Math fun!

Hi to all! Just a quick post. I told the kids I would get some pictures up here tonight!

We have been working on our number sense in our math curriculum, Investigations. The students have been bringing home some worksheets to practice on at home and to play the game of "Compare" or in other words "War." Please use a deck of cards from home! If your family is in need of cards, please send a note or contact me and I will make sure you have some at home. 

Here students are playing a game of "Double Compare."They flip two cards and investigate to find out who has the greater sum!

Some friends are counting to double check their findings during "double compare!"

Above the children chose 4 random number cards (0-10). They built towers and ordered from least to greatest or greatest to least.

We enjoyed our stuffed animal day last week, too! Our class is really working hard to follow the Marion Way! The kids had a great time sharing their animals friends and reading to them during Read to Self time. 

Check back again at the end of the week for a weekly update! We have started Spelling and Guided Reading time. Check back for more information. As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

 Happy Monday!

Mrs. Hamilton 

I'm BACK!!

Wow... I haven't updated since last year! This year my goal is to do this as an update for parents each week and to add to this teaching "bloggy" world! {I'm hoping I can keep up with this goal. I completely FAILED last year!}

I'm back and with a new name! Miss Bowers became Mrs. Hamilton over the summer. I'm finally getting used to my new name and still answer to Miss Bowers {even calling myself that too!}

Here is an update as to what we have been doing.. pictures to come! 

The year is off to a great start! We have a great group of 24 friends. We have been working on the Marion Way (being respectful, responsible and honest). We are also creating a Classroom Promise, so we can have a safe and fun classroom for everyone. I will send home our promises, when we have them completed and posted in our classroom. We are almost ready to post them! The students have been working hard to create a great, learning community for all. 

Reading: We have been reading the Big Books: 5 Little Ducks, Rain and I Went Walking.The students also received "little books" to read and keep in their seat sacks. This week, we read a book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. With this book, we have been working on comprehension strategies. We are making connections and today we worked on comparing ourselves to the main character, Alexander using a Venn Diagram. Look for it in your child's take home folder! Ask them how they are the same and different, too. 

Math: We have been working in our new curriculum called Investigations! We have a lesson, practice and then follow up with their workbook pages. You may see some of these come home unfinished. Please do them together at home, as practice if you wish! In our first Unit, we have been working on counting, number sequence, simple addition and subtraction and developing strategies for combining quantities. 

We have been playing a game with our number line (or 100's chart) called "Start with/Get to!" Ask them about it! (Can they start with a given number and get to a given number, by counting?) We are working on numbers 0-31 with this game, at this time. 

Science: We have started our unit on Weather. In the upcoming days we will be learning about wind speed, cloud cover and precipitation. We will also be learning the word: Meteorologist! 

That's all for now! Check back later in the week for some pictures. 

Mrs. Hamilton {ugh.. how do I make a new signature??!! I don't even remember!!}

Vrrrooom!

VVVRrroooom!  That is where the month and weeks have gone. I was gone last week at a mentor training and between that, wedding planning and keeping up with life... I have NOT caught up with this thing called "my blog." {if that's what I should even call it}

Here is a quick glance of the past couple of weeks:

Two Words: Horrible Harry. I started reading this book as a read aloud. Now, the students are checking them out at the library and taking them home to share with their parents! :) They are LOVIN' them. We are reading Horrible Harry and the Dungeon right now.

Next up: Shared Reading and Text Talk books from last week: Thank you, Mr. Falker. Up this week for Text Talk is A Little Bit of Winter.

This week we are working on vocabulary words, as well as text to self and text to text connections. Check out our introduction to ABC order with Thank you, Mr. Falker! We did it together and they followed up with doing their own.

Finally, we have been using our HAMMERS to "build better sentences." This idea is taken from the Write Tools training. I show a picture and we brainstorm ideas for each part of our sentence (who, action, finish thought). We discuss which word choices will help us make it a "better" sentence. We talk about what a boring sentence might sound and look like, too. We will continue hammering away those boor-r-ring sentences.

Today,root beer floats were enjoyed for working together in 1B and following the Marion Way to have a safe and fun classroom for all of us to learn in! I have pictures- they will be posted {hopefully} SOON! :)

G'night to all!

Star Students & Coin ID

We have been working hard in 1B! Today we had a BUCKET FILLING DAY--all day. {I hope I don't jinx myself}. We have started earning Star Student certificates for showing the Marion Way {being respectful, responsibly and honest}.  Chester {our classroom pet-a stuffed animal raccoon} watches us and helps Miss Bowers' watch for those "star students!"

Last week we focused on coin identification. Check out the Coin books we made. They rubbed the coins with crayons on the page and then wrote the coin's name and how much it was worth. They had so much fun with this!

Last week, we worked on comprehension and vocabulary with the book: The Relatives Came.





That is all for now! I need to be better at taking pictures- I don't want to write and write about what we have done.. I NEED TO SHOW YOU SOME PICS! :) Have a great night! Tomorrow is Wednesday!