Thrills and Frills in First: September 2014

Monday, September 29, 2014

Do you do Calendar Math? If not, I highly suggest it. It is an easy way to incorporate key standards that my students need to master in First Grade. My students practice skip counting, time, odd/even numbers, greater than/less than, place value, and tally marks. In the beginning of the year, like most activities, it is time consuming, but as the year progresses the students complete it with ease.

This is my Calendar Math area. It was an old chalkboard that I covered with chevron contact paper from Bed Bath & Beyond.

I always have two Calendar Helpers, one will call on students to answer questions, while the other student writes the answers on the SmartBoard. The rest of the class completes the daily worksheet at their seats.

In the past, I had my students keep their Calendar Math packet for the year in their desk, but you know First Graders and eventually their packets began to fall apart. This year I made a weekly packet for my students to use.

To get your Calendar Math Freebie click HERE or the picture below...

Close Reading

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

At the end of last school year, I constantly kept hearing about Close Reading. At first, I thought it was just another buzz word, but after attending workshops I was hooked. I soon realized what a vital tool it is for our students.

A close read is exactly what it sounds like... reading the text closely. Common Core wants our students to dissect texts and have a deeper understanding of what they are reading. Close reading helps our students achieve this goal.

In order for students to dissect the text they must read the passage numerous time. The passages do NOT have to be long, they can be an excerpt from a book or a poem, but the reading level should be above grade level.

To get my students' feet wet, we began with Nursery Rhymes. Typically, we read each Nursery Rhyme three times. (You will be surprised by how many students have never heard of some of these!) With each read there will be a different focus and purpose.

First Read:
After the first read, we focus on defining new vocabulary words through context clues.

Second Read:
The purpose of this read is to gather further meaning of the text. We concentrate on the setting/characters/problem & solution/cause & effect etc.

Third Read:
Following this read, students will dig deeper into the text by answering comprehension questions and supporting their answers with evidence from the text. Students are reminded to highlight their answers in the text.

Below are some activities from our Close Reading with Nursery Rhymes Unit.

Completing a character map for Five Little Mice.

Students are citing evidence by highlighting answers in the text.

We recently just finished our Falling for Close Reading, which includes passages for September, October and November.

In our store we also have 2 other units that correlate with Common Core Exemplar texts. Each unit has activities that align with all five chapter of Frog and Toad Together and Owl at Home.