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.
Tuesday
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).
Wednesday
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).
Thursday
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.
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. 🙂
As I have written about previously this year, there are many things I have brought from 5th grade with me that I’ve been excited to try with my firsties, and Mystery Skype is one I finally pulled out of the bag this week (mainly because of an invitation from a friend on Twitter to schedule one soon!).
The idea of Mystery Skype is really simple (try to figure out where the other class is located by asking yes/no questions), but it can take some time and practice to get good at it. I knew I needed to practice with my kiddos before our first “real” MS, so I called on my friend Ms. Turken for help again. She was totally game.
I asked her to help us by letting us Skype with her class, and at first I was just going to work out the kinks of having kids come up to the camera, making sure we talked loud enough, etc. Then I thought it could be cool to try to actually do a Mystery Skype…INSIDE of our school! So I asked Ms. Turken to take her kids to a secret place in our building and we would try to figure out where they were located by asking good questions!
Before they called us, we spent some time working out the logistics of how you would even begin to narrow down someone’s location in this big, wide world of ours. Using Google Maps and a map of our school, we had some up-front teaching about continents, countries, states, cities and how to narrow down a location by eliminating the possibilities. We talked about directions and how just asking north, south, east, west can cut out a HUGE part of the world that they are considering. We also talked about landmarks (both natural and man-made), and how these can be helpful in determining a location, as well. When we looked at our Robinson maps, we connected these ideas to the floor our friends might be on, as well as our school “landmarks” they might be near, like the gym, cafeteria, library, elevator or bathrooms. They caught on really quickly, and were excited to get started!
Our friends called us and kiddos got busy! Rm. 202 kids were paired up with a friend, and they worked together to study the map, consider the clues they got from our friends’ answers, and then decide on our next question. Pairs took turns coming up to the computer to ask their question and get the answer.
Our questions went like this:
1. Are you in the basement?–NO
2. Are you on the first floor?–NO
3. Are you on the 2nd floor?–YES (at this point they all knew they could just focus on the sheet that had the 2nd floor on it!)
4. Are you in the NORTH part of the building?–NO (this is the end where we are)
5. Are you in the EAST part of the building?–YES (this part had 5 classrooms in it, so again we narrowed our focus!)
6. Are you near MRS. FRY’S CLASSROOM?–YES
7. Are you in MRS. HONG’S CLASSROOM?–NO (she is next door to Mrs. Fry)
8. Are you in MRS. FRY’S CLASSROOM?–YES!!! YAY!! WE FOUND THEM!!
After a bit of cheering and a few high-fives, we debriefed on how the experience went, as well as what we’d do for the “real” Mystery Skype session in a few weeks. We used the protocol of “plusses” (things we’d do again) and “deltas” (things we’d change). I’d say they had some pretty great insights!
I especially thought the one “watch their actions” was a good idea. It came because of the question we asked about our friends being “near Mrs. Fry’s room.” Millie noticed that Ms. Turkens’ friends were snickering and covering their mouths when they answered, which told her that they were probably IN her room. We agreed that often watching how someone reacts can give clues.
I was beyond impressed with how well both classes of firsties did, and am continually amazed at how well “little” kids do with “big” kid things like blogging, Twitter and Mystery Skype. I’d say it’s proof that you should never underestimate someone because of their size! WAY TO GO, RM. 202 KIDDOS!
I feel like I keep saying how short the weeks are lately, but hey, I’ll say it again–this week was another short one, where I only have a few warm-ups to share. They were particularly good ones (in my opinion, of course!) because they really got my kiddos thinking about strategies. We’re still working on addition, but the focus has now shifted a bit to choosing the strategy most appropriate to the numbers–not just the strategy that is your favorite one. Compensation was a particular one we worked on over the last few days.
Tuesday
Ok, so I misspoke a little bit–we’re mainly focusing on addition, but continuing to tie our work to subtraction, so that kiddos can see the connections. This one was also meant to introduce them to the word DIFFERENCE (we did SUM last week).
