Alligator Greater

Using the comparison symbols > and < have always seemed to stump my first graders. They can never remember which way the sides should go or which way to read it once they get it down on paper. I have seen several great ways to help them remember, but the one I like best is the alligator. The children can remember that the alligator likes to chomp the greater number, helping them remember which way the sign should go by using a little imagination and thinking about that big side chomping down. 

I found this great printable on pinterest and thought it looked like a lot of fun. The children can actually color it and then practice inequalities at home as well, which is a fun bonus! 

In class each child was given some goldfish to put in the pond as well as an alligator. The children took turns picking numbers for us to put on either side of the workmat and then we set up our alligators to chomp the greater number and then practiced reading it. The children really got into it and had fun practicing using these symbols!

The First Thanksgiving

During the week leading up to Thanksgiving we spent a lot of time learning about the first Thanksgiving. We read lots of great non-fiction text that described what it was like for the Pilgrims when they set off on their journey to America. We also watched the Charlie Brown video "The Mayflower Voyagers", which is a great little cartoon that depicts the real events of the pilgrims journey.

Each day after we read our story about the pilgrims, the children worked on making their own story. I gave them strips with mixed up sentences about the first Thanksgiving and they  had to put them together to make sense. After they figured out the sentences, we brainstormed what the illustrations for the sentences might look like and then the children illustrated. I was really impressed with their very detailed illustrations that very accurately depicted the story.

Here is the story of the first Thanksgiving as told by our class.

Munchie Measurement

In first grade, we practice measuring in many different ways. We use both standard and non-standard measurement. Standard measurement includes using a ruler to measure in inches or centimeters. Non-standard can include measuring using anything! We've used connecting cubes, our feet, teddy bears, you name it! This particular day, we were using standard measurement to measure twizzlers. 

For whatever reason, first graders love to use knives! I imagine this is because they don't often get to use them, but that always makes this lesson a huge hit! We started by going over the safety of using a (plastic) knife. The children knew that they should only cut their twizzlers and nothing else, otherwise their knife privileges would be revoked!

It had been a while since we pulled out rulers, so we started this lesson by looking at our rulers and deciding which side we should use if we were going to be measuring using inches. (The Big Numbers). Then, we discussed where you should start measuring. It is important that children realize that some rulers start at the end, while others may have a zero or other marker to show them where to start. We looked at how things might come out differently if you started to measure in the wrong place. 

Once we had reviewed all of this, we got down to measuring. I would call out a length and the children were supposed to measure their twizzler to that length and cut it. 

 When we were all finished measuring, we took our different lengths that we had measured and I had the children put them in order from the shortest to the longest to help review those comparison words.

Tune in next week to see a little non-standard measurement marshmallow fun!

Leaves revisited!

When we went on our leaf hunt earlier in the week I asked the children to make sure they collected "two or more" leaves. After we figured out that this meant at least two leaves and that they could collect as many as they wanted as long as they had two, we went out and collected our leaves! What a great "teachable moment" for math!

 

The second leaf that they collected was for another science activity. We already learned that scientists observe different things. Today we became scientists to learn more about our leaves. We measured them using several different non-standard units.

 

 

At one station the children had to measure their leaf's length using cubes.

 

 

 

At another station they measured whether their leaf would sink or float and then measured how many pennies it would take to sink their leaf.

 

At another station the children measured the area of their leaf using pennies.

 

 

The station that they seemed to enjoy the most was where they measured how far they could count before their leaf hit the floor when dropped. They did it over and over, trying to see if they could count a little faster!

 

 

This was a fun way to integrate science and math to finish up our fall leaves study. The children enjoyed using different units to describe their leaves. Then they had to draw a picture of their leaf like a scientist: using the "real" colors.

 

 

 Check out our little scientists!

 

Positively Delicious Place Value

For the past few months, we have been practicing place value. Each morning when we do our calendar, we look at what day in school it is and then decide how many "tens and ones" the number has. We've been practicing it several different ways. One way is counting straws. Each day a student adds a straw for the day in school and when we get to a "ten" number, we make a bundle. Then we count the bundles. We have also been using place value blocks on our smart board to make the number a different way. Each day we also play mystery number. Everyone closes their eyes while one child comes up front and chooses a number. Then the student chooses someone to tell what the number is and they not only have to figure out the missing number, but also have to tell us how many tens and ones the number has. In an effort to do something fun and different, I incorporated place value into our Munchie Math this week. The children were given honeycomb cereal and cheerios. First, I had them decide which should be the tens and which should be the ones. They all agreed that the honeycombs were bigger so they would obviously be the tens!

We had a few 5th grade helpers in class today and I let them call out numbers to the children. The children first had to write the number and then make it using their cereal. This was a fun and yummy way to practice place value!

 

 

Unbe-leaf-able leaves!

