Cô Tracy's Fun First Graders!: Weather, Seasons, Robotics, Goodbye Card, and More Word Problems

We received a new buddy that will be staying with us for one week. We have yet to name the little guy but he’s very shy and doesn’t come out much so the children haven’t really gotten the chance to see him. I think it’s a nocturnal albino hedgehog.

For every unit, the middle shelf is full of books related to the topic we are learning. Students are welcome to go read any of these books when they get finished early.

We started our unit on weather.

This was my example. The students came up with some pretty cool pictures.

For the past 8 weeks, I had an ACC intern come in to observe/help in my afternoon class. Today was her last day and the kids were very sad. :(

We wrote cards for her in Vietnamese and the kiddos presented them to her today. They included sentences like:

Con sẽ nhớ Cô Phượng.

(I will miss you)

Con thích Cô Phượng.

(I like you)

Con thương Cô Phương.

(I love you)

Con thích tóc của Cô Phượng.

(I like your hair)

Cám ơn để giúp con.

(Thank you for helping me)

When finished early during Vietnamese Language Arts, the kids do the “7 boxes” search. They go around the room and find Vietnamese words and write/draw it in the boxes. The 5 first boxes are used for the weekly sight words while one box is used for any word they want and the very last box is to write their name. I need to find a better name than to call it the “7 boxes” activity.

This week in robotics, students had to work with their partner to create a sturdy wall. We learned that “sturdy” means something that won’t knock down easily. The kids could think of the story of the 3 little pigs and how sturdy a house made out of straw, sticks, or bricks were. I would knock on their wall after they were finished and if it broke, they had to try again and come up with a different creation that would be sturdier.

In math, we are working on solving word problems. In order to prepare them for the upper grades, students must circle the numbers they will be using and the key word that will determine if they will be adding or subtracting. Students can solve a problem by using pictorial objects to help.

Some key words for addition: in all, altogether, join, more…

We also learned what the word SUM means.

Next week we will be working on subtraction.

I introduced a new activity the students had to do when they finished their work on Wednesday called “The Scavenger Hunt.” The point of the hunt is for a student to solve a math problem and hunt around the room for the answer. Once they find that answer on a purple post-it note, they then solve their next problem attached to the orange sheet hung up on the wall. The first time doing this was a disaster but as I modeled for the second time, they started to get the hang of the game. I try to turn a lot of things into games so it's more engaging for the kids.