*This Blog Post is written in large part thanks to our student teacher from the ICS/OISE Program at Uof T, Amanda Santos (@amandasantos_ed & www.learningstem.ca) This year, the HPAS theme is “Food for Thought” which investigates poverty, inequality, and discrimination. Over the course of the year, we've learned about the water cycle, different types of communities, written stories which illustrate our own personal connection to water, made predictions as to how our lives might change if we didn’t have clean water (see previous blog), and then we watched a video of First Nation community members being interviewed about what it is like to not have clean water. Students then created new questions in response to that video, continued to inquire about types of water pollution and causes including mining, how we get clean water to our tap and brainstormed possible ways we can help those without access to clean water. Watch Amanda's video: How Do We Get Clean Tap Water? We took some time to ask students 1) What's something new you've learned 2) Are there any questions you still have? and 3) Is there an action that you think we/people should take? We started to talk about what we should do to help these First Nation communities who don’t have clean water and we emphasized that this problem is very complicated; for many generations, the Indigenous peoples of Canada including First Nations have been treated very unfairly in many ways, and one of those ways is by not have clean water to drink. It is going to take many years and many people who care (US - the grade 1s and 2s at HPAS!) to change things so that ALL people can have clean drinking water from their tap. We learned that this process of making things better with the indigenous peoples of Canada is called Truth and Reconciliation; Truth means learning the what actually is happening and Reconciliation is learning about how we can make it better. It can be hard to learn about such sad and scary things that are happening in our country, but our students were brave and did an incredible job watching, listening, and showing respect. So what was our next step? There are many people who don’t know that there are Canadians who are sick and who are dying because they do not have clean drinking water; to help raise awareness we can share what we have learned with...THE WORLD. To consolidate and to communicate our learning about water access in First Nation communities, we participated in a group writing exercise ... we wrote a letter to post here on our website, telling people what we’ve learned, questions we still have, and actions we think we should take: We welcome your comments, questions and hopefully some answers to our questions as well! Please click the comment box at the bottom of the blog. After that, to continue raising awareness and to encourage people to visit our website to read our letter, students wrote tweets that were sent to specific people and groups: Please visit our Twitter Page to reply to, retweet & like students' tweets * update * We are raising awareness: We were Re-Tweeted by @LifeStraw - our post may have reached 5,000+ people! Some Indigenous organizations have seen and liked our tweets. They appreciate our learning and sharing and might bring this information to their advisory groups! Thanks @CastlemainGroup Some TDSB teachers have seen and liked our post - they might bring this information to their classrooms and their students! Thanks @StephDonovan2 Some TDSB Learning Coaches have seen and liked our post - they might bring this information to their Learning Centres (other schools, principals, teachers and students)! Thanks @ABTsakmakas Some #HPAS Parents have seen and liked our post - they might be continuing the conversation at home with their children and sharing with people they know in the community! Thanks @n_ysabet
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Over the past two weeks, our student teacher Amanda (@amandasantos_ed & www.learningstem.ca) has been leading us in discussions about our access to water; our own personal and/or familial connections to water, how we use water at home and making predictions as to how our lives might change if we didn’t have access clean water. After looking at all of our Water Surveys (thanks for your participation at home!) we realized that we use 280 Litres of water EACH per day - that's one and a half of the large school recycling toters PER PERSON!! That's a lot ... 