WEEK FOUR

Overview:  

Week four marks the half way point for my placement in First Grade.  It was a very busy week for me and for the students!  We had picture day and a sound museum to culminate our science unit.  I had my midterm assessment (I passed!) and started teaching an after school group through a local organization called Flagship.    

Activity Highlights: 

Math: Number Bonds-  We introduced the new concept of number bonds this week.  This concept helps students understand the relationship between numbers and provides scaffolding for missing addend and subtraction problems. Number bonds give a visual aid to support students learning of

 part-part-whole relationships.

PVC pipe Organ

Science: Instruments-  This week we focused on making instruments and learning how different instruments make sound.  The students explored how to change the pitch and volume of their instruments.     

What We Made

PVC Pipe Organ 

Kazoos

Shoe box guitars

Rain sticks

Maracas

Drums

Wrench Xylophones

Wrench Xylophone

Science: Sound Museum- On Friday we ended our sound unit with a museum.  Parents were invited into the classroom to learn about all the different sound concepts we had explored during the unit.  The room was set up with 19 different stations for the students to escort their parents around to. Each station had a poster with questions the student should answer for their parents and an interactive activity or instrument.   

Sound Museum Posters

WEEK THREE

Overview:  

Week three marks the first full week of school.  Classroom procedures became routine and familiar enabling us to have heaps of hands on activities. This exploratory approach helps students take ownership of their learning and solidifies the concepts they are learning. 

Activity Highlights: 

Math: Flip flops-  Students used unifix cube manipulatives to learn about the commutative property of addition.  Using manipulatives helps students understand this abstract concept be providing something concrete to hold onto.

Reading- Each day students practiced reading in a variety of ways.  In one activity students practiced vowel sound identification through a bingo game.  After a word was read aloud students identified the vowel sound and put a token on the letter that made that sound.  

Science:

sprinkles "dance" as the music plays

Good vibrations-  Students learned more about sound waves through this exciting activity.  They used their voices and music to make sprinkles move.  This experience helped students understand that even though we can’t see it sound energy travels through the air in waves. 

Student sample

String Phones-  The making of string phones reinforced to idea that sound is vibration and these vibrations travel in waves through different materials. 

Books We Read:

Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern  

~We used this book to talk about how we use sound in the real world.  Sound is used to communicate, to make music, to make sound effects and much more!  We used sound to make a recorded version of this book with sound effects included! (Recording to come)  

WEEK TWO

Overview:  

Read Well Book

This week we started our Walk to Solve and Walk to Read math and language arts groups.  We also started our first science unit: SOUND!  As a classroom that follows the state and nation wide education standards we jumped right in to some great learning.  For the next couple weeks we will focus on Montana Common Core Standards, 1.NBT.1 and 1.OA.3 in math and Next Generation Science Standard PS4.1 and PS4.4.  In reading, we use the Read Well Program and are focusing on increasing phonological awareness and sight word proficiency at the students' instructional level in small groups. 

Teacher Sample 

Activity Highlights: 

Math: Shake & Spill-  Students used foam chips with different colored sides to find and record all the different ways to add to five.  We took that data and compiled it into an organized list to discover a pattern. Then we used that pattern to find the ways to add to all the numbers between 3-10. 

Student Sample of Science Notebook

Science: Science Notebooks-  Students compiled all they learned during class experiments into their interactive science notebooks. 

Guess that Sound-  Students used their newly learned sound vocabulary words to guess what objects were hidden in plastic eggs.

Waves in Water- In this hands on experience, students learned about how sound travels in waves much like ripple patterns in water. 

Books We Read:

Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern  
~This story hooked students in and introduced the topic of sound.

Student Sample from Listening Walk

The listening walk by Paul Showers
~This book is all about listening to the sounds we hear every day.  After reading the students went on their very own listening walk and recorded the sounds they heard. 

What is sound? by Charlotte Gullain
~This informative book uses a repetitive theme that helped students become familiar with key sound concepts and vocabulary. 

WEEK ONE

Birthday Board!

After lots of hard work, the classroom was finally ready!  All papers were copied, cut, stapled, and filed. The bulletin boards were arrange and rearranged. The table groups were set with  their supplies in place.  All that was missing was…THE STUDENTS!

Welcome board awaiting students' pictures

Meet & Greet:  
Students arrived with their parents and guardians to meet the teachers and unpack their school supplies.  They went on a scavenger hunt around the room to deliver materials into picture labeled boxes.  Then they went out back to enjoy the ice cream social!

Activity Highlights: 

Centers! The students rotated through different stations to explore several concepts.

Whisper Phones-  Piping shaped into a phone that allow students to here themselves reading.

Pattern Blocks- mathematical manipulatives that allow students to explore how different shapes are broken down into other shapes. 

100 Charts- Empty ten by ten grid for students to fill in with the numbers 1-100.

Puzzle- Students relax on the carpet as they try a variety of puzzles.

Build a Word- Students practice word making with unifix cubes.

Tangrams- 
Students practice problem solving skills and learn about how shapes work together to form bigger shapes.

Geoboards-Students explore shapes more with rubberbands on peg boards.

Spiley/Ipods Students get to examine the class pet Spikey, a bearded dragon, and listen to educational music.

Books We Read:

~First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg  
        This adorable book lets students know everyone, even the teacher, is                 nervous on the first day of school.

~Do onto Otters by Laurie Keller 
        This hilarious book helps students learn to be kind and respectful to                    their classmates in a delightfully 'punny' way!

~Chrysanthemum Kevin Henkes. 
         This classic helps students be comfortable with their differences and
          leads into important discussions on teasing and bullying. 
~The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
         This heart warming book helps students feel the love of parents and                   guardians they are away from while at school.