Hello First Grade Mathematicians!

We just completed a big adventure and exploration of a land far away from Vermont with birds that do NOT fly! Can you guess where and what we were learning about? If you guessed Penguins, you guessed correctly! In our classroom we took a "trip" to Antarctica to learn about all different kinds of penguins! We read books, poems, weighed, measured and collected a lot of data about each kind of penguin. We learning about the Rockhopper, Gentoo, Chinstrap, King, Little Blue and Emperor penguins! Ask your mathematicians at home to tell you all about them. Their penguins folders were just sent home filled with all of their data and information.

On Friday we practiced our number sense and operations with rekenreks on the iPads!  Everyone really enjoyed working in partnerships, creating a number on the rekenrek and then asking their partner "how many are hidden?" Students had to justify their answer and practiced two numbers to make 10 or 20 or even more!

Rekenreks

The students continued to explore number sense through the use of rekenreks in our 1st grade math class.  Here is a picture of a rekenrek.  Since each row of beads show 10 in two groups of fives, through the use of different colors, students are encouraged to chunk their numbers.  What would 13 look like? Or 8?  Challenge yourself at home over our holiday break and have fun learning math with rekenreks.  Don't forget to visit our wiki as well for additional interactive games using rekenreks.

Using ipads to explore number sense

The students used iPads to explore numbers, addition and subtraction today.  We used an app called Multi-Touch Math, which allows the user to solve different number sentences with a given set of numbers.  We also used tangrams and geo boards to learn more about patterns and shapes.

Goldfish math

Today, first grade mathematicians explored subtraction with real goldfish crackers! We had so much fun learning our subtraction facts while using our problem-solving skills together.  Ask your child to explain how we used pictures, diagrams and number sentences to solve subtraction problems.
Perhaps you can try it at home too?

Chunking by 5s and 10s

First grade mathematicians continued chunking by 5s and 10s this week.  In math, we think about different strategies to solve our number problems and sometimes, chunking our numbers into friendly 5s and 10s help us be more efficient.  Here is a picture of what it looks like on our number grid when we chunk, and count, by 5s and 10s.

Discovering math conjectures

Our 1st grade mathematicians are making incredible conjectures, generalizations, in class.  As we explore numbers together, they are starting to see the similarities and differences between different number patterns.  For example, through our daily explorations of number sentences representing the days in school, the students have started to discover the patterns of even and odd numbers.  Please see our attached picture.  Can you check on these generalizations at home and see if other number sentences also fit this pattern?

Math Update

In Math this week, students have created a beautiful Sea Star Quilt which we have used to focus on counting by 5's. Next week students will be focusing on counting by 10's. We are wrapping up our current unit, and we are excited to be moving onto a new unit next week!How many ways can you find to count by 5s? If you count by 5s three times, how can you write that in a number sentence? Can you write it in many ways?  Let me know.