Math Slide

We are loving the app, Math Slide. Students are partnered up as they practice fact fluency as well as subitizing!  Let me tell you there is total engagement when Math Slide is being used!

Reading Response

Today I read, The Little Scarecrow Boy written by Margaret Wise Brown.  This story is about a little scarecrow boy who longs to accompany his father, old man scarecrow, to the cornfields to frighten the crows.  Instead he must remain home to grow and to practice the terrible facial expressions his father taught him. Students enjoyed this story because they easily made connections about times when they wanted to do something but because of their age and/or size, they just weren't ready.
For their reading response activity students recorded the problem and solution in the story.

Brace Map

A Brace Map is a Thinking Map that helps students understand the relationship between a whole and its parts.   This type of map can be challenging for the students to create independently,  so I decided their first attempt should be something they are familiar with...scarecrows.  I was so proud at how well they turned out. This activity helped them understand the concept of Brace Maps and how it can be used to better organize their thinking when writing.

What is a Community?

In Social Studies we began a new unit, 'Citizens Form a Community at School'.  To create an interest in this unit, I decided to have the students use Today's Meet to define as well as describe attributes of a community. While I was able to quickly assess their background knowledge about communities, students enjoyed reading each others posts as well as seeing their own post enlarged on the whiteboard!

Guided Math Rotations

 

During Guided Math rotations students practice a variety of math concepts.  This week they used the app 'Number Pieces' for Place Value, '10 Frame Fill' for Number Combinations to 10,  ABCYa for counting 0-50 and Xtra Math for fact fluency.

Double Bubble Map

After reading The Little Red Hen and The Little Green Witch students created a Double Bubble map.  Using this type of Thinking Map students were able to show their thinking as they compared and contrasted the 2 stories.

Skyping again!

This afternoon we had the opportunity to Skype with a first grade class in Oregon!  Before we made the  connection, we located Oregon on our map and quickly learned they were in a different time zone (2 hours later).  Once connected students from both classes shared  information about their state and then read character riddles they had written about the book, Marty McGuire. The students had a great time meeting and answering riddles.  Hopefully we will be able to Skype with this class again.