🤔 We then brought the conversation to WHO might not have access to clean water (ask your son or daughter about their predictions or inferences and be sure to discuss the "why?"). We were shocked to find out that there are people in our Country of Canada, in our Province of Ontario, that don’t have access to clean water (e.g., turning on a tap and being able to drink the water out of it). If you visit the website Water Today you'll see that all of the yellow dots represent communities in Canada (and can zoom in to Ontario) without clean water. We talked about what a boil water advisory is and even took a closeup Google Maps view on Hiawatha, a community that is less than 2 hours away from us in the Junction! As we 'walked' down the streets on Google Maps we saw that they have houses, streets, electricity, cars - it looks a lot like our community (urban vs rural), but - they don’t have clean water. We investigated how unclean water affects the lives in many First Nations communities and watched some edited video clips that Amanda put together. (Please watch again and continue the discussions at home). Clips from Vice Canada's Waterless Communities: Neskantaga and Human Rights Watch Canada's Water Crisis: Indigenous Families at Risk were edited for Grade 1 & 2 audience. Afterwards, we took some time to reflect on what we saw in the video by taking part in a talking circle (a traditional tool used by indigenous peoples to solve problems; a place of comfort where you have freedom to let your emotions and thoughts flow). We tried to really think about what it means to not have access to clean water and how it feels knowing that many First Nations people in Ontario do not. The Talking Circle by Leah Marie Dorion She is an interdisciplinary Metis artist raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Here are a few of our reflections during the Talking Circle:
I think if of "sad", because all these people are getting affected because of their water. I don't want that to happen because it's not good for the people living in our world. I felt like if I went in the water and how I would get those rashes and things, it would feel really itchy to me if I got anything like that and that's probably how they feel, sad and scared if their water's like that. I feel sad because they can't drink their water. It would be hard but, we could donate and give them a water plant like we saw in the video, or why couldn't we just buy them Life Straws instead because they cost less money (than a water plant)? I feel thankful because we have clean water. If I was there I would feel anxious about it because I wouldn't have anything to drink that would be good. I feel scared because if I was going to go there and if I was really thirsty and I had to drink that water ... I feel sad because it's not fair that our community and most communities, we have this clean water. Why can't their community have clean water? After watching the video and sharing at the Talking Circle, many of us still had burning questions and thoughts to share, so we took time to write down what we were thinking on some Think Sheets. Please ask your son or daughter about their thinking! *We will continue this unit over the next coming weeks - please share your conversations with us via the comments section below or on Twitter @HPAS_Gr1and2 Curriculum Expectation(s) Grade 1 Science: Understanding Life Systems - Needs and Characteristics of Living Things Relating Science and Technology to Society and the Environment: 1.2 describe changes or problems that could result from the loss of some kinds of living things that are part of everyday life, taking different points of view into consideration Grade 2 Science: Understanding Life Systems - Growth and Changes in Animals Relating Science and Technology to Society and the Environment: 1.2 identify positive and negative impacts that different kinds of human activity have on animals and where they live Grade 2 Social Studies: People and Environments - Global Communities Application - Variations in Global Communities: B1.3 demonstrate and understanding of the importance of sustainability in people’s interrelationship with their natural environment and of some of the consequences of sustainable and/or non-sustainable actions The Daily 5 is something that students have been working on regularly over the past few months and we are now in full-swing with the students signing up, rotating around and working independently at each of the 5 centres. What is Daily 5? It's an un-interrupted Literacy Block that happens most mornings, from 9:15ish - morning recess. We focus on both Reading and Writing. At the Reading centres, students can do Read to Self, Read to Someone, or Listen to Reading. At the Writing centres, students can do Work on Writing or Word Work. As students work, I call individuals or small groups to the Teachers' Table and run Guided Reading Lessons. Not only are students engaged in the Language Curriculum, but Learning Skills are a focus as well: Responsibility, Independent Work, Initiative, Organization, Collaboration and Self-Regulation. Student choice is a big part of Daily 5; so long as they do a Reading and a Writing centre, they can choose from *many* of the options that we've modelled as a whole class. Word Work We've learned the procedures for how to use our spelling materials; how to set them up, how to use them, and how to tidy them up. We realized that it's important to spell our words correctly when we're writing, because we care about our ideas and the people who will read them. Spending time practicing our spelling (and our printing) will help us to become not only better spellers, printers and writers, but also better readers! Here are just a few of the centres that are in rotation 1) Create a Word Search - choose six words that you KNOW how to spell, copying from the Word List, a book, a poster in the room, our daily schedule etc., and take the time to print them properly (no capitals, proper sizing etc.) Once they’re listed, you can fill in the boxes to create a word search for your peers! 