HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Math & Language Centres

Yes, it is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada!  It has been a chilly but nice and sunny weekend thus far.  Yesterday Ella and I had a big fire in the backyard to get rid of all the giant branches that have been falling off the trees in my front yard.  It was extremely windy when they fell, but it does have me a little concerned about the winter --- I do not want a tree through the roof!

So, what do you think of this font?  It is one of my very favourites!  It’s called ‘Baby Boston’ (which could be a bit of why I like it - as I LOVE Boston!) and is from the best free font site on the web:  Fonts for Peas.  Check it out and add lots of fun fonts for free!

This past week my class discussed the origin of Thanksgiving and what we are thankful for in our own lives.  We made these mini-pumpkin books.  (I have used these in the past with grades 2/3/4 to do connections and retells.)

I also had an amazing mom bring in these cute turkey crafts.  Sometimes it is very nice to have a pre-made activity!

               

               

Here is a look at some of the Math Centres I did this past week:
Domino Addition from What the Teacher Wants.  Bull’s Eye Game to reinforce Place Value also from What the Teacher Wants.  I used wiggly eyes for the children to toss onto the game board.  And Even Steven, Odd Todd game to review even and odd numbers from First Grade A La Carte.             

   

Some of my Language Centres:

Puzzle names:  I premade index cards with students’ names.  I used this when I taught Kindergarten years ago, so to make it just a bit more challenging I used all the names from each group, cut them with more angles and mixed them altogether in a baggie.  It was fun to watch them use each others’ letters and then realize they didn’t have a rectangle.

Ordering months of the years and days of the week and Cut & Paste ABC’s.  Very sorry, but I can’t remember what teacher blog I got these 2 from.  If you find them please let me know.  Thanks!

And the fourth centre was putting the week’s sight words in alphabetical order.  This is our third week doing this and I think they are finally getting it.  J

            



                    Bonnie

Place Value (with some freebies!)

We have been working on Place Value for the past couple of weeks.  Isn’t it the best feeling when your little ones don’t have a clue what you are talking about at the start of a unit and by the end they know it inside and out?!  Here are some of the activities I used:

We started out with the Elmo (opaque projector) and just learning the Base 10 manipulatives.  Next we moved on to the Smart Board and the base ten manipulatives that are in the gallery.  The kiddos always love when they can play with the Smart Board – instant engagement!  At first I would pick the number, but once they got the hang of it, I had one student pick a number and another show it in Base 10’s.  Here is a picture of the format I was using:

I used these cute animal place value cards that I got for free at DoodleBugs.  I wasn’t sure how she used them, so I numbered them and the students filled out this recording sheet at a math centre:

We also made little folders.  I got this idea from Step Into Second http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.ca/search/label/place%20value  I used this sheet and filled in different 2-digit numbers for each student.  They determined how many ten’s and one’s and then cut them out and put them in the correct side of their mini-folder.  This also allowed for a mini-lesson on even and odd numbers.  Using bright paper and creating ‘mini things’ always excites kiddies!

 


As a mini assessment/exit slip, I used this page:

Hope you can use these!

                                                                                       Bonnie

School BBQ

Our school hosts a BBQ - an evening for families to come together, meet the new teachers and have a look in their child's classroom.  This year I got some fantastic ideas to use in my room from Pinterest.  During the day, my Firsties drew a self-portrait and filled in clues of who they were.  I spread these around the tables for the parents to find their child.  Once parents located their little darling, they used a white crayon to write a secret message.  The next day, students painted with water colours to find out their parent's message.

Rules and Promises

Our 5 Classroom Rules come from Whole Brain Teaching.  I did change Rule 3.  At WBT it reads: Raise Your Hand for Permission to Leave Your Seat.  We are moving ALOT and I don’t want them raising their hand every time, so I changed this rule to:  Respect Others, Yourself, and Our School, which I feel is a very important rule.  For the first month of school we review these rules at the start of each day and after every recess.  Now we are doing it at the start of the day and as needed throughout the day.  It's fun to call out the number of the rule that is being broken and they all chant it together and do the little gestures.

From Amy at Stepinto Second Grade, I got the cute idea for our door.  Students coloured a cut out, my wonderful EA cut out the backgrounds and we put them on our door with our classroom promise.

Catch Up!

Since I missed the first week of school, other than the first hour, I considered the second week to be the first.  We started working on our First Day of School Booklets from Fun in First. 

For math, we explored different ways to represent a number.  For example – 20 can be shown by 2 base ten rods, 20 smiley faces, $20, 20 tally marks, etc.  Students picked their own number and showed at least 5 ways to represent it in their math journals.

At the end of the day students took home a little baggie of ‘Gold fish’ with an ‘I’m officially a first/second grader’ tag.  I got this off of Pinterest and bought the Goldfish baggies to put them in.

Good Bye to my Mom

I have not been on my blog in a few weeks now.

My mother passed away on the night of September 1^st; the night before school started; so things have been a bit out-of-sorts.  I have been busy playing catch-up with my class as well as other things in my life, so my blog took a backseat.  I will try to get back on track and fill you in on all the fun things we have been doing in class.

I did manage to go into school the morning of September 2^nd.  I think I was in a state of shock – my mother’s death just wasn’t registering with me yet.  (It still isn’t really.)  I was able to greet my students outside.  (Somewhere around 9, they found a supply for me.)  At the bell I led my students inside.  I followed Sarah Meador’s 5 Steps for the First Day of School.  This introduces the basics of Whole Brain Teaching.  The students responded perfectly (well nearly...). 

After learning the students names, I asked who had visited the class website.  Oh, let’s backtrack...  About a week before school started, I mailed out letters introducing myself, supplies needed, the class website, permission forms for photos, etc.  I got the website set up ahead of time.  I highly recommend Weebly for an easy class website.  I have used it for 4 years now – absolutely free!  From Amy Lemons and Around the Kampfire blogspots, I got the idea for the fantastic book, “Where Were You?”, by Melanie Watt.  Our board’s library didn’t have it so I ordered it from Chapters Indigo.  I got the book trailer from Around the Kampfire and put it on my site.  It is so cute and makes you really want to read the book.

Next, I read the book to the students.  They loved, Loved, LOVED it!!!

I asked the students, “So...where were you???”  They came up with great responses, from being on a Disney Cruise, to driving from a cousin’s, to getting Tim Horton’s before school.  At this point, I had a supply teacher in my room as well as my EA.  As the students told me where they had been, I had them go to one of the adults to jot it down on a post-it and put it on our chart.  This ran nicely into my prep time.  At this point, I filled the supply in on some plans I had for the week and then I left to be with my dad and daughters.