Teaching with Math Books: Picture Book Linky Party

After yesterday's post about favorite books to start the year, I started to get a little sad about all of the fabulous books I still hadn't talk about. Then, it was like First Grade and Fabulous could read my mind and created a Week 2: Picture Book Linky for Math Books. Yay! Here are some of my favorite math picks.

 

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns

 

First things first...if you are looking for great picture books for teaching math, look up Marilyn Burns. She has dedicated her life to it and she is so thoughtful. Her books have personality and they really teach a math concept well while using math terminology.

 

The Greedy Triangle is one of my all time favorites. It is about this little triangle who decides that he is dissatisfied with his shape and goes to the shape shifter and asks for one more side and one more angle. Can you guess what her is going to be my friends? Oh, that's right a parallelogram. Didn't see that one coming did you? I told Marilyn likes to use math vocabulary. Any hoo... he keeps asking for sides and angles until he basically becomes a circle. Throughout the story, he runs into lots of mishaps and decides that his own shape is the best shape to be.

 

After reading the story, I love to have my kiddos act out the sides and angles the Greedy Triangle adds with gumdrops and toothpicks. I have used marshmallows in the past and let me tell you that they do not hold the shape as well.



 

Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews

I love how this story gets kiddos thinking about math all around them. In the story, the black dots create different pictures like flowers or buttons. It is a great book for teaching counting and I love to have my kids create dot pages of their own.

 

After reading the story, I usually introduce dot plates/cards and ten frames. We discuss how to subitize the numbers and add them up quickly. It's a great numeracy exercise and we do it all year.



 

 

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

This is one of my go to books for teaching time to the hour. The Grouchy Ladybug just cracks me up and with my next classroom theme being Eric Carle, guess who's going to be hanging out by my classroom clock. :)

 

The Grouchy Ladybug is all about a ladybug who would rather fight over something then share. She ends up spending an entire day trying to fight different animals and then deciding that they aren't "big" enough. In the end, a blue whale teaches her a lesson and she finds that sharing isn't all that bad.

 

After reading this story, I talk about time to the hour and then we go back through the story and make the different times on our clocks. I love the part with the whale because it really let's you know if kiddos have experience with quarter after, half past, and quarter 'til. It's a great preassessment.

 



Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

 

This is a wonderful story to go with learning names at the beginning of the year. Chrysanthemum is a little mouse who loves everything about her name and then she goes to school. She is made fun of for her name being too long and a type of a flower. She starts to dread school until her fabulous music teacher reveals that she too has a long, flower name.

 

After reading this story, we always play a syllable name game and then we write, graph, and count the letters in our own names.

 

What are your favorites? Does anyone have a great book for base ten?

 

Be sure to link up with First Grade and Fabulous!

 

 

Beggining of the Year: Picture Book Linky

I'm linking up with First Grade and Fabulous to talk about picture books I start the school year with.

I just love picture books. There are so many amazing books out there and I have to stop myself from buying way more than I need. Since I do the Daily 5 in my classroom, I find that I have become even more of a book hoarder. I just want there to be as many books as possible for the kids to choose from. Sigh!

Here are my favorite read alouds to start the school year.

David Goes to School by David Shannon

 

I love this story! It really sums up all of the unwanted behavior that we, as teachers, see every year. David is a little boy who is loud and adventurous. He hasn't quite developed a sense of compassion for others but he sure is silly and has tons of fun. I just love the picture that is open with him doing the "potty dance" and the words "Again?!" Isn't that just the truth.

 

We always use this story to set up classroom norms and rules. We laugh a lot with David the first time through and then we talk about the rules he broke and what rules we need in our classroom. Then, we work as a class to create classroom rules, norms, and consequences. We always ask, "Would that have helped David?"

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
 

Kitten's First Full Moon is about a very thirsty kitten who just wants some milk. Throughout the story, she is convinced that the moon is a nice big bowl of milk and chasing that milk bowl takes her on a bit of an adventure. She eats a bug, climbs to the top of a tree, and ends up falling into a pond. Poor Kitten!

