We're quickly wrapping up our first math unit focusing on addition and subtraction within 10. And we are proud to say we are now experts. We know our fact families and how different equations work together in the same family. We can listen to a story problem and create a number bond, addition sentence, subtraction sentence, picture, and word sentence. Yep, we're that good! We can SPRINT to 10 and find all the addition combinations. We can listen to a story problem and work backwards with SUBTRACTION to find the missing part.
Today we were surprised with our first Secret Reader. Will's mom Robin came in a read The Jolly Postman and Other People's Letters. It was a book that none of us knew, including Miss Kylie. We highly recommend it. It was a mixture of all the fairy tales with secret envelopes hidden inside with actual letters and postcards! Then, Will presented his Scientist of the Week experiment, which tied in perfectly with our first grade science curriculum. Will wanted to know if rocks can be magnetic. We had a couple of thoughts on the matter: (a) Yes, rocks are magnetic. (b) No, rocks are not magnetic. (c) Some rocks are magnetic and some are not. (d) Only rocks made of sand are magnetic. (e) Yes rocks are magnetic because otherwise this experiment would not be cool... We learned that there are three different kids of rock: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. If these rocks contain iron (or the mineral hematite) then the rocks are magnetic. If they do not contain iron then the rocks are not magnetic. Some rocks have more iron than others and create a stronger magnetic attraction, while others create a weaker magnetic attraction. Thanks Will! We learned a lot and we can't wait to study rocks in more depth this year!
You definitely spiked our interest. Today we were cartographers in training. We talked about maps, looked at maps, and finally made our own maps of the classroom. We each noticed some new details about our classroom and added them to our unique renditions. Next week we will go back to these maps to talk about scale, proportion, legends, and directions. Then we'll team up and make a map of our school! Start with the BASICS. Add the color and labels.
Inflected endings (-ed, -ing, -s) indicate tense and number. We've been practicing identifying base words and then reading them with different endings. For example, the base word walk, becomes walked, walking, and walks to show different tenses. To show number, cat becomes cats and fox becomes foxes. Over the last two days we practiced our fine motor skills to make giant base word and ending cubes so we could play bingo! Practice this at home. Have your child point out words that have endings. Cover up the ending and find the base word. There are sneaky words like this and king that don't have endings but still end with -s or -ing. Remember, there has to be a real word left when you take off the ending. We also practiced sequencing a story we read aloud as a class. This week our Making Meaning story Angelina and Henry was all about two mice who were really excited to go camping. Like most good stories, the main characters got into some trouble and then found a solution at the end. We sequenced pictures from the story and then wrote a sentence retelling what was happening in each picture. It was a beautifully snowy Wednesday and we got to enjoy it during our morning and lunch recesses. It better keep snowing though because with all the snowballs we made there might not be any snow left tomorrow. Needless to say, WE LOVE SNOW!
Read aloud is one of our favorite times of the day. We get to sit back, relax, and enjoy a story. Of course it's not all fun and games! We have to be listening because we always write about our read aloud books in our Reader Response Journals the next day.
This is a great skill to practice at home. Ask your child questions about the books you read. Try these: What happened in that story? What do you think will happen next? What is the problem in this story? What is the solution? What is your favorite part? Why?
We were thrilled to have Mr. G visit again so soon! And he did not disappoint. Our experiment: What Color Am I? Procedure: Trace the outline of a quarter with a green marker onto the center of a coffee filter. Stretch the coffee filter over the opening of a coffee cup. Dip your finger in water and hold it in the center of your circle for 5 seconds. Repeat that step. Hold the coffee filter in place and watch for 2 minutes! Do the experiment with black if you have time. Don't forget to hypothesize. Materials: quarter green markers water coffee filter big cup small cup paper towel Hypothesis: 1. The filter paper will hold the water in place. (1) 2. The green color will change to blue and yellow. (5) 3. The color will totally disappear. (3) 4. The green will change to black. (9) Conclusion:
The ring turned yellow and blue. This is because green is made up of the primary colors yellow and blue. When the colors get wet they move at different speeds through the filter paper. Blue moves the fastest and rushes to the outside. Yellow moves the slowest and stays in the middle. With black the ring become brown, blue, and a little yellow. The brown is red-ish so black is made up of all the primary colors put together. This week are practicing subtraction AROUND THE ROOM. There are subtraction problems hidden all over the room. We have to find them and solve them. It's fun because it gets us up and moving and working on subtraction at the same time. We're also working on building words within certain phonics rules. We start with one word and then change one letter/ending/combination of letters at a time to make new words. It's harder than you might think. For example: start with make. Change the k to a d. Remove the e. Change the m to an s. What did you end up with? Sad.
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May 2023
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