Lets make a number line

Our math brains continue to grow every day.  As part of our unit on counting to 99, we had to problem solve where numbers might go on a number line.  Sometimes we knew the first or last number and had to fill in the rest and sometimes Mrs. Plaza tried to trick us, but she never can!  Little did we know we were working on our counting skills.

 

 

It took teamwork and problem solving skills for us to find where our numbers would go in our line when we did a whole class number line. 

 



 

Thanks to our great problem solving skills, everyone found their spot in line (even when Mrs. Plaza "forgot" some of the cards). 

 

Please continue to practice counting forwards and backwards to 99 with your child.  We will work our way up to 120 by the end of the year! 

Final Small Moment Stories and Celebration

We have been working hard on our small moment personal narratives.  With our writing partner we worked on revising and editing our writing.  Some of us even chose to act out our stories in order to make sure we had enough details in our writing. 

 

Once our writing was the best it could be, we published our stories by adding a cover and color to the illustrations!  Sitting in the authors chair was a special moment as we shared our stories with the class.  Your first grader was also very excited to pick an adult in the building to give a copy of their story to.  The other copy is hanging in the hallways for anyone to read and then it will be sent home with it's author! 

 

Keep up the great work authors!  Our next unit will be non-fiction.  Your child will get a chance to teach me about something they are expert on! 

reading anchor charts

 

 The chart above is what we are using in first grade to help us with our retelling.  If you child is struggling with retelling their books to you at home, please have them retell the story across their fingers using the key words above.  It is ok for them to look back in the book to help them remember the events if they need to. 

One of the most important skills we work during reading is the ability to self correct without prompting.  We remind the children to use their check it skills after they think they have figured out a tricky word and if the story doesn't sound right or isn't making sense.  Please encourage your child to use these three ideas to help them continue to become better readers!


Your child has mini copies of these charts in their book boxes at school.  If you think these charts would be beneficial for your child to have at home as well, I will make a copy for you and send it home! :)  
Keep up the great reading first graders!

Problem Solving

The kids have been doing a great job at problem solving!  At this point in the year, the focus is on understanding the problem and the ability to pick a strategy and try it.  Later in the year we will work on writing number sentences to match the story problems.
 I used circles to prove how I got my answer, but your child may chose a way that works for them.  Some children like to put the circles in a ten frame to visually see the numbers and other like to use a number line to show their thinking.  The use of any of these strategies is fine as long as your child is understanding what the problem is asking.  If your child is confused using a ten frame or number line encourage them to try using circles to illustrate what the problem is asking.

The most challenging problems are the put together and take apart problems.  These problems involve decomposing numbers instead of adding more or taking some away.

Three red apples and two green apples are on

the table. How many apples are on the table?

 

 

In the problem above, your needs to understand that they are putting the pieces together to get a total number.


Another problem type involves your child decomposing a number into two parts, where you know one of the parts:

Five apples are on the table. Three are red and

the rest are green. How many apples are

 

green?

 

In order to solve the problem above, your child needs to draw the total and then understand that they are splitting the total apart.  One common misconception is that children draw the 5 apples and then draw 3 more.  If this happens, ask your child if you are adding more apples to the table?  Most of the time, once they stop and think about it they realize they are not adding more, but instead of splitting the apples into two groups (red and green). 

 

 

 

The last put together/take apart problem type is the hardest for adults to understand because we are use to having only 1 correct answer and this problem type has multiple correct answers.

 

 

Grandma has five flowers. How many can she put in

her red vase and how many in her blue vase?

 

 

In this problem type, your child needs to understand how to decompose numbers into two parts.  They can pick any possible way to decompose the total number and will have a correct answer. 

 

I hope this is helpful as we continue problem solving throughout the year. 

 

1st Grade Authors

We have been working hard during writers workshop!  Check our some of our wonderful stories!  We have been working on our writing stamina, telling a small moment story, making our stories come to life (dialogue, movement, feelings and thoughts) and being brave spellers!  George McClements has been teaching us many different craft moves that we have tried in our own writing!  Be on the look out for pop out words, ellipses, and exact actions!

The next few weeks, we will continue to make our stories come to life by adding more details as well as beginning to edit our stories and check for correct punctuation, capitalization and making sure our word walls words are spelled correctly.  All of your child's small moment stories will come home at the end of our unit!  Stop by the hallway outside our room to see even more stories on display!