As we finish up our first week of school, our kindergarten & 1st grade friends spent some time getting to know each other using math. Kindergarten wrote their names, cut them apart, and glued them back together. Kindergarten counted the letters in their name and shared it with the rest of the class.
In 1st grade we’ve been learning about addition strategies so the 1st graders used what they’ve learned to share about themselves to the rest of the class. The activity can be found over at First Grade Smiles.
As we continued on with our gingerbread unit we completed math addition story problems about gingerbread men. We also made gingerbread men glyph. Finally we made / ate our own gingerbread cookies and decorated them with frosting and sprinkles.
We read the story Christmas Cookies and discussed vocabulary such as the word tradition. We also made a list of our Christmas traditions.
Then we wrote Christmas math stories about making gingerbread cookies, then we made Christmas ornaments using tempura paint.
Last week we finished up a fun unit full of Thanksgiving activities. For our word work we created a flip book with repetitive sight words and things that you do on Thanksgiving.
We also read Thanksgiving books on things that we like. Then students used their knowledge of sight words to write sentences using the word ‘we’.
For math we read the story “The Great Turkey Race” discussed the problem and solution of the story. Then we created our own math story problems using addition and pictures of turkeys for the visual.
Finally we learned about the life of Pilgrims and Wampanoags on Scholastic.com’s First Thanksgiving website. Students made designs on Wampanoags using pattern block cutouts.
Today we read the story “Bear Stays up For Christmas” which is a book that is from the same Author’s and the same characters as one of our favorite books “Bear Snores On”. Both books also has the same kind of format with its repetitive text and rhyming.
As we read “Bear Stays up for Christmas” we used our prior knowledge of “Bear Snores On” to predict what would happen next in the story. Together then we made a whole class venn diagram about how both stories were the same and different.
For math we continued on with our topic of composing and decomposing the number 10. Kindergarteners wrote addition story problems about baking Christmas cookies, and the 1st graders wrote subtraction problems about baking and eating Christmas cookies.
We read the story The Great Turkey Race and discussed problem and solution in the story. For math we learned how to connect math with story problems and then wrote our own math story problems. The Kindergarteners learned how to write addition math problems while the 1st graders reviewed subtraction.
As Halloween is just around the corner we have started several Halloween math centers with topics that we’ve been learning throughout the past few weeks. We’ve worked on number recognition with an “I See” Halloween Book. Students counted the Halloween pictures wrote the number and copied the sentence. They loved making these books because these words were easily recognizable to them!
We listened to the poem 5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate and then students make their own pumpkins sitting on a gate with play-doh and matching number cards.
At the beginning of the year we learned about making patterns and as a refresher and spiral review, students made and completed Halloween shape patterns.
Yesterday we learned about ten-frames and how to count and add to ten using candy corn as our counters. Students were able to manipulate the candy corn on the smart board to get other classmates to guess the number.
Today we worked on decomposing the number four. We used green triangle pattern blocks to be used as jack-o-lantern teeth. We put those teeth in different positions on the pumpkin and created addition sentences. Students learned that no matter how often the position of the teeth changed, the whole group always remained 4.
To finish off our spring unit we read The Grouchy Ladybug. Since both Kindergarten and 1st Grade have been learning about time, we created a book on “Telling Time with the Grouchy Ladybug”, and made a sequence poster that showed what animals the grouchy ladybug wanted to fight at what time. We also made ladybug paper plates with fact family story problems.
This last Friday the K-1 class had some spring and Easter activities to celebrate the upcoming holiday. We dyed our own eggs, painted a picture of an easter egg, and did some math easter centers!
We have been learning quite a bit in math this past month! In Kindergarten we’ve been learning how to measure using standard / non-standard units. First grade we have been working on Geometry learning about symmetry, congruence, and making bigger shapes using smaller shapes.
As a spiral review our K-1 All-Stars have also been completing centers reviewing their addition and subtraction facts. Kindergarteners were allowed to use counting bears to help them with the concepts.
The Kindergarten All-Stars 