Wednesday
We’ve been working on flexibility, too, although for most kiddos, one strategy is as far as they’ve gotten so far.
Thursday
While they only have to add within 100, there are many who are ready to apply their strategies to bigger numbers. This one gave them the chance to try it out!
Friday
I mentioned choosing the strategy for the numbers, and this one was made for using compensation (making one number a “friendly” one–like a 10–so that it’s easier to answer. Usually you can use mental math.)! And can you tell I got a new box of markers in the mail this week? 🙂
Also, I’ve been toying the idea of finally moving my warm-ups to Padlet, as we all have iPads now. I’ve always valued the way we can save the post-its and charts by doing it this way, and refer to the problems again if we need to, but I might be rethinking my previous choice. With 1st graders, I wonder if less “stuff” around might be a better way to go. We could still refer, and it might be easier to share with others. Any ideas, friendly blog readers? 🙂
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet about Global School Play Day. Being one who truly believes in play as an important learning tool for kids (and adults!), and being one who likes to jump in with both feet when I see something that looks like fun (like I did with World Read Aloud Day, for instance), I knew that this was something I wanted to try. And honestly, we have choice time and recess every day anyway, so it wasn’t that far out of our norm.
Before the special day, I told kids to bring something they could play with during our time, but the rules were it couldn’t be electronic or have batteries. There were a couple of “whys?” but really it wasn’t any big deal to them. I wish I had taken a picture of all of their toys in the bucket when they brought them in, but what I thought was funny was that most everyone brought something stuffed–My Little Ponies, dogs, cats, and all other sorts of animals. There were some cars, a couple of American Girls and 2 Barbies who attended our GSPD as well. 🙂
We reserved the afternoon for our official time, as we had some exciting and necessary work to do in the morning with our current studies in reading and math. Before we got started with our fun, we had a little chat about why we were even doing it. They had great ideas, like for them to learn to take care of their things, as well as how to solve problems and how to play together. All were right, and I had some additional ideas of my own:
1. Negotiation: By participating in free play, children get to learn how and practice what it is like to initiate play with someone else, as well as negotiate with that playmate about what to do, where to do it and how to do it. They get to learn give-and-take, as well as how to work with others in a positive way (because unfortunately, if you choose NOT to do it positively, your friend may not want to play with you anymore!).
2. Problem Solving: Much like negotiation with friends, kiddos learn and practice problem solving in many ways when they play. From what to do when the Legos don’t go together they way you want or you don’t have enough big blocks to build your castle, or even where to put the pieces of the puzzle you’re working on, problem solving is a crucial part of play. Even choosing what to play at any given moment is a kind of problem solving in itself. Letting kids figure these things out for themselves helps build and encourage grit and perseverance.
3. Winning (and losing!) Graciously: Child-directed play (including playing games) allows kiddos to learn how to win–and also to lose–graciously. We all know an adult who didn’t get the chance to learn this when they were younger, and now has such a hard time knowing what to do when things don’t go their way. That same adult might have a really hard time not being overly proud or boastful when things do. Allowing (or even planning for) situations where students DON’T win are crucial! Life is not fair, things don’t always go as planned and sometimes someone else does better than you. How great that kiddos have a chance to learn to deal with these disappointments when the stakes are low, so that when they are higher, they’ll know the appropriate choices to make. And yes, winning is a good thing that can happen occasionally, too (and how great that kids can learn how to deal with their happiness without sacrificing the feelings of others).
4. Creativity: A big pile of paper, blocks, Legos, cars or any other open-ended toys allows for such a great development of creativity in kids! Being able to figure out what that pile of “stuff” can become is a great practice in trial-and-error, trying new things or even working with a friend to put two great ideas together to make an even better one. This practice of creativity in free play can easily be transferred to learning, then, when a kiddo is given open-ended opportunities for both gaining information and showing what they’ve learned. When they’ve had a chance to try out new things and take risks in a safe, play environment, many students will be more willing to take the same creative risks with their learning.
