My Favorite Snowflakes!

Hi all!  Just wanted to share one of the projects I have prepped for next week.  I shared it last year, but love it so much that I am sharing it yet again.  I love, love, love these snowflakes!  (Maybe I love them so much because these are the only snowflakes we will see in my neck of the woods!)

Pattern Block Snowflakes

Here is a closeup from a year I used light blue construction paper for the background.  (I like the dark blue even more!)

This idea came from my teaching partner Marlene.  (THANKS Marlene!!!) To prep,  I use a pattern block template and copy all of the different pattern blocks onto white copy paper.  Then I get a helper (usually a middle school or high school student) to cut out the various pattern blocks.  For each child,  I cut a blue (either dark or light) 12" X 12" square (or circle which I LOVE) and glue a white hexagon in the middle. Each student is to create a symmetrical snowflake using the white pattern blocks.  The hexagon in the middle gives them a base to build from.  These snowflakes always turn out beautiful (although a few are always .. well, interesting) and they make a great bulletin board display.  Plus this is really a math project!  I expect students to use the correct names of the shapes as they work.  Plus we have lots of discussions about symmetry.  Here is a link to the templates for the pattern blocks.

One project prepped ... many to go!!!

Love to all,

Camille

Color Those Numbers!

Hi all!

My firsties have been working on number sense to one hundred.  This includes using a hundreds chart.  One of the activities we do involves coloring in the hundreds chart to make a variety of designs.  For Hundreds Day our design looked like 100, for Valentine's Day a heart, and yesterday Lincoln (well, sort of Lincolnish).

Valentine's Day Heart

Abraham Lincoln (with eyes and a smile added)

You have probably all done activites similar to this.  The teacher calls out a number, the students color in that number on their chart.  At the end, "Surprise" they end up with a cool picture.

When I do this, I change the way I call out the number based on the concept we are working on.  (Is is okay if I say "concept" instead of "standard"?  I am just so standarded out!!!)

So when we first start working on numbers to one hundred my clues might be:
37, 45, ...

Or:
Color in the number before 38, color in the number between 44 and 46

Another time the clues might be:
3 tens and 7 ones,  four tens and 5 ones

Another time:
36 plus 1, 46 minus 1

Or:
27 plus 10, 55 minus 10

Or:
23 plus 14, 67 minus 22

You get the idea.  You can make the clues based on whatever you are studying and as easy or hard as you like.  As I give harder clues, I also mix in the previous concepts for review.  My procedure is to state the clue, give time for students to color in the correct number, call on someone to tell us the correct number, model coloring in that number using my document camera.  Since I have kinders in my class also, they know they can just wait for me to color in the number and then color in that same number.  (I think of it as "exposing" them to higher numbers.  Although, some of my kinders can do this without my extra help!)

As you have probably figured out:  I LOVE MATH!!!  I can hardly wait until California (FINALLY) jumps on board with the Common Core Standards.  On paper we are on board; in fact we are one of the lead states on paper.  But we are still teaching to the California standards because we are still testing those standards and our districts do not want us to change until the Common Core assessments are in place.  Which, I get.  BUT I just wish it would all happen a whole lot sooner.  (Should I mention how jealous I am reading the blogs of teachers in other states who are already using the Common Core standards?  Nah, you all know it!!!!!)

Love to all,
Camille

One Hundred Letters in My Name

We just (finally) completed one of my favorite Hundreds Day tasks.  I got this idea from Mathwire a million years ago (really).  First, I gave each child an empty hundreds grid and their job was to write their name over and over to fill that chart.  Then they picked one color and colored ONLY the capital letter in their name whenever it appeared on the chart.  For example, Mike's name begins with M so he colored every M on his chart.

