Common Core Math Unit 1- Revamped (way too fun)

Ok y'all...... it's math revamping in full speed. After teaching the core from my units one full year.... I saw a few changes that needed to be made.  I have been looking into each unit and adding the changes.  I didn't take anything out, but I am putting lots of stuff in.  Unit 1 has been completely finished and re finalized, so if you have already bought it, redownload it for all the new fun filled activities and charts.  How fun are already made charts?  I'm loving making the charts all cute and having everything ready to go. Here are some pics of some of the charts you'll find in unit 1...

 What....What... You know this is my favorite!!! The song is sung to "Come on ride that train"
How fun is that??? You know you got time for that!!

 Introduction to addition anchor chart... all ready to print out, glue, and laminate.

Here is the link to the TPT store if you want to redownload or purchase. 

BTW.... also included in this unit is a lesson plan laid out like this for EVERY single day. How easy is that? Here is a sample of the plans page and each day has one.  It tells you what the activity is for the day, the standard, materials needed, teachpoint, mini lesson and student work. 

Unit 5...It's here and Eric Carle Author Studies

Yay.... Unit 5 is here. I posted it last night. It is my favorite unit yet! Its based on the core standards on measurement, subtracting with 10s and adding within 100.  It also has fun end of the year activities for our little mathematicians.  The cuties will be playing race to 2nd grade (how fun) and making a math memory book from first grade.  Although, my FaVoRiTe thing is the unit is the CoTtEn BaLl olympics! Yes you heard it, a package of measurement fun!!! Students will be participating in 4 games during the olympics and then measuring their blow, kick, flick, and throw in paper clips.  The 1st grade CC standards are all nonstandard units.  Here is the link to TPT. 

Two weeks ago the fab. Kim Adsit came to work with our school district again.  She is so fun and smart, smart, smart.  I got to spend lots of time hanging out with her.  We took her to the french quarter fest and ate lots of yummy food. Then we went shopping in the french quarter which was like a surreal experience for me! So anyway, while she was here she did some PD on author studies.  We started this week and of course our author is the grand ErIc cArLe. We make his characters, noticed things about them and have author book clubs.

A little of this and a little of that- ew and time

Oh my word!!!! Math was to fun yesterday.  We have just started telling time.  We were on day 2 of telling time in my unit 4 on teachers pay teachers.  We made our cute clocks with paper plates (included in unit click here to go). Then we went on to telling time to the hour and a little past the hour.  Some of the babies had trouble seeing where and when it was a little past. So, we colored in the space between the hours so they could see what a little past the hour looked like and knew that it was still that hour and had not yet reached the next hour.

In small groups one of our focuses is ew. We played a game called roll it and write it.  We rolled 2 dice.  I just bought plain foam dice and made my own beginning blends on the first one and ew on all 6 sides of the second one.  Then each child rolled and we filled in the first roll and the second roll and wrote the whole word.  This was a great way for the "bless my hearts, as Kim says" to really get it.  Here is a freebie of that roll and write sheet. 

Finally a sneak peak into the next and final unit 5 of the first grade math CC curriculum.  I promise it's almost finished. The anchor chart graphics are included in this unit.  It's a fun one! 

Firsties can balance on both sides of the equal sign

I can remember looking the CC standards last summer and popping my eyes out of my brain  when I saw balancing equations. (first grade style) 4+ 2=5+1 and not understanding how I was going to teach this or much less get my kids to grasp the fact that know "answer" is shown.  Since I started writing my own math units, I pushed this standard to the end.  Well I finally added it into unit 4 and I stretched it over 3 days, digging deeper each day.  I am SMILING at the success I saw! It was great. They worked on math mats (which are all included in unit 4 here is the link) using counters to back their answers with proof.  Anyway here are some pics of our fun learning.  In this pic. they are giving their buddy evidence why 1 is not equal to 3.

