Monday. Tuesday.

Monday. 

Tuesday. 

Hmmm. Sounds a little boring. Doesn't sound exciting like Valentine's Day or 100th Day. Blech. Just two days in a row with NO SPECIAL EVENTS?!?! Does that even happen in Grade 1?

(That said, tomorrow is Rainbow Day!)

But, even our seemingly "average" days are always interesting!

In Math we are using what we have learned about skip counting to help us efficiently count large groups of items. 

Yikes! That's a big pile!

We began by grouping items into tens. Then we counted the leftovers by 1's. 

We can use skip counting to help us!
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, ... 51, 52, 53

Students got into pairs to count their own piles of manipulatives. Look how skip counting by 10's helps us count:

We also tried counting the same pile of items using skip counting by 5's:

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 ... 51, 52, 53!

We grouped the same heap of items into piles of 5 and counted the leftovers:

Why did we have the same count both times? Because, as one little one pointed out, "we didn't change the pile, we just changed how we counted them"!

The students are on their way to becoming skip counting experts, but please continue practice at home. These skills need to be automatic before being successfully applied in counting situations such as these. 

Please find time to practice skip counting:

• by 2's to 20

• by 5's to 100

• by 10's to 100

Learning to skip count helps us count large groups of items accurately and efficiently, and is a life skill. 

Hooray, Hooray, 100th Day!

It's time to party!

We're 100 day smarties!

100 days of school is a big deal in Grade 1. Huge! EPIC! 

A significant part of our Math curriculum focuses on working with numbers to 100, so celebrating 100 is an opportunity to tie in several Math activities, as well as many Language Arts tasks and even the perfect Religion lesson.

So, we began preparing for the 100th day ... on day 97?!?!?! Yup, its possible Mrs. Beliveau planned 100+ activities for our celebration, and we needed to get a jump start on the fun and learning!

Here is a look at day 97, 98, 99, and of course, day 100!!!

We worked over several days to write 100 words! Be proud of that amazing list, kiddos!

We made fabulous runway-worthy party hats! There were 10 strips of paper, and we counted 10 polka dots on each. Boom, 100 dots!

The boys and girls practiced and read a 100 word poem to several classes and even in the office, too!

We brought in collections of one hundred items. Isn't it funny how different 100 items can look? Some baggies look so empty, while others look so full.

Mr. Marshall showed up in our room with a delivery! He had a box. A very, very LOCKED box. And a few clues. Our Grade 1 Breakout Box challenge was about to begin! The goal? Break into the box!

A Breakout Box is similar to a breakout room, but students use curricular skills to break into a box instead of breaking out of a room! Using teamwork and our knowledge of the 100-chart, we were able to open a number lock, word lock, and directional lock to open the box! Ask your child what was inside!

We got crafty and made a portrait of ourselves ... when we are 100! These are definitely the classiest geezers around JV!

Counting by 5's is tricky, so we traced our hands and made a helpful bulletin board to help us practice.

Counting by 10's, we assembled trail mix. 10 of each snack item made 100 tasty treats!

To bring our special day to a close, we settled ourselves and heard the story from the bible about the lost sheep. We looked at 100 cotton balls, thinking of them as 100 little sheep, and wondered Would God worry if one little sheep went missing? Wouldn't having 99 sheep be enough? No! If we stray from God, He worries and looks for us. He always welcomes the lost little sheep back. 

Happy 100 Day, boys and girls! Be proud of your hard work!

Party hat labels from Cara Carroll at First Grade Parade. Hats adapted from Jessica Williamson. Door decor inspired by Sara Ann Culbertson. Snack placemat from Kerry. 100 year portraits inspired by Deanna Jump. Hundred word list from Kinder Craze Blog. Number chart search adapted from Just Add Clipart. What fun ideas! 

Problems with our Veggies!

We continue to explore numbers to 20 and we were presented with a challenge today!

Why are dads always so tricky?


The students got to work! Some grabbed a pile of counters, some chose coloured construction paper, and others began drawing pictures. This group doesn't back down from a challenge!

There is no right way to arrive at the answer, nor is there a single correct answer. Here are a few responses:

As we continue to work with numbers to 20 and then move on to addition and subtraction, the children will be encouraged to choose how they will solve a problem, whether it be with a picture, manipulatives, or other strategy. 

Way to count carefully, boys and girls!

We're seeing spots!

We have begun our new math unit exploring numbers to 20! A major concept we have just started practicing is subitizing. Subitizing is being able to look at a group and know how many there are, without having to count each individual item. In short, subitizing is "instantly seeing how many". 

We subitize when we roll a die. You didn't have to count the dots to know you rolled a five, right?

What better way to practice this new skill of subitizing then to play games!

Subitizing BINGO
 

Snakes & Ladders, but instead of rolling a dice,
the students flip over a subitizing card

Memory with subitizing cards

KaBOOM,
(a version of the game traditionally called "war")

A subitizing game on the SMARTboard

 
Subitizing helps us see patterns, identify relationships between numbers, and understand place value. We were introduced to a tool called a 10-frame, that can also be used for subitizing. 10-frames are two rows of five boxes, and they help us see how numbers relate to five or ten. Here is a 10-frame:

  We made a GIANT 10-frame and filled it with the cutest counters you have ever seen! Can you see how we made the numbers one through ten?

10-frames will be used in an upcoming unit when we tackle addition and subtraction to 10. We can even put two 10-frames together to work with numbers to 20!

Do you like a challenge? We sure do! Play the subitizing game below. Quickly say how many dots are on the 10-frame. Here is a hint we discovered: sometimes the empty boxes in the frame help us know how many frames are actually full. It's fast!