Math Centers

We have been digging deep into place value objectives.  We have been comparing, building, decomposing, writing, and learning about numbers.  Our explorations have included low tech methods and high tech methods...my favorite being, like the little man above, combining the two to be true 21st century learners.  Of course, with anything we do we like to incorporate fun with the rigor. Here are just a few of our activities!

To introduce comparing numbers we used snowballs.  We scattered snowballs all over the carpet.  Two teams had twenty seconds collect as many snowballs  as possible.  Then the players counted the snowballs and announced to the class.  The students all wrote the inequality on their whiteboards.  Here is one round of our fun.


Using our knowledge of greater than/ less than, we decided to play a little game...#guessmynumber.  We started playing this guessing game with a second grade classroom in North Dakota through Twitter.  We chose a secret number and the other classroom asked yes/no questions to try and guess our mystery number.  We had to use our knowledge of greater than/ less than, digits, place value, even/odd...both classes are working hard.  Here is just a peek at some of our tweets:

 We have a great app called Mystery Number that is similar to this #guessmynumber game.  The app contains four different games that give students lots of opportunities to explore concepts of number and place value.  One of the games has students guessing a mystery number by asking questions just like #guessmynumber.  The games can be played with one player or two.  Check out Mystery Number ($1.99) on the app store. 

There are also some amazing, interactive games online that practice important place value objectives.  Check out the links below.  We have done these games on the Chromebook lab.  The children are so engaged in "playing" they don't realize how much they are learning!

 Greater Than Less Than

 Shark Pool Place Value

 Hundred Chart Puzzle

 Find the Bone

Skip Counting- 10, 5, 2

Hundreds Day Cape

In the envelope today there was a shared homework assignment.  The hundredth day of school is on Wednesday, February 3rd.  We are having a SUPER hundreds day.  Each child was asked to make a special hundreds day cape.  The blank cape came home in your Wednesday envelope.  The cape needs 100 of something on it.  The letter attached to the cape gives a little more direction and has some ideas.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!  Feel free to call me with questions or concerns.  Here are some pictures from other classes to help with ideas.

Royal Readers

The children were so excited to find out who would be crowned our first Raz Reading King and Queen.  I had been tracking our reading minutes on Raz Kids all week.  I also counted parent notes with reading minutes and book a night time.  WOW!  The students really worked hard!  Amazing!!!!  However, there was only one king and queen for the first week.  Our queen read over  3 hours during the week and our king read an incredible 4 hours and 38 minutes. Drum roll please.....

Our royal readers get a crown and a reading scepter.  They get to lead our line everywhere we go and they make a special visit to the principal's office.  It was such a close race this week.  While our royals are very special, there was also other great reading achievements to recognize.  There were 9 other children that read over 140 minutes this week, that is more than 20 minutes every night.  For being so bright, these students got a glow bracelet.

 I think our first crowning will really inspire some more reading!  Congratulations readers!  Our next crowning will be Friday, January 29th.  Read, read, read! 

Light and Sound

This week we finished our first Project Lead the Way science module.  Project Lead the Way is our new science curriculum.  Eagle Cliffs is lucky to be one of the fourteen Billings elementary schools implementing this new S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) program.  Our first module has focused on light and sound.  If you remember, before break we had our "spy school" to learn about sound.  We conducted several experiments to study how sound travels.  Since spy school, we have also been learning about light energy.

At the end of the module, the scientists had a problem to solve.  We had read a story about three first graders that were on a hike.  The children were separated from their hiking group.  Using a list of supplies in their backpacks, they had to communicate with light or sound to contact the rest of their hiking party.  Our Connected Ones set to work.  They used the engineering design process to make a communication device.  The items the students had to work with included a waterbottle, string, cups, a bandanna, a flashlight, tape, a mirror, and tennis ball.

The students were really applying what they had learned about light and sound.  As I was walking around the classroom, I heard the students discussing their designs.  They were using words like opaque, reflect, vibration, and transparent.  Not only were they using their science skills but they were also having to collaborate and cooperate.  When the groups were done with their projects, we went to the library to test out the creations.  The library provided a larger area for light and sound to travel.  As we evaluated the designs, we learned a sometimes tough engineering lesson.  Not all the projects worked.  It turned out to be a great lesson on perseverance and revision.  We returned to our classroom to reflect.  In the students' science notebooks they wrote about ways to make their design better. So much important learning!  I can't wait to start our next Project Lead the Way module.  Stay tuned!

Stop Motion Animations

Stop Motion is an app that allows you to take a series of pictures and turn it into a video.  For each picture the students move a small part of the scene. When the pictures are put together in the app, it creates an animation.  Our first animation project was to make words. The children were given a group of magnetic letters.  Their assignment was to animate a series of words.  They had to change the beginning, ending, and middle sound sometime during the animation.  The students worked in groups of two and three.  After their animation was created, we uploaded it to Youtube where I have complied some of the 3-4 second word animation.

These tech savy first graders were ready for their next animation project. For our second project, we used stop motion animation to illustrate how things move and change. Our latest reading inquiry unit has been study just that, how things in our world move and change. In reading group, the students have read books about animal locomotion, geysers, volcanoes, matter, seasons, weather, the moon, and more! For the project, students chose both their groups and the topic they were most interested in. They had to research their topic further, create an illustration using construction paper, direct the movement of their piece, then take their series of photographs, and compile the animation. All in a days work for these smarties! Check out some of their creations.