Ms. Jill's Crew

Crew News February 25, 2012

2012-02-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Math ShowMe's
We have had a chance to begin to create some Math ShowMe's. We are using the ShowMe app on our iPads to teach about things we are learning in Math. We had several created this week and they are posted below. I have also added these to each student's individual blog so be sure to check out our Kidblog page and give these students a comment or two. They would love to hear from you - you may comment on any child's blog. (If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the ShowMe's.)

Jonah Shows Us How to Count Coins

Joey's In and Out Box

Will's Name Box

Keenan Shows Us What Each Coin is Worth

Mark Shows Us a Multiplication Fact

More with Jonah Counting Coins

Jonah Shows Us How to Tell Time

Jonah Shows Us How to Make a Fact Family

Happy Birthday Joey!

2012-02-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

Crew News February 24, 2012

2012-02-24T12:24:00.002-07:00

Skype Session
Today we had a Skype session with Mrs. Frazier's class in Columbus, Ohio. This was our first time to Skype with them so we just spent the time getting to know each other. We asked them some questions about their school and Ohio and they asked us about our school and Colorado. Next time we Skype with them we will share books that we like or do some math together. It was so nice to meet them today. We are looking forward to talking to them again soon. (Pictures are below.)

Interrupting Chicken Voice Thread by Mrs. Frazier's Crew
Mrs. Frazier's crew made a Voice Thread about one of our favorite books and shared it with us. We viewed it today and some of us were able to make comments on it during center time. (Thanks, Ms. Kerry for helping out with that.) I have embedded the Voice Thread below for you to see, too. (If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the Voice Thread.) What a fun way to share a book with friends far away.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some good books with your child.

IA
Our IA next week is P.E. Be sure to wear appropriate footwear.

Crew News February 23, 2012

2012-02-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

Math - Things You Can Practice at Home
At this stage of the year in math, there are several things that you can practice at home with your child. They are:
• counting collections of coins containing pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
• telling time on an analog (with hands) clock to the hour, half hour and to the nearest 5 minute interval
• memorizing basic addition and subtraction facts

For these three concepts, the more times a child practices, the sooner they will feel comfortable with them. Thanks for helping out at home.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 7.1 Practicing with Fact Triangles

Crew News February 22, 2012

2012-02-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

ShowMe App
We have been experimenting with a new app on our classroom iPads. It is called ShowMe. At first, I did not give the crew any directions for this app. I just let them play around with it to learn what it could do. I believe that this is the way that most of us learn how to use new apps and programs most successfully, too. Now that they have had some time to experiment. I have asked them to use the app to teach others a math concept or to explain how they solved a problem in math. I will post any new math ShowMe's to the students' blogs. So be sure to check in often. Below is a sample ShowMe from our experimentation period. It was created by Will. (If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the ShowMe.)

PS I am posting this sample today so that I can experiment with how to embed a ShowMe onto a blog.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.13 Unit 7 Family Letter

Library
We have library tomorrow.

Crew News February 21, 2012

2012-02-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Sight Words

Our new sight words for this week and next week are: from, here, our, saw, what, your

Previous words include: as, if, my, be, all, like, she, has, how, put, don't, I'm, one, out, him, look, her, back, had, come, came, make, of, was, now, have, are, said, away, little, very, been

These are great words to point out to your child when they are reading or to have them practice spelling at home, too.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Practice your basic addition and subtraction facts.

Happy Birthday Mark!

2012-02-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

Crew News February 17, 2012

2012-02-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some good books with your children.

IA
Our IA next week is Music.

Crew News February 16, 2016

2012-02-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Storybird
We have learned a new tech tool. Storybird is a way to create your own stories using artwork from various artists. Each child has an account and can choose to create stories on Storybird when they have a turn on our classroom computers during centers or Writing Workshop. (Special thanks to Ms. Cari for updating two of our old computers so that they can run Storybird. She was in the right place at the right time and so helpful for our crew.) We have several Storybirds published now and I have been posting the published stories on each student's blog so that they can easily share them with you. It also makes it easy for you to comment on their stories. Below is one example that was written by Dillen. Be sure to check out our Kidblogs page for more exciting stories. I am sure that more will be coming soon.

The Magic Boy on Storybird

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.12 Analyzing a Set of Data

Happy Birthday Nico!

2012-02-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Crew News February 15, 2012

2012-02-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Coin Bags
Earlier in the year you sent in ziploc bags filled with coins for your child to use in math. It is time to do a quick inventory and replace missing coins. Your child should be able to tell you what coins he or she needs to replace ("I need one nickel, I need 5 pennies," etc.) Please ask your child what coins if any need to be replaced in his or her coin bag. They need: 20 pennies, 5 nickels, 10 dimes and 2 quarters. Thanks.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Practice Basic Math Facts - you can use your at home fact triangles

Library
We have library tomorrow.

