January/February Math Workshop

Module 3: 

Ordering and Comparing Length Measurements 

as Numbers

Module 3 begins by extending students’ kindergarten experiences with direct length comparison to indirect comparison whereby the length of one object is used to compare the lengths of two other objects.  Longer than and shorter than are taken to a new level of precision by introducing the idea of a length unit.  Students then explore the usefulness of measuring with similar units. The module closes with students representing and interpreting data.

New or Recently Introduced Terms

  Centimeter (standard length unit within the metric system) 

  Centimeter cube (pictured to the right, also used as a length unit in this module) 

  Centimeter ruler (measurement tool using length units of centimeters) 

  Data (collected information) 

  Endpoint (the end of an object, referenced when aligning for measurement purposes) 

  Height (measurement of vertical distance of an object) 

  Length unit (measuring the length of an object with equal-sized units) 

  Poll(survey) 

  Table or graph (organized charts visually representing data) 

Students will be making indirect comparisons  (Building off their knowledge of direct comparisons) -When two items are measured to see which one is less than or more than the other. Indirect comparisons involve 3 or more items.

ex: My crayon is shorter than the string. The string is shorter than the book. So my crayon is shorter than the book too! 

Length Units

Students will start off using centimeter cubes as a length unit. We remind the students to measure at the endpoint, no gaps between, and no overlaps. We will make the connection from centimeter cubes to centimeters on a ruler which are standard units.

Students will be Comparing Lengths of 3 objects

Students will build on knowledge of shorter than and longer than from Kindergarten by comparing three items using centimeter cubes.

The pencil measures 10 centimeters. 

The crayon measures 6 centimeters. 

The book measures 20 centimeters. 

SO:

The book is longer than the pencil, and the pencil is longer than the crayon, so the book is longer than the crayon.

Students will be measuring With Non-Standard Units

Students must know to use the same-sized length units to get consistent measurement results. 

A pencil measured with 2 different non-standarized units will give you inaccurate

results. 

Students will be Comparing 2 objects with Difference Unknown

How much longer is the pencil than the marker?

     Marker= 7 cm         Pencil= 9 cm

          9 - 7 = 2 cm   

  The pencil is 2 cm longer than the marker. 

Students will Represent and Interpret Data

They will collect and organize data in up to three categories and show on a  chart. 

Students will learn to organize the data into 5-groups, which we will show them can go from pictures to tally marks.

Students will be asked to answer questions about the data, such as:

 How many students chose football as the sport they like best? 

 How many students chose basketball as the sport they like best? 

 How many students chose soccer as the sport they like best? 

 What is the total number of students who like soccer or basketball the    best? 

 Which sport received the most votes? 

Students will "Put together" with result unknown

“How many students were polled in all?”

___ + ___ + ___ = ____ 

Students will Compare with difference unknown

“How many more students preferred broccoli to string beans?” 

                                           or

"How many fewer students preferred string beans to broccoli?"

____ - ____ = ____

Module 3 Assessment will be given the around the 2nd week of February. We will then be starting Module 4- Place Value, Comparison, Addition and Subtraction to 40. 

January Word Study

In the month of January first graders will be working on blending words with five sounds. The words that have five sounds are the words that have a blend before the vowel and another one after the vowel. For example the word LUMP has four sounds but if you add a "C" before the word LUMP you will get the word CLUMP which has five sounds. Some other words with five sounds are: shrimp, skunk,trust…

The way we tap the five sound words is to reuse the index finger to finish the word.

We are also going to learn how to add the suffix "s" to the five sound words. For example, if we have the word plant, we add a suffix "s" to show that we have more than one plant. The word PLANT becomes PLANTS; the word TRUNK becomes TRUNKS…  

When tapping a word with the suffix "s" - we identify the base word, we tap the base word and then add the sound for the suffix "s"

WE NEVER TAP A SUFFIX!

Trick words: many, before, called, how, down, your,should, because, each

Words of the day: stump, blink, stand, crunch, drinks, plants

January Read Aloud

    

Quirky Character Unit

In January's read aloud we will discuss what we think "quirky" (unique, odd, unusual, and peculiar) means.  We will read books based on characters who are quirky- like Amber Brown and Junie B. Jones.  We will list ideas and predictions about these characters.  This unit will help students get to know these quirky characters by focusing on their problems, relationships, and  their personalities.

