Article posted February 19, 2013 at 05:10 PM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 881
Winter is here and we are digging into Unit 6 this week! On Friday each girl brough home her final pages of her fist Math Journal. I send these packets home for a few reasons. First of all, it gives you additional insight to the spiraling math curriculum. These packets of your daughter’s work coupled with the daily math home-links provides you a bounty of information regarding what we have been covering. The home-links are particularly important for your understanding because, as you have seen over the last several months, each one has an important piece of information for your to read and review, helping you gain understanding of where we have been and where we are going. The journal pages that come home with your daughter give you insight into how she is working at in independent level in the classroom. She does receive instructional support as needed from me as well as her peers, but the goal is to build fluency through repeated independent practice after large or small group instruction and review. As you can see from the work in First Grade, content is to be explored multiple times in small increments. The girls are starting to see how all of the tiny pieces fit together. “We learned about counting by 5s and we need that for counting nickels!” “We also need it for counting the time on the clock!” “Using the number grid helps us add and subtract.” “We can also use it to find answers quickly if we know tricks like down one space is +10.” “Base ten blocks are kind of like money. You have to trade them.” Last week when the girls were cutting out their animal cards for a weight comparison activity one girl commented, “Hey – we could play Top-It with these.” After playing Card Top-It, Dice Top-It and Domino Top-It they have noticed that comparing numbers lends itself well to this game.
What you may be wondering as you sift through all of this work that comes home is, “But what does she need to master?” or “How can I provide her with extra review and practice?” Definitely use the homelinks and journal packets as a guide for how to engage in any extra practice. Important additional resources are right at your fingertips to the left of this post. Charlie Grogan’s math website provides resources and an important breakdown of what skills are covered in First Grade. He notes which are expected to be known at a beginning level, developing level or secure level. You will note that few need to actually be “secure.” Though many girls are finding themselves secure in many skills, the joy of a spiraling program is that they will be reintroduced to these skills many times, providing both review and challenge. The girls are excited to start their fresh new Math Journals today. We continue to build our number sense learning about “turn-arounds” and “doubles.”
Ask your daughter about her growing “FACT POWER!” and enjoy the below photos of us engaging in math lessons and activities!
Article posted February 10, 2013 at 08:13 AM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 756
Reading is a sizeable part of 1M's classroom culture. The girls experience read alouds, large group instruction, small group instruction, individual reading confrencing, time to read to self, time to read with partners and listening to reading on our ipods each week. Even with all of this instructional reading time, the individualized program allows girls to be continually invested and excited about reading. So much so that during free choice time the girls often continue to read. Recently three girls were perusing our classroom library and found three copies of a favorite fun read aloud. Together they worked as a team to negotiate how they could read aloud to the class. When the asked me they emphasized that they were intending to "read with expression." As they presented to the girls they explained that they would do their best not to skip words or pages but if they made a mistake they would show the page at the end. It was obviously that they had deeply discussed their plan of action. Please enjoy their joyful learning....
Article posted February 10, 2013 at 08:13 AM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 756
Article posted January 31, 2013 at 02:15 PM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 412
Marley (and her mom) were nice enough to give each girl a balloon to celebrate Marley's birthday. The class loved playing with and reading to Tyler and seeing Jordan when the balloons were dropped off.
What a treat!!
The girls also showed their caring and thoughfulness as they problem-solved how to get Gianna and Amelia their balloons.
Article posted January 23, 2013 at 08:33 PM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 369
My shutterbug tendencies were definitely cut short by our electrical issues but the many hands we had with us meant we found a way to meet our goal! Thank you again to everyone who came, I am sorry I did not manage to catch everyone in the moment of that challenging day!
Article posted January 23, 2013 at 08:33 PM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 369
Article posted January 23, 2013 at 09:28 AM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 147
The 1M girls were hard at work being bubble scientists yesterday. It was certainly a fine example of joyful learning. They talked about it all day long! After they become experts in bubblology they will present their findings in a special bubble assembly. Stay tuned for more details!
