The Fractions Inn

I hit a brick wall this week when it came to fractions. It’s pretty basic in Grade One; all they have to do is identify fractions-specifically halves and quarters. I challenge my kids by getting them to recognize thirds as well. By the time we returned to fractions last week, I was so tired of pizza or pie questions. Then I found a book called Full House. It’s about a lady who runs an inn with six rooms. Every time a new guest comes, she determines what that means as a fraction. As I read it out loud, I was able to ask the kids what 2/6 (or whatever the fraction was) actually meant. It was a great way to assess which kids understood how to interpret a fraction in a real-life situation, and they got it. With the last week of the unit ahead of us, I think I’ll stick to the concept of the inn to finish off our fractions unit.

We learned about our third and final source of renewable energy by looking at hydro power. Since I knew so many of them have been to Niagara Falls, I thought I’d teach them about the Big Becky project. It’s a massive drill that is being used to make a large tunnel under the Niagara Escarpment to increase the amount of hydro power for the city. I knew I wouldn’t do it justice simply by explaining it to them. I had to show them. Yep. I showed them a Rick Mercer Report clip. They were in awe. 

Click the picture for the link. 

Then we finished off our pros and cons chart by reflecting and discussing what we learned about hydro power.

I had them think about solar, wind, and hydro power and tell me which one they would want to power their homes. I created this sheet to have them complete. Click HERE or on the picture to get a copy for yourself.

In my weekly newsletter, I indicated that we would be learning about the pterodactyl. As I was doing my research on it, I discovered that the correct term is pterosaur, as it embodies a group of flying reptiles. That’s right. They weren’t even dinosaurs! The kids thought that was really cool. I looked at their articles this weekend and I am SO impressed with their writing. Here is an example of what I would give a Level 4.

That’s pretty much it for the week. We had three and a half days of indoor recesses, so I’m praying for some warmer weather this coming week.

Keep warm, everyone!

Pinwheels and Carnivores

We learned all about the big, mean, ferocious, and deadly ALLOSAURUS {and adjectives. Thanks to the kids for coming up with those awesome ones right there}. I figured we needed something pretty intense to spice things up after learning about the stegosaurus and the triceratops last week. The kids are getting pretty good at writing non-fiction texts about the dinosaurs they learn about, and they come up with some great adjectives. Adjectives make reading more interesting!

Just to stay on the topic of dinosaurs, I’m going to jump over to our storytelling centre so you can see what they got to explore this week. 

It’s a dinosaur sensory bin. Sensory bins are wonderful, especially for those kinesthetic learners. There were so many textures to play with in the box, and lots of different sized toys to go with it. I borrowed the sand from the kindergarten room and bought the glass beads, stones, bird/dinosaur nest, and mini dinosaur toys at Michael’s. Much to my surprise, there was literally no sand on the floor. Such responsible kids I have in my class.

In science we learned all about renewable energy with a focus on wind energy! In order to learn what renewable energy is, I turned to “the funny scientist man” {as referred to by the Grade Ones}, Bill Nye!

Then we talked about windmills/wind turbines. They were fascinated, but had no idea how they worked. So I showed them this:

Thank goodness for YouTube…and it’s media literacy ;)

I have this great book called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. It’s based on a true story of a boy in Africa who built a windmill to generate energy for his suffering village. The kids were all over that because it made them think of their own buddies in Uganda.

We ended our wind power lessons off with a little craftivity by making pinwheels! They had a blast and a handful of them brought them back to school over the course of the week to play with at recess.

Some other pictures of the classroom this week!

A little addition to the math wall

A great book that explains that big idea in energy: Energy makes things happen!

Reflecting on wind energy. Also learning what “pros and cons” mean

Well that was short and sweet for this week. I am almost done my first draft of report card comments. For those of you who are also working on your report cards, I’ll leave you with this:

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Don’t read this in public like I did. People will stare at you for bursting into laughter. 

Trust me.

But definitely read it because it’s so cute and hilarious. Number 9 is my favourite. I just know I would totally favour the heck out of that kid if he was in my class.

Click the picture to go to the link. 

 And when you’re done reading that, go to my Unforgettable Moments page for a few more laughs.

Currently: January

The beginning of January was a whirlwind so I didn’t get around to doing the Currently for this month, so I’ll do it now. Oh well; it’s better than last month when I did it two days before the month was over.

Listening: The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently tied 2-2 to New Jersey with three minutes left in the second period. Only time will tell if we come out on top tonight.

Loving: My big, beautiful, fat cat, Phoebe. She just has so much personality.

Thinking: I’m going to get sick. Last week I suffered with headaches every day and today my head felt super heavy. Back to school = head cold. Bring on the Advil!

Wanting: Today, Rob and I went to Costco with an expired membership card and hit up all the samples. We’ve decided that we really need an actual membership.

Needing: I never did get around to getting that massage therapy I mentioned last month.

Memory: I fell in love, I travelled to Europe, and I got my dream job. 2013 was very good to me.

Visit Oh Boy Fourth Grade for your own Currently. 