2) Make a List – choose five words that you KNOW how to spell, copying from the Word List, a book, a poster in the room, our daily schedule etc., and take the time to print them properly on our printing paper (no capitals, proper sizing etc.) Once they’re printed, choose one or two words to use in a sentence. 3) Practice Spelling - each week, there's a new challenge with new words and students follow wrtten instructions. 4) Sight Word Tallies - read a book and make a tally mark every time you read 1 of 5 sight words (e.g., and, the, to, it, I - OR use the Word List to pick 5 other Sight Words) 5) Scrabble Scramble - use the Sentence posted on the window to create words from the Sight Words list, or other words you know. Then, write the addition sentences to find out how many points your word is worth! Work on Writing: There are SO many different types of writing students can experiment with in their Writing Journals: - fictional stories from their imagination - non-fiction re-tellings of events that have happened - re-tellings of a favourite story - lists - ABC books - letters - 'How To' instructions Students write words first, then pictures second. If they don't finish a text during one centre, then they can bookmark it and go back to it the following day. It's important that as they write, they use Self-Regulation and remember to use the 5 Finger Editing Checklist that we've developed: Read to Self: There are 3 main ways to read a book: 1) Read the pictures & tell your own story 2) Re-Tell a favourite story, reading the pictures and reading some of the words 3) Read all the words practice fluency & voice Another favourite has been to play "I Spy", flipping the pages and spying some of the sight words that we've been practising off the 100 Most Frequently Used Words List. Elephant & Piggie have become some of our favourite characters and their book bin is always in high demand! Read to Someone: Similar to Read to Self, this is with a partner. Students sits Elbow to Elbow and Knee to Knee, with the book in the middle, so they both can see ; ) Students can: - Take turns reading a page/sentence to one another - Read as each other's echoes (1 reads a sentence, then 2 repeats the sentence) - Read chorally (like a 'choir', together at the same time) - Read side by side and share interesting parts of the texts, ask each other questions, support one another with reading strategies Listen to Reading: At the computer centre, students can visit various Literacy Websites: ABCya.com Starfall Storyline Online BookFLIX (message me for TDSB FREE login & password) At our Listening Centre, students listen to a CD and follow along with the text in the book! They notice how the readers are reading with voice and expression, and after a few listens, the students try to read along with them. Guided Reading at the Teacher's Table Small groups are called to read levelled books with me at the Teacher's Table. We use books from the Reading A to Z Library and practice recognizing sight words as well as strategies for sounding out unknown words: - Look at the picture - First Letter Sound + Picture - Chunking (e.g., look for smaller words inside the big word) - Skip & Come Back - Stretch it out and say it in slow-mo, saying each sound - Does it make sense? We pause as we read and ask questions: - I am thinking ... - I am noticing ... - This reminds me of ... - I wonder why .... - I like this part because ... - I think ____ will happen next because ... - This is confusing because ... Ask your son or daughter about their experience with the Daily 5 Literacy Centers! You can use these prompts that are posted in the class and that we discuss daily. Happy Reading and Writing! This week in Room 108, I tried something new... Something that made me a little nervous because it was foreign to me, something that I have no prior knowledge about ... #coding. Since joining Twitter in 2014, my teaching practice and my lesson repetoire have developed immensely. There are so many great things happening out there in education and much of it is being shared in the #Twitterverse. That's where I learned about #tdsbHOC. During the week of December 5 - 11, 2016, schools and classrooms across the TDSB are encouraged to "spend as little as an hour of their time - and inspire a lifetime of wonder". So, I thought - why not?! I visited the website to learn a bit more and I selected one activity for our grade 1/2 students. That was my goal - something small and simple, something students could do independently, also something accessible that students could take home to share with families. I picked Lightbot - because who doesn't love 🤖?! It's an educational video game that introduces some simple principles of programming. Students get to practice concepts like sequence, conditions, and