Math Facts

Each week we have a math facts test.  This is a timed test--students have one minute to answer 20 addition facts.  Many students are struggling with this.  Please practice at home.  A packet was sent home in September with practice materials.  You can also purchase flash cards at Dollar Tree or make your own with index cards.  Below are a couple of links to some online games that will help your child with their facts.  I will keep looking and let you know when I find some more.  You can also google math facts practice for more sites.  Please let me know if I can help you in any way.

http://www.abcya.com/math_facts_game.htm

http://www.factmonster.com/math/flashcards.html

This week in Room 11 -- October 27-31

Monday - Parent-Teacher Conferences
               Begin at 2:30

October Book It forms are due by Friday.  Keep reading!!

This week we will be working on the following skills:

Reading:  Describe how characters in a story respond to major events/challenges

Spelling:  long i digraph syllable patterns

Math:  Telling time

Language:  Reflexive pronouns

Spelling words:  bright, brightly, pie, lightning, sigh, tighten, high, flight, lie

High Frequency words:  always, even, idea, later, still, took, went

Homework:

Every night:  Study spelling words and read "No More Light"

Monday:  Reading

Tuesday:  Reading, get test papers signed and return on Wednesday

Wednesday:  Math, language

Thursday:  Math, write spelling words four times each

Candy corn guys, pattern blocks, tangrams, and bats

I am going to try and get caught up on what we have been doing.  I am sorry I never posted anything last week.  Sometimes things are just hectic and it's hard to get to everything.  I will try to do better.

We have worked with tangrams and pattern blocks to learn about shapes.  We learned about sides and angles of shapes.  We also used smaller shapes to make larger shapes.

I think everyone enjoyed making different shapes with the tangrams (in the top picture) and with the pattern blocks. Be sure and ask your child about trapezoids, hexagons, pentagons, and quadrilaterals!  We also used the pattern blocks to learn about fractions.  We discovered that two trapezoids make a hexagon, so each trapezoid is one half of a hexagon.  It takes three rhombuses to make a hexagon, so each rhombus is one third of a hexagon.  The hands on learning with manipulatives often makes it easier to understand.









To decorate our hallway for October we also made Candy Corn Guys.  I found this on the internet at ilovedoodlebugs.com and thought they were so cute.  It was also a lesson in following directions. These look really cute hanging in the hall.

The students worked hard on our Candy Corn Guys and I think they turned out cute.  They are a very colorful addition to the hall!








This past week we have been working on retelling a story.  The students listened to Stellaluna and had to tell the important parts of the story.  To make this a little more interesting, we wrote our retelling on a bat cutout.  The class rewrote their retelling on white paper shapes that would fit on the black bat.  They cut everything out, glued the retelling on the bat and then added wiggly eyes.  So cute!  This was based on an idea I saw on The First Grade Parade blog.

I will try to keep you posted about what we are doing and showing some of our work.

This Week in Room 11 -- October 13-17

Tuesday -- Block Test

This week we will be working on the following skills:

Reading:  Recounting stories and using information from illustrations

Spelling:  long o digraph syllable patterns

Math:  Shapes, equal shares as halves, thirds, and fourths

Language:  Reflexive pronouns

Spelling Words:  float, doe, grown, boat, shown, toe, below, yellow, toenail

High Frequency Words: began, big, off, once, saw, went, while

Homework:

Every night:  Study spelling words, read "The Goat and the Crow"

Monday:  Reading

Tuesday:  Reading, get test papers signed and return on Wednesday

Wednesday:  Math, language

Thursday:  Math, write spelling words four times each

Stomp Out Bullying, Fact Families, Sparky, Graphing, Timed Tests

This past week was very busy.  The first Monday of October is Blue Shirt Day World Day of Bullying Prevention.  A lot of teachers wore Stomp Out Bullying shirts and students were asked to wear a blue shirt.  About 9 students in our class had on blue shirts.  This was to join in solidarity to stop bullying and cyberbullying.

On Tuesday we worked on fact families using dominoes.  Students had to write the two addition and two subtraction number sentences to go with each domino.

Wednesday we had a very special visitor come to Maddux.  The West Memphis Fire Department came and did a fire prevention and safety show to the students in kindergarten, first and second grades.  We had a good time learning about stop, drop, and roll, and things that we shouldn't play with to prevent fires.  They also brought a special visitor the students always enjoy...Sparky!!!  Several students were picked to demonstrate stop, drop and roll with Sparky.  A few were also picked to dance with Sparky.  It was a good program.

All week in math we worked on graphing.  We learned about collecting data and making a table using tally marks or numbers.  We also learned about picture graphs and bar graphs.

We are also doing a timed test each week on math facts.  Please continue to study.  I am happy to announce that this week 9 students made an A on their test.  Congratulations to the following students:  Briana, Tammial, Keliah, Shanyia, Somer, JaDarious, Jaydon, Deterrian, and Jeremiah.  Keep up the good work!!!

This week in Room 11 - October 6-10

This week we will continue working on some of the same skills from last week.

Reading:  Asking and answering questions

Spelling:  long a digraph syllable patterns

Math:  Graphs

Language:  Produce, expand, and rearrange simple and compound sentences

Continue to study math facts.  We have a timed test each week.

Homework for this week:

Every night:  Study spelling words, read "Zebra and Snail"

Monday:  Math, reading

Tuesday:  Math, reading, get test papers signed and return on Wednesday

Wednesday:  Math, language

Thursday:  Math, write spelling words four times each