Day 39- Rain

Have you ever heard the saying, "That person doesn't have enough sense to come out of the rain"? Well, today that was my class, only we WANTED to be in the rain- for learning purposes of course. The only problem with wanting to be in the rain today... it wasn't raining. Not a problem for my soldiers! We have active imaginations!

We worked on activating our 5 senses by using adjectives and onomatopoeia to describe rain.

To fill out "See" we merely pretended to be looking out the window at the rain falling.
For "Hear" we closed our eyes and listened to the rain falling on the window and the roof. By looking at the words the students used, you can see that they were hearing a big storm, not a gentle rain.
For "Touch" we had to go outside and stand in the rain. (all in the comfort of our imaginations) My students obviously have some prior knowledge of standing in the rain! I don't think any of their memories were fond ones. I talked to the kids about the difference between a summer and winter storms- how the rain would feel different.
*One student offered the word "hurtful" because he said the rain was so hard (in his imagination) that it was hurting him as it fell. Another student said that if it was hurting people, then it must hurt the plants as well. I have such thoughtful students!
For "Smell" we closed our eyes again and smelled the rain. I activated prior knowledge y asking the kids if they have ever gone outside and known it was going to rain later in the day because of how it smelled outside. I saw light bulbs turn on in their minds!
For "Taste" we turned our faces up and opened our mouths to catch some rain water! (I'm pretty sure that if someone has walked into my classroom at that moment they would have thought we were crazy.) Again we talked about the difference between summer and winter rains and how they would taste different.

After creating our wonderful chart, each student was given a rain drop and told to find the words that matched their rain that they experienced.

Most students listed the words they wanted, but I do have some exceptional children who chose to write complete sentences to describe their rain.

I can see the rain. I hear the rain said click clok. I feel the rain soft. I smell the rain like water. The rain taste like a rainbow.

All of first grade did this activity and the students' work will be proudly displayed in the hallway!

Our Language Arts skill is working with nouns. Today I only introduced nouns, using a handy-dandy song, and by making a chart. The song came from a book one of my co-workers has that is the Shurley Method 

We discussed that anything that you can see or touch is going to be a noun. Some nouns have names (proper nouns) and some have titles. For example: I see a girl. I see Jane. Jane is the proper noun because it is a name of someone. We didn't go into proper nouns, but I wanted the kids to see the difference.
Their seat activity was 10 min to take one noun from each section and put them in a sentence and illustrate the sentence. Since I allowed one student's name to be on the chart, everyone chose her name! According to my students, that child did a lot of exciting things!

* On a side note- Ms. Leahy (of the fabulous poems) found a great website today for teacher-helps. (of course, they can be used a home too!) Check out THIS website for some great worksheets that are free to print and use! There is a great nouns worksheet that we are going to use for practice tomorrow!

In math I told the kids that we were going to do the hardest lesson today, and they had better get their brains ready! In other words, I lied. But, I made it sound really good!
Today we worked on Representing Numbers on a Ten-Frame. We filled in squares and made circles to represent numbers. Yes, it was exactly as easy as I just made it sound.

If the number was 4, the students filled in 4 squares. If it was 9, they filled in 9. You get the idea.
I understand where the lesson was going. The writers of this math curriculum want students to begin to equate the squares with the numbers. If the entire top row is filled in, that means there is 5. Two rows is 10. This will help student later when they are adding because they will be able to chunk the numbers easier.

My favorite part of the lesson was when I was making such a big deal about how hard this lesson was, and how I didn't want to go too fast, and my students looked at me like I had lost my mind. One student raised her hand and asked, "Are you for real or are you playing?" I winked at her and she decided to play along. :)

As easy as this lesson was today, I find myself wondering just how many of my students will grasp it and run with it like the curriculum wants them to. Only time will tell!

Our Daily Brain