Article posted January 23, 2013 at 09:28 AM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 147
Article posted January 16, 2013 at 09:46 PM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 163
While acts of kindness abound and we are constantly re-engaging in conversation about our lower school theme of “Strength,” each girl and teacher always has something to improve upon. Sometimes we strive for an academic improvement, sometimes a physical agility improvement. The goal may be risk taking or segmenting sounds, responding thoughtfully or remembering to sign in. While we are each striving for individual development, as a class we equally strive for team development and improvement. There are several, if not many, facets of our day that depends on the collective studentship of the class. We have been working to become more efficient in our day. More time to engineer structures, investigate stories, draw freely, chat and laugh with a friend or build creative accessories for the fairy house are each always in high demand by the girls. I also continually strive for more time for certain activities. In our first full week back from winter break we found ourselves unraveling a bit by Friday. Time to revisit the hopes, dreams, promises and expectations we established early in the year. All of this is very common in classrooms. It is also common in life. We get off track or have a little slip back. How many of us have recently reaffirmed our commitment to: ‘go to the gym,’ ‘read more,’ ‘keep those closets organized,’ ‘call friends and family more,’ etc.
I felt that one of the areas a majority of the class needed support with was tightening up some of our large group times. 1M girls are sure of many things and sure individuals yearn to share. As participants in a group (class, family, Senate, construction crew, book club) we all need to learn the intricacies of group dynamics. Knowing when you share without delay, when you wait for your turn and when you sacrifice your chance to share in the immediate moment for the good of the group is critical – but no easy task! I regularly layer upon the girls understanding of how we are building these skills and relate them to both the classroom and the larger world. I give examples of me practicing these skills in faculty meeting, at a conference, in line at the supermarket, at the dinner table, in the airport. Beyond studentship, these are life skills.
And so, I shared with the girls that I was going to collect some data (we have been using this word lately) using tally marks to record ‘call outs’ and ‘side conversations’ that were hurting our learning times. The collecting, I shared, was not punitive but to build even more awareness regarding our actual behaviors. We have spoken all year about self-control and have discussed it in a very truthful and accurate manner. I describe it as one of MANY skills they are learning. It is just like identifying shapes, rhyming words, writing lowercase letters or crossing the middle on the rings. It is a skill that we are all working on but not all of us have mastered. We all master things at different points, but that certainly does not mean we shouldn’t work hard toward the goal of mastering. My intent was to quietly confer with girls every few days, or more often if needed, to discuss their individual data, building awareness. The girls had another plan. They wanted me to leave the clipboard out so they could quietly check throughout the day on how they were doing so the could “change what they were doing if they were having trouble.” Being that this was more immediate feedback that came from taking individual responsibility of one’s owns actions, I agreed. While I was somewhat wary of a “public viewing” of the tallies, it was really no more “public” then the verbal support I had been providing girls working on the skill. Actually, it is less so! We went over ground rules regarding the process. I loved when one girl asked, “If we notice someone else is doing really well, is it ok to say we are proud of them?”
So, we have tallied for two days. It takes many more than two days to create a behavior, especially when coordinating the behavior of 13 (I include myself in the count)! And so, we will continue to work hard. We will not tally for long, just until we get over that hump. I respect the girls so much for their interest in self-monitoring to improve more quickly and independently. They have been completely accepting and without contradiction or complaint. I think that is the power of a “non-punitive” system. This is not about getting “in trouble,” this is about getting more free choice (in their minds, for me it is about getting more learning time). But really, they all just want to be doing a great job. It is truly hard to reflect on your own behavior at any age and this is a clear cut easy to interpret tool that they have helped design. Feel free to ask your daughter about it if you like, but please remember, we are building skills by awareness, not punishment so their should be no negative reaction to wherever each girl is. Just as there is a “just right book” for readers’ workshop and “just right paper” for writers’ workshop and some girls fly across the rings and others are timid, each girl is growing in her own way…but all are growing and moving toward a common goal.
If you have any questions, I am here!
Article posted January 16, 2013 at 09:46 PM GMT-5 •
comment • Reads 163