loops without actually typing out lines of code, BUT! they use the same problem solving skills to complete each levelled challenge. On Monday, I modelled the program on our Smartboard and we completed Part 1 together. We took about 45 minutes to learn The Basics: - using positional language such as straight, left, right (math curriculum), - explaining the procedures, step by step, start to finish (language curriculum), - communicating clearly and logically (language curriculum) - actively listening to each other (language curriculum) - collaborating and acheiving group goals (learning skills) And we were only just getting started! Click this link to see our Day 1 Video Tweet! On Tuesday morning, I was so excited to hear some of my students tell me about their Lightbot challenges they'd done at home that night! "Hey Kelly, I got to the next level. I got to use P1!" They couldn't wait to get started on Part 2 together. Again, we worked together to solve the new puzzles and this time, we made the connection that using Procedures was a lot like using Patterns as a shortcut. If our 🤖 wants to repeat the same move over and over, such as "straight, straight, straight, jump, turn right, light" ➡➡➡⤴ ↩💡 then we could name the Pattern Core 🅿1⃣ - patterning (math curriculum) It got a little tricky though at level 6. We were failing and couldn't figure out the steps for a puzzle. We tried two or three different ways, but couldn't get it. So we decided rather than get frustrated and upset, we'd take a break. I assigned it as homework for the students and their families (*I also wanted to encourage even MORE of my students to logon and try the game at home) On Wednesday morning I was pleasantly surprised to be handed this! Not only did one of my grade 2 students go home and play Lightbot, or simply try to pass the level on his own - he took the time to write out all the steps, all the codes for us, so that we could pass the level together at school! He explained it to us on the Smartboard and we were able to finish Procedures together, as a whole class. Click this video link to see how we solved the puzzle! We never thought of travelling across the blocks from side to side like that; we were trying to go around the groups of squares! - persevering and showing self-regulation when faced with a challenge (learning skills) On Wednesday, we continued with our final stage: Loops. Taking P1 and now adding a P2 (a second pattern) that can be looped into P1. It took a lot of patience and perseverance, but as a class, we worked through all of Part 3 together on the Smartboard. Thursday, our Day 4 of #HourofCode, was by far the most exciting! I took a quick poll and was so happy to see that more than half of the class had been playing Lightbot at home with their families. They were ready. After lots of modelled and shared practice together as a group, we signed out all of the Chromebooks from our school's shared cart, so that each student could now independently play Lightbot. Wow was the 🔊 level high!!! 👍 Check out this 😄 Video of our Independent Practice 😄 ⌛ They were on-task and engaged for an entire hour . . . in the afternoon! 🕧 🕐 🕜 They were problem solving, collaborating, reaching their goals - but some were also failing 🙁😖😞 We've done a lot of work on The Power of Yet, reminding ourselves that it's OK to fail, because we're still just beginning to learn A LOT of new and exciting things - me included! Later that afternoon we partnered up with our grade 7/8 Learning Buddies and WE taught THEM how to code and play with Lightbot. We learned something new and could teach it to others; we were the leaders and took pride in our new learning, our new understanding, our new #coding and #programming schema. 👍 Check out this 😄 Video of a grade 1 teaching a grade 8 how to use Procedures 😄 What I will take away from this experience and remember most about this #tdsbHOC week was a moment on Wednesday ... We were ready to start Part 3 - Loops, but I reminded the students about our 1st Failure the day before, when we couldn't figure out that last Part 2 - Procedure. I was trying to set them up, to be prepared if we couldn't figure it out again . . . But the comments that came from them made me 😍 "It's OK Kelly, we'll just try our best." - M.R. "We're still learning how to play." - C.B. "We'll work as a team! We'll have #GRIT! We won't give up!" - O.S. "Yeah!" ~ agreed everyone!!! Their willingness to take risks and to try! Their sense of wonder, pure excitement and hard earned success when they accomplished their goals! Definitely one of those #Ilovemyjob moments. I'm glad that I took a risk and tried out #tdsbHOC because #coding is now something that, thanks to the #Twitterverse, I am going to integrate into my teaching practice and lesson repetoire 🔄 Play Lightbot on your 📱 or on your 💻 Join the TDSB Hour of Code event! Hour of Code is a global movement led by code.org. Its goal is to raise awareness of the benefits of learning coding in elementary and secondary schools beyond the Computer Studies curriculum. We’ve working on our Sorting & Patterning Unit!
