Blog Archives

BOOK FAIR!

11/30/2017

Today we visited the book fair! We made our wish lists and you will see them coming home in Friday Folders tomorrow. We hope you have a chance to make it to the book fair and maybe even join us next Tuesday night for family night starting at 5pm. Check out the book fair hours below!

LET'S WORK BACKWARDS

11/29/2017

We're still working hard creating our three act task and it's quite a challenge. Right now we have to work backwards since we are the creators and not the solvers...but there are still plenty of hurdles to solve along the way. Today we split up into groups to tackle the tasks. We had to decide as a group how we wanted to do it, what the exact problem was, and how to create our hook or our video so that other kids would be as excited about math as we are. Check out our awesome ideas and conversations. Look at that team work! First graders are the best!

BOOK REVIEW

11/29/2017

Our current read aloud is The Wild Robot by Peter Brown and we're LOVING it. This book is about a robot that crashes on an island far off in the middle of the ocean. Her computer brain allows her to learn from her surroundings. She uses the power of observation to learn from the animals. She eventually learns to camouflage to protect herself, speak their language to communicate, and show generosity to make friends. She even adopts a gosling and learns to be a wonderful mother. We're loving reading about Roz's adventures and learning to adapt ourselves. Sometimes a little change makes a big difference, even if it's just a change of attitude or perspective!

CREATING OUR OWN THREE ACT TASK

11/28/2017

We are beyond excited to be creating our own three act task. We're putting together a set of problems that we will share with other grades to solve in their classrooms. Turns out we have ideas big enough for even fourth graders to solve! Today we started by decorating some wrapping paper. Tomorrow we'll continue wrapping, hide some gifts in the boxes, and then start to video tape our our "hooks" to get other kids excited about doing some math. Stay tuned!

MR. G DOES MYSTERY INK

11/27/2017

We always love a visit from our favorite scientist and today was no exception!
Thank you for sharing Mystery Ink with us Mr. G.

Problem: What happens to golden-rod paper when you draw on it with baking soda and water?

Materials: Q-tip, water, baking soda, vinegar, cup, golden-rod paper, stir stick, teaspoon

Procedure: Get a piece of golden-rod paper and place it on a dry desk. Fill a small cup half way with water. Dip in a Q-tip and then touch it to a corner of the golden-rod paper. Now add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the water and stir. Dip the Q-tip into this mixture and then write the first letter of your name on the golden-rod paper with the Q-tip. What happens?
If you have more time...get another small cup. Fill it half way with water. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar and stir. Dip the Q-tip and trace over your letter with it. What happens?

Hypotheses:
A. The letter you wrote will glow in the dark. (5)
B. The letter will change color to a bright orange. (2)
C. The mixture will make a crackling noise on the paper. (3)
D. The mixture will burn a hole in the paper in the shape of the letter you wrote. (7)

Conclusion: The letter will change color to a bright orange.
Vinegar and baking soda are opposite chemicals. Vinegar is an acidic chemical. Baking soda is a basic chemical. Golden-rod paper is an acid-base indicator. The paper reacts to the base baking soda and turns a bright orange. When you mix baking soda and vinegar they cancel each other out; they become neutral like water. When we traced over the letter with the vinegar the base becomes neutralized and the the writing is erased by the vinegar! So cool!

WE SURE ARE THANKFUL

11/16/2017

What a great day to celebrate the spirit of Thanksgiving. Thank you all for joining us for lunch!

We had a visit from a fabulous secret reader, Ms. Nicole. She read us Oliver Jeffers' The Incredible Book Eating Boy. It's all about a boy who is hungry for knowledge so he starts eating books. After a while though, he starts to feel sick and his facts get all jumbled up. In the end he sticks to eating up his broccoli and reading his books to get his knowledge. Thanks Nicole!

And finally in our busy day, we made corn bread and celebrated team work with our friends!
We talked about how the pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians used to grind corn for corn bread and corn stew. It was fun, and delicious, to do a traditional Thanksgiving activity.

Have a wonderful and restful holiday. Can't wait to see you all in a week!

CHEMICAL REACTIONS

11/16/2017

Our scientist of the week, Mr. Carter, shared a fascinating experiment with us. We pondered possible ways to inflate a balloon without using our mouths. We came up with some clever ideas including: a pump, a fan, another balloon, and water. However, Carter showed us that we can use the chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soda to inflate a balloon!

When baking soda and vinegar mix, they carbon dioxide gas. This inflates the balloon without ever having to use your lungs or your mouth. So cool Carter! Thank you for sharing.

HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM?

11/15/2017

In first grade there is always more than one way to solve a problem. It's fun to see how many different ways we can arrive at the same answer. Kids are so clever!

After watching this video of the super cool car race, we are left wondering how much further the brown car traveled than the yellow car. However, we need to know how far each car went individually in order to solve the mystery.

That helps! Check out the ways we solved what looks like just a subtraction problem.

Count the cubes in the middle. Cross them off so you don't double count! Start at 74 and stop when you get to 109.

Look for chunks. There are 6 blue, 10 green, 10 brown, and 9 yellow. Add them up. 10+10 is 20. 9+6 is 15. 20+15 is 35.

Look for chunks and make a friendly group of 10. Same as above, but this time split apart the 6 to make another 10.

Do a subtraction problem. Draw a picture with quick tens and ones. Then cross off all the ones that both cars traveled.

Count on from the lower number. Draw quick tens and then use another color to get to the bigger number.

Count on from the lower number, but use the arrow way. Add until you get friendly numbers to work with, like groups of 10.

Count on from the lower number, but add tens and ones separately. How many tens to get to 100? How many ones to get to 9?

These are all methods REALLY used by first graders in solving this problem. So cool!
(now we're working on handwriting and organizing our work so it's legible enough to share...hehe)

WEDNESDAYs ARE WILD

11/15/2017

This morning we took a break from the routine and worked with pattern blocks. We're building up our spacial relations as we try to make pictures with blocks. It gets tricky when two shapes are put together to make another shape.

Then we "painted" some pretty crazy self portraits. We can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving, the idea just makes our hair stand on end!

REPORTERS AND PORTRAITS

11/14/2017

Nebraska Hires Colorado Marketing Agencies to Sell State to Tourists

Today we heard from our fabulous reporter, Mr. Silas. He shared an interesting article about states and tourism. Nebraska is the least visited state in the country and they are hoping to boost their tourism numbers. They have hired a Colorado company to help them create commercials and other marketing strategies to bring people to their state. Some Nebraska residents feel that tourism is not the answer. They want young people to come and live and stay so that more families make Nebraska home. Thanks for sharing Silas!

We also started a crazy art project. It involved some sunlight, some tracing, and soon some water color. Stay tuned for what these are going to turn into tomorrow!