On Thursday, my Firsties and I celebrated our last day together!!! We had half of a day to tie up the loose end's on our Calendar Wall....which they LOVED!!! Every day we charted our "Growing Number" and determined what color of day it would be according to the weather. This helped them understand the thermometer and the effect the weather/seasons had on our temperature. We were at day #180!!! With that number, they were able to make $1.80 in change using quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. (Counting coins can be very tricky for First Graders, but since we had this practice as part of our routine from day #1, my students had a pretty good grasp on adding money.) With the number 180, we also built our Base Ten Blocks with flats, longs and units. This practice helps them to learn place value and number relations. We then would chart how many days we had left in First Grade....this was a BIG HIT with my Firsties!!! At the beginning of the year, we started with 180 and of course, on Thursday, we ended up with ZERO!!! We always wrote the written date, the digital date and we would locate the correct place on the calendar to write the number. (Yesterday was Wednesday the 1st, so today must be ?????, the ????) And of course, we couldn't end our Calendar Wall activity without doing a very "Third Grade" way of writing our Growing Number....180. It would look something like this.....100 + 79 + 2 - 1 = 180
OR 7 quarters and 1 nickel = $1.80
OR 180 x 1 = 180!!! My student's love to try to think like a Third Grader and be the one with "out of the box" way to make that number!!!
I enjoy this time with them....it starts our day....sets the tone and gets us off to a great LEARNING start!!! I'm going to miss them....but I'm going to LOVE my summer:) After all, I have to get ready for Growing Number
ONE!!!
