Rm. 202 Kids Take Over!

Ok, so let me start like this: I always have a plan.  I know the things we need to work on, the way I want us to do that (and probably the ways I don’t!), and it’s “penciled in” for everyday.  But the great part about that plan is that it is flexible.  There is ALWAYS another option if we (the kids or me!) see that we need to go another way.  A better way, perhaps.  This is just what happened on Friday.  I can’t WAIT to tell you about it. 🙂 Friday morning’s recess was great–it was the first time in WEEKS that the temperature had gotten over freezing–and we took full advantage of the sunny playground.  I won’t tell you the whole story here, but in short, Millie and Makayla found a collection of things while we were outside that I thought was “blog-worthy” enough to tell you all about.  “But why should I tell their story?” I thought to myself, and at that moment decided they could be guest authors on our blog (and that that would become our plan when we came inside from recess).  “But shouldn’t everyone have a chance to do that?” I thought next.  That’s when the light-bulb moment happened. As soon as we got in from recess we sat down to do something we’ve done many times before: create our chart that we’d use for our Class Meeting later in the day.  What they didn’t know (until I told them next), was that we’d be doing something else very cool with it BEFORE our actual class meeting.  Here’s what the list looked like after we brainstormed a bit: Screen Shot 2015-03-07 at 8.10.06 PMOnce I explained the idea, it wasn’t long before kiddos had paired up and chosen their topics.  But we weren’t ready yet. The next conversation was about how writing on my blog would be different than writing on their Kid Blogs.  The first difference was audience.  They figured out that rather than kids being the main readers, parents, principals (including our own beloved Mrs. Sisul!), teachers, authors, librarians and other adults (many that we don’t even know!) are the main readers of this blog.  We discussed how that would mean we’d need to “up” our game to make the posts ready for 20somethingkids.  Kylie was quick to add in that when I blog I use lots of pictures, and that my posts usually tell the “why” of the story–so that teachers can use our ideas with their own students.  We agreed that we should probably use that same kind of thinking in our guest posts.  At this point I just had to sit back and appreciate the amazingness of Rm. 202 kiddos.  I smile when I listen to their wheels turn and their ideas flow; when I get out of the way, they make some pretty fabulous things happen on their own! Ok, so after our purpose and audience was set, and we had decided on our platform (which would be Notability since they all knew how to use it and I could easily copy it into WordPress), I set them loose.  And left them alone.  And watched them dig in and work hard and “buzz” with that sound that happens when kids are engaged and learning.  They had a real purpose, a global audience of real people to write for, and lots of great learning from the week to share about.  I got out of the way and let them be amazing.

Ella Marie and Sara discuss what they will tell blog readers about our history projects from this week.

Ella Marie and Sara discuss what they will tell blog readers about our history projects from this week.

Emily and Jacob draft their post about our class picture from earlier in the day.

Emily and Jacob draft their post about our class picture from earlier in the day.

Kylie and Lauren chose to write about the races kids have starting running at our morning recess lately.

Kylie and Lauren chose to write about the races kids have starting running at our morning recess.

Makayla and Millie (who's work at recess sparked the whole idea in the first place!) write about a really cool collection of "B" things they found outside on the playground.

Makayla and Millie (who’s work at recess sparked the whole idea in the first place!) write about a really cool collection of “B” things they found outside on the playground.

Peyton, C.J. and Thomas work hard to explain how we use writing journals in our room every day.  They are EXPERTS at putting great ideas in their journals and were perfect for this topic. :)

Peyton, C.J. and Thomas work hard to explain how we use writing journals in our room every day. They are EXPERTS at putting great ideas in their journals and were perfect for this topic. 🙂

Evan and Joshua chose to tell blog readers about PE and why they like it.

Evan and Joshua chose to tell blog readers about PE and why they like it.

Ava and Amelia wrote about how we use Dreambox to learn as mathematicians every day!

Ava and Amelia wrote about how we use Dreambox to learn as mathematicians every day!

Landen and Diego knew right away they wanted to explain our math warm-ups!

Landen and Nate knew right away they wanted to explain our math warm-ups!

Charlie and Diego worked to tell about our current chapter book The One and Only Ivan (we are LOVING it, by the way!).

Charlie and Diego worked to tell about our current chapter book The One and Only Ivan (we are LOVING it, by the way!).

I am SO excited to share their work with you!  Rm. 202 kiddos–I’m SO PROUD OF YOU!!!  🙂

Jokes of the Day–Week of March 2-6, 2015

This week had some really funny ones–and two that were submitted by kiddos (I think this is becoming a trend 🙂 )!  Be prepared to giggle. 🙂

Monday

What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo?

A pouch potato!

(courtesy of Ellentv.com)

Tuesday

Why don’t elephants need suitcases?

Because they already have trunks!

(courtesy of Ellentv.com)

Wednesday

(another kangaroo joke!)

Why do kangaroo moms hate it when it rains?

Because their joeys have to play inside.

(courtesy of Ellentv.com)

Thursday

Today’s joke came from Ava, and I’ll warn you–it’s a yucky one!! 🙂

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Sniff mipe.

Sniff mipe who?

What?  Gross!

Friday

Kylie gave us this one:

Have you heard the one about the frog who broke his leg?

He was very un-hoppy!

hee hee

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of March 2-6, 2015

This week there are 4 warm-ups; we had a special parent visit on Friday morning and so didn’t get to one that day.  We’re still working on addition/subtraction and using efficient strategies.

Monday

The hope with the numbers in this problem was that kiddos would recognize the most efficient strategy was to use compensation (and so make the easier problem of 30+61 that they could answer in their heads), but any strategy was fine as long as they could pick one and explain it.

CAM01699Tuesday

The other day, we discussed all the strategies we know how to use and tried them on the same problem.  We also talked about what we could call them so that everyone knows what we’re talking about (this was in response to a question I asked last week with our warm-ups).  So I decided that we’d try a specific strategy on a series of problems this week (but it should be noted that, as with the last problem, compensation is the BEST strategy for the numbers as you can create 81+20 and quickly answer using mental math).

CAM01701Wednesday

Besides talking about how to accurately use the strategy, we had a discussion about the difference between how you solve the problem (the strategy) and how you SHOW how you solved it (the model–in this case an open number line).

CAM01702Thursday

The thinking behind this problem is helping kiddos connect strategies they know for ADDITION with SUBTRACTION.  Many first graders need to be explicitly shown that what works for one works for the other.  Practicing using these known strategies can help stretch some past the draw-all-then-mark-off or counting backwards strategies.

CAM01703

These warm-ups got kiddos’ brains really moving this week!  Hope they work well for yours, too! Please leave a note and tell us about how you’re using them in your classroom, or how you’re sharing them with others. 🙂