Thanks to everyone for making it out last week to Parent Teacher Interviews! Here are a few of the highlights from our discussions: Seesaw Lillian has started to use this app during Media Classes - and I've started to upload some info too! We hope that it will be a new way for our students and families to share and connect. Please be sure you use the QR code that was given to you during interviews to connect with your child's journal. *If you need the login information again, please contact us! *All the images you see here have been uploaded to SeeSaw. Language As part of our literacy program, we have begun to practice The Daily 5 : a literacy structure that allows for differentiation in the classroom. It is an integrated literacy instruction and classroom management system, which includes five literacy tasks (Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, Word Work) that teach students self-regulation and independence. So far, students have practised increasing their stamina for Read to Self, are experts at sitting EEKK! with a buddy during Read to Someone (Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee), they're excited to generate their own pieces as they Work on Writing and enjoy finding words in the room or on our Word Lists for Word Work. Next week, we’ll talk about using the computers and listening centre for Listen to Reading.
Students are solving problems involving the addition and subtraction of single-digit whole numbers, using lots of different tools and strategies (e.g., make a ten, one more than, one less than, counting on, counting back, doubles). Dot Plates are great for practicing subitizing (recognizing numbers quickly) and then counting on. Other subitizing videos. Math-Aids Mental Math worksheets goes hand in hand with subitizing; recognizing addition sentences up to 20 and instantly knowing the sum will help students improve their math fluency, and their overall confidence. Practice: Single Digit Addition Worksheets for grade 1 and Zero to Twenty Worksheets for grade 2. To reinforce the strategies we've been learning about: Concentration (choose #1-10) helps students recognize that whether a # is represented as a numeral, a ten-frame or a word - it's still a number. Ten-Frame is AMAZING! Try all the different settings (How Many?, Build, Fill, Add). This will help with quick number facts, memorization, relating #s to anchors '5' and '10'. Harry Kindergarten on You Tube is a great resource. We'll start learning some of these songs in class soon! Doubles, Doubles, I Can Add Doubles (1 - 5 version) Doubles, Doubles, I Can Add Doubles (6 - 10 version) Add 'Em Up! - one more than Lots of curriculum based songs: I Can Write My Numbers - great if your child has reversals Number Words Rap I Can Count to 100 Numbers in the Teens Adding and Subtracting Skip Count - and then Count On! (grade 2s) ** If you're looking to get some of the same materials that we use in school, for home, I like to use Scholar's Choice. For example: Snap Cubes at Scholar's Choice. This afternoon, your son or daughter will bring home their Progress Report. Please take some time read it in it's entirety and prepare any questions or comments that you may have for our upcoming interviews. I always encourage families to pay particular attention to the first page of the report, The Learning Skills, as this section will tell you about your child as a learner and as a member of our classroom community.
Today, the students are taking home a package of work, with a short reflection about the months of September and October in grade 1 and 2. Please use this as a prompt to talk to your son or daughter about their progress: What is something that you've enjoyed at school? What is something brand new that you have learned? What are you proud of? (*stars) What could you continue to work on? (*wishes) Please remember that there are plenty of extension and homework activities that are linked at the bottom of the homepage. Also, I regularly Tweet links as we work throughout the day, so please scroll through the Twitter feed. Looking forward to meeting with you all this week! ~ Kelly *This post was co-written and edited by all the grade 1 and grade 2 students in Room 108. They offered ideas, I wrote them on the Smart Board, and we edited as we went along. * We use some special non-verbal signs so that we don’t disturb Kelly and other kids in our class when they are working. Washroom When we have to go to the washroom, first we find a partner. Then we go up to Kelly and we make eye contact before we show the sign that we need to go to the washroom. We hold up two fingers that look like a V and it means, “My buddy and I (our two fingers!) want to go to the washroom.” Kelly signs yes with a thumbs up, or she signs no with a thumbs down. Sometimes she puts her thumb sideways and it means we have to wait until another group comes back. Before we leave the room, we put a