5. Beating Boredom: I guess this one is another idea that’s related to some others on this list, but being given free time to play is a great way to figure out how to entertain yourself (either alone or with a friend) and keep a kiddo from being “bored.” Knowing what to do when there’s [seemingly] nothing to do is a life skill, really.
6. Respect, kindness and including others:Play is a great opportunity for kiddos to practice skills they’re learning about showing others respect, using kind words and helping make sure everyone is included. Helping kids pay attention to who doesn’t have a playmate is a lesson in empathy and is definitely a bucket-filler for a friend who longs to be involved but is perhaps unable to initiate themselves. Knowing how to speak to others kindly is a skill that can never be mastered and can always be improved upon.
7. Fun!: Um, how have I not mentioned that playing is TOTALLY FUN!? Yep. Should have mentioned that one first. 🙂
8. Organization and Care: Emily was the first to mention it, and I hadn’t really thought of it until she said it, but yes, I think that kiddos can learn about and practice putting things away, organizing and caring for property (theirs and others’) when they’re playing. Great idea, kiddo!
Ok, so enough of my rambling…I know what you really came to see were the pictures of Rm. 202 kiddos PLAYING!! Here you go!!
Seems like I am always giving a reason for why our week was crazy. This week was the same way! Wednesday we participated in Global School Play Day, so didn’t have math, and yesterday my 3-times-longer-than-usual commute (because of snow and ice on the road) meant that I didn’t get to school in time to write one, and then add in our first day with our iPad Minis yesterday as well and VOILA, you’ve got crazy! See what I mean? But hey, there were 3 warm-ups this week, so here we go!
Monday
It only seemed right to have a Super Bowl themed warm-up the morning after the big game! Still working on adding 2-digit numbers efficiently with this one. 🙂
Tuesday
The problem yesterday actually brought up a great (but unexpected question) as a friend only read the first sentence and then assumed she knew what it was asking. She thought that it was asking her to SUBTRACT the numbers because she figured the last part asked by how many points the Patriots had won. We were able to talk about how important reading the whole problem was, as well as how different bits of information can produce many different kinds of problems depending on the questions you ask. They’re not quite ready to think this way yet, but I gave them a challenging warm-up on Tuesday asking them to think about the questions they could ask (oh, and thanks for not commenting on the ages mentioned in this problem–thankfully no one said anything about how OLD Mrs. Bearden is!!).
Friday
You’ll notice that this one doesn’t have any post-its on it. I was actually home with a sick little girl on Friday, but snapped a picture as I put it up to leave for the sub to talk through with my friends. This one was based on both our 2-digit addition work and a conversation we were having the other day about how many 1st graders there are. How would you solve it? What model would you use to record your thinking?
This week was CRAZY busy, so only 4 warm-ups–you know how you have those weeks where NOTHING happens and those where EVERYTHING happens at once? This was one of the latter. 🙂
Monday
This past weekend, so many people checked out our blog, and it got me thinking about how I could use the scenario in our warm-ups. The numbers were bigger than in the problem, but I knew I could tweak them to get my kids working with adding 2-digit numbers. The idea of adding 3 of them is beyond the benchmark for what they’re asked to do this quarter, but I was pretty sure most of them could do it anyway (and it would be a motivating challenge for those that weren’t quite there yet!). Most of them quickly saw the way they could break the numbers apart by place value and combine those parts back together to find the answer.
Tuesday
This warm-up is related to the day before, and planned so that kids might see the ability to use the counting on strategy to solve it. We’ve been practicing counting on by 10s, and many used that idea to help get to the solution of 219. We recently started looking at the pattern of how the numbers work when you go past 100, so this one asks them to do that.
Wednesday
Happy 100th Day! This one probably explains itself….
Friday
We actually didn’t get to talk about the warm-up from Wednesday until the next day because our 100th Day Blog Challenge kept us so busy! So Thursday had no new warm-up, but here’s the problem from Friday morning. The numbers are easier than the ones from earlier in the week, but the focus with this one was to get kids to think about HOW they were showing their thinking so others could understand.
