Day 27- Backwards day

I did not intend it to be backward day today. I fully intended on having a perfectly normal Monday, full of excitement over what the new week would bring. And we still did, it was just a little topsy-turvey.

Today we did math... FIRST! That's right! We didn't wait until after lunch and recess, that's how we started our day! (Well, after computer with Mrs. Webb) Exciting! I didn't realize we were going to be doing this until this morning. We had a special guest in the building, and he asked to see some rockin' math lessons. And Mr. Evans, knowing exactly where to look for a rockin' math lesson, asked first grade to do math first thing in the morning.

I gotta say, I liked the change. I wouldn't mind it becoming permanent. The kids' brains were so awake and fresh! That's a good thing because we just started a new unit and it's a doozie. Today, we began ALGEBRA.

Now, don't freak out. Of course I didn't tell the kids that it was Algebra. The vocabulary term of today was "missing part". We worked on finding the "missing parts" of number sentences. This is the inside of the student booklet from the lesson.

The problems went like this: The students were given the whole number and were told one of the number parts. In a number sentence, it would look like this 5+ __=6. The students then had to use logic to figure out the missing number. In our case, the numbers were dog bones, and we had to create more bones to make the right amount.

I'll be honest. This lesson was clear as mud for most of my soldiers. Since this was the introduction lesson, I'm not too worried. We have plenty of time to work on this skill. I would suggest working on it at home too!

* Home Tip: Find some small objects (like beans, cotton balls, pennies, whatever you have around the house) and an empty cup- not a clear cup. Please, no more than 10 small objects. We're still working on knowing our 10s facts! Let your student count the objects so they know the total number. Then put some of the items in the cup, and ask him/ her to figure out how many items are on the table and in the cup! Make sure you change the total number from time to time- don't always have it be 10.

Here's my example from my home. I used cherry tomatoes since my husband's garden is overrun with them!

Let your student count how many objects there are in all. There are 6 tomatoes in all, that is my whole number.

 

Cover some of the objects and see if your student can figure out how many are hidden. 

Hmmm, if I know that there are 6 total, and 3 are showing... and I know that 3 is half of 6, then I know that 3+3=6! There are 3 hidden tomatoes!

I know it looks easy, but the kids had a little trouble wrapping their minds around it. Don't worry, we'll keep working on it! If you have another way to work on this skill, I would love to know it! Feel free to leave a comment on here, or in your child's folder!

The math lesson took our entire morning, the kids were surprised when I said it was time to line up for bathroom and lunch!

When we got back in from recess it was time for Reading. We posted our high-frequency and vocabulary words for this week that follow the story. We are working on short 'i' words, and a small review of short 'a' words.

Our story is The Big Hit. It's about pigs playing tennis. It's just as fascinating as you think it is. I'm feeling another edition of Wonder Red's Word Families coming to add  little spice to the lesson.

We changed up the centers for the week. I only got pictures of one team's work. Good job Team 4!

 Their job was to put the story back together in the right order. Then they wrote the story and illustrated it.

I have a confession. I went a little crazy with the poems this week. I found 2 that went along with science, and Ms. Leahy wrote one to go with our reading. (it might have come from our Reading series, but I'll give her the credit!)

Check out the video I found! It's a little different version, but it's still fun! I consider it to be in the science category since it's talking about animals in their natural habitats.

The other science poem is titled Habitats.

We separated the poem into different animal habitats.

And, last but not least, the Pig poem was written by Ms. Leahy.

What wonderful vocabulary words! Playful, plump, pudgy, loyal... are you feeling an adjective lesson coming on? I'm thinking maybe Wednesday or Thursday.
Another point was brought up with this poem: Why wouldn't a pig care for barbecue? We had fun talking about that one. :)

Our Daily Brain

p.s. PARENT NIGHT IS TOMORROW!! It starts at 5pm. All family members are welcome! If you would like a conference with me, we can set one up tomorrow night.

p.p.s I will not be in the classroom tomorrow. In fact, none of my soldiers will be in the classroom. I have a math Professional Development tomorrow and my class will be split between the other 5 first grade classes. (unless a miracle happens and I get sent a sub!)