Welcome Back!

A "welcome back" gift for my students. Credit goes to Teachers Pay Teachers!

Flexible Seating

Hello! I've been working on a huge project for the past few years, that's why I haven't posted. I'm excited to be getting back to my blog. I've done research on flexible seating the in classroom and am ready to give it a try. If you don't know what flexible seating it, it's where student chose how they would like to sit: balance balls, wobble chairs, pillows, yoga mats, or even standing while working.

I've created a Donors Choose project to help raise money for the seating. Please stop by and make a donation; every little bit counts. I cannot wait to get funded and let you know how flexible seating is working in my classroom.

Take a look at what I've requested for my students.

If you chip in to help, you'll get awesome photos and our heartfelt thanks.
Your support would mean so much to us.

Thank you,
Kimberly

First Grade Tens and Ones

Some of my kids are really struggling comprehending the difference between Tens and Ones. I decided to put rods and units in their Counting Collections basket and told them what they have to do with the basket. 

1. Draw what is in the basket.

2. Write: "I have _____"

3. Write: "I have _____ tens."

4. Write:"I have _____ ones."

Today, I began making the student write the value of each above what they drew. If a student had three rods, they would write "10, 20, 30." If there were three additional units, the student would write "31, 32, 33."

Explanatory Texts or "The Fruit Roll-Up Fortune Cookie Epic Fail"

This week for writing, the kids are supposed to write an Explanatory Text. To me, this means they are explaining how do to something. In the past, I have just had the kids explain how to make a sandwich. But this year, one of my colleagues suggested an idea she saw on Pinterest: a Fruit Roll-Up Fortune Cookie. So, this past Sunday, when we were preparing to be trapped in the house for a couple of days, and everyone and their brother was at the grocery store, I actually remembered to pick up Fruit Roll-Ups.

A lesson that I have learned frequently is to test everything before you have the kids to it. So Monday night had me trying to make a Fruit Roll-Up fortune cookie. The outcome could definitely be considered an EPIC Fail. A little while later, my colleague sends me a message saying that her fortune cookie doesn't look like a cookie, so she is going to do something different. After much consideration, I decided that the overall process was kind of fun, and that maybe adding a piece of paper in the fortune cookie that said "Happy Valentine's Day" would make it look more like a fortune cookie.

Well, they made their fortune cookies, and we had all types of problems. Fruit Roll-Ups ripped, were flattened, the sides got stuck together or stuck to other things, and fingers were definitely sticky. Immediately after we cleaned up, I had the kids do a graphic organizer telling the steps they used to make their fortune cookie. Today, the kids used their graphic organizer to write the draft. Tomorrow, we will finish writing the Explanatory Text.

We discussed the problems we had making the fortune cookies. I asked the kids if they still like making them, even though they weren't perfect. They told me it was very fun and they liked making those better than just writing about how to make a sandwich.

Below are some pictures of our exciting adventure in making Fruit Roll-Ups Fortune Cookies!

Word Problems to Regroup

During the past week, the students have been learning about tens and ones. Today, I gave them a word problem hoping that some of them would stumble upon regrouping (exchanging 10 units for one rod). The problem that I ran into was that I made the word problem too easy. Most of them answered the word problem in their head, and just used a rod and units to make what they thought I wanted to see. Tomorrow, the word problem will be more challenging... one they cannot solve in their head. 

Some of the students did use the tools to explain their answer in a different way than I would have expected. I found that the lesson did teach me what most of my kids know, and what I need to do to help guide them to a more complete understanding of regrouping. The problem had to do with adding 6 and 9. Here are some pictures: 

This is an example of a student showing me what they thought I wanted to see. She knew the answer, but was trying to show me how she got the answer. I asked her to look at her problem again to see if it made sense.

I LOVE this one! He didn't necessarily regroup to solve the problem. He divided the rod into units!

He counted out 9 units on the rod, and then used a pencil to hold his place.

Next, he counted on, using the one left from the rod and five units to make six.

Finally, he counted them all and got the answer of 15.

She did almost the same thing as the boy in the previous pictures except...

She counted out six units instead and forgot about the one at the end of the rod. If she added them together without counting the unit at the end of the rod, she would have got 16. So I asked her about the unit that she had covered with her finger. She quickly took away a "free" unit and came to the correct answer of 15.

This girl used 5 rods and 9 units... So I pointed out that the problem began with six, not five...

So she changed them to six rods and nine units. She counted correctly and came to 69 (she knows how to count by 10s and 1s.) I guided her by asking her to solve the problem with only units (she put the rods away.)

She got the correct answer of 15. I asked her which answer was right, 69 or 15. She said 15. I said, "How do you know?" She told me that she shouldn't have used the rods, because they are worth 10, not 1.

Her work was very similar to the first boy and first girl, except she used a rod and counted to 6, then counted on 9 more (the rest of the rod and an additional 5 units.)

 

Making a Factory in First Grade (Social Studies)

Whew, today was one of those busy-busy days. We finally made our First Grade Factory! Let me explain... The kids have been learning about needs and wants, goods and services, and producers and consumers. To help drill the idea home, the kids are responsible for creating a "factory" that makes snacks (trail-mix) using an assembly line. When everything comes together, there are people who "want" to purchase the snack. The kids are responsible for "producing" the "good" and sending it to the "consumer." This whole process comes together when they have to run an assembly line. Some kids become managers, others become shippers, and others become workers. Depending on the number of kids, you can have a quality control person, a company owner... basically whatever you need.

The parents contributed by sending the items we needed: cereal, raisins, pretzels, bowls, chocolate chips. I put the items in bowls and get the kids set up. Then, it's their responsibility to get the product made and shipped. Finally, the "producers" become the "consumers" as they get to enjoy the snacks they made. It's a lot of fun for the kids! Take a look... (By the way... this is not my original idea)

Hi, Everyone!

Hello, Everyone. No, I have not abandoned my blog. I have just been extremely busy. Then, after I was busy, I became lazy. Finally, after I was lazy, I got off my behind and started doing things to improve myself. Also, I don't think I have done anything spectacular in a while. What I mean is, I haven't done anything other that what I have already posted/I haven't come up with any cool ideas in a while.

So, I decided that I would add a few pictures of my kids working. In Math, we were discussing what makes equations true or false. I took a few pictures of the journey I was attempting to take the kids on to help them discover why an equation was true or false as opposed to just solving for the amount on either side of the "equals" sign.

I uploaded to pictures backwards, so if you look at them from the bottom up, they are in chronological order.

A few more problems.

Another student is either restating her answer, or trying to prove her wrong.

She is explaining to the class her reason for her answer.

The right answer?

Working on the equation.

Working on the equation.

Working on the equation.

I gave them this equation and we discussed whether it was true or false.

We discussed whether or not the equations were true or false.