We have been learning all about fall and the changes that take place during this fun season. We have learned that some trees lose their leaves (deciduous) and other's leaves stay green all year (evergreen). We also learned that there are several different kinds of leaves with different shapes and sizes. We learned why some trees lose their leaves and why leaves change color in the fall.

Since we were finishing up our study of leaves, I decided to take the children out on a leaf hunt!

 

We walked around our block and found lots of different leaves that have already started to fall! The children would get so excited every time we'd find a big bunch of fallen leaves...especially when we found some cool colors!

 

After we collected our leaves, we came back to class and learned how scientists would study our leaves. We talked about how scientists love to look really closely at things and use their senses to find out about things. The children described what their leaves felt like, smelled like, looked like, and what sounds they could make with them. Then we learned how you can make really neat pictures by rubbing leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrapping Up Animal Habitats

For the past month or so we have been learning about animal habitats and adaptations in our science time. We learned about all kinds of different animal homes. We learned that animals have special characteristics that help them live in the places that they live.

 

Three specific places that we learned about were the forest, ocean, and desert. We learned that forest animals make their homes in trees and are dark colors so that they can blend in to their surroundings. We learned that there are all kinds of animals living in the ocean. We learned how fish use their gills to breathe under water in both salt and fresh water. Finally, we learned how animals adapt to living in the desert. We learned that camels have all kinds of special features that enable them to live in the desert, where not many animals live. They have special hooves with two toes that help them walk on sand, really big eyelashes that keep sand out of their eyes, really furry ears to keep the sand out, and a hump that stores fat so that they can live where there is little food or water.

 

As a wrap up and review to all of these, I gave the children an animal habitat project. I split the class into groups based on the different habitats that we had studied. Each group had two books based on their habitat to give them ideas and a blank poster. Their assignment was to fill up their poster with pictures and words that described their habitat.

 





 

After each group completed their poster, they had to give a little presentation to the class. Not only were were working on science, we were also practicing 3 of the 4 C's for 21st Century Learning: Communication, Creativity,  and Collaboration. The children had to communicate with one another to decide what to put on their poster, they had to come up with a creative way to show it, and they had to work together to do it. We have never done a true group project before, so I thought this was a chance for the children to practice working together and agreeing in a group. They really surprised me and worked together like great little teams!

Here are their presentations. I thought they were fantastic considering we have never done anything like this before!  It is definitely a start! I hope for us to do more collaborative activities like this in the future.

 

 

 

Subtraction Centers

Last week we took some time to slow down and review some of what we have learned so far this year. We have spent the past month learning about addition and subtraction. At the end of our unit on subtraction, we began looking at fact families as a way to tie them together. 

Since we learned so much information in such a short amount of time, I wanted to give the children a chance to reflect on and practice what we had learned before we moved on. Centers are a fun way for children to practice information and a great way to make sure everyone is engaged in learning!

The first center was a center called "bump". The children took two ten-sided dice and rolled them. Then they made a subtraction sentence out of those numbers. After they figured out what their difference would be, they covered it up on the game board. If their partner got the same number, they could "bump" them off of their number. If the same partner got the same number twice, they could double up on their counters and block off that number so they got to keep it. The player with the most numbers covered at the end of the game wins. This was a great way for the children to practice counting on because 11 and 12 were on the dice and they cannot count these on their fingers. This is a strategy we will spend more time on as we begin looking at numbers up to 20. 

Another center was the "Parts of a Whole" game that went along with our unit in enVision math. The children took turns spinning two spinners and then had to find the difference between the two numbers, very similar to the bump game. Once they found the difference, they covered up the basket that matched their number. Again, the player with the most spots covered at the end wins. One difference in this center was that the children were given counters to use to figure out their subtraction stories. This is a great tool for children to use when they are adding or subtracting because it is concrete and allows kinesthetic learners to physically move the counters as they work through the problem. 

Another center was "Fact Family Triangle". At this center, the children rolled two dice and then had to figure out the sum of the two numbers and use all three numbers to make two addition sentences and two subtraction sentences. We have started moving the numbers around and making sure that we still have the same "equals", sum, or product and this reinforced this concept very well. If the students just put their numbers in a random order, I would have them actually use their fingers or counters to work through the problem so that they could understand why their number sentence was not correct. This helps the children know what to do no matter where the numbers or symbols are in the number sentence. 

The last center that we had for the week was a domino activity. In this center, the children had to take out a random domino, draw it on their paper, and then make two different addition sentences using the numbers and two different subtraction sentences using the numbers. This was great practice for fact families. It also helped students remember how they can move numbers around in a number sentence. They have the commutative property for addition down pretty well...they know that 2+3=5 and that 3+2=5, but the subtraction ones are a little trickier!

We concluded the week by using honey nut cheerios to make fact families during Munchie Math on Friday. This was a great and tasty review of what we had done earlier in the week.