pylon on our nameplates so that Kelly knows who is in the hallways (just in case there’s a fire drill!). We take a hall pass from a hook that is near the door and we hang it up when we get back. Water When we are thirsty, first we check to see if our water bottles are full and then we have a drink. If it is not full then we walk to Kelly, make eye contact and then show the 3 finger sign (it looks like a “W” and stands for “water”!). Kelly signs yes with a thumbs up, or she signs no with a thumbs down. Sometimes she puts her thumb sideways and it means we have to wait. After that, we go and take a drink from the fountain or we fill our water bottles from the fountain. In the end, we put our lids on tight when we're done and we come to the carpet if it is time for a lesson or we keep working at our tables. Loud Sharpener When I want to use the loud sharpener, I make eye contact with Kelly, then make the capital L sign and show it to her. She will give me a thumbs up for yes, or a thumbs down for no. If it’s really quiet and we want to keep it that way, like if she’s reading with someone and doesn’t want it to be loud, she will give a thumbs down. Then, I’ll get put the broken pencil in the Pencil Sharpener’s Bin and get another pencil from a table or I’ll get a quiet sharpener. Connection When we are having a class discussion and we hear something that makes us think about something else (a connection to ourselves, a text, or the world), we make the Connection sign. First you take your thumb and pointer finger together with your thumb and pointer finger on your other hand, and you connect them like a chain. After that, we wiggle them back and forth. Kelly will notice and say “Hey! Someone’s making a connection to what we’re talking about.” I Have an Idea When we are sitting at the carpet and we want to share, we put our thumbs up in front of our tummies and wait. We don’t wave our hands high in the air, because it can be unsafe and distracting to other kids that are trying to learn, listen and think. I Agree
When we want to agree with something someone has said during a class discussion, we make the I Agree sign. First, we make our thumb and pointer finger like an “o”, then we put our other three fingers up in the air (it looks like the “OK” sign). After that, we wiggle it back and forth. We don’t have to shout out “Me too!”, or “I have the same idea!” we can show everyone quietly, by making the I Agree sign. Sometimes, Kelly will notice and she’ll tell the class that we share the same ideas! Each week, two students (a grade 1 and a grade 2) are chosen to be our VIPs. Throughout the week, they help me with any special classroom tasks, they lead our line as we walk through the halls and when we're on the carpet, they get to sit, in the comfy, red, super kid - chair! It gives each student a chance to be a leader, to feel special and to build their self-confidence. The VIP - Super Kid Activity also integrates three strands of the Language Curriculum: Oral Communication, Writing and Reading (*see below for more details) Throughout the week, we interview the Super Kids, asking them questions to learn more about them. Students can use the co-created anchor chart that hangs on the blackboard or they can come up with interesting questions of their own. They wait patiently for their turn to ask a question, speak loudly and clearly so that everyone can hear. The VIP then answers the question clearly, and I take jot notes on the Smartboard. It's important that we listen to the answers too, so that we don't ask the same questions over again! We review all that we've learned about our VIPs and then on Friday we celebrate them with their own VIP books! Each students chooses one (grade 1s) or three (grade 2s) jot notes that they'd like to stretch into full sentences. Toturn the jot notes into full sentences, students must use words the 100 Most Frequently Used Words list: she / he / her / his or the student's name. We talk about the three lines in on the paper (solid, dash, solid) and how they separate our writing into the upstairs, main floor and basement levels. For example, Maggie's name (see above) has letters in all three levels! Her capital M is upstairs and on the main floor, the a is on the main, the two gs start on the main and go into the basement, while her i and e are on the main. When the grade 1s write their sentence for the grade 2 VIP's book, and the grade 2s write their sentences for the grade 1 VIP's book, it's expected that they copy words off the anchor chart of jot notes and practice neat and legible printing - so that our VIP can enjoy their book when they get home! If they have extra time, they flip their page and write a chant on the backside ... Jacob! Jacob! Jacob! (being sure to use the upstairs, main and basement floors) Some of the Language Curriculum Expectations: Oral Communication 1.2 understand appropriate listening behaviour; use active