Mike

Then comes the really cool part.  Once everyone is finished, they look at the pattern that is made on their chart and see if they can find anyone else with that same pattern.  If (when) they do, their job is to figure out WHY their patterns are the same.  Here are some of the patterns:

Caleigh

Zaiden

...and here are two girls with the exact same pattern:

Diana

Stacy

Sometimes it takes my students awhile to figure out why some patterns are the same and some are different.  But once they figure it out, they have that beautiful aha moment and they go a little crazy running from group to group to check out their theory.  In case you have never done anything like this before, I will let you figure out why each pattern turns out the way it does.  I so love math!  Problems like this make me smile because of the beauty of our number system.  (I am a geek, aren't I?!?)

Love to all,
Camille

I Heart Hundreds Day

Hi all!

We just celebrated our one hundredth day of school.  Such fun!!  Here are some of the activities we did before, during, and after Hundreds Day  . . .


BEFORE HUNDREDS DAY
To prepare my students for bringing in collections of 100 items, I read this book to them:
Find it on Amazon by clicking here.

As I read, we kept track of the items that Jessica was bringing in for 100s Day.  (Poor girl just couldn't decide so her family helped her out and she ended up with a variety of items that add up to 100.)  This made for a great math lesson.  Here is the chart I made as students dictated equations that matched the story.  Afterwards, I wished my chart was as cute as the amazing charts out there in Blogland, but my humble chart served its purpose.

• Then I sent home the homework outlined in my previous post.

DURING HUNDREDS DAY

On Hundreds Day I surprised the children by having our door decorated.  I am not exaggerating when I say the door was their FAVORITE part of the day.  Thank you Pinterest!!!!!!  

My door:

This sign was on my door.  It matches my shirt from Really Good Stuff, but so sorry, I have no photos of me wearing my totally adorable shirt!  : )

Other activities:

• I handed out stickers to my students that read "I am 100 days smarter!"  (From Really Good Stuff.  Do you see a theme?)
• We learned several songs.
• Throughout the day I read several picture books about hundreds.  My favorite: 

• We used a hundreds chart to make a design.  I called out numbers for the children to find and color on the chart.  They ended up making the number 100 on their chart.  (Big surprise!)
• We made crowns from Heidi.  (Love you Heidi!!!).  To decorate the crowns, my students had to make 100 dots.  After every ten dots, they switched colors because I wanted them thinking about groups of ten.  (My first graders were very successful with this, but my kinders had a hard time keeping track of how many dots they had made - not surprising!)
• Our fourth grade buddies came to visit.  We sang our songs to them.  (Well, more like I sang and my students lip synced.  Thanks guys!  The fourth graders clapped so I guess I didn't harm their ears.)  Then the children were split into groups.  My kiddos took turns reading their three clues to their group.  (The clues were about their 100 items and were done for homework.)  The fourth graders helped us infer what items each child brought to school.  My very favorite came from a kindergartner:  

                         1)  You can eat these.  

                         2)  You cook these before you eat them.

                         3)  They are named after a body part.

I immediately knew the answer and when none of my kinders, none of my firsties, AND none of the fourth grade buddies could guess, I proudly raised my hand and then offered my brilliant guess:  kidney beans.  "Wrong!"  WHAT?!?  No, really . . . you can eat kidney beans, you can cook them AND they are named after a body part.  I was so sure I was right, but nope!  Can you guess what my student brought?

AFTER HUNDREDS DAY

We haven't completed all of this ... but I have several writing activities that take advantage of the excitement of Hundreds Day.  I like to have the children write about their favorite Hundreds Day activity.  They also write about something they can do now that they couldn't do at the beginning of the school year.

Love to all,
Camille

P.S.  Elbow macaroni!!!!  Who would have thought?

Hundreds Day!

Hurrah for the hundredth day of school!

Every year I ask students to bring in 100 items to help us celebrate this special day.  For homework, the students write three clues to help us guess what their 100 items are.  But this year I am trying something new; I am asking that the 100 items come to school in a plastic bottle.  I saw this idea on the web and LOVED it.  Think how much easier it will be to move the collections around.  Also, we can easily weigh them and talk about volume.

