Yikes we are 100 years old!

We came to school dressed like we were 100 years old.  

 Oldest first graders ever.

The oldest first grade teacher ever!!!

Then Mrs. Wanke used her phone to make us look really really old! 

We played all kinds of 100th day games!  

Hip Hip Hooray...tomorrow is the 100th Day!

We are so excited that tomorrow is the 100th day of school!   Here are some games that we will be exploring.  

Number Grid Fireworks

Give the Dog a Bone

Balloon Pop

Number Bubble Skip Counting

Celebrating a GREAT man, Martin L. King Jr.

This week we read the story Martin's BIG words.

We talked about how Dr. King's words were called BIG, not because they were long words, but because they were powerful.  

We also did an activity where we looked at two eggs, one white and one brown.  We discussed the visible differences between the two eggs.  Then, we cracked the eggs open.  We discussed how the eggs are the same on the inside.  

We talked about how the eggs are similar to people.  The outsides of all of us are different, but the inside is the same.  

We listened to a portion of Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." ~ Dr. Martin L. King Jr.

We thought, how can we tell if someone has good character.  We worked with a partner and sorted through a bunch of character traits.  We learned that you can judge someones character by their words and their actions.

This is how we can keep Dr. King's message alive today!

Zearn

Zearn is an online program that we have been using in our class during math class.  This program breaks down the math concepts and strategies that we are learning in first grade.  Your child is able to do this program at home, although it is not required.

If you child would like to do Zearn at home, have your child click on the image below and sign in.  Your child's log-in is the same log in as Success Maker, so they should remember it.  Their password is 1234.  If you have any questions or need help, please let me know.

I will add a link to this site under our Wonderful Websites tab.  Thank you for your support!

Figurative Language

This week we read the story Snow by Cynthia Rylant.  As one of the first graders said, "This is a beautiful book."  What makes this book so "beautiful" is the way the author uses figurative language and how the author created vivid illustrations.  (The illustrations inspired us this week when we were writing our books.)



We worked hard at visualizing what the author said and what she actually meant.    On Friday, we had a little fun with figurative language with the story, Even More Parts by Tedd Arnold.  This book had us laughing out loud!

Strategic Mathematical Thinkers

We have been learning how to be more strategic mathematical thinkers.  This week we learned how we can make +9 problems into +10 problems so we can solve them in our heads.  For example, if I see the math problem 3+9, I can picture the 9 taking 1 away from the 3 to make the math problem 2+10.  +10 problems are much easier and quicker to add in our heads!

We have been working hard on memorizing our doubles facts.  We love to practice memorizing these facts with the doubles rap song.

 

We have been doing this rap for a while.  So now that we know our doubles facts, how can we use this to help us solve other problems.

Now we think of near doubles facts or as we call them doubles +1 or doubles -1.
For example, if know that 5+5=10, then we know that 5+6=11 because 6 is just 1 more than 5 making our answer 1 more.   Or we I know that 4+4=8, then we know that 4+3=7 because 3 is 1 less than 4 making our answer 1 less.

On Thursday, we played a game called Bugs in our Pants.  We would show an addition problem with the bugs on our blue jean work mats.   Then, we would turn that problem into a double fact.  For example, 4+2.  We put 4 bugs on one pant leg and 2 bugs on the other pant leg.  Then, we moved one of the bugs from the 4 side over to the pant leg with 2 bugs.  Now, our math problem was magically transformed into 3+3!  We can solve that in our head!!!!

New Year's Resolutions

We read the story Squirrels New Year's Resolution.

In this story Squirrel learned what a new year's resolution was, but struggled to come up with a resolution for himself.  By the end of the story his friends helped him discover that he had a resolution all along!

We made our own resolutions!  We sure came up with some good ones...so good that we had to wear them around!