Crew News February 14, 2012

2012-02-14T16:29:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day Party
Below are some photos of our Valentine's Day Party. Thanks to all who helped put this together. The crew had a great time.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.11 More Fact Triangles

Crew News February 13. 2012

2012-02-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day Party
Tomorrow at 3 pm is our Valentine's Day Party. Your child should bring in a bag or a box to hold the Valentine's Day cards they receive. Thanks to Kerry and all of the parents who are working to put this party together for us. I am sure that everyone will have a great time.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.10 Time at 5-minute Intervals

Book Donation
Brek noticed that she had two copies of some books at home and brought in the extras for us to have in our classroom library. Thanks, Brek.

Crew News February 10, 2012

2012-02-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Sight Words

Our new sight words for this week and next week are: are, said, away, little, very, been

Previous words include: as, if, my, be, all, like, she, has, how, put, don't, I'm, one, out, him, look, her, back, had, come, came, make, of, was, now, have

These are great words to point out to your child when they are reading or to have them practice at home, too.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some good books with your child.

IA
Our IA next week is Art.

Crew News February 9, 2012

2012-02-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

Brain Breaks and Exercises
We are still trying to remember to take frequent brain breaks and get our bodies moving. Ask your child about some of the things we do to give ourselves a break and refresh our brains.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.9 More Counting Coins

Crew News February 8, 2012

2012-02-08T11:17:00.001-07:00

All School Meeting
Twice a month we have All School Meetings. The whole school meets in the gym and has a morning meeting with everyone in the school there. At the next All School Meeting on February 29th our crew will be leading the meeting. We will begin to get organized in the next few weeks and choose the jobs that we would like to do at the meeting. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us that day. (There was supposed to be a cute picture of our crew sitting at today's All School Meeting today posted below but I forgot to take the picture! You can use your imagination.)

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Practice basic addition facts. You can use your home set of Fact Triangles.

Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to return their books so that they can check out new books.

Crew News February 7, 2012

2012-02-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

Desk Clean Out
Once a week as our morning meeting activity, we clean out our desks. We find all of the pencils, erasers, markers and other supplies that were missing. It is nice to have a fresh, clean start once a week.

Speaking of cleaning things out, we cleaned out our writing folders yesterday and brought home lots of stories that we have written this year. Hopefully your child showed you some of those pieces.

Winter Gear
It is that time of year and your child needs to come to school with all of their winter gear - snowpants, snow boots, hat, gloves and warm coat. We go outside for recess most of the time. We went out today and enjoyed some fresh air. Some students had to hang out in the cafeteria because they didn't have snow gear to wear outside. Our play areas are all covered in snow except for the blacktop so students need gear in order to play on most of the playground. The blacktop was plowed but it is still a big swampy mess - it makes for wet, cold feet and legs if we don't wear the appropriate gear.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.8 Counting Coins

Crew News February 6, 2012

2012-02-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

Great Series Books
I mentioned last week that we are reading aloud some great chapter books. We are also exploring various series of books that are "just right" for first graders to read to themselves. We looked at books in the following series: Elephant and Piggie, Pigeon, Fly Guy, Little Critter, Pete the Cat, Henry and Mudge, and Annie and Snowball. This week we will be looking at the Mr. Putter and Tabby series. This series is also by Cynthia Rylant, one of our favorite authors and author of the Henry and Mudge series and Annie and Snowball series. We have a big bin of these books (checked out from the public library) and we will read some aloud together and they will be available for students to read at many times of the day. My hope in doing this is that students will find series and authors that they love. Then they will be able to find books that are "just right" for them when they visit the school or public library. If you haven't checked out some of these series, please do. You will like them, too. I'll keep you posted as we add more series and authors to our growing list of favorites.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.7 Practice with Fact Triangles

Crew News February 2, 2012

2012-02-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

Basic Math Facts
This week we have been focusing on learning basic addition and subtraction facts. Now is the time for your child to begin to memorize these facts. (If they already have them memorized, they can work on improving their speed in calling out answers.) They are so may ways to practice these facts. They can play games on the computer, they can use their fact triangles, they can play Addition Top-It (see the Math page on this blog for directions). Check the Resources page and the Math page of this blog for more ideas.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.6 Measuring in Centimeters

Crew News February 1, 2012

2012-02-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

Financial Literacy
This week we started learning about the Financial Literacy standards for first grade (click here for more). We are learning about incomes, jobs and careers. It would be great if you could talk to your child about your job and why you chose it. Below are some of our ideas about what career we would like to have in the future.

