Last week, we started CH.1 of our GoMath! The chapter starts out with place value which is a very important concept to master as the rest of the year builds upon this skill. 1.1 We kicked off learning place value with the story of "Number Street." Be sure to ask your child about the story! It goes a little something like this, "Three families moved into a neighbor, on the same street known as Number Street. There was a big problem as all three dads were named hundred, all three moms were named tens, and all three babies were named ones. Therefore, the mailman would get super confused where to deliver the mail for "hundred" or when mom would call in for their little one to come in for the night, the "ones" didn't know whose mom was calling. So, they would all stay outside playing much too late. To solve this problem, they had to create last names- the units (first people to move onto Number Street), the Thousands and the Millions." Thus, we have our periods in place value. This was such a great way to teach place value and every kid was able to pick up on it! 1.2
A trick I learned very quickly when using math manipulatives: let them play for 10 minutes, so when it comes time to using them with the lesson- they will actually use them for math and not play! We used the ones, tens and hundreds blocks to visually show that each one is "ten times more." To engage students, I presented this with a PowerPoint on brownies and how one brownie is great but a row of brownies (ten times more) is even better. OR a whole pan (ten times more-100) is even better than that! Thus, cutting a pan of brownies into ten rows is dividing the pan by ten, or taking 1/10 of the pan (moving down a place value.) And of course, the kids got a brownie at the end! It's so fun seeing my kids who struggle or think they can't do math pick up on it and realize they CAN do math. The first week of school was AMAZING! I am so excited to get to teach and learn from such awesome kids this year! The first couple of days were spent focusing on building a positive classroom community with kindness and teamwork as the foundation. I tried to teach the rules and procedures of the classroom in a more interactive and engaging way. Here were some highlights: Don't be a crab! I took the kids to the KIVA where we sat in a circle and students volunteered to help me act out and tell a story. A man is walking down the beach when he runs into another man crab hunting. He notices that there are a few crabs in his bucket, but no lid on the bucket. When the man asks the crab hunter if he is worried that his crabs will crawl out, the hunter replies that "I am not worried my crabs will crawl out of the bucket because when one tries, there is always another crab pulling him down." As this is really the case with crabs, our class talked about not being crabs and pulling each other down. Instead, we are to help lift each other up. The kids then got to make crab puppets which even as 10 year olds- they LOVED. This is a class full of creativity and so many love doing art projects. Building a positive classroom community sets the framework for the entire year and allows for positive learning experiences to occur. I can already tell that taking the time during the first week of school to make this a focus and priority, it is already reaping many benefits for our class and your kids! Check out some of the kids crab puppets: STEM Challenge!
Students had to stack their cups and end up with the "T" cup on the top of the stack. However, they could not use their hands and had to figure out how to make this work using only one rubber band and a piece of yarn for each student. This group worked together to figure it out. |
Shout-OutsThis week's dolphin dine:
-Yoselin -Solemi This week's 100 Club: Month |