General Delk's Army: Day 57- New Unit

Monday, November 7, 2011

Day 57- New Unit

We started a new unit in first grade. We have finished learning about animals and their habitats, and have arrived at Fables and Folktales. I told my students that a Fable is a short story that teaches a lesson, and a Folktale is a story from a certain place that teaches a lesson. Basically, a folktale is a longer version of a fable. And, most fables and folktales involve animals.

We read 2 folktales today.

The first story we read was the Little Red Hen. I loved this story when I was growing up. My Grandmother and I would read this story, then she would ask me to help make dinner. I couldn't say no, she might not feed me! After we read the story we did a 5-Finger retell on the board.

My students came up with their own moral to the story- It's important to help our friends. I agreed that that was a good lesson to learn from the story.

The next folktale we read was this one.

It doesn't look like it would match the first story, but it was about friends as well. In this story, the Sun and Water and friends and Sun wanted Water to be able to come visit him. In order for Water to be able to visit, Sun and his wife Moon had to build a bigger house.

The difference between the books is that this book was using a story as a teaching text. It come from Africa and it is a story used to teach why the Sun and Moon are in the sky. We did a 5-finger retell for this story as well.

We started a list of the different fables and folktales that we read over the course of the unit. On the chart we will write the title of the story under the category it matches, along with the lesson the story teaches.

Another reason why I read Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky is that in science we are starting a Space unit. I love being able to combine 2 subjects!
We began our science lesson by listing the different things one might see in the sky during the day and night. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by my students' answers!

I personally loved the answer Santa Claus. One thing I noticed from previous years to this year- no one mentioned seeing airplanes in the sky. When I taught second grade that was one of the first answers a student listed. Of course, no one had mentioned Santa before now. :)

In math we started a new topic- SUBTRACTION. The way the text teaches subtraction is by using the words less than. We have used that term before in the year, but in a different context. Previously we used it when comparing two numbers. Now we are using it when finding the answer to a subtraction sentence. For example: What is 2 less than 8?
Well, thank goodness I taught my students this handy-dandy song to remember when it comes to subtraction!

They knew to find the bigger number first (8) and put the smaller number (2) second. So, the number sentence was 8-2=? From there, students can use their fingers, cubes, counters, whatever the have at their disposal to find the answer. After doing all of the practice on paper, we broke out the dry-erase boards and practiced with dominoes.