Graphs Galore

This week we have spent a lot of time working with graphs. This goes along with the Common Core Standards for First Grade math in many ways. Students are expected to be able to " Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another."

Having spent a little time on graphs in Kindergarten, I feel confident that the students can organize their data and create a graph. What we have been working on this week is learning how to interpret the data that they have collected. We have spent a lot of time looking at graphs and sharing the information that we see.

 One kind of graph we looked at was our "Munchie Math" skittles graph. The students were asked to organize their bag of skittles into a graph and then figure out which color they had the most of and which color they had the least of.

Another graph we have been working on is our weather graph. Each day a student has the job of  "Weather Reporter". During our calendar time each day, this person checks the weather and reports back to our class. We have been keeping up with this data on our September weather graph. Each day the students tell me what they see from the data that they have on their graph. They may tell me which weather we have had the most, the least, or how many more sunny days than rainy days we have had.

On Fridays, we complete our graph of the week. This graph usually goes along with whatever topic we have been studying during the week. This week we have learned about Johnny Appleseed so the students made a graph of their favorite apple product. Each student has a chance to come up and choose which item they like the best and also give an explanation. For example, last week's question was "Which season do you like best? Summer or Fall?". Each student practiced stating an opinion by telling which season they liked the best and giving a reason as to why. This is a simple way to integrate math, social studies, science, and speaking and listening into our day in a quick graph!

We have also been making our own graphs by spinning spinners and surveying the class. Some days the children will spin the spinner 10 times and record and graph their data. Other days, the students will survey the class and record and graph their data. The students collect their data by making tally marks. When they are finished collecting, they color in the graph. On the back, the students write 2 sentences that describe what their findings were. These activities encourage collaboration and communication in addition to practicing several different math concepts!

As we move on in the year, I will let the children ask the questions about graphs to the class instead of me always asking! I will also encourage the students to write 4 interpretations instead of 2.  Over the course of the year, I want them to be able to write more detailed sentences about their graphs and be able to compare the data using all of the words in their word banks.

Daily 5 In Action

This year we have implemented the Daily Five into our literacy block. During the time where I read one on one with students from their leveled readers, the other students are doing different stations that involve different areas of literacy. Each day we have three rotations that are each 20 minutes long. The students will have the opportunity to choose which stations they would like to do each day, but they have certain requirements for the week that they have to meet. 

One station is called Read to Someone. This is a time where students partner up and read stories together. They are allowed to choose a book out of their book boxes, off the bookshelf, or one of our You Read to Me, I'll Read to You books. They take turns reading either a whole story or a page at a time with their partner. After reading, they may ask each other questions about the story or share why they liked or didn't like the story. This is great practice for reading out loud. It is also a great time for students to work together to figure out tough words. 

The student's favorite station is Word Work.  This station focuses on spelling and word building. The children practice spelling their spelling list words and tricky words using a variety of different methods. Children are able to choose from making play dough words, stamping words, using dry erase markers, making words with magnetic letters, and a fun activity called rainbow writing. When they rainbow write, they roll a dice to see which color they should use to write the words. The girls love this one- they enjoy using all different colors of markers, pencils, and pens! There will be different activities added throughout the year such as "secret code" words where students use picture codes to make their words and "eat your words" where students will make their words using cheez it scrabble and alphabits cereal. This station makes spelling fun and exciting!

Another favorite station is Listen to Reading. At this station the students get to choose a story to listen to at our listening center. If it is a special holiday or occasion, I may choose the book to go along with what we are studying in class. They get to listen to a book with a partner for the whole time. Many times they get to choose several fun books to listen to. Sometimes at listening center the children will have a comprehension check. I will either give them a listening center response sheet where they have to describe their favorite part of the story and draw and write about it or a graphic organizer to complete about the story. This shows that the children are really listening and comprehending the story during this time.

The main station that the children have to complete daily is Read to Self. Each child has a book box with books that are on their reading level that they will read each day. The students are allowed to choose two books that are on their reading level and one free, fun reading book. They keep the books for two days. During read to self, the children can read the books one of three ways : read the words, retell the story, or read the pictures. This is a time for the students to interact with text that is appropriate to their reading level . It is a also a time that they are able to read what they choose, rather than what they are told to read. Allowing students choice during this time is huge! They are able to tap into their own interests and opinions. Later on in the year, students will complete graphic organizers about their books on "Thoughtful 

Thursday" to show me that they understood the plot and were able to comprehend the story that they read. After they have completed all of their leveled readers, they will also begin taking AR tests to show their understanding of plot and vocabulary words in the story. 

There is also a station where students get to play games on the computer that incorporate literacy. They can choose to listen to a story on starfall.com or practice their spelling words in a fun game on spellingcity.com. Sometimes students also have to Meet with the Teacher. During this time we may have a reading group story and activity or some other center to complete together.

