Thank you, Mrs. Strand!

Alana's Nana came in today and read all sorts of Halloween stories! The class loved them and listened attentively! Thank you, Nana!

What should my teacher be for Halloween?

What should my teacher be for Halloween????

What first grader doesn't have Halloween on the brain??? I capitalized on that excitement during writing today! I didn't tell them what we were doing when I asked them to brainstorm different Halloween costumes. I started getting nervous when I heard dinosaur and even let out a chuckle...haha, if they only knew they were trying to pick a costume for me!
After brainstorming, I finally filled them in on their writing assignment....pick a costume for me and give me 3 reasons why I should wear it.....then I held my breath! Luckily, they were very very sweet and I got answers like Pokemon, a runner, Little Red Riding Hood and a cat. Phew....I'm not old like a dinosaur!

Check them out!

Number Talks and Counting Collections

Friday Fun in Math

J13 is buzzing with fun on Fridays!!! There's just something about the end of the week and the upcoming weekend that make everyone want to jump for joy! We celebrate this excitement by letting the fun spill over into FUNdations, where we do a fast-paced game called SPARKLE, reading, where we do "Flashlight Friday," and now math, where we do number talks and counting collections. It's our break from center work and a chance to interactively problem solve and work together.

Number talks are a quick way of getting kids to talk about strategies for counting and figuring out problems. They are designed to take no more than 10 minutes, but they certainly pack a punch in the learning department! For the past few weeks, we have been working on counting with ten frames. Students are shown a series of dots and they need to efficiently determine how many dots they see and discuss their strategy with a partner. This is a great opportunity for students to learn from each other and think about things in a different way. 

Bottle caps, pasta, birthday candles, coins, stones, marbles....those are just a few of the things we will practice counting throughout the year with our counting collections! Each week, the collection changes and the kids love seeing what they're working with! In pairs, they decide how many objects they think are in the bag, agree on an efficient way to count the items and go about counting them. 

What a great way to practice counting by 2's, 5's, 10's, estimating, working together....the list goes on and on! If you're looking to get rid of "junk" at home and you think it would work for our counting collections, please email me! One man's trash is another one's treasure:-) 

Thank you guest readers!!

Thank you, Mrs. Plante!!!