Math Magic

If you have ever stapled paper into a book during Writer’s Workshop, then you know the magic that paper looking like a book can have on students and their writing. I found that same magic in math!







We are in a unit about patterns in numbers and I pulled out the old adding machine tape. All you have to do is cut strips of it and let the students start writing their numbers down. It’s like this race to see who can write the most numbers on a single strip and how many strips can you get the teacher to add on (just tape the edges to the old strip). I will say this is a bit of a nightmare sometimes because they become so voracious with writing their numbers. But it’s all in the name of learning!



















If a student write the number incorrectly I write it out correctly. I know exactly who to work with if I see lots of these mistakes.







This one may not seem that impressive, but this little girl didn't even know what numbers meant when she first came to my class. She couldn't even count to 10...and now she is at 55 independently!







This is one of the options in Math Workshop from last week . This is great for those who are still writing their numbers backwards – they get the extra practice they need without even realizing that it’s work…





Also, I’m checking to see if my students have skip counting down. For the ones that still struggle I printed off these little strips. They keep them in their pencil boxes and can practice any time they have free time during the day.



Skip Counting by 2s 5s 10s Strips



I also have some 100’s charts attached. I have always used my pocket chart 100’s chart to show patterns in numbers because they have red cards for odd numbers, purple for skip counting by 10’s, blue for 5’s, etc. But then I realized that it takes FOREVER to show one pattern because you have to flip all the little number cards. It took me 7 years to figure out to put a 100’s chart on the computer screen and change the text color in seconds to show different patterns! I have never claimed to be the brightest person in the world! ;O)



100s Chart to Change in Front of Class



Another Math Workshop options is to take a 100’s chart and color it in to match the pattern. I have printed these various 100’s chart with patterns and posted them. I also have 101-200 chart for an extension. Feel free to use. This was my first year to use them and it was a huge success. When I played the clean-up song the students were desperate to ask if we could do Math Workshop the next day so they could do more! That will make any little teacher’s heart swoon ~



100s Chart with 10s Pattern

100s Chart with 25s Pattern

100s Chart with 3s Pattern

100s Chart with 4s Pattern

100s Chart with 5s Pattern

100s Chart with 2s Pattern Odd and Even

 

 

 

Visualization Lesson Plans Revisited

I am currently introducing the concept of visualization to my class.  If you have read my previous post you know it is a weeklong introduction full of fun! 

As I am now in my second year teaching it this way I have tweaked my lesson plans.  If you downloaded them last time you will see that I have changed my materials - no more hamburger…I use salsa now.  It's easier and you don't have to heat it up for the smell.  This year I also had my students get to Quick Draw on the second day after describing my brother's stinky shoes and messy room.  The students are really catching on and so I wanted to move past just talking more quickly.  So below are my revised lesson plans. 

Visualization Introduction Lesson Plans

I'm sure you never take something and use it exactly without tweaking it...but I wanted to show how I change my lessons as I adapt to a new group of students each year.  Here are some pictures of my students' illustrations after I told them about the stinky shoes:

Also, here is an attachment with links to the sounds I use during the second week of visualization.  I play the sounds periodically throughout the week and have the students Quick Draw the sounds in their learning journals.  I rarely use all the sounds...but it's nice to have them in case your class needs more practice.

Sounds for Visualization

As always, happy teaching ~

Fable Lesson Idea

I was looking through some pictures and found these from our Fables, Folk Tales, and Fairy Tales unit (back in November).  And since I never seem to post about Social Studies it just seemed like the right thing to write about.

 

I'm sure nobody means to do this, but some subjects just get the shaft in our time and lesson planning.  To try and make sure that I am teaching Social Studies every day I have tried to find ways to integrate it into ELA.  If you use the Daily 5 framework - it is super easy to put into Listen to Reading and Word Work (see my Daily 5 and Social Studies post). 

 

But I want other ways to integrate as well.  For this unit we read a lot of Aesop's Fables and discussed what a moral is, etc.  Since we had been talking about characters and setting at this time anyway I threw in a quick little project on Friday.  After retelling 2 of Aesop's Fables (that we had previously discussed) I listed the titles on the board.  Then I had each pair choose one of the fables.