Once we list our ideas about the characters we will work to gather the evidence to support those ideas.  If we cannot find evidence to support our thinking we will work with students to revise our ideas and pursue a new line of thinking.

There will be lots of turning and talking with partners in this unit.  This will help our student's to take turns and to truly listen to their classmates.

Class 1-210

Here are some pictures from our trip to the 

Staten Island Children's Museum on December 3rd !

December Word Study

In the month of December we will continue to learn what a digraph blend is and we will be learning about  closed syllables. (Words have parts that go together are called syllables. A syllable is a part of the word that can be pushed out in one breath.)

For example:  Bat- is a one syllable word

                       Batman- is a two syllable word

A closed syllable has only one vowel but is enclosed with a consonant behind the vowel, making the short vowel sound. A closed syllable doesn't have to have a consonant in front of the vowel but it has to have one or more consonants behind the vowel. 

For example: Bat ,at , and bath are closed syllables. 

The way we mark the closed syllable is by scooping out one syllable and underlining it with a crescent and writing "c" under the mark. "C" stands for the closed syllable. Then put a breve above the vowel that makes the short vowel sound.

 For example: last

Trick words: our, over, come,would, after, also

Words of the day: melt, brush, act, punch, ill, stiff

  

December Reading Workshop

December Reading Workshop

For the month of December, students will be working on Monitoring for Meaning as they read their fiction books. 

Purpose:

The purpose of this unit is to encourage students to stay involved in their reading.  This unit also allows the teacher to revisit strategies taught earlier in the year and to teach students how these strategies need to change as they move into reading higher level books.   

Unit Goals:

∙      Students will read actively - staying involved with their books by monitoring for meaning, connecting, predicting, and having reactions to the text.     

∙      Students will be partner reading, helping each other work toward specific goals such as reading smoothly, reading dialogue like the character, reading paying attention to punctuation, or practicing retelling.

∙      Students will be able to use strategies that are appropriate for the leveled text that they are reading. 

December Writing Workshop

Writer's Workshop Update!

Our students have been working really hard on their Realistic Fiction stories. We will be editing and publishing our drafts, and will finish by Friday, December 11th.

 Our writing celebration for Realistic Fiction will be..... 

Friday, December 18th at 8:40 AM.

Our next writing unit will be How-To's!

November Reading Workshop

     

During Readers Workshop this month, we will be focusing on non-fiction books. We started our unit by comparing fiction books to non-fiction books to see the difference between these texts. The students learned that non-fiction books have special features like a table of contents, headings, diagrams, photographs, captions, labels, and an index. The students will use these non-fiction text features to preview their books and think about what they will learn, figure out the big idea the author is trying to teach them, and practice taking notes about the important facts they learn. The students will still be reading their leveled fiction books during this unit to continue working on their reading jobs and developing greater fluency.

            

November Read-Aloud

First grade will be exploring nonfiction in read-aloud for the month of November. The purpose of this unit is for students  to read nonfiction texts across many topics and to learn how to accumulate information. 

GOALS:

·         Students will use comprehension skills in order to accumulate information and retell a non fiction text. 

·         Students will use non-fiction features in order to accumulate information from a text. 

 ·         When applicable, students will use the strategies that they have learned from fiction reading to read and comprehend non fiction texts.   

In order to meet these goals, here are some of lessons we will be focusing on:

 1.  Defining the Genre - What is Non-Fiction?  What are the features of a Non-Fiction book? 

2. Choosing "Just Right" Non-Fiction Books. 

3. Previewing Non-Fiction Books to get an idea of what specifically they might be learning about the subject.

4. Reading in small chunks or one paragraph at a time, to monitor for meaning.  Then stopping to name the important thing that the author taught in that chunk or paragraph.

6. Using Clues on the Page to Figure Out Tricky Words.

7. Synthesizing - putting together everything they are learning on a page by using all of the non-fiction features (headings, photographs, and captions. diagram and labels)