All of these fun ideas make learning to read and spell fun for the children. Every day they get excited about which stations and activities they will take part in that day. Daily 5 gives the children many chances to practice reading, writing, and spelling in ways that are fun and engaging and that make sense to them. All of the different kinds of exposure to written and spoken text helps them to become fluent readers and writers.

Watch a Plant Drink!

This week we finished up our unit on the needs of living things. We have learned that all living things breathe, grow, and, and change. We have also learned that all living things need food, water, and air to survive. We learned about several differences in living things as well. For instance, we learned that fresh water fish drink water through their gills and salt water fish drink water through their mouths. We also learned that plants make their own food. 

We learned that the plant's roots carry water up its stem and that its leaves carry sunlight down the stem and that the plant uses these things to make food. 

To illustrate how the stem works kind of like a straw, we did a little science "experiment". I posed this question to the students:

"What do you think will happen if we put this celery in purple water and leave it overnight?" 

I gave each student a post-it note and had them write down their predictions. They had some really great ideas!

Today, we looked at the celery again to see what had actually happened. If you look closely you can see that the veins in the leaves turned purple as well as some purple creeping up the stem. 

We took some time to talk about our predictions. I asked the students why they made the predictions that they made. Several students thought that the celery would grow because they know that plants grow if you water them. Others thought that the celery would drink all of the water because they had seen plants that had been watered and then seen that they were dry again in a few days. They thought that the plant would drink up all of the water because we had learned that plants drink water. All of these predictions show great thinking skills! The students looked at things that they knew from their personal experiences and used them to predict what might happen in a new and different situation. We talked about each situation and learned why these things didn't happen. I explained to the students that a plant cannot grow without roots and soil and that the celery could have used up all of the water if we had left it for a much longer time or used much less water. 

Several students also predicted that the celery would turn purple because of the purple water. I asked them to explain why it turned purple and they explained that the plant sucks up the water from the roots to make food and that the stem brings water up. 

I had these students put a check mark on their predictions because they had predicted what had actually happened. I had the other students put an x, but we discussed how any prediction that you can explain or support is correct. We only put an x to show that it wasn't what really happened-not to show it was wrong. 

This was a fun way for the children to learn about making predictions.  They were all very excited to do an experiment and couldn't wait to see if what they had predicted had happened. It was also a good opportunity for them to learn that wrong answers aren't always wrong. Oftentimes they can help us learn!

A visit from Paramedics

In honor and remembrance of 9/11and all of the emergency service workers who helped on that day,  a wonderful parent in our class planned for paramedics from Iredell County EMS to come and visit us and show us their truck.

We got to see the ambulance and several different things that paramedics might use if the children were ever in an emergency situation. They showed us the machine that monitors your heart rate. Nevaeh tried it out and said it didn't even hurt!

The students got to go inside the ambulance and see many different things that might be used to help people in an emergency. Some things they recognized from home...rubber gloves, paper towels, etc...

Our class really enjoyed getting to meet these community helpers. This was a great opportunity for them to learn about emergency services in case they are ever in a situation where they would need them. We all hope that they aren't, but now they will know what to expect if they ever do have to ride on an ambulance and they won't be scared of all of the equipment. We even had them flash the lights and sirens so that they would know the noise that they  make and what to do when they hear it.

 

Thank you Iredell County EMS!

Living and Nonliving Collages

This week we have continued to learn about living and non living things. Last week we talked about different kinds of animals that are living. This week we have started a unit about plants. We are learning all about the needs of different living things. As a fun, culminating activity I thought the children would enjoy making living and non living collages. We did several sorts in class where the students were given pictures of different living or non living things and had to decide if they were living or non living, but this took it to a higher level of thinking.  The children were given magazines and they had to look for things themselves that would fall into each category.

 They had a ball digging into the magazines! It was fun to see the children's personalities come through in this project. You could tell the things that they were interested in by what they chose to cut out. It was really cute to hear them saying "I need one more living thing!" "I am looking for a non living thing!".

The children were asked to find at least 3 living things and 3 not living things. They did a fantastic job don't you think?

Something fishy....

For the first two weeks of school, we have been doing the "Step Up To First Grade" lessons in our math program. These were a brief review of what is to come this year in math. One of the main things that we focused on was addition and subtraction sentences. Subtraction sentences seem to confuse the children the most- they can't ever remember which number goes where, so this is the concept that we practiced in munchie math this week. We made sure to practice putting the whole first when you are subtracting instead of putting the parts first like when you add. 

We told different number stories about fish swimming in the pond and the students were asked to create the stories on their workmats and then write the number sentence that would represent the number story. Then, we had a student come up and write it for us on the smart board. I started by making up the number stories, but then the children were able to make them up as well. We practiced a few addition sentences as well. Learning math is always more fun when  you get to eat goldfish afterwards!!!