Nico wants to be a restaurant maker.
Mark wants to be a spy.
Lili wants to be a vet because she wants animals to feel great.
Isabella wants to be a vet.
Myles wants to be a policeman because you can make a lot of money and because his dad is a policeman.
Brek wants to be a reader because she loves learning the words and it is fun.
Kayden wants to be the girl who works at Claire's and sells earrings and stuff. If she can't do that then she wants to be a vet.
Isadora wants to be a jazz dancer.
Zak wants to be a spy.
Will wants to be a scientist and make $30,000. If that doesn't work out then he wants to be an astronaut.
Doran wants to be a spy.
Keenan wants to be a singer because she will get a lot of money.
Joey wants to be a ballet teacher because she loves doing ballet at her house.
Darrell wants to be a soldier.
Cole wants to be a mad scientist because it looks fun.
Ava wants to be an astronaut because she reads a lot of books about space.
Jonah wants to be a heart surgeon because he will get a lot of money.
Peyton wants to be a babysitter.
Kate wants to be a scientist because it looks like fun.
Sydney wants to be a cook because she loves to cook with her family.
Keanan wants to be a basketball player because basketball is awesome.
Tessa wants to be a doctor.
Dillen wants to be a teacher because he wants to make a lot of money.
Lulu wants to be a mom because it will be fun.
Brandon wants to be a Comcast worker because he will make a lot of money for his family.
Morgan wants to to be a pet store worker because you can get money from people and see different kinds of animals.
Steyn wants to be an actor because then he will be famous.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.5 Fact Routines Practice

Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to return his or her library books.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

2012-01-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

Crew News January 31, 2012

2012-01-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sharing Our Writing
Today we shared our personal narratives with Ms. Mary Beth's crew. Yesterday we went to their room to listen to their stories. It is so nice to have a new audience for our work.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.4 Fact Triangles

Crew News January 30, 2012

2012-01-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

Book Buzz
I am trying to create a bit of book buzz in our classroom. I have been reading a couple of chapter books aloud to the crew. Reading aloud is fun and builds comprehension skills. We started with Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry. Next we read Ready Freddy: Tooth Trouble by Abby Klein. The books in this series are so appealing to first graders. In Tooth Trouble, Freddy is the only one in his class who hasn't yet lost a tooth. He is so distraught about this that he creates and carries out several plans to try to make one of his teeth fall out. First graders can really identify with this theme. This illustrator also provides readers with the challenge of finding the word "fin" in every illustration. (Freddy is a shark lover so "fin" is one of his favorite words.) While this book is a "chapter book", it is written at a level that would be "just right" for about half of the students in our crew. So, many will be able to read the books in the Ready Freddy series on their own. Others will enjoy them as a read aloud. Next week we will start Roscoe Riley Rules #1: Never Glue Your Friends to a Chair by Katherine Applegate. The books in this series are all tales of how Roscoe ended up in the timeout chair - nothing outlandish, just his mishaps and mistakes that will feel familiar to most first graders. All of these books are available at the Douglas County Public Library so check some out on your next visit. Happy Reading!

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.3 Fact Families

Crew News January 27, 2012

2012-01-27T11:17:00.001-07:00

Math Exchanges

Every Friday during our Math time, we do something called Math Exchanges. Math Exchanges are meetings of small groups of students who work together and/or alone to solve a math problem. Ms. Dee and I each work with small groups and the rest of the students do other math activities like working on the computer, playing Everyday Math games and other math activities. We rotate through several sessions of small groups each Friday.

The best part for all of us is the discussions that we have when meeting in the small groups. The kids just jumped right in and were willing to tackle tough problems together right from the start. One of our most recent problems was:

Jill has 10 cookies to share with her friends Mary Beth and Dee. How many cookies will each friend get?

As the first group and I read the problem together, one student immediately started shaking his head saying this won't work. The other students ignored him at first and counted out 10 blocks to begin dividing up the cookies. It didn't take long before the conversation started. They couldn't figure out what to do with the "leftover" cookie. Each group that I met with had the same issue and then had such wonderful discussions to figure out what to do.

Some groups simply refused to cut the cookie into pieces. They just left that cookie out even when I questioned them and tried to get them to look for other solutions. One student said that cookies just crumble when you cut them so you should just leave that cookie out.

Another student used the fact that the names I used in the story were teachers from our school. She decided that I should just give the extra cookie to my daughter, Abby.

One student (the student who was shaking his head when we read the problem) counted out the blocks and saw the leftover cookie and immediately cut it into 3 pieces.

One group quickly decided that the leftover cookie had to be cut into 3 pieces but had lots of discussion about how to cut it in a "fair" way. They drew lots of variations that they decided weren't fair (or "fare" as they spelled it). Finally someone in the group thought of cutting the cookie like a "peace sign" and they were all satisfied that this would be fair.

The discussion in our small group times are very lively and the students learn so much. I, too, learn so much about them as mathematicians. Another great thing is that this type of thinking and sharing is spilling into the rest of our math time during other days of the week. Below are some examples of kids' thinking about a problem that was trying to determine which number is bigger, 23 or 15 and then they had to determine how much bigger. This student made each number in tally marks to compare them

and this student counted up from 15:

The exciting thing is that the students are much more willing to write and draw out their thinking as well as share their ideas with each other than they were before we started Math Exchanges. Ask your child what he/she thinks about Math Exchanges.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Read a few good books with your child.

IA
Our IA next week is Music.

Happy Birthday Cole!

2012-01-27T11:17:00.000-07:00