This is the anchor chart we did at the end of day 2 balancing equations.  I posed the first 2 number sentences on left and they had to chat with buddy and write down proof to tell if it's the same as or not the same as.  The we discussed as a class and agreed or disagreed with the evidence given.  It was a powerful ending to the first two days. :)

Happy Math Teaching

Moving with Math- Core Based Poetry

Ahhhhh......Spring is definitely here in New Orleans!!  Easter egg hunting was a success today.  Tomorrow we return to work after a long week off.  I realized that hurray it's poetry month!! Yay!!!
Since my school has taken on the Core full fledged this year, we've been doing lots of new thinking.  One of the things I do at the beginning of a math lesson or sometimes in the middle is poetry.  I wanted something that aligned to the core, was fun, and would be meaningful to my angels!  I have created lots of poems that meet the core standards.  They are so fun!  We get up and dance to the beat!! The kids love it! Anyway over the break I put all my poems together and uploaded the packet to TPT! Here is the link I would love to give it away!!! Leave a comment telling how you are liking the core in your room this year!

Before the holidays, we were finishing up 3D shapes which can be found in my CC math unit 4 on TPT. Here are some pics. of the activities that the students did to deepen their knowledge of 3D shapes. This is all student directed learning and lots of fun!!!

 Here students are battling 2 shapes.  They are discussing what is alike about the shapes and what is different.  I love this activity because they are having to use all their prior knowledge of shapes to create a good debate.

This was by far the favorite.  Students had to become architects and create a plan with 2D and 3D shapes the make their plan come to life.  The basis of this lesson was to get them explaining why certain attributes of a shape would work for the creation. In the different stations they had to create a car, a castle, a playground (seen below), and a house. 

 This day was also a favorite, discovery labs.  Students moved around the room with buddies visiting different labs that contained a 3D shape.  They had task cards as well as many varieties of that shape. Students performed the tasks with their buddies.

Info. Text acrostic poems went well and the finale of math journals

Hey y'all! I've so been enjoying my Easter break with my sweet boy.  We've had a busy schedule everyday and somehow I always wind up back at school for a few hours. haha  Last week we were digging deeper into what non fiction does for us as readers.  On Tuesday, I did a mini lesson on writing an acrostic poem using the information from the text to guide each line.  First we read the book, then we took notes on our findings, last we turned the notes into an acrostic poem about the topic of the book.  I modeled spiders then made a giant acrostic poem on spiders.  Then I buddied them up and they chose a good fit book on a top they wanted to get smarter about.  They read with their buddy, took notes on organizer, then flipped the organizer over and wrote their acrostic poem with their buddy.  It was interesting to see what happened when one of their notes did not start with a letter in their poem.  I foresaw this challenge and did a mini lesson on adding a new word in or tweaking the info. they already had.  One group did tigers and they didn't have any notes that started with a g but they did have water so we thought a little deeper and they came up with gets water.  Creative little firsties.  Here are some pics of the acrostic poems they did and here is a copy of the organizer we did.  This was a great way to assess the info. they collected as a reader.

Above, they wrote about a baker and bordered the paper with baguettes. How cute is that!

And finally, the last journal is complete.  It is the fourth edition and it covers numbers 76-100.  It will be the last journal in the set of 4. I have seen tremendous gains in my students ability to think about math, and discuss it with a partner and the class.  The journal has fostered that math success in each child.  It requires daily deep thinking from every child.  I hope you are enjoying spring break with your sweet families.  Ty and I are having more fun, it's going to be hard to go back to work and leave his sweet face.  I'm getting used to kissing and hugging him all day.  Well summer is right around the corner. :)

Here is the link for journal 4 TPT. 

3D Shapes core style

We're moving and grooving in geometry.  Today was immersion into 3D shapes.  We started with the gigantic chart (floor to ceiling) for charting the attributes.   These attributes were a bit more tricky than the 2D shape charting.  We sat in a circle and discussed each shape, its name and counted and noticed all its attributes.  As I was writing the attributes on my gigantic anchor chart, the kids were charting on their anchor chart. (free chart here)  I'm excited about the rest of the 3D shape activities (in my unit 4 on tpt) for the rest of the week.  We're battling shapes, visiting shape discovery stations, and building playgrounds and cars with shapes.  It's going to be fun times!  Happy hearts in first grade:)

P.S. I think summer is officially here... It got up to a whopping 78 on the playground today. Don't you just love the sweaty dog smell that fills your room after recess. :) Thank heavens for bath and body works plug ins.   :)