After a full week of benchmarking in literacy, completing work with the number 6 in math, focusing on the "yellow" zone of regulation (for feelings) and working towards wrapping up our unit on small moments in writing, we were able to fit in some spooky science!
This science lesson involved a fall favorite, candy corn, which were designated a "science materials" and not candy to be eaten! :) The students were introduced to the concept of a hypothesis, which is different from a guess because it is a guess you can test, as they explored what would happen to a piece of candy corn when put into separate containers of oil, water, salt water, and vinegar. Each student was provided with a scientist's booklet in which to record their predictions, findings, and conclusions. We discussed what might happen to the candy corn in each liquid and our conversations were quite interesting and exciting! Words such as, dissolve and melt were used, in addition to the ideas that maybe the candy corn would lose its color, or remain unchanged. Students sketched their predictions in their booklets, then went out to recess. While they were outside, I placed a candy corn in each container at each table, and by the time the class returned, changes to the candy corn were already happening! Students then needed to use their powers of observation to sketch their findings! We concluded that the candy corn did indeed dissolve in 3 of the 4 liquids, remaining unchanged in only the oil! The leaves open a further discussion of why the liquids had different interactions with the candy corn and the properties of those liquids. Please enjoy some photos from our week below!
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Did you know your students put on the hard hats of construction workers this week?
Throughout our first math unit, the first grade has been solidifying routines, revisiting place value, describing teens numbers, exploring the hundreds chart, finding a variety of ways to represent a value (through concrete manipulatives as well as pictorial methods), and has spent quite a bit of time on the concept of tally marks. As we engage in "number talks" to strengthen our number sense, tally marks remind us that numbers are simply the written representation of a certain value. We can also represent values with tally marks! We use tally marks to make groups of five which help us count more efficiently, and are also a speedy way to record data! Our extension of tally marks came to fruition in the form of our first performance task! Performance tasks, though a form of assessment, are quite different from a traditional test. Performance tasks are all about real-life application of math skills in a way that challenges student learning through questioning and problem solving and can reach all learners by having a manipulative and pictorial component. There is more freedom in how you demonstrate what you know. Our first grader's challenge was to solve a problem for the Bobcat family who had recently moved to Bow. The Bobcat's have three small children and a puppy, and though they are very happy with their new home, they don't have a fence! In order to make their home safer for their children and dog, the Bobcats needed your student to build a fence for them. It just so happened that the Bobcats had a particular design in mind that looked just like a bundle of five tally marks! Students needed to choose the spacing between their fence posts (to keep the kids and dog safe) but had autonomy in how the fence (made out of popsicle sticks) reached from one end of the yard to the other. This was demonstrated on a place-mat sized piece of paper. There were also accompanying questions that asked the students to count not only how many fence posts were used in all, but how many bundles of five were used. This was a highly engaging activity that allowed students to build, color, count, problem solve, and write and the end products are something to be proud of! We can't wait to display them! Please enjoy some photos of our building process below! Until next week! Though short, this was an exciting week in first grade! Our REACH Specialist Mrs. Kurtz came into room 210 for a fall-themed STEM lesson! Mrs. Kurtz will be joining us every Monday and second Friday of the month to supplement our math time and this past Friday kicked this routine off! With a STEM lesson, revolving around topics of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, also comes ample opportunity to practice "soft skills" such as communication, teamwork, sharing, planning, collaborating and more. This came at a great time in our year as our group has come upon some situations where we have taken the time to talk about problem solving, communicating our feelings, and expressing our needs. This activity also gave us practice with this. Mrs. Kurtz began her lesson by reading the story The Apple King by Francesca Bosca. This story was about a king who kept his prized apples to himself and finally learned how to best celebrate his apples by sharing them with his people through a feast. The problem the students needed to solve was how to get the apples out of a basin full of water (to be prepared for the feast) without having to bob for them, as the townspeople did not want to get their faces wet! Each team of 2 was given a planning sheet, 2 paperclips, 1 piece of string, 2 pipe cleaners, 2 straws, and 2 popsicle sticks to create a device that would remove the apples from the basin of water. This group capitalized on their questions throughout this activity by asking for clarification and finding loopholes! One student said, "We'll couldn't we use the straw to just suck all of the water out of the basin?" It's thinking like that, outside of the box, that is revealed in these challenges and was a pleasure to witness! Please enjoy the photos and videos of this activity below!
Thank you to everyone who accompanied us on our Fall Woods Walk last week! And to those of you who could not join us, you were missed, and hopefully you can make it for the next one!
Being out in the woods this past week not only allowed us to use natural materials to design our own fairy houses, but also gave us a glimpse at the changes that are taking place around us this time of year! When your students got back from our walk, they spent the rest of the afternoon working on fall poems and creating artwork that reflected what a tree in fall looks like. These mini projects will be a part of a longer, year-long project, where we create a poem and artwork reflecting the changes outside during each season! We are working on our observation skills as well as our ability to use our 5 senses to describe what we experience! Thank you for your continued support and I hope everyone has enjoyed the long weekend! Please take a peek at our walk in the woods! |
AuthorMusings of a Grade 1 teacher. Outlet for exciting "goings-on" in the classroom. Archives
May 2018
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