I just love the pictures in this story. They are all black and white but the images tell a story on their own. I use this book on the very first day of school to teach the 3 Ways to Read a Book as part of the Daily 5. We first start by reading the pictures and then I go back and read the words. The kids love it and it gives them the confidence to go back and read their own books either with the words or the pictures. Later on, I use this same story to demonstrate a retell so that my kiddos have seen all 3 Ways to Read a Book with just one book. 

Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

 

Lily is a mouse with style. Her grandmother takes her on a shopping trip where Lily ends up with movie star glasses and this amazing purple plastic purse. All through the school day, Lily is distracted by her things and is also distracting her whole class. The teacher takes away her things until the end of the day. Lily is beside herself and decides that she no longer likes her teacher and writes a pretty funny horrible note about him. At the end of the day, Lily gets her things back and her teacher writes her a nice note and tells her that tomorrow will be a better day. Lily's whole attitude then changes and she learns a little more about why there are rules in school.

I read this story the moment the toys start coming to school. Let me tell you, last year my top file cabinet drawer was Lego Land. I also love to read this story because I talk about the 3 reasons school's have rules (according to Miss Gill):

1. We want to keep you safe.
2. We want you to learn.
3. We care about you.

I always use this time to talk about how much I care about and love my class. I want them to know that the moment they were put in my classroom, I started to care about them. Some kiddos, I feel, don't hear that they are cared about enough and I refuse to not let them know that they are special. This is also a great time to go back over the rules that we created as a class and then discuss if that rule is about keeping us safe, helping us learn, because we are cared about, or all of the above.

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault

 

All of the lower case letters decide to play a tag-like game and chase each other up the coconut tree. Once all of the little letters are up at the top, the tree can't hold them anymore and it topples over. The capitals letters have to come rescue the skinned up and blacked eyed little letters.

I love the rhymes and chants in this book. It is just too fun. I also like having my kiddos make the letters that are in their name on their own coconut tree and then writing about why their like their name. I have also the coconut tree in the past as my great work wall.

 

What are your favorite picture books to kick off the school year?

Priscilla

Five for Friday: June 28th

I'm Linking up with Doodles Bugs Teaching again for the last Five for Friday for a while. Sniff, Sniff..

1. My wonderful friends came over on Wednesday for what I fondly call Cheese Night. We do Cheese Night every time my wonderful, allergic to dairy, man has to be out of town. Each person brings something cheesy over and as you can imagine, it is DELICIOUS! This Wednesday, we sat on the patio and let me tell you, the next morning my legs were eaten alive. Mosquitoes are the worst! I am so itchy. :(

 

 2. I've been really thinking about the beginning of next school year. I will be teaching full day Kindergarten and I worry about how tired we will be by the end of the day. Please note that I used the word we. Then, I started thinking of ways to add in afternoon breaks that took us outside but were still educational. I started with sidewalk chalk ideas and then did bean bags. Click on the links to see what I came up with. Also, please share with me what you do to break up the day.

 

3. I love send my kiddos on what I call a Walk About. This means there is something around the room that they need to find. I use this with all subject areas. This last year to review shapes, we went on a Shape Hunt. I got these shape posters, free I should add, from Intentional Momma and posted them all around the room. Then, I made up a page for the kiddos to write the names of the shapes as they found them. Click here to get a freebie Shape Hunt page of your own.

I have the kiddos use a white board for the paper so they can walk and write.

I love how this friend is checking to see what shape she needs to go find next. So professional!



4. I have turned into a frame addict. I love making things fun and cute. I was as pleased as punch when I found Teaching Super Power on Teachers Pay Teachers. I have been using her frames everywhere. These green frames are a prime example. She has lots of freebies and the frames are just too fun. I love the chalkboard look and the bright colors.

 

 

 5. I'm sure many of you have heard that as of July 1, 2013 Google Reader is going away.  Bloglovin' is a site that will put all of your favorite blogs in one place and it is super easy to add all of your favorite blogs. All you have to do is sign in and hit accept. I did it is less that 2 minutes. I added a Follow Us button on the side of the page and I would be honored if you would follow us on Bloglovin'. :)

 

Happy Friday!

 



Priscilla

Throwback Thursday

I'm Linking up with Cara from The First Grade Parade for Throwback Thursday. It is fun to look at old posts and remember all of the fun things we did this last year.

