Fun with All Kinds of Measurment

We've been all caught up in our measurement until for the past 2 weeks.

I would have to say it has been my firsties favorite yet!

Here's a peek at what went down in our room.

 

Day 1-3:

We discovered length and recorded the definition.

Activity 1: Using a strip of paper, the students had to cut it into 3 different size pieces and order them from longest to shortest.

Activity 2: The following day, they had to measure the length using paperclips and cubes then record their measurements.  

Activity 3: Students had to find 3 different objects inside their desk and order them from shortest to longest. {I love how my babies use their phonetic spelling "sizer". Precious!}



 



Day 4:

We used Michelle Hudgeons' measurement freebie and measured with flipflops!

{Grab the freebie HERE}

 

 

 Day 5-6 

We learned all about weight.

Activity 1: We measured different bags of objects using cubes with scales.

 

Activity 2: I actually brought in a scale and measured how much each student weighed. I wrote it on a sticky note and gave it to them. We then put them in order from lightest to heaviest! They loved comparing their weights with each other. 

Day 7-8

We measured area.

Activity 1: We used Cheez-itz to create our own image and calculated its area. Of course we got to eat the Cheez-itz afterwards!

This book is a GREAT read for introducing all the different ways to approach measurement.

A MUST have for your math book stash!

There are SO many fun hands-on ways to learn about measurement. Leave some links to your blog posts on measurement activities below. I would love to 'pin' more great ideas to use next year!

Character Traits

Any other teachers out there who just can't get enough of David Shannon's books?

They are funny.

I love them.

The kids love them.

We ALL laugh.

And they beg me to read them over AND over again!

 

We have been talking about character traits in the books that we read.

A Bad Case of the Stripes helped my students understand the difference between how characters look on the outside and how they appear to be on the inside.

 

 

Before we read the book, we recorded how Camilla looked just from viewing the cover.

As we read, we stopped when Camilla's feelings changed throughout the book and recorded them also.

 

Some other good book recommendations for character traits are:

Scaredy Squirrel

Chrysanthemum

Wimberely Worried

Amelia Bedelia

 

What other books do you use that are great for teaching character traits?

Adding Suffixes to Silent 'E' Words

Honestly, I would really just like my firsties to take the skill of recognizing the pattern of silent 'e' and apply it when reading when they leave first grade. Low and behold, they are always expected to go far beyond what is reasonable.

 

We talked about "dropping the E and adding ING" to words that follow the silent 'e' pattern.

 

To help my students visualize this and in hopes of making it a little more clear to them we used popsicle sticks in one of our phonics lessons this week.

 

 

I called out a word.

Example: "Spell the word tape."

We changed the word by adding 'ing'.

Example: "Change the word tape to taping."

 

They were not allowed to erase the 'e' but simply covered it up with a popsicle stick to show  that all it really was doing was disappearing. The vowel sound wasn't going back to its short sound just because the 'e' went away.

 

They thought it was magic and LOVED playing with sticks!

Who knew phonics was so fun?

Teaching Adjacent Vowels

If you read my blog you know I'm a sucker for anchor charts and make one every chance I can get!

We started learning about adjacent vowels the last few weeks so I knew I had to make an anchor chart to go along with the great video we've watched (and begged to watch) almost everyday!

 

 

If you haven't showed this video to your students and you have or are going to teach adjacent vowels, this video is too cute and gives a great visual example of what happens when there are vowel pairs in a word.

{Picture will take you to YouTube video}

 

We read the story The Kite from Days with Frog and Toad because it has many words with vowel pairs in the text.

 

My kids always love to hunt for word patterns in books from their book box.

That's just what we did. They had to find at least 4 or more words with adjacent vowels.

They wrote them down on kite tails.

They then designed their own kite and added their words. 

 

 

We added the words that actually followed the vowel pair patterns to anchor charts which we hung in the hall beside our kites. It was high flying fun!

Preposition Pals

Our study of grammar this six weeks has me thinking...

 

Prepositions in 1st grade?!

Okay, if you say so curriculum.

 

After introducing the concept with my pre-made anchor chart, we did some work on identifying these words in our small group meeting times.

 

Once we became more comfortable with these words, I read Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss.

(Idea came from Pencils Glue and Tying Shoes---another reason why I love Instagram!)

 

 

We made a list of prepositions we heard when reading the book.

 Then we added a few of our own to the list.

 

I came across a template for a butterfly on Pinterest and incorporated it into a preposition craftivity.

 

Students had to write 4 sentences using a different preposition in each sentence from our list.

Each sentence went on a different section of the butterfly.

 Turned out so cute that they were "hall-worthy"!

 

Pick up a pre-made ready to print Prepositions anchor chart in my Glitz and Grammar Anchor Charts pack!