Skip counting and then there were 15

In math we are working on counting by 2's, 5's and 10's but our goal is to have everyone counting by 5's and 10's by this point in the year. We would love to have students starting to break apart large numbers to help make adding "scary" numbers look a little friendlier. SO making groups of 10 or 5 when adding. For example, I can take the equation 62+25=? and make it simpler for me to solve, by saying: 62=60+2 and 25=20+5. I can then add 60+2+20+5=? and simplify that to 60+20=80 and 2+5=7, so 80+7=87. SO much of math is looking for patterns and decomposing numbers, which is why students knowledge of numeracy is so important. Tomorrow I will attend day 3/4 of the AVMR math training and students will get their movie day, which they have earned for filling their pom-pom jar. The other first grade classes have each had at least one movie day, so after many requests from C-4 students, they will get their movie day.

Another fun announcement is we have a new student who has joined our class. He makes 15! All of the students have been so welcoming and helpful and he is such a sweet student. So thrilled to have him join us. Please remember to fill in your reading logs and remember to check the "reading share calendar". 

In ELA we are wrapping up unit 2 next week. Students have been practicing using punctuation and reading and writing the memory words used at the beginning of many questions: who, what, where, when, why, which. These are tricky but students are doing a wonderful job! We are almost through the Handwriting without Tears workbook and will be doing some Landmark sentence structure work as well as Superkids sentence writing. Students have just started their "How To" writing and put careful thought into their topics. Each student has an idea that is very unique and special to their expertise!

I have included above some photos of the students reading with their third grade reading buddies in Ms. Joyce's class. We get to read with them every Friday afternoon before specials.