Count the Room

The first and second grade students are working on counting money.  We have been practicing and practicing to count accurately.  A fun way that we practice counting money was an activity called "Count the Room."  The students had to hunt around the room to find different cards with money pictures.  Once they found a card, they had to count the amount of money and write the sum on their recording sheet.  It was a fun way to practice counting money and a great method to see how everyone was progressing.

Here we see Miss Gatlin using touchpoints to count a set of money.

Our friend Tom found a card to count as well!

Marissa and Em practiced some team work in counting this card!  Good job girls!

This is what our recording sheets looked like.

An example of our counting cards.  See those dots on the dimes?  Those are actually touchpoints!  All of our silver coins have touchpoints to help us count accurately.  We count by fives when we use touchpoints on coins.  Pennies do not have touchpoints because we count them by ones.

Coordinate Grids

The third grade students were recently studying coordinate grids.  As a follow-up to that study, we did some practice on the computer.  The students LOVE to get time on the computers, so we try to fit that in at least once a week.  Here, the students are working on the netbook computer and our desktop computers to practice coordinate grids.  It was a fast, fun way for us to see if they had mastered the skill.  :)

Our Amazing Readers!

This is SO cool!  We found an app for our ipods where we can record the students and share their progress with you!  Just listen to how well our first graders are reading...we couldn't be more proud!  I bet we have some pretty proud parents too!

Click on the link below to hear our amazing readers:
https://vr.shapeservices.com/play.php?hash=2f67ba78595075001366b411535af5510098013a7e1f7725c

Take a look at their hard work. The students each practiced reading a sentence and then they came to the board and found different things we had been working on this week.  They circled the suffix "es" when they found it and they circled "or" and "ore" when they found them, and they underlined their vocabulary words in their sentences.  They are making so much progress!

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Sent via VR+

Coordinate Grids

Today the third graders learned about coordinate grids.  These consists of items plotted on a grid where students are given an ordered pair, such as (3,2) and have to find the item.  What better way to learn that to make a human coordinate grid?!?  We used chairs in our room to construct a coordinate grid.  Then the students each selected an item and randomly placed it on a chair.  Next, they had to write the correct ordered pair that would lead someone else to their item. (In coordinate grids you have to go across first and then up.)  Students took turns drawing a random slip and following the direction to see what item they were led to.  It was fun and very helpful in learning about coordinate grids!

Here the students were determining the correct ordered pair to write so that someone else could follow them to find the selected object.

More work on determining ordered pairs.

This was the ordered pair that Zoey selected.

Here is Zoey starting at zero.  The first number in her ordered pair was 4, so she is first walking across the grid 4 steps.

And she found 4 and stopped right there.  Then she turned and faced up the grid.

After taking 3 steps up, Zoey successfully found the object (an eraser) that her partner had led her to.  Way to go!

A New Twist

Today Mrs. Head had the students practicing a reading OAA story, which is nothing new for the students.  However, today she decided to add a new twist to this normal activity...and the students LOVED it!  At the beginning of class Mrs. Head place a large letter A, B, and C in different spots in the room.  After going through each question the students had to choose what they felt was the best answer.  When everyone had an answer Mrs. Head counted down and the students had to walk to the letter they chose, prepared to defend their answer.  It was amazing how much more carefully they considered each question when they knew they would have to literally stand by their answer and prove where it came from!  They loved this activity and as they were walking out the door they were begging to do it again!  I am guessing that they will get that opportunity. :)

Here you can see Bailey underlining important information in the story.  This is such an important skill for the students to use.

Now we see Alizae applying the strategy of underlining important information.  Good thinking Alizae!

As you can see here, the whole group agreed on "B" as the answer.  Here, the students are conferring with one another to prove to Mrs. Head that their answer is indeed correct.

Hmmm...this time part of the group chose answer "A" and the other part of the group chose answer "B."  I wonder who was right? :)

Please Vote!

I recently learned that I have been nominated for an award.  With this award, the winner will get $25,000 dollars in technology for their school, a class set of Ipads, and an Ipad for the teacher.  Boy, would this come in handy, not only for our class, but for our whole school!  You can vote once per day until March 31st.  We would appreciate your votes more than you can imagine...!  Here is how to vote:

1.  Go to: www.voteforteachers.com
2.  Type in our state, school district (Wayne Trace Local), and school (Payne Elementary School).
3.  Enter my name and your name and email information.  Make sure to check "no" for the subscription at the bottom (unless you want it for some reason).

The BEST news is that by voting, YOU can also have a chance to win and Ipad for yourself!  Five people who vote for nominees will win an Ipad! :)

Thanks for voting!

Showing Numbers

Our first and second graders are just beginning the process of learning about tens and ones units.  As part of this understanding, students take groups of objects and sort them into sets of 10 and some left over.  This activity is the beginning of developing an understanding of tens and ones in two digit numbers.  Today, they worked at many different stations to practice this skill.

Yummy Fractions!

Recently, the first and second grade students completed a chapter on fractions.  Part of their assessment was to complete a snack following fraction directions that I gave.  For instance, the first direction was to cover the whole circle with peanut butter and the next direction was to cut the snack into equal halves, and so on.  Not only did the students love this activity, but they were able to demonstrate how well they understood and could apply the concepts learned in the chapter.  Of course, when the students completed the activity they were allowed to eat their work...which was a pretty fun and yummy job!

Venn Diagrams

During a recent story that featured some of the natural wonders of the world, Mrs. Head challenged the third grade students to put their knowledge of Venn Diagrams to use.  Students were put in three person peer groups and they were assigned a page from the story.  Groups were then given Venn Diagrams to complete after reading their assigned pages.  They had to find similarities and differences in their information to record on their diagrams.  Once these were completed, the students presented their findings to the whole class.  It was challenging for some of them to step into the teacher role, but they all found success.

Different...Yet the Same!

Our third grade students recently studied about how numbers can be represented in many different ways.  To test their learning, the students were placed in cooperative learning groups and given baggies with various numeric expressions and they had to work with their partners to place each expression in the right category.  It took some critical thinking, but they completed the activity by working together to find solutions. Way to go third grade!

One Hundred Day!

During our 100th day of school, we did a few really fun activities centering around the number 100.  One activity we did was to prediction where we would end up if we walked from our classroom for 100 steps.  Each student made a prediction and then we lined up and counted 100 steps.  It was fun to see how close we came!

First and second grade getting read to take 100 steps.

We did it!  One hundred steps took us right to the library, where Mrs. Stoller was working.

Here are our third graders ready to take 100 steps!

Evidently third graders take smaller steps, because they only made it to the coat racks by Mrs. Cox's second grade classroom!