Happy problem solving! Please let us know how it goes if you try some of these in your class! 🙂
Whew! Our 100th day of school was today! Boy am I tired! WE WERE BUSY!!
I’ve been thinking about how to spend that day (and mainly trying to figure out how to both “celebrate” and still be rigorous and meaningful in my choices), and had landed on several ideas I was pretty excited about. The good news? We were able to use my idea list today. The bad news (well, just the other news I guess…)? We just did one of those things. Let me explain. 🙂
If you were writing down a list of what we accomplished today, it would just say “blogging.” I even had a kiddo say, “All we did was blog today, Mrs. Bearden.” What? That’s ALL we did? In a word, yes, but MAN was there a TON of learning and thinking involved in that day of blogging! I am SUPER AMAZED at what we were able to do today.
I started the day by telling my friends that I had prepared several challenges for them to do and that we could spend the day with those things. We usually start our day with writing, so I shared the writing challenge first, with plans to share the rest of the challenges as we went on through the day. The first thing we planned to work on was a blogging challenge.
With it being the 100th day of school, and the fact that we just went live with our blogs yesterday, I knew they’d appreciate a challenge around the “bigness” of 100 things on their blog. I suggested we try to write 100 blog posts or comments. Or they could challenge themselves to write a post using 100 words (which would be a HUGE STRETCH from the 2-3 sentence posts we’ve written so far). As I had hoped and expected, they were SUPER excited to get started, and were totally up to the challenge!
Our next step was to figure out how we could make it happen. This was a great conversation filled with much mathematical knowledge of groups of 10, counting on by 10s (as I told them we had 17 posts right then and wondered how many there would be if we added 100 more today), and splitting 10s into 5s to figure out new groups (someone said they knew that if it took 10 10s to make 100, it would take 20 5s since 5+5=10). We divided (without knowing it) 100 by the 20 people in the room (including me!), and as we went through the challenge we did lots of adding and subtracting to figure how many more we needed and how many we had at any given point.
We got started, and you know what? I don’t have many pictures of the work we did. I was as busy as they were, answering questions, moderating posts and comments and helping everyone as needed. So with 20 people, 12 iPads and 5 MacBooks between us, we were able to complete 100 BLOG POSTS AND COMMENTS today!! YIPPEE!! It took us almost all day, but we did it! And when we were finished, we had this to say:
(Hopefully you can tell they’re saying, “I00 BLOGS ROCK!!”
Now, I go back to that part about “all we did was blog all day,” because even though I didn’t mean to, at one point I even questioned whether I had done enough with the day. We didn’t have a big long list of activities to show for our time together. No one took home anything different than a normal day. We didn’t have any thing to prove we worked hard and stretched our thinking today. We did, however, have this:
It’s a little hard to see, but these are the charts where we kept tally of all of the posts/comments we finished. We counted them by 10s, 1s, and 2s at several points during the day as we figured out what we’d done and how much we had to go. It hangs outside our room for others to see. I’m hoping it will elicit questions for my kids (and for me) about how we spend our100th day! We have a great story to tell!
(ok, we did have a few pictures of the day!)
We also have a Kidblog dashboard that looks like this:
Yesterday we had 17 posts and 0 comments! Check out those numbers as of tonight! We have only been on our blogs since yesterday morning–crazy, right? We’re rocking and rolling already!!
