Nonfiction Reading Charts

I make a lot of charts for Writers' Workshop with tips and tools for the kiddos to refer to during writing, but for some reasons I don't have nearly as many charts for reading.  In our nonfiction reading unit, I really wanted to make some charts that could remind and guide the kiddos as they read.  Charts are also nice because they give some structure to our mini-lessons; when we have a chart to create or reference it helps the kiddos (and me) stay focused.

My goal was to create charts for the essential skills in this unit, including using text features, finding the big idea, connecting pages together, and reading with fluency.

I actually found this chart on Pinterest but, unfortunately, the link has been discontinued so I don't know where it was originally from.  I used this along with the "Nonfiction Reader Experience" lesson.  I think it was helpful for the kiddos to be reminded of the different types of voices they should be using while they read.  

This chart are definitely going to reappear each year!

Ways to Make "n"

Right before Winter Break we were in a Number System Unit in Math, focusing creating equivalent equations.  I posed questions to the kiddos such as, "I have ten toys. Some of them are blocks. Some of them are marbles. How many of each could I have?"  Our Investigations curriculum has a variety of these "how many of each?" problems throughout the first grade program.

This year my school is fortunate to have a consultant from the curriculum working with our staff, and she gave us some suggestions for how to make these lessons more meaningful and effective for our mathematicians.  First, she encouraged us to have the kiddos build all of their equivalent expressions with connecting cubes.  

In the past I'd always used two-sided counters to help students visualize different combinations, but with the connecting cubes it's much easier to see how different combinations all equal the same number.  As the kiddos constructed trains with two colors of cubes, it was also very evident how they were thinking about the problem.  Some of them quickly organized their trains with the "pairs" next to each other (i.e. 2 red + 8 blue and 8 red + 2 blue); others started with 1+9 and increased one color while decreasing the other.  Some of the kiddos just tried out various combinations to see if they added to 10. 

The second piece of advice we received was to keep the sums small.  When the kiddos started guessing equivalent equations (8+5=10?), we were encouraged to scale back to a smaller number.  Almost all of the kiddos could find equivalent expressions within 5, even when they struggled with 9 or 10.  Even when a kiddos demonstrated understanding and fluency with combinations up to 10 or 12, we didn't provide a bigger sum.  The reason being that once you realize the pattern (increase one color, or addend, while decreasing the other), you can do it with any number.  Instead, we asked kiddos to try using three addends, or colors.  This was a challenge, but most "high-flying" mathematicians love a puzzle and enjoyed giving it a try.  

One of the first things I ever pinned on Pinterest was this "__ Ways to Make __" worksheet from Kinder-Craze.  I decided it was perfect thing to add into this session to have one more way of visualizing equivalent combinations.  We actually don't do much coloring in our class, so they loved getting to pull out the crayons and create these fun designs.  (I don't have a lot of bulletin board space but they looked great on the window above our math shelf.

Pinterest Finds

I've been on Pinterest for awhile now and love getting inspiration for my classroom, kitchen, and apartment.  I frequently troll the Education and Kids pages while I'm cooking dinner, getting ready for bed, or waiting in line.  I've gotten a ton of ideas for Anchor Charts, bulletin boards, and worksheets.

I also got an idea for a Back-to-School treat for my teacher friends. During our Week Zero (professional development week before the kiddos come back), I made about 50 of these cute little tags and attached them to a mini-bag of M'n'Ms.  I snuck them into all of the teacher mailboxes over the weekend before the first day of school (since, of course, I was at school on Saturday to finish setting up). 

Then I saw a lot of cute pictures of kiddos holding signs announcing their grade.  I thought this would be a fun idea for the first day of school.  I downloaded this template from Mama Bub.

The kiddos loved getting their picture taken with the sign and the pictures turned out great. I made them into a collage of our whole class which I'm going to use for thank you cards.

Although Pinterest has potential to be a huge "time-suck" and it certainly has plenty of junk, I think it's a great way to share and discover new ideas and inspiration.  Plus, I'm starting to see some of my own pictures from TeachersPayTeachers and this blog surfacing on some of the Education pages -- and that's just cool! :)