Going Green for Planet Earth

The Connected Ones went green for Earth Day 2015.  We read some great fiction and nonfiction books about why it is important to care for our Earth and how we can "Go Green!" 


We discussed ways to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost.  With the help of Mrs. Beldon, a wonderful classroom volunteer, we made a poster of the Earth out of our hand prints.  Then we brainstormed all the ways we can help the Earth and put the ideas on our poster.  Also, the students wrote their own piece on how to protect the Earth.

During math, we teamed up with Ms. Frey's class for some Earth day themed math games.  In partners, the students had to complete three math actitivities and mark off their recycling form.  Fun!

My absolute FAVORITE part of Earth Day was making this video.  Each child illustrated a line from the song "What a Wonderful World."  Hearing the kids recite the lyrics and seeing their drawings...it gives me goose bumps.

Contraction Surgery

For spelling this week, we turned our room into an operating room and preformed some very important spelling surgeries. Our patients are very happy with the results and are recovering beautifully. We have a very talented group of doctors.

This free photo slideshow created with Smilebox

Brilliant Biographies

For the last couple of weeks, we have been reading about amazing people in our reading groups. We had the inquiry question, "What can we learn from amazing people?" Through our biography reading, we have learned about amazing people like Rachael Carson, Ellen Ochoa, Ben Franklin, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and more. The students loved to share their biographies with other classmates and their reading made them even more curious about amazing people in history.  Luckily, the children's curiosity, our study of biographies, and Eagle Cliff's third grade hero fair all came together.  We decided for our Unit 5 inquiry project that we would interview famous people from throughout history.

Before the interviews the students had to come up with a list of questions.  Together, they decided on asking history heroes at the fair the 5 W's and a WOW!  So on the clipboards the students had: Who are you?  What did you do?  Where did you live?  When did you live?  Why were you important?  and What is one WOW fact about your life?  The third graders did a great job answering our questions and the students learned a ton!  You should have heard the discussion when the first graders returned.  They were so excited.  Here are a few more pictures from the interviews because I can't just pick a couple to post!

These smarties still weren't done. They had a whole new list of history heroes that they wanted to know more about. The children used our online subscription to world book to find more information. The articles in World Book kids and World Book student include kid friendly text, videos, diagrams, and photographs.

You can access this wonderful online encyclopedia at home as well! It is a safe search engine for all those interesting first grade questions. From a computer, students can click on the text and the computer will read it to them. Here is the link and login information. You can also access the link from the top button bar on the blog. Please check it out!

Worldbook Online

Log-In ID Home: eagleciffshome 

Password: eagles 

 When we finished researching, some students picked one amazing person to write a poem about. The poem was a triangle poem. The first line answered "Who?" with one word. The second line was two words for "Where?" and then three words for "When?" Last, four words to describe "How?" and five words for "Why?" The students really had to synthesize the most important information to write the poems. Here are a few great examples:

Ben

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

From 1706- 1790

Printer, Scientist, and Inventor

His inventions helped many people.

Franklin

By Drew

Rosa

Tuskegee, Alabama

From 1913-2005

She helped black people.

She would not give up.

Parks

By Olivia

Helen

Tuscumbia, Alabama

June 27th 1880

Helped the blind children.

A famous author and speaker.

Keller

By Savannah

Abraham

White House

From 1809-1865

He helped free people

He led the United States

Lincoln

By Scotty 

More About Math

At student led conferences, a few parents had some terrific questions about math.  Several parents were curious about how the children are solving double digit addition.  First, please know before we began adding double digits we spent a lot of time on place value concepts and mental math.  In fact, the students have such great numbers sense that most students can add double digits in their heads.  It is quite phenomenal.  Below is a quick video tutorial explaining the methods we have discussed in class.  Give your child a double digit addition problem and have them explain their strategy to you. See what they can do!

   
Also at conferences, I had a few questions about new math apps.  I have five fabulous math apps to share.  These are all apps that we have used consistently over the last month so they cover current objectives.      
1. First, for fact fluency, we are using Quick Math.  One thing I love about Quick Math is that the students have to write the number on the ipad correctly.  It is not only important that the fact be answered correctly, but it is important that the number written is legibly.   

 2.  We love Sushi Monster.  The children think it is fun and the Sushi Monster is hilarious.  I love the addition and mental math practice the students get while trying to feed the monster.

3.  Place Value Addition MAB works on double digit addition with and without regrouping.  Students can work at four different difficulty levels and use manipulatives to work out problems.  It begins with double digit addition but the problems go all the way into the thousands place.

4. Mystery Number works on developing number sense through fun games.  Students guess numbers on a hundreds chart and/or number line.  They are given clues like more and less or odd and even to discover the mystery number.

5.  Counting Money Bingo is our most current addition to our school ipad.  We just began working with counting coins.  This app has children practicing counting coins while working to win a bingo game.

Remember, all the apps we use in class are linked to the button bar above.  If you click on the Math App tab you will be taken to a Symbaloo full of first grade math apps.  If you click on any of the icons, you will be taken to an itunes link where you can find out more about the app, including reviews and pricing info. 

Student Led Conferences

Student Led conferences were a huge success. The children were so proud of themselves. They loved sharing their learning with you. I thought they made excellent presenters. Thanks for your wonderful support. The feedback on the reflection sheets was very helpful. Thank you for being so incredibly positive. Most parents favored the math station. Many of you were impressed not only with the mastery of our current math objectives, but also the students' ability to effectively use our interactive projector. Yes, they are super stars!  One of my favorite stations to listen in on was the self evaluations.  The students were so honest with what they are doing well and the areas that they can use some more practice.  These powerful conferences were a great way to end third quarter and begin this last important quarter of first grade.

Giraffes Can't Dance

The children loved this delightful story!  What a great message, "Sometimes when you are different, you just need a different song!" We drew giraffes and painted a background in a similar style as the book.  I just love how every single giraffe is unique and in a different pose!

Geometry

 
Our math focus took a new turn this week: geometry!  We have been working on identifying and describing two dimensional and three dimensional shapes. In our study, we are distinguishing between shapes by learning the different attributes like how many flat surfaces, vertices, and edges.  Some of the shapes we have studied are sphere, cone, pyramid, cylinder, cube, and rectangular prism. Below, the students are counting vertices and edges.  Then we played a game where the students had to identify the shape blindfolded!  They did awesome!

With 2D shapes we studied circles, squares, rectangles, rhombuses, ovals, trapezoids, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons. The children loved to create new shapes and pictures by arranging different 2D shapes together.  The students used our class's Osmos and pattern blocks for building difficult shape puzzles.

On Friday, we had the opportunity to check out the Chromebook lab.  We have been missing our computer lab time the last couple weeks because the intermediate students are testing.  With the lab, the students took the first bit to practice their typing skills, then we got to play interactive games to review our geometry learning.  Click on the links below to give them a try!

Find the Shape

Shape Sort

Find the Shape

I Spy

Shape Shoot