Chase, Emily, and Marissa - We Are So Proud!

Watch this video and see how well these students are reading.  They have come a long way and we couldn't be more proud of them!  Way to go!

Sequencing

The students have been working on sequencing in reading class. Understanding the order of things, and how that effects understanding of what we read is a very important skill.  As a quick check, Mrs.Head put the students into teams.  They were given a set of words that had to be sequenced into a sentence that expressed a complete thought and made sense.  It was a challenge, but the students worked together to figure it out.  It turns out that the girls took the first round and the boys took the second round...so they were all winners!  Great job!

Did You Know...?

Did you know that we have some great links on our blog?  One thing you may not have noticed is that we have some links at the top of our blog where you can find math and reading videos.  If you click on those videos you will find some resources to help your child with daily practice.  For example, if your child is new to our school and doesn't know about how we learn letters with keywords and sounds, there is a great video under the "reading videos" that shows our students doing a practice activity with this very skill.  Your child could watch this video each night (less than five minutes of practice) to strengthen this skill.  Perhaps your child is struggling to count to 100.  If you click on the "math videos" link you will find a fantastic video that we use in class to practice this skill.  Your child could do this every night (again, less than five minutes of practice!).

Just thought you might like to check them out.  We will add more as the year goes on.  If you have a concept for which you would like video help feel free to leave a comment and we will try to add one for you!  :)

The Strongest One

The second grade class recently read a play entitled, "The Strongest One."  They  practiced reading fluently and tracking to follow parts in a play.  Here is a clip of the first scene of this play.  We thought they did a nice job!

Skip Counting

The blue math group has been working on skip counting.  To put this skill into practice, they had to work in teams to take a set of cards, determine how they were skip counting (2s, 5s, or 10s), and then put their cards in order.  They were allowed to use any tools they wanted to complete the task.  Several of the groups used their skip counting posters in their binders to help with the process.  It was a great activity for them to look at a set of data and interpret it to determine what patterns were present.

A Busy Week!

Wow!  Our students have sure been busy learning fun new skills this week...and we couldn't be more proud of them!  We just love working with these students and we enjoy watching them find success at the new tasks they are being introduced to.  Enjoy the pictures from our busy week!

Justin is skimming and scanning his article to find details about bats.

Jayden has found some details about baby bats!

Our blue math group has been working on place value concepts and different ways to show numbers.  We made these candy corn treats to demonstrate all the different ways that a number can be shown.  The students did a fabulous job!

Mrs. Head has been working with the reading groups to find main ideas and details in reading selections.  These bats turned out so cute and the students really had to work to apply what they were learning.

Another great example!

The red math group has been working on addition and solving addition sentences.  The students played "Watermelon Addition" to solve addition problems.  They worked with partners to count groups of seeds and find the sums to addition problems.  So fun!

Our class has the bulletin board by the office this month so we decided to use our main idea bats and our showing numbers candy corn to decorate the board.  If you are in the building you should take a look...they worked so hard and the final products were great!

Another thing we have been doing is working in stations during math class.  We do this once or twice a week and it really benefits the students.  They spend time at a different station with each teacher and practice our current skill with three different applications.  This week we were working on addition.  Here, Mrs. Shepherd's station was working with an online game where students had to join groups of marbles to solve addition problems.

This was my station.  It was an application station.  The students had to apply everything we had learned to complete the task.  They had sheets with "calculators."  The calculators had addition problems written on them.  The students used counters and workmats to model addition and find the sums.  I was impressed with how independently they worked.

Mrs. Head's station had an addition game.  Students drew a card and modeled the addition problems on their workmats.  Once they discovered the sum, they got to collect the calculator with the matching number.  They loved this game!

Close up of the game.

When students model addition they use these workmats.  They start by forming two groups with the addends.  This was for 4 + 4.

Next the students join the groups to make one whole group (to visualize the addition process).

Finally, they record their answers on the sheet!

Addition Game Fun

Our third grade students had so much fun playing addition games in class (I am not even sure they realized how much they were learning!). The students had to work with counters to solve addition problems and they even had to learning to check their partners answer using an answer key.  This was not only a good review of addition skills, but excellent practice with turn taking and game playing skills.  They loved it!

Short "i"

Mrs. Head has been working on the short "i" sound in reading.  To practice, the students recently made short "i" booklets complete with a spinning wheel containing all kinds of short "i" words.  Hopefully they read those to you at home!  :)

Making Numbers

As you may remember, we have been working on ways to make numbers.  To check the students understanding of this concept we finished the week with a counting apples activity.  The students had to find different ways to make the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.  They used two color counters and found lots of ways to show these numbers.  They did a great job!

Cheering Our Words and Making Seven

When we learn our vocabulary words we want to do something that will help every student remember those words.  We love to cheer our new words because it allows children to see the word, hear the word, feel the word, and say the word.  This allows all types of learners a chance to accurately learn the new words.  Below is a video of our students learning a new vocabulary word.


Our first graders have also been working on different ways to make numbers.  Today they were working on making the number seven.  We worked as a team to make gumball machines with seven gumballs.  The trick was that they all had to be different!  We have some great thinkers and they really worked hard to solve the problem! Great job boys!

Jordan, T.J., and Graiden did a fabulous job making seven.  I was SO proud!