The students are getting very proficient at place value concepts. They have been working so hard. We have now moved to adding large numbers with in 100. You would never guess that they are first graders with how they add, subtract, and build tens. They are amazing. Certainly part of their success and achievement with place value has to be the apps and online computer games. The ipads and computers provide such engaging practice. Further, the apps give the children immediate and specific feedback about their math work. The apps also allow the students to work at their exact level, pushing and strengthening their conceptual knowledge right where they need it.
One recent favorite app is Place Value Slide. In place value slide the students are given a math problem in the center of the screen. The first player to slide the answer wins the round. The students are having so much fun playing each other that they have no idea how many math problems they are solving! Look how engaged!
Of course, the students love time on the computers as well. Here are some games that we have played on the interactive white board and on the computers. You can access them from home as well!
We had a lovely Valentine's party celebrating kindness and friendship. We started with a candy bar hunt. The students had to work as a team to find 5 candy bars. The candy bars had words on them. The students had to assemble the words to make a sentence. The reward....chocolatey goodness!
Next we had our yummy sundaes! Thanks for all the sweets! We also played a relay game called "Don't Break My Heart." Students had to pass a tissue paper heart down the row using clothes pins. They had to be so careful not to tear the heart.
Last was the children's favorite part...they got to open all the Valentine cards. They loved reading the sweet notes from their friends. Here is a quick collage of our party!
This video is a product of our study of community helpers although when I watch it I see so much more. I love my job and the opportunity to be a small part of making these children's big dreams come true...
Our last inquiry unit had us exploring community. We researched questions like: What is a community? What are jobs in a community? What do people do for fun in a community? How do we get what we need and want in a community? The students read lots of nonfiction and fiction books about community. The had several lively discussions sharing their learning. We even wrote explanatory pieces about different jobs in a community.
The students worked very hard on their explanatory pieces. They had to write an introduction, at least three facts, and an opinion for their conclusions. Each student met with me individually for revising and editing. They are very proud of their hard work. Here are some work samples and our final class book.
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...and of course lots of fun! Here are just a few of our activities!
To introduce comparing numbers we had a heart race. We scattered hearts all over the carpet. Two students had ten seconds collect as many hearts as possible. Then the players counted the hearts and announced to the class. The students all wrote the inequality on their whiteboards. Here is one round of our fun.
After we practiced heart race inequalities, we practiced individually with dominoes. Students choose two dominoes and made the correct symbol in between the dominoes. Some students added an extra challenge by putting two dominoes to add together on each side. Great thinking!
Using our knowledge of greater than/ less than, we decided to play a little game...#guessmynumber. We played this guessing game with a kindergarten classroom at Beartooth Elementary through Twitter. Each classroom had a secret number and asked the other classroom clues to guess the number. We had to use our knowledge of greater than/ less than, digits, place value, even/odd...both classes worked very hard. Here is just a few 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!
We had a super 100s day! The capes were so creative and we had a blast counting and learning all day long! We started our day learning and dancing to Jack Hartman's "Zero the Hero" song. Our Hundred Day Heroes marched the hallways in a parade. As they marched, we counted to one hundred by fives and tens. Every time we hit 100 we did our best super pose. Mrs. Crum thought we were awesome. Check out our great capes!
Of course, we did lots and lots of counting! We counted out different hundred collections. We counted 100 pennies, blocks, links, puffballs, crayons, and more.
The silly 100 hats we made were a hit! Each hat had 100 little drawings.
We wrote 100 words and created 100 day poems. The children loved their special 100 day snack.
In the afternoon, we had a 100 Hershey kiss hut. The children worked in teams to find 100 kisses around the classroom. Then we had to problem solve how to share the 100 kisses with 17 students.
Of course, don't forget the building of 100 cup structures! Again, the children worked in teams to build structures with 100 cups of different sizes. It didn't take the children long to figure out that they needed a wide base to fit 100 cups in their tower.
All in all, the whole day was SUPER!