Here are the links for the letter I will send home to explain the assignment AND the clues worksheet.  I copied my forms into Google docs and had to delete the lines from the clues form because I was using a non-Google docs font.  Sorry!

Parent Letter

Clues Form

Disclaimer:  I know I saw this bottle idea on the web, maybe from a blog, but that was before the days of Pinterest and I cannot find the original posting.  If it was your blog, PLEASE let me know and I will credit you and link to you.  (Or if I am breaking blog rules by posting something that was YOUR idea, just let me know and I will take it down.  Sure wish I could remember where I got the bottle idea from.)

Love to all,
Camille

P.S.  Our one hundredth day isn't until February 6 and I am feeling very proud of myself that I am actually ahead of schedule.  : )

Happy Half Day!

Dear Bloggets,
I have to confess that I am still trying to find my voice as a blogger.  I had to laugh when I looked back at my recent posts and saw art, art, and more art.  Even I began to wonder if art was all I ever did in class!!  So ... I am going to try my best to present other aspects of my class.  Here goes!!!!

I love math so I take every opportunity I can to celebrate numbers.  Friday was a very special day in my class ... "Half Day" which is our halfway point in the school year.  On this special day I expose my students to fractions.  Our California math standards make no mention of fractions until second grade.  But I believe it is important to expose children to fractions earlier than that.  So on Friday my kinders and first graders took part in several simple activities relating to halves.
For example:

• I read several books on fractions including Eating Fractions.
• Students put halves of matching snowflakes together
• Students drew lines to cut shapes in half on our (new, beloved) Smartboard
• Students folded papers in half.
• Students completed HALF of a worksheet (oh, they loved this one!!!).  The first graders started cheering when I tore their worksheets in half (prior to passing them out) in honor of Half Day.

Throughout the day we did half of this and half of that.  By the end of the day, the children had a beginning understanding of fractions, but more importantly, they had a great deal of fun!  They can hardly wait for our next number celebrarion: Hundreds Day!

Love to all,

Camille

We are family! (... fact families that is)

"We are family! Brothers and sisters are we. We are family; get up everybody and sing!" Don't you just love that song by the Pointer Sisters? If I was brilliant I would turn it into a song about fact families. But, alas, I am not brilliant, so instead I have a few fact family games to share with you.

In math my firsties are learning about the relationship between addition and subtraction. Even though my math program (Envision) doesn't teach fact families for awhile, I like to introduce them now. It just makes sense to me.

So I made up a simple game called "Fact Family Toss". To play this game you need two dice and a piece of paper for each child. The child tosses both dice, adds the number together and then writes out four equations (a fact family) using the three numbers (both dice numbers and the sum). I have students start out with the typical dice with numbers 1-6, but later add in a variety of dice: ten sided dice, twelve sided dice, dice made from wooden cubes that I have written numbers on ...

Then there is also, "Domino Fact Families". Same idea. The child chooses a domino, adds the two numbers together and then creates a fact family using those three numbers.

For a much cuter fact family game, go to the First Grade Fever blog. Christie has posted French Fry Fact Families. Yes, it is as cute as it sounds and it is free!

"We are fact families! Sums and differences are we! We are fact families; get up everybody and sing!" Hmmm ... just doesn't work!

Mathematicians at Work?!?

Yesterday I blogged about my writing bulletin board on which a monthly writing sample is displayed for each student.  It is actually like a portfolio, but on a bulletin board.  I would like to do the same thing for math.  Here is what I am thinking:  I could focus on problem solving.  Each month I would collect a sample from a student and display it on the board.  Last  year I started to work with my students on explaining their thinking during math talks.  Then we progressed to having them write their explanations down.  Hmmm .... I am thinking that this would make for a great way for my students to see their progress in problem solving.  Then at the end of the year, each child could put their samples together in a booklet and take it home as a math portfolio.  Hmmmm .... more thinking on this needs to be done!