Buddy Class

On Friday, we met with our buddy class for the first time.  We are buddy rooms with Miss Felton's fifth and sixth grade combination class.  We had a great time!  The buddies had to interview each other and create a fish glyph that represented their buddy.  For example, the children had to find out how old their buddy was then color that many stripes on their fish's tail.  Here were the directions for the glyphs.

The students really had to listen to each other and follow the directions.  They did a great job interviewing and getting to know each other.  We can't wait to meet again!
Buddies on PhotoPeach

Argh!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day did not go uncelebrated in the Eagle Cliffs first grade. Yo, ho, ho! We had a fantastic day! Here are just some of the highlights. We read some great pirate stories.

 

 

We practiced the "ar" chunk and made pirate hats.

 

We tallied and graphed pirate pictures.

And, we even got a mysterious visit from a sneaky pirate. He left us a treasure map. We had to find the letters and unscramble them. The letters spelled GOLD! The students searched high and low for gold, even out at recess! Then, the gold magically appeared after the recess. On their desks was pirate booty, chocolate wrapped in gold, and a gold coin!

  Aye, the whole day was a treasure!

Another digital scrapbook by Smilebox

Number Combination

In math, we have been discussing making the numbers 5,6,7,8,and 9 with two addends. While exploring the different combinations, students are looking for patterns and beginning to build addition fact fluency. The students are really developing strong number sense. For example, some students noticed that only the even numbers have a doubles fact! The students also know the commutative property for addition, that 2+3 is the same as 3+2. In the upcoming weeks, we will be exploring the combinations for 10-20.

Here is a quick classroom video of making five. We are using one of our new technology tools, the MimioMobile app and Mimio Interactive Projector. One of the features of the app allows up to nine ipads to collaborate on the whiteboard. We used the app in this math lesson to show all the different combinations for making five. Each table group had an ipad recorder. The rest of the students at the table did a "shake and spill." To shake and spill, students had five two color counters in a cup. They would shake the cup and spill the counters and then give the combination of red and yellow counters to the ipad recorder. Once the recorder wrote all the combinations spilled at their table, we gathered on the floor to discuss results. Since all the ipads are projected, we had 15 different combinations to discuss. We found that there are six different two addend combinations for five: 5+0, 0+5, 4+1, 1+4, 3+2, and 2+3. Further, through the collaboration, the children also realized that it was more common to shake and spill and 3+2 combination than 5+0. The MimioMobile tool created an opportunity for a rich mathematical discussion.



There are a couple great apps for practicing addition combinations. In Find Sums, students have the opportunity to practice combinations for 4-20 and 100. The practice can be with picture support or just symbolically. Click Find Sums to see the app in the itunes store.

In the game Hungry Fish, students have to feed the fish a certain number. They have to combine bubbles to make the designated number so the fish with eat it. Click Hungry Fish to be linked to the game in the app store.

Literacy Centers

Free slideshow design created with Smilebox

Our literacy centers are going strong. Center time is one of the students' favorite times of the day. The children love this time because they get to work independently on all sorts of engaging activities. Our center time practices important skills related to their academic and social development. At each center, the students are in groups of 4. Center time is filled with social interactions so the children are practicing important social skills like sharing, taking turns, cooperating, using manners, polite conversation, and encouraging others. They are also learning to handle and clean up classroom materials. Of course, all this while practicing their literacy skills.

Currently we have ten centers going. Each center is engaging, fun, and enriching. The Reading Garden is our classroom library. At this center students enjoy books. There are a variety of fiction and nonfiction books, books we have read as a class, books we have written as a class, and series books. Students find a comfy spot and read. They can read alone or with a friend. They can also listen to reading using the Reading Rainbow app on their ipads.

At the writing center, students write short four page books. In the books, children practice writing sentences that include our high frequency words. When they finish their writing, student practice handwriting. At science center this week, the scientists are looking closely at shells writing their observations. Then, the students go to research different sea animals in a collection of nonfiction texts.

With magnetic letters at another center, student practice segmenting words (push and say). When they finish the list of words, they go to our new Chromebook computers. On the Chromebooks, children are going to the site starfall.com to practice important early reading skills.

Finally, we have the alphabet center and interactive whiteboard. As a team the group works to order and match different alphabet cards. While the group is working with the alphabet cards, they are also taking turns on the interactive whiteboard at abcya.com.

The students are doing beautifully working at centers. This week while the children are working at center, it is my goal to start pulling small groups for reading. I am so excited to get started!

Little Thinkers Under the Sea

We went on an imaginative journey to the ocean. We used the Little Thinkers audio series. The audio track told the story of an ocean journey. The children imagined the journey as the narrator described our travels. At key points in the journey, the narrator stopped and music played. During the music the students had time to draw the adventure how they were seeing it in their minds. Take a look at these terrific drawings and fabulous imaginations!

