Ready, set, go....WINTER BREAK BEGINS!

Enjoying time with our buddies:

Terrific Tuesday

Reminder: Tomorrow is PAJAMA Day and bring a stuffed animal day.

Growing our brain with Mrs. Winkler

Solving challenging problems

Growing our brains

Marvelous Monday

Happy Birthday, Ruby! You are loved!

Reminder: Tomorrow is the Holiday Sing from 2:00-3:30. All families are welcome to attend.

Questions for the dinner table:
What word did we create in word work?
Did you add any comparisons to your nonfiction chapter book today? What details did you add?
How would you solve 7+8? Show another method. And another...maybe another. :) (ex: 7+8=10+5


We had a great writing session today. Our first graders are really taking off in their nonfiction chapter books. Don't forget to ask you child about his/her nonfiction chapter book topic.
Pictures from our day

One of my favorite parts of teaching...when students can take over my job. Here the kiddos are teaching each other how to use coding with the Ozobots. Wow!

Reading a nonfiction book and then applying his learning. Using the step by step directions to create a paper airplane. While reading, we had a great conversation about the word, "drag." 

Partners are "see-saw" reading where each child takes turn reading a page. This is a great strategy to use at home, also.

I love how enthusiastic we are about reading! Taking a break from recess to read...wow!

JOY!

Show me the...MATH!

Students solved the middle equation in four ways:

1. Picture

2. Equipment

3. Strategy

4. Words

Mathematicians are flexible thinkers.

Questions for the dinner table
What was are mystery word today in word work? Spell the with slick.
What are the steps for setting up a for a successful private reading?
What chapter did you work in writing today? What did we learn from Jack today? (using key words in our books)
Share 1 new thing you learned about a classmate during our class meeting today.

Double-roni!

Mr. Lynn teaching a small group about Ozobots. Ozobots are coding robots. This group did a FANTASTIC job!

Mrs. Crocker, our literacy coach, joined us today for writing. Ask your kiddo what a "sneakaroni" means. 

Questions for the dinner table:
What chapter did you work on today in your nonfiction book? Did you plan across your fingers?
How many minutes did we read for today? (we broke our record!)
How were you a director today during reading?
What does smack, stack, slick, and truck have in common? What was our mystery work in word work?
How were you a good partner during checkers today?
List many methods for solving 11+8=

Thankful Thursday

Questions for the breakfast table: 
What do you do when you are reading and you don't understand what you are reading? (reread)
What does "safe touch" mean?
What is your new main topic in writing? List the subtopics that you created.
Whose birthday was yesterday? She did an AMAZING job on the anoucements.
Create your own story problem where there total/sum is between 11 and 20. Show multiple ways for solving.
List some of the rules for Checkers. What is the difference between and rule and a law?

Our lovely birthday girl built 13 cents with five coins to match the 13th day of December. 💗

Learning about nonfiction chapter books from a second grade reader

Mr. Bober picks awesome read alouds. Did you know that he is one of the few people (nation wide) that is on the committee  to pick the 2018 Caldecott Winner? Wow! 

Part of being a skilled mathematician is being able to think flexibly about numbers. Here, one of our students is showing her thinking by modeling multiple methods for solving.

Together, the class developed multiple ways for solving a math problem. What's amazing is that we did not have time to record everyone's thinking. These are just some of the methods the students are applying. 

Tech Tuesday

Today, during partner reading, we used a new piece of technology called a SWIVL to record partner conversations about our books. A Swivl records independent audio channels, letting me listen in to the ideas that our students are sharing with their partners. Through utilizing the Swivl, I am able to hear every voice in the classroom. We have been working on having meaningful, interesting, and engaging conversations around our texts.

The iPad is plugged into the main Swivl hub. Both partnerships have a small microphone placed in between their chairs. 

These students are practicing the partner strategy of "choral reading." Both students are reading the same text at the same time. 

The students loved that the SWIVL at it's like a little robot that rotates to the main microphone. So fun!

During writing workshop, we had a 'fish bowl' conversation about elements of a nonfiction chapter book. These four students are discussing the purposeful literary choices that the author of this text choose for his book on Porcupines.