 

As you can see in the pictures they had to list:

• fable title
• characters
• setting
• moral

 

 

 

Then I had them illustrate the setting and make little characters on popsicle sticks.  My early finishers got to act out the fable using their characters and setting.  This was a super fun and easy project with Social Studies and ELA all in one.

Rocks and Soil Exploration

One of my favorite units in science is our rocks and soil unit.  I guess it's because the kids already love rocks and dirt and so they are naturally interested in this unit.

 

Part of our unit includes science centers where the students go from one rock / soil station to another.  Centers, stations, Daily 5, math workshop - these all come naturally in ELA and math but I don't always use them in science.  But the rocks and soil unit lends itself naturally to this type of setup.  Using one of my favorite black-holes of time (Pinterest) I found an awesome kindergarten unit on rocks and soil.  She is obviously an awesome teacher so I've linked her unit below.  I used one of her pages off of her rocks and soil unit and made it fit what I wanted.  This is just a quick reminder that you can use something from other grade levels and adjust it to your grade...good teaching is good teaching.

 

http://www.kindergartenkindergarten.com/rocks-and-soil/

 

After using the 'My Rock Report' I made a page of my own and just tweaked it a bit.  Below is the link for my new version.  Feel free to grab it and edit it so it works better for you.

 

Mystery Rock Report

 

So here were the centers:

• Rocks / Soil books
• I can never read all the books I have on a topic so the kids love getting to see new books or flip through ones we have read together as a class
• Soil Samples
• Each student had to visit each of the 3 soil samples and illustrate / label each of the samples in his learning journal

 

 

 

 

• Mystery Rock
• There were 2 of these stations.  Each had a very specific sort of rocks - I made sure that no two rocks were too much alike.  There might be 2 large white-ish rocks, but one was smooth and the other very porous.  The students chose a 'mystery rock' and filled out the rock report without telling anyone their choice. 
• We then took time at the end of each lesson to go through the reports and see if we could figure out the 'mystery rock' based on the rock report.  After the class had guessed I had the student glue her mystery rock report into her journal.  The LOVED this activity.



• Soil Size Sort
• This center was with me because it is so messy.  I have 3 different size sifters (from a FOSS kit - Pebbles, Sand, and Silt) and the students use them to sort the rocks into different sizes.  As we are doing this we discuss why we would need the different sizes sorted and what people might do with each size.

This doesn't sound like a lot of centers but, trust me, it is a lot of setup and you have multiples of the soil samples and mystery rock center.  My students and I loved this science center setup - it was something different for a couple of days.  Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how you might use centers in science.  I know I'm going to keep looking for ways to incorporate this into other units. 

Math Games that Focus on 10

I found another old video that I had never uploaded.  It's so much fun to see my alumni back when they were first graders and know that they are doing so well in older grades.  So when people tell me that it looks like we are 'just playing games' I know that it may look like that, but I am building a solid foundation for success.  Can you tell I've had some recent discussions that imply that first grade is 'easy' to teach?

 

 

I've mentioned before that I use Investigations as my main math curriculum.  However, I make my students write down their corresponding equations as they play the games.  That is not in the curriculum but I would highly recommend it.  I also add other games such as bowling for 10.  After our focus on the number 10 my students are excellent at composing and decomposing the number 10.  This video shows the kids at work and gives you an idea about our noise level on some days...at least you know they are excited about math!  :O)

Writer's Workshop Lesson Using Student Work

I found this video and realized that I have never uploaded it.  Here is a closing lesson in Writer's Workshop.  I always try to find authors who are using our mini-lessons in their writing and highlight them.  That tends to get more authors to try these ideas.  Here is a quick video showing a closing lesson using student work. 

 

Remember I have my students share their work with at least one other student each day.  That helps give me time to do this type of closing and still let them have an audience.  I like to alternate this type of lesson closing and an official author's chair by having a few students come up and share with the whole class.

Diversity Lesson Introduction

This post is a little late...but maybe you can use the idea for next year.  I'm sure that by now almost everyone has seen the brown egg and white egg experiment.  I learned that lesson from one of my college education classes and love the simple illustration.  I use it every year around MLK Day because it is a perfect introduction.  The only twist I have is then using white and black paint samples and have the kids look at their skin to see that none of us are really white or black.

I had 3 of my girls make a little video to remind us of our learning.  They are just too cute!