“How to” Write at Home

So I’m a mom too!  Sometimes I’m at home and I’m looking for a quick and fun activity that I can do with my own daughter to help support her writing at school. 

*In general, writing is the area that students struggle with the most. 

My daughter, like many kids, isn’t always excited to do ‘extra’ work at home.  I try to keep things fun, but sometimes she has other things in mind besides ‘writing practice’.  But, my daughter loves hot chocolate.  Anytime…middle of summer? … doesn’t matter!

What a great way to squeeze in a little writing practice.  We decided to write story about how to make hot chocolate.  I told her I would only do the steps that she wrote, so if she wanted to drink some hot chocolate she was going to have to write all the steps, and they needed to be in order!

It worked!

Here is the sheet we used:

HowtoMakeHotChocolate.pdf

and here is her finished product (this is early grade one):

I found this .pdf on a cute little teaching blog that you may want to glance at.  Teri, over at www.acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.ca has a whole little unit that you could easily adapt for home on writing about hot chocolate. 

You’ll find the page link here:  http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.ca/2012/01/hot-chocolate-craft-freebie.html

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Pay it Forward with Huberdeau – A Class Challenge?

I wanted to share this idea with everyone.  Let’s see what we can start!

We are Readers Here!

I’m so excited about Raz-Kids these days!  I was really introduced to it last year.  My daughter was lucky enough to have a subscription through her own school.  We both loved working on it at home and it inspired me to purchase it for my own classroom this year.

If you haven’t already used Raz-Kids from home, please give it a try. 

 

*If you have forgotten our class username or can’t get logged in, please send me a note and I will get in touch with you!

We Learned Math Differently! … What is Mental Math?

Do you have 13 minutes to spare?  Here is a great little video that clearly explains the concepts and strategies we use in school to teach primary math. 

When I was in school we didn’t do mental math and I know that this concept is new to a lot of parents.  It’s really about developing skills and strategies to augment or supplement the ‘memorization’ of math facts.

 

A Story of Friendship

Here is an inspiring story that was shared today in a presentation by guidance.  It was such a beautiful story, that I had to pass it along…

“Add” a Little Math to your Day

At this point in the school year, the’ facts’ focus is on! 

In addition, we focus on adding numbers to ‘make ten’ first, and then move beyond ten.  To move beyond ‘making ten’, it’s important that students have mastered their math facts up to ten. 

When we talk about ‘mastering’ math facts, the general rule is that a student can recall a fact within 3 seconds.  In grade 1, there was a strong focus on learning these facts.  In grade 2, ‘making ten’ should be a review and students should have a mastery over these facts.

Today we all worked on a ‘Making Ten’ Rainbow.  This simple anchor chart is a quick reference for students to study and practive their math facts up to ten. 

 

Making_Ten_Rainbow.docx

 

As we move forward from ‘making ten’ we begin to practice ‘one more than/one less than’ and ‘two more than/two less than’.  We do this with numbers up to 20 in grade two.  These become our ‘+1’, ‘+2’, ‘-1’, ‘-2’ facts.  We also work on doubles.

Hands-on activities are a great way to practice math facts.  Games with dominoes, and dice are perfect.

The Speed Grid Challenge is a really fun game, that students always love!