Curious Clouds

Hello Everyone!
What a great day to start a study on clouds!!  Dark clouds this morning releasing a deluge of rain! By 1:00 beautiful clear sky with just a few cirrus clouds!  Perfect example of our ever changing skies.
I'll share our Cloud Unit in a second, but first I wanted to show some pics of our whole group math lesson. We are continuing our study of place value.  After all the activities we did last week, it was time to see how all of this fits in relationship to other numbers.  I pulled out our bigger than life 100 board and handed out some mystery picture clues.  Each clue described a number in place value (tens and ones).  The kids took turns putting their cards on the number for which their clue stood. When we finished putting all the clues down, a cloud was revealed!

Use your imagination!  It looks like a cloud, right??? The kids loved working together to create it!! I'm not even sure they realized they were growing their number sense!!!

I did put together a little integrated cloud unit.  We are going to try to get most of this in this week!!

The unit also includes some poetry, another science activity and more!!

You can get it if you click HERE!!

Stay tuned for more cloud fun later in the week!

Until then, have a wonderful week!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek!! 

Joyfully!

Nancy

Math Fun, Synthesizing , and Baby Chicks! Oh My!

Hello Everyone!
Lots to share tonight! We have had so much "springtime learning fun" in math.  Last week I shared about a mini lesson in game form that we played on the lifesized 120 board with some wind-up chicks. Well, we got out the wind up bunnies this week.  We played a similar game yesterday, but today we shook things up a bit and included a chick and a bunny! The kids wound up the little hoppers and when each landed on two numbers, we had to first tell about greater and less than, but then we had to use different strategies to tell the difference.  It wasn't long before they realized that using the base ten model, finding the difference was easy!!  They thought they we were done with the problem after that, but noooo!  With a little hint from a fellow blogger (Pauline at Firstgradebythesea), I incorporated some movement into the scenerio!  After finding the difference, the kids had to hop or do that many jumping jacks!! Phew! One set of numbers had a difference of 41... the kids were pooped!! Here are a few pics!

You can get hopping chicks and bunnies at the Dollar Tree!! Make the 120 board on a shower curtain!! We've used ours all year!!

Now on to synthesizing.  I posted a couple of days ago about teaching kids about synthesizing while they are reading.  I introduced the concept using "The Little Island," and lots of discussion. We learned about the fact that we need to use our schema and our new thinking together to understand what our text selection is about. The kids had to take notes during the reading and then write what they thought the story was about using all of their new thinking.  They did a great job!!

 We continued today with synthesis focusing on the language of synthesis. We practiced synthesizing again using another book (this time an expository text) and used the words that help us organize our thoughts.

The kids had little bookmarks with language reminders to help them during "Read to Someone" time for Daily 5.  Supporting each other was important. Practice with this skill is important. Practice makes permanent!  You can get these little visual reminders.  CLICK HERE!! :) 

for your free printables.

Now, I promised the kids I would take pics of the new baby chicks that just hatched today so that moms and dads could see them.  We've been studying the life cycles of animals, finishing up this week.  We've also been waiting patiently for our school wide chick project to develop!  Tah! Dah!! Right on cue!! Happy Birthday to eight little babies!!! We love them already!!

They will be a huge inspiration when we start our poetry unit next week, I am sure!!

Well, thanks for hanging in there through this looooooong post, but I just had so much to share!!

Stay tuned, I've got some fun little math games for next week in the works!!

Thanks for stopping by for a peek!! You all are amazingly supportive!!

Have a great rest of the week!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

  

Math is in full "spring!"

Hello Everyone!
We are loving math lately!!  A couple of our favorite things we have done this week are our "Are You My Mother?" game and our "Scrambled Math." 
Our "Are You My Mother?" game came after reading the book by PD Eastman. The object of the game was to solve math problems to create a path for the baby bird to get to his mother. The kids each got a plastic egg with a number sentence  inside.  We took turns solving the problems and placing our eggs on the 120 board until a path was created!  Kids loved it!!  Lots of math talk!!

 

Want the quick printable?? Click HERE!

Our second favorite thing we did so far this week is "Scramble Math." We used oversized letter tiles similar to scrabble and created words.  Adding up the points for each word provided some practice with all the addition strategies we need to keep fresh! 

This game along with a ton more including an individual version of the Scramble Math are part of the packet I posted last week, but in case you missed it...

You can CLICK HERE for it!! :)

Finally I want to share what is going into my math tubs next week.  Lots of fun Spring math with a focus on comparing numbers to 120, with lots of opportunity for kids to talk math!!

Here are a few pics from the Spring Fling Packet.

If you would like to add some fun springtime math to your day,

Click HERE!!

There are six activities (28 pages) for your kids to enjoy!

I can't wait to share what we've been working on the past couple of weeks in writing!!  I am so proud of the work the kids are doing!!  So stay tuned!!!

Thanks for stopping by on this busy night. I appreciate you!! Your support keeps me sharing!! 

Joyfully!!

Nancy