches to learning, that are assessed on your child's report card. The approaches to learning (ATL) are the IB's response to changes in the world, and creating students who are prepared for an unknown future. The goal of the ATLs is to ensure that our core curriculum includes developing transferable skills to help learners address the challenges in their school and home life. The approaches to learning are
Last Friday, we went to La Ferme D'Ivato. Very few farmers in Madagascar use mass-farming methods or spray their crops with pesticides. As such, most fruits and vegetables sold in marketplaces throughout the country are organic. However, for those who want added assurance, La Ferme d'Ivato is a farm dedicated to organic farming which produce, package and sell fruits and vegetables. We explored the beautiful farm, learned about different vegetables and how they grow, and saw how different types of chickens are farmed, and prepared for sale. All photos can be seen here. A special thank you goes out to Sophie, Aurora, and Mihaja for coming with us to the farm to help supervise our very excited little learners. We are now finished our unit of inquiry on life cycles. We will continue to care for our garden as one of our actions. We are hoping that it provides some fruits and vegetables that we can share with the needy. --This is one of the actions that we decided on when asked "What are you going to do with what we have learned to make the world a better place?". We also worked on constructing an insect hotel as part of an action for this unit. More info below. We have tuned into our new unit on Weather, and developed an understanding of our central idea and lines of inquiry. I look forward to all that we will learn about weather in the new year. Design TechnologyStudents decided that they wanted to build an insect hotel as an action for our unit of inquiry on life cycles. I enlisted Mr. Joe to help us with a 'quick project' before the holidays. I should have known better, knowing Mr. Joe now for 5 months, that he illuminates my ideas, and elevates them. Rarely, however, is anything quick. After putting together a quick document (below) and sending it to Mr. Joe to introduce insect hotels to the children, the idea started to snowball. Tools came out, materials were everywhere, and students were engaged! After a long three days with lots of work, learning, and some students volunteering their lunch time, we finished our insect hotel right before break. I am so proud of the outcome that these tiny humans were able to produce. The teachers in and out of the makers space, could not believe that this was a grade 1 project and that the students had done most of the work themselves (under direct supervision). In the new year we will find a good place to hand this functional work of art so that insects have a safe, dry place to stay during the rainy season, and can pollinate our garden. Student Agency - Voice Choice and Ownership of our LearningMy professional learning goal this year is to provide your children with more 'agency' or ownership of their learning in the classroom. This idea come from the new primary years program that the International Baccalaureate is rolling out next year. During some days, I have been giving students the opportunity to plan their days using the MoSCoW method. The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used in management, business analysis, project management, and software development to reach a common understanding with stakeholders on the importance they place on the delivery of each requirement - also known as MoSCoW prioritization or MoSCoW analysis. We have been using it to look at things we Must do, Should do, Could Do, and Want to do in our classroom. I have also taken on a workshop approach to learning, where students sign up for the workshops that they are interested in, and use the rest of their time to complete the projects that they have outlined based on the MoSCoW method. (pictured below) I began by listing some workshops for skills that we have been working on (doubles facts, measurement, reading fluency) and some support sessions (bee report help). I also had students suggest some things that they would like me to run a workshop on to support their learning (tying shoes, playing guess who). Students then could sign up for up to 4 workshops. When they signed up, they added them to their own daily schedule. After slotting them in, they then placed their 'must do' items on their schedule, and were free to slot in any other activities from their MoSCoW charts after. After scheduling our day, I was waiting for the chaos, but instead, I had students excited, on-task, and engaging in authentic, student-led learning. What I found was purposeful, and responsible learners! I am still amazed. I have been bragging about your children and how responsible they are. After going on about this to several colleagues, I have been asked to run a workshop for all staff on this process and what agency looks like in our classroom. I will be presenting it to the staff on the PD day before the students return after the break. While this is not something that I could do everyday, in that I need to address and assess all standards, it is something that I am planning on incorporating at least once a 6 day cycle. Malagasy Cultural CelebrationThis week, we also celebrated Malagasy culture. With our Malagasy cultural show, and fair. International schools are enriched by their relationship with their host countries, which serve as an important resource for strengthening the learning experience. Thank you to all of the parents who came out. International ConnectionsContinuing our discussion on international connections, first grade teacher, Tabitha Whittacker, from the United States reached out to me earlier this year to see if our class was willing to work with hers to make international connections throughout the year. We got off to a late start, but began this week by both reading the story 'Same Same, But Different.' This sparked so many amazing conversations, and since then we have been sending videos back and forth, and working on posters that discuss who we are. Check out our Flipgrid here. Holiday RotationsTo finish off our last week of 2017, and to send us off smiling into the new year, the amazing Mrs. Jennifer planned a holiday event for the students in the lower elementary school (pre-k - grade 2). Between lunch and break on Friday, students were divided into mixed groups and rotated through each classroom to do the following activities. Grade 2 - Art Grade 1 - Minute to Win it Games Kindergarten - Songs Pre-K - Stories It was a great way to see all of the little learners in the elementary school before the break. Happy Holidays!
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March 2018
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