Happy Sunday!

Happy 2014 in Grade One!

The two-week holidays came to an end and back to Grade One I went. The weather was less than kind that first day back and it really should have been a snow day. I’m not just saying that because I could have used another day; the roads really were horrendous. I almost got rear ended on the way to work, which would have been a huge inconvenience because I didn’t have time to get hit. My plan to get to school early did not work out and I needed to get there quickly, yet safely. Then the temperature dropped a crazy amount and Tuesday ended up being a snow day. I only had 10 kids so it was hard to really move on with my new unit. 

Which is awesome. Let me tell you about it.

It’s all about…Dinosaurs! Which you would already know if you’ve been following me on here. On Monday I started them off with a KWL-type chart. It actually didn’t have the W section.

 

Then we watched the one and only Billy Nye the Science Guy. I truly believe you can’t teach primary science without visiting our old pal, Bill Nye at least once throughout the year. He is just so awesome.

The video got the kids so excited to learn about dinosaurs.

The next day, I introduced them to some non-fiction texts about the stegosaurus and we made the magazine model for their writing for this unit.

I'm so good at drawing a stegosaurus

On Thursday, we learned all about the triceratops and the kids wrote their first piece all on their own. This is the piece I use for the assessment for learning portion of the unit. What can they do all on their own? What do they each need to work on? What do I need to base my mini lessons on in the next few days? I just finished marking all of them so I will tell them their individual writing goals on Monday.

In math we are continuing with money and also learning about fractions, and deconstructing numbers.

I have been working our dinosaur and science content (more on that in a minute) into our math investigations because when everything ties together, the kids seem to be so much more engaged. Here are some examples of the questions we have been working on in math:

They love questions about Gramms Bear

In science, we started the Energy in our Lives unit. It was this science strand that inspired my decision to study dinosaurs at the same time because the big idea for the students to understand is that the sun is our main source of energy, and without it, we could not survive. We talked a lot about energy, did a few activities, and came up with this poster for our classroom.

We also looked at how our bodies gain and use energy. We watched a 10 minute movie from the Power to Play series. I got this kit at a workshop I attended last year.  

We talked about the four food groups and came up with some healthy meals that would provide lots of energy for our bodies.

  

We ended off the week with an art activity. I decided to push aside my fear of the September paint tornado and bring out the water colours. The kids made dinosaur silhouettes. I think they turned out pretty well!

Just for fun in those transition times, I read them Attack of the Tyrannosaurus from the Dinosaur Cove series. They loved it and we ended up finishing it by Friday afternoon. Luckily, I have another dinosaur chapter book to read to them for the week!

Overall, 2014 in Grade One started off great. I had one parent donate a ton of dinosaur toys and lend me a handful of dinosaur books. The support from the families is fantastic, and it makes me that much more grateful to have such a wonderful class.

Happy New Year!

Number Puzzles

I got a little crafty today and I thought I’d share my “pinspirations” with you. As I was perusing Pinterest this morning, as I do most mornings (afternoons, and evenings), I came across a few things I’d like to use in my classroom. These number puzzles are from Make, Take & Teach. It was ridiculously easy to do.

Things you’ll need:

Popsicle sticks, Modge Podge, clear tape, marker, Exacto knife, pictures of your choice

Arrange the Popsicle sticks on the back of the picture and tape them into place so they don’t shift when you move them. Make sure you leave space at the bottom of the sticks.

Paint a layer of Modge Podge onto the other side of the Popsicle sticks, place the picture on the sticks, and apply one more layer of glue to make everything stick. Leave it to dry. Drying takes about 30 minutes.

When it is dry, write the numbers you wish to work with at the bottom of the sticks. 

Carefully use the Exacto knife to make a slice between each Popsicle stick and break the puzzle into all its pieces.

Voila! You’re done!

I used a sandwich container purchased at Dollarama (of course) to hold all the pieces. I made three separate puzzles. My kids LOVE the Geronimo Stilton series, so I used that picture to count by 2s. I used a class picture of ours to count by 10s, and I used a picture taken from Make, Take &Teach to have them practice counting by 5s.

The puzzles are a great way to reinforce skip counting skills. The picture is an added bonus for those who still struggle a little bit or for those who are visual learners. I’m going to give these three puzzles a try and if they are a hit, I’ll make some more puzzles with other pictures. In fact, picture taking in my classroom becomes quite the reward. All I have to say is, “I’m looking for people who are working quietly so I can take their pictures. I’ll choose some of those pictures to make a new number puzzle”. It’s a great math AND classroom management tool!

The second thing I worked on today was this writing centre activity. I saw it on Pinterest and downloaded three of the packages so that my kids can practice beginning sounds, end sounds, and double vowel rules. They will use a white board marker to write down their answers, so I'm pretty sure it will be a big hit. There was  A  LOT of laminating that happened today and to be honest, the next “teacher toy” of mine will most likely be a paper cutter.  

If you like these activities, follow the links I have provided to you and give them a try. I’ll let you know how they work out with my onesies!