And perhaps even better, we have memories. We have encouragement that came from our friends–“We can do this!”–when we wanted to give up. We have full buckets from the words our friends wrote about our stories. We have new knowledge about how to work the iPads and laptops on our own. We have that feeling that comes with accomplishing a goal. We have successful problem solving that happens when we’re allowed to figure things out for ourselves or talk with our classmates. We have practice with creating meaningful writing for a REAL audience; we worked hard to make our words look right, sound right and make sense. We have practice with letters, sounds and words and we have momentum to go forward with our writing. AND we have a great list of things that we didn’t finish today that we’ll use to continue our learning tomorrow! hee hee
So as I reflected, I thought it would be a great visual (for me at least) to look at our district’s rubrics and match up how today’s work addressed the expectations therein. Check out how many ways this simple blogging challenge touched our 1st grade standards:
Reading
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Learning Behaviors and Study Skills
So needless to say I am tired tonight! I’m pretty sure my kids are, too! The amount of grit they had to use to make today happen and accomplish the HUGE goal set before them was great. And while I know that I am a little biased, I’d say that today was definitely a day we can say we worked to get a little closer to helping Rm. 202 kids meet this mission of Robinson School:
What did you do for your 100th day? What have you heard from Rm. 202 kids about their day? Please share your thoughts with us! We’re learning how blogging is all about the conversation, and we’d love to start a conversation with YOU! 🙂
So excited how these are working out, and how they lead to such great conversations during our math time. So easy to get math brains thinking early in the day and then letting it simmer all day. By the time we come back to it at 2:00 it somehow makes even more sense. LOVE!
Monday
We’ve been working on doubles a lot lately, during conversations, in groups and by playing games. The hope is that my mathematicians can then transfer that knowledge to solving problems. This one let them give it a try. And since you’re here, let me show you the doubles games we’ve been playing–I think we might have to make a new version of these for every season:
There seems to be a theme in my 5th grade class….(I’m not sure if I should take it personally, or just be really impressed that my kiddos are so creative….).
Today was a day full of lots of things: learning, noise, fun, business, reading, noise, creating, collaborating, noise. But luckily most of it was not just what I call “noise noise.” Much of the noise we made today was “learning noise.” Noise that indicates lots of thinking and creating and sharing is happening. And yes, it was loud. But sometimes that’s just how we roll. Especially when there are 25 of us in the room all talking at once!
So back to the theme I mentioned….we had to stop at one point today and regroup a little bit. Writer’s Workshop was a wee bit rocky, and so rather than fight against the trouble we were having, we stopped, gathered together and agreed to try that lesson again another day.
Instead, I had them help me with a problem. I told them that I need their help to figure out how I could help them best be learners during our last few days of 5th grade. We have work left to do, and we want to try to have a little bit of fun, too. They had some great thinking, which culminated in the idea that parts of our classroom (or how they were using it) were not really working for us. We agreed that we could work together to fix that problem and create a space that we could do some amazing end-of-the-year work in for a few more weeks.
We started with every kiddo creating their own dream plan of what our classroom would look like. Then kiddos met in their tribes, presenting their plan to the 4-5 kiddos in their group. From their, the tribes created a new plan incorporating the best features from each individual plan. Then we shared out as a class, and voted on the one we thought would work best for us.
Here’s what is sounded like during that time. Remember, it’s loud, but it’s not. just. noise. They are busy solving problems!
Can’t wait to share the final product next week! Seems like another theme this week is that I forget to take “after” pictures! Stay tuned!
Ever heard of a Squzzle? I hadn’t either, until earlier this Spring when I was searching for some activities to use to help my kids with GRIT and persistence through struggles. My friend, Mrs. Berger, who works with our gifted and talented kiddos (but helps us with countless other amazing things, too!), volunteered to share a big, ole crate of problem solving games with us to try, one of them being Squzzles.
Basically, Squzzles are square puzzles, made of 9 smaller squares covered with designs. The challenge is that they only fit together one way, and the images spread from one piece to another.
Because there are so many talented Robinson Roadrunners working on Squzzles (Mrs. Berger has shared them with many other classes besides mine!), she started Squzzle Hall of Fame bulletin boards where you can get your picture posted when you finish a Squzzle. Just thought it would be great to give our Squzzle puzzlers a shout-out here, too! Check out the smart thinking and GRIT-using that has been happening!
Jacob
Sam and Max
Cate and Grace
Jacob
Grace
Sam
Sam
Grace and Mary
Kane
Lily and Grace
Way to go, Rm. 202 problem solvers! You are amazing!
Have you ever heard of Squzzles? What other kinds of puzzles do you like to do? Tell out about them! 🙂
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 