Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Common Core: How many ways can you make 10?

We  have been working on addition to sums of ten in first grade.  Today we had to find all the ways to make ten.  I started by having the kids use a ziploc bag.  I divided the bag in half using some fun duct tape.

In each bag I placed 10 counters.  You can really do this with any sum, but since our lesson was making sums of 10 that's what I used.  The students would start by having 0 on the left side and 10 on the right.  So 0 + 10=10.  Next I had them move one counter to the other side, they would write the addition sentence 1 + 9=10, then they moved another counter 2+8=10, and so on.  It was fun to see them realize the pattern you get when you move them.  Having this hands on visual helped my kiddos a lot.



I created this little paper to use as a pre-teaching lesson before having them do the activity page out of our math series.  By preteaching the lesson with this paper helped them to do the activity page more independently.  I have included this activity page as a FREEBIE to use in your classroom. 
Just click the image below.  The students draw the counters in the "ziploc" bag and then record the addition sentence.  Enjoy!!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Sunday Funday!!

Wow, I spent 6.5 hours in my classroom today, what a great Sunday (insert sarcasm)!  I'm starting guided reading and centers this week and wanted to make sure I had everything prepared!!  I still am not sure about this, but hopefully the kids will pick it up.  I know it's going to take a lot of modeling, modeling, modeling and practice, practice, practice.  I just have to "Keep Calm."  I'm also trying to stay caught up and eventually get ahead because I have to prepare maternity lesson plans for end of November/December and I am already stressed out about that.  If anybody has any tips for centers/guided reading or maternity lesson plans, please, please share them.  I will be back later this week for our hands-on math lesson, so be on the lookout for a freebie!  Hope you all had a great weekend and a much better Sunday than mine. 

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Addition

We started in our math series this week and it seems to be going pretty good.  My district adopted the common core series called "Go Math."  Does anybody else use this?  I'm not in love with it, but that's what we have to use.  The hardest part for my kiddos is that everything in the very beginning is written in story problems. AGGHHHH!!!  That immediately scares my little ones away, if they can't read the story problem, then they think they can't solve the problem.  Anyways, my goal this year is to spend as much time doing hands-on activities so that my students can master these standards.  So today we did a "FUN" addition plate activity.  Wow, my kids worked so hard and QUIET, yes I said QUIET for about 20 minutes on this.  I found this activity from http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/. If you have not checked out this website, you need to, it has so many common core math activites you can use divided by grade level.

Here are some pictures of what they did.  Each student should have a paper plate with 3 compartment, counters, die, and a response sheet which I am giving to you for FREE!!
The student rolls their die and places that many counter in the small compartment, rolls it a second time and places that many counters in the second small spot.  Then we have been talking about the plus sign and that it means you put numbers or things together.  So after they have their two small sections filled with counters they "join" them together in the big bottom part.  Students then have to draw their picture on the recording sheet and complete the addition sentence.


Here is an example of the worksheet that I created to go along with this activity.  I included the vocabulary so students learn how to read an addition sentence.

 
I loved watching their little minds at work.  If you would like to download the worksheet to go along with this game, click on the picture below.  Happy Teaching!!
 

Monday, September 3, 2012

Posted Product

I wish every weekend could be a three day weekend, don't you?  I got a lot of work done, but man there is still so much more I need to do. Worked in my room all day Saturday, trying to get lessons ready and prepping for when we start guided reading/centers.  I plan to start centers and G.R. next Monday with my kiddos.  I'm nervous, there are so many procedures and rules and steps to follow, but I have faith that they can do it. 

I had a request for a black and white version of my guided reading/reading recovery labels, so I couldn't say NO!!  I just uploaded them to my TpT store {here}.  If you like these labels, but need them in a different color scheme, leave me a message and I will be happy to work with you.  Here's a little peek at these labels.