listening 1.3 identify listening comprehension strategies 2.2 understand appropriate speaking behaviour; use in dif. Situations 2.3 communicate clearly and coherently 3.1 identify helpful strategies before, during, and after listening and speaking (e.g., look at the speaker) Reading 3.1 automatically read and understand high-frequency words, (Gr. 2 use common spelling patterns) Writing 1.1 identify topic, purpose audience and form 1.4 sort ideas/info (pictures, labels, key words) 2.4 Gr1: write simple but complete sentences Gr2: use a variety of sentence types (questions, statements, exclamations) 3.3 confirm spelling and word choice using resources (anchor charts on the Smartboard) Math Our Number Book is almost complete! Friday was day nineteen and here are some of the ways that we've been representing #s: - words - numbers - tally marks - ten frames - dice (subitizing) - images (in neat, organized, stacks - rows and columns - so that it's easy to "see" the groups of numbers and not have to count them by 1s) - number sentences (addition and / or subtraction) ** when writing number sentences, students use snap cube trains and then 'decompose the number', breaking the train into smaller parts. A Curriculum Expectations is to use the "Commutative Property of Addition" - in class, we call this a "Flip, Flop Fact" 3 + 4 = 7 4 + 3 = 7 But we can go even further with a "Flippity, Floppity Fact" too: 7 = 3 + 4 7 = 4 + 3 Math-Aids Mental Math worksheets goes hand in hand with subitizing; recognizing addition sentences up to 20 and instantly knowing the sum will help students improve their math fluency, and their overall confidence. This week, the grade 1s were given Single Digit Addition Worksheets and grade 2s were given Zero to Twenty Worksheets, both sets of 20 addition questions with only 5 minutes to answer. They were asked to "Answer the ones you know, and skip the ones you don't to come back to and figure out later." Our Curriculum Expectations are that, Grade 1 students will: solve problems involving the addition and subtraction of single-digit whole numbers, using a variety of mental strategies. Grade 2 students will: solve problems involving the addition and subtraction of whole numbers to 18, using a variety of mental strategies. This term we'll practice the strategies: - one more than, - one less than, - counting on, - counting back, - doubles, - near doubles - for example: “To add 6 + 8, I could double 6 and get 12 and then add 2 more to get 14.” We'll continue to use the Math-Aids worksheets to see which strategies we've mastered and which we need to continue practicing. Race to the Top is a great game to practice the strategy of Counting On. Students played 2 versions of the game this week. With 1 Die, roll and 'see' the # of dots on the die, rather than count each dot by one (subitizing) With 2 dice, roll and add then together. First, "see" the larger of the two numbers, then add on the other. For example when rolling a 5 and a 2, the students recognize the 5 and Count On by ones "5 - 6, 7" If they roll a 5 and a 4, students may use the: Count On strategy: "5- 6, 7, 8, 9" One Less strategy: I know 5+5 is 10, but 4 is one less, so I'll take one away and it's 9 One More strategy: I know 4+4 is 8, but 5 is one more, so I'll add one on and it's 9 We sent home the games that students played in class as well as a blank template for you as a family to play at home. Please practice - and enjoy!
Reader's Workshop After asking the students to go into our classroom Book Nook and choose any book they'd like to read, they realized that they have some pretty great strategies for choosing good books: - favourite series - favourite characters - familiar story, read before - topic / theme - a suggestion - funny, scary, silly Then we took those books into cozy spots in the room and read. Afterwards, we discussed what it looked like, sounded like and felt like while we were reading: We also realized that there are many ways to "read" a book: - read all the words - look at the pictures and tell the story in our own words - use a familiar book to re-tell the story, using some words and the pictures - play "I Spy" and read some of the words by looking for ones that I know from the word list At times though, we do want to be able to read most of the words in the book, so we talked about the Goldilocks Rule of Reading. Students got their own bookmarks to decorate and to remind them of the 5-finger test. When students come to read with me individually and in small groups during our morning literacy block, we always use the 5-finger test to see if the books we're reading are at level and Just Right. |
In our Room 108 Classroom Community, we foster an engaging, respectful and caring environment. I aim to balance a consistent program with flexible responsiveness to students' individual needs. Archives
November 2017
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