Skip Counting and Exploring the Math Center

 

This week, we are practicing our skills with skip counting by building our own ice cream scoops! Yum!

After students are done with their math activity, they are allowed to go to math center. As they explore the math center, this is the time I pull my small groups.

Autumn is here!!!

 

Autumn is here!!! 

That means cooler weather, getting the chance to wear sweaters, and not being so sweaty after recess!  

 

We have been learning how to say/write “boy” and “girl” in Vietnamese.

con gái= girl

con trai = boy

Mid-Autumn Festival

 

We took the time in my morning and afternoon classes to create these fabulous lanterns that we decorated the great hall with.

 

Tết Trung Thu also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Vietnamese people. This celebration usually falls during late September or early October when there is a full moon. The traditions surrounding this holiday date back thousands of years, and they place a huge emphasis on children. It is thought that the festival was originally celebrated to give parents time to catch up with their children after the summer harvest was completed. People also believed that children were innocent and pure, and thus were the closest connection to the sacred and natural world.

The school will be selling lanterns similar to these one. $3 for a lantern, fruit snack, and one admission ticket for children!

What's the MATTER?!

What’s the Matter?!

We learned that a solid has a definite shape and volume, a liquid takes the shape of its container and has volume, and a gas has no definite shape and no volume.

I chose 3 students to come up in front of the class and wear the “matter outfit.” I had random pictures of things and the students helped me sort them into categories of soild, liquid, or gas.

Walking Water!

We did a gummy bear experiment 2 weeks but I forgot to take pictures. Each child received a gummy bear and we placed it in a cup of water overnight to observe that the next day, the water made the gummy bear expand and grow. The students were really fascinated. They enjoyed it so much that a majority of the kids mentioned in their journal homework entry that "the gummy bear experiment" was their favorite part of first grade so far!

Last week, we worked on our skill of observing and going through the steps of the scientific method. We put these skills to use with our "walking water" experiment. 

Day 1: What is your hypothesis? 
"I think the blue water and yellow water will transfer to the middle cup to make green water"
"I think nothing will change"
I forgot to take a picture! :(


Day 2: What is your hypothesis?
"I think the middle cup will be full of green and there will be no water left in the outside cups"
"I think the paper towel will turn green"

Day 3: What is your hypothesis?
"I think nothing will change"

"I think the paper towel will be soaked and all the blue and yellow water will transfer"

Conclusion: As a class, we concluded that the paper towel soaked the water up and each day, we had less water in our cups.

Watermelon Addition

This week, we are focusing on adding 3 numbers together within 20. Students had to roll the die 3 times to come up with their 3 addends. Then, they had to cut out watermelon seeds to help them come up with the answer.