Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone, and happy blogging!! 

 I found a great teacher article on Edutopia today, New Things to Try in 2015...It's got some great ideas for the classroom, including an idea for a math "wonder shelf".  I think this would be such a cool idea for math time, and even for inside recess.  Simple Little Home has a picture of their own math shelf at home.  It's so organized and inviting!

In my classroom, all of my math manipulatives are on a shelf for easy access, but they don't look this pretty!  I'd like to make it look more inviting so students want to use the materials.  It would be great for student-directed math time, which I'd love to incorporate into our daily schedule.  My students play some type of fun math game each day, but I'd love to give them a few options and materials to choose from and let them explore on their own.

Anyway, happy 2015 and everyone enjoy your last few days of break! :)

Shapes and Leaves!

Happy Daylight Savings!  Everyone remember to change their clocks last night? =)

And a belated Happy Halloween as well!  Our students had lots of fun at our fall party Friday!  We made scarecrows, ate cookies, and played fall bingo.  Now to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas...EEK!!

We have reviewing properties of 2-D and 3-D shapes.  As a warm-up, I asked students to choose one shape, either 2-D or 3-D, and write what they know about it.  The kiddos ran with it!

Then we played a shape sorting game with partners.  I found some cool shape sorting mats on Lakeshore, but couldn't justify spending money on something I could make myself...so I did!  When students were done with one sorting mat, they traded with another group who had a different mat.

  

In honor of my favorite season, this week we read "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert.  SUCH a great book!  As a writing follow-up, the students made their own leaf men to display in the hallway!

 

 

Oh, and here's the pumpkin my husband and I carved Thursday night!  We named him Hector! =)

Measurement

This week we've been working on measurement concepts using nonstandard units of measurement.  To begin the week and introduce the objective, I asked the students to get in groups, and then I gave each group a bag of five ribbons, asking them to put them in order from shortest to longest.  I didn't give any other instructions, since I just wanted to see how students would complete this task.  Most of the groups arranged their ribbons correctly from shortest to longest, but lined the ribbons up in the middle as opposed to the left or right sides.

 

While walking around and taking pictures, I found one group of students who correctly lined up the ribbons all on one edge.  I did a little dance =) and then threw their picture up on the Promethean Board for the rest of the students to see.  We discussed what this group was doing right and how they lined up their ribbons correctly on one side instead of in the middle.  We then went back to the activity, and all groups remeasured their ribbons, being sure to line them up carefully on the left side.  I gave the kiddos a recording sheet to color in what their ribbons looked like, in order from shortest to longest.

Once we had this concept down, we measured objects using paper clips and popsicle sticks.  What a fun week! =)

Graphing and Having a Ball!!

TGIF! =)

What a fun week!  Wednesday was our field trip to the county fair, and today is a day off for schools so that families can enjoy the fair together.  I love it!

This week we worked on some fun graphing activities.  The kiddos worked in pairs to sort and graph these cute little animal erasers.  Thank you Target dollar spot!!

I'm pretty proud of our new first grade hallway bulletin board!  We sure are having a ball! =)

All the kiddos' names!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!