Week 5: Rocket Math

We do rocket math everyday to help us memorize our basic math facts!  I am amazed at how we are 'rocketing' and learning our facts and it is not even October! 

This is what Rocket Math looks like in our classroom:

Congratulate
First, we congratulate any children who passed the day before.  We give them a round of applause and then they color in the level they passed.

Partner Practice
The children sit with their monthly partner.  Partner A is the learner and partner B is the checker.  I say, "On your mark, get set, practice".  The learner orally practices their math facts and the checker listens and corrects any mistakes. 

If the learner makes a mistake, the checker tells them to stop and they tell them the answer.  Then the checker tells the learner to say the addition fact 3 times and then go back 3 problems. 

The students continue practicing for 3 minutes, and then they switch roles and practice all over again!

 

1 Minute Test
After the children practice their rocket math orally, it is time to take a 1 minute test!  Students have 1 minute to return to their seats, put their name on the paper and put their hands in the air.  They are allowed to use a pen or a 'skinny' marker on rocket math tests!  We don't like to use pencils because they break easily and children like to erase their mistakes, which causes them to waste valuable time during the 1 minute test.

Clean Up
When the 1 minute is up, children look at their paper and determine if they have passed.  They put their rocket math folders in the green bin if they passed or the red bin if they didn't pass.  Their rocket math paper goes in their mailbox to practice at home!

On Fridays, we take a 3 minute mixed addition test.  Their goal is to strive for 50/50 in 3 minutes by the end of the school year!

Week 4: The Afternoon Meeting

In our first grade classroom, we end our day the same way we begin our day...with a class meeting.  We call it 'The Afternoon Meeting.'  It is a great time to wrap up our day and talk about the next day. 

Saying Goodbye
We always start our meeting by saying "Goodbye Everyone" We usually do not have time to go around and say goodbye like we do in the morning meeting!

Wrapping up our Day
First, I ask my Busy Bee if we earned any 'spots' on our ladybug today.  We earn spots for getting compliments from other teachers or being excellent as a class.  If we did earn a spot, I always ask the students if they remember when and why we earned it. 

We also talk about the 'spotless behavior' we were working on that day and we discuss how we think we did!

During this time, we also talk about what special we will have the next day and if there is anything else important happening the next day.

Picking the New Busy Bee
At this time, we congratulate our current busy bee for doing an excellent job helping me out during the day!  Then, we discuss who will be the busy bee tomorrow.  I always go in order by student numbers to pick the busy bee and the two worker bees are picked randomly by using popsicle sticks.  Once they are picked to be a worker bee, they cannot be picked again until everyone has had a turn. 

Status of Dismissal
Before we end our meeting, I make sure all bus passes are handed out and that I know who is a car rider, who is going on the bus, and who is going to the YMCA or Barbs.

I Spy
If there is any time left, the Busy Bee gets to play I Spy with the class before I send everyone back to their seats and wait for the bell to ring!

Having class meetings are an excellent way to bring our class together as a family!

Week 3: The Morning Meeting

After the morning announcements, we always start our day in First Grade with a morning meeting.  It is a great way to bring our class family together.  We start by sitting in a circle.

The Greeting
The Busy Bee of the Day always gets to start our meeting by choosing a greeting.  We say good morning to each other one by one around the circle.  Sometimes we even use different languages!

Busy Bee Shares
After we greet each other, The Busy Bee shares a little information about their life.  Then the Busy Bee chooses five students to ask questions about the information they shared. 

News and Events
At this time, I share anything important that is happening that day.  We also review our school/classroom rules (Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible), we practice our Bucket Pledge, and we discuss the Spotless Behavior we are practicing.  This week we are practicing "Listening and Following Directions. 

Morning Message
After News and Events, students get into their learning lines and we read our weekly morning message.  We read the same message all week to build fluency.  We also search for words and punctuation after we read it each day.

Calendar Activities
My Busy Bee and Worker Bees take turns helping with Calendar Activities.  We discuss the date, months of the year, days of the week, and we add a straw to our place value chart each day we are in school and decide if that number is odd or even.

Schedule
The last thing we do in our Morning Meeting is we go over our schedule for the day.  This helps the children understand what they will be learning and when!

 

The Morning Meeting is a great start to our day in

 First Grade!

Week 2: Ten Frames and Elephant Toothpaste

We had a great 2nd week in 1st grade! 

In math, we continued to practice counting and identifying numbers.  We used a ten frame to quickly recognize a number and we discussed how many more we would need to make 10. 

You can practice using a ten frame at home too!  Just click on these links for extra math practice!

Butterfly Ten Frame

Ten Frame


All week, we continued to discuss being a "Bucket Filler" and being a "No-Dip" classroom.  On Friday, we did a science experiment called Elephant Toothpaste.  We talked about how to make someone's bucket overflow!  The kids said things like, being nice, helping someone when they fall, throwing them a birthday party. 

 Then we watched what would happen if our buckets were overflowing! 

If you want to try this experiment at home, just google Elephant Toothpaste!  It was a lot of fun. :)