WEEK FIVE

Overview:  
I can't believe how time is just flying by!  Another week over? Inconceivable! We had a great week in first grade, filled with maps, math centers, and cat stories.  We started a social studies unit aimed at teaching basic map skills and the hierarchy of communities from neighborhood to world. In math, we played several different math games that reinforced the concepts we have been learning over the last couple of weeks and dipped our toes into the concept of equivalent expressions.  In reading we practiced decoding words that have the hard C sound, like cat, the double SS, as in Hiss, and consonants blends, such as SC in scat.  

Activity Highlights: 

Math

Dice and Dots-  This fun math game helped students use the counting on with thinking dots strategy to solve missing addend problems.  

Domino Go Fish- This fun twist on go fish helped students understand equivalent expressions and the commutative property of addition. 

Student Sample- Bear Hunt Map

Social Studies

Going on a Bear Hunt- After reading and singing the Bear hunt book and song, students created their own maps of the bear hunt adventure.  Then they wrote ordered directions for how to go on a bear hunt.  This fun activity taught cardinal directions and while incorporating MCC Language Arts Standards.

Class Sample- Our Classroom Map

Mapping our World- In this activity students helped to create maps of our classroom and our school.  We talked about how things would look from a birds eye perspective, relative sizes, the cardinal directions, map title, and map keys. 

Pirate Treasure Map- The student created their very own pirate treasure maps that are hidden inside a special book.  The maps include a title page, a key, the maps, and written directions for how to find the treasure. 

Image of Me on the Map,
Borrowed from Ms. Gardenia's Speech Room 

Books We Read:

Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

~Great book with beautiful illustrations to accompany a fun song. 

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney

~This book helps kiddos understand they're spot in the world by 'zooming out' of a bedroom all the way to a world view, and then back in again.  

Mapping Penny's World by Loreen Leedy

~This book helps students understand the different components of maps by following a little girl who is mapping the world of her dog, Penny.