Little Thinkers on PhotoPeach

The children love Little Thinkers. It is great for building their listening comprehension and practicing the important reading comprehension strategy of visualization. If you are interested in other Little Thinkers adventures, please visit this website: http://www.littlethinkeradventures.com/
There are many other imagination adventures awaiting.

Shell Science

A free collage by Smilebox

In reading we have been talking about features of nonfiction. One feature we have discussed is labels. In science, we were studying shells. The children were working on observing the shells as scientists and noticing the details. We recorded our observations. The scientists drew the shells and added labels to show what they noticed. Writing the labels was also a great opportunity to practice segmenting sounds like we have been in phonics. Look at all their hard work!

This week in phonics....

In phonics and spelling this week, we have been working on segmenting words.  We are taking words and breaking them into the sounds.  We played a "game" called push and say.  First we took a word like shark.  We broke down the word into sounds.  Shark has three sounds.  /sh/  /ar/  /k/.

Since we heard three sounds, we drew three boxes.  Next we figured out what letters go in each box.  We used magnetic letters to put under the boxes.  As we pushed the letters up we said the sounds again.  Letters that work together to make one sound, like sh, are pushed up together.

Push and say is a game to help the students have a stategy for "sounding out" then spelling unfamiliar words.  Boxing the words helps break up the word visually.  I am excited to see how many sounds the children are hearing and the risks they are taking to spell difficult words.

Segmenting is a very important early reading and writing skill.  The Reading Magic (1,2,3,and 4) and Spelling Magic (1, 2, and 3) are some free apps that help practice segmenting and blending words. It is a great series that gets progressively harder with each numbered addition. Good news, they are all FREE!

Goodness Graphness

The mathematicians of Connected 1.0 have been working extremely hard at organizing, representing, and interpreting data in a graph, an important common core standard.  In fact, our entire hallways is covered in different graphs about the class.  We have had very rich mathematical discussions about our data. 

Fiction and Nonfiction

During our study on the oceans, we have been learning to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction texts. The students are getting very good at not only telling you if a book is fiction or nonfiction but also showing you evidence to support their thinking. In the pictures below, students are sorting books into fiction and nonfiction and explaining their thinking to their group members.

When you are reading at home, ask your child if the books are fiction or nonfiction and listen to their reasoning skills. In our fiction vs nonfiction discussions, we have also been defining different features of nonfiction text like labels, photographs, captions, index, table of contents, close-ups, bold words, and headings. Has your child been discovering any of these important features of nonfiction?

Math Matters

We love math! The first few weeks we have been reviewing counting and cardinality standards from kindergarten. We have been identifying, ordering, and writing numbers. We have also been working on one to one counting. With these important math foundational skills, we are also practicing good sportsmanship with our many math games.

One of the best ways to review counting is music!  Don't forget the top button bar on the blog has links to all sorts of fun and engaging math videos.  These videos are a great way to review at home!

Also, the Learning Links button will take you to different educational computer games.  The games linked below are great for the counting concepts we are working on currently.  All of these games are on the site ABCya that can be found in the Learning Links.  Enjoy!
Numerical Order
Counting Fish
Number Bingo

In the News!

This picture collage generated with Smilebox

We were so thrilled to have Mr. Wardell visit today.  The children just love to see him and show him everything they have been learning.  We had a great visit and can't wait to see him again in November.  Mr. Wardell invited his good friend Ms. Pam Lowe to come visit as well.  Ms. Lowe took the wonderful pictures above.  I couldn't be more proud of this group of children.  They always manage to impress our guests.

During Mr. Wardell's time in the classroom, we were visited by Q2 news, KULR8 news, and the Billings Gazette!  As usual, the children were super stars.  Be sure to scroll the next three posts to see our press coverage.

Use of iPads in Eagle Cliffs kindergarten classroom proves to be a success | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana

Billings Gazette Article

Grants through Education Foundation expand technology for 1st-graders

Integrating Technology in Schools - KULR-8 Television, Billings, MT

Integrating Technology in Schools - KULR-8 Television, Billings, MT

Remind 101

I found an exciting new tool to help us keep in contact in one more way! I was just telling parents tonight at open house that the sticky labels that go home on your child's shirt don't always work for me because I forget to stick them on! Plus, the labels don't always make it home! Remind 101 is a way that I can send you text message reminders. It is quick, easy, and safe. To sign up for my text reminders send @connected1 to 406-534-0963. I will not have your cell number. If you have any questions or concerns about Remind101, feel free to ask!