Here a Throwback from this last fall. I love the ocean and wish that I could dive all of the time. I have been to lucky to have gone on 2 different dive trips and every time I come back, I do a huge ocean unit with my kiddos. The kids love it! Living in a landlocked state only peeks their curiosity for the ocean and they love learning about all the different types of ocean animals. Be sure to check out the two writing freebies at the bottom.
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I have been so blessed to have had the opportunity to go on another dive trip. We did our first dive trip 3 years ago and this last November, we went on a week long adventure to the island of Roatan just off of Honduras. Here a picture of me next to Mr. Bud; one of the wreck dives by our resort. :)

When I came back, I of course had to dive into Thanksgiving but after all of the pilgrim fun, I was able to take some time to bring the ocean to my landlocked classroom. We spent the week writing and reading about the ocean animals and at the end of the week were able to pick our favorite animals to create published writing and pieces of art. We put all of our ocean life together to make a coral reef that I would be all for diving!

Isn't it cute! The kids got to pick their favorite animal they wrote and learned about for the week, make a final draft of their writing, and then create an animal out of construction paper. Of course...you will notice all the sharks at the top. Kids are just fascinated with them. I could spend a whole week just on sharks. Here are some close ups of my kiddos work.

 




When we do our writing, I split the kids into differentiated writing groups that are working on specific targets/standards. As a group, we do an example writing together and discuss the writing target and previous worked on targets as we create a descriptive writing piece. Then the kids go and work independently on a piece of their own. Since we are describing something, we use a web to brainstorm out descriptive words before writing about the animal or object. The below picture shows the group work together on the left. The student then gets to pick out an animal of his or her own to write about. I like to give the kids something tangible to take back to their tables for independent work so for this unit, I used cut out pictures of ocean critters from my dive magazines.

At the end of the week, the kids go back and review all of their writing and pick their very favorite writing. Once they have picked it, we go through and edit the work together. That is the orange pen marks you see on the picture on the right. Then, they write up their final draft. Isn't this clownfish the cutest!  

 

Here is a freebie of the writing page, if you want your kiddos make an ocean writing of their own.  Here is also another freebie for a seashell writing page that we did after our ocean unit to tie into our life science unit.

 

Enjoy!

 

Priscilla

Favorite Things: Gettin' Fit

I'm linking up again with Across the Hall in 2nd Grade to discuss my favorite fitness activities and some of the products I can't live without.

I always procrastinate going on a run but once I get going and especially when I am finished with a run, I love it. It is a great way to stay in shape and I also find that if I run around the neighborhood, I really start to know the neighborhood much better. There is so much to see! Here are a couple of things that I cannot live without when running.

I love my Nikes. I have tried other shoes and they just don't work the same way. I couldn't run without them. I love the lunar shoes as well because they do well for narrow feet, high arches, and bad ankles. :)

I also couldn't run without some tunes. I love my little Nano because it can clip anywhere and when I am tried of my music, I can just switch to the radio.

This is a free app for the iPod or the iPad that I just love. It gives you challenging workouts that start at just 15 minutes. It works great for targeting problem areas because you can pick workouts that fit the area you want to work on. The app also makes you feel successful. It keeps track of your workout minutes and you get little rewards when you make new goals. I can do this at home or at the gym. Here are a couple of supplies you need to do the workout at home.

A yoga mat.

Some dumb bells. I use either a 5 lb. or an 8 lb. weight.

The program actually recommends a medicine ball but I just use my kettle bell instead.

I just think Zumba is too fun! I love getting a workout by shaking my groove thing. My gym offers lots of classes and I try to do Zumba at least twice a week.

 

Priscilla

Take Learning Outside: Bean Bags

Here's day 2 of Taking Learning Outside. Yesterday, we discussed the merits of sidewalk chalk. Today, I found some cute bean bag games I want to share with you.

Toss and Add: Toss bean bags into number circles and add up the points you earn. Great for adding numbers and you can make it as easy or as challenging as you want. This would also be a good game for adding money. Just put a picture of the different types of money in the circles and the kiddos have to add up how much money they earned for their tosses.

 

Same idea but with bowls. This would be easier to already have prepped to take outside.

 

Letter Toss: Here's another idea with numbers but I am thinking switching this up and doing letters. Kids have to draw a letter out of a bag and throw their beanbag to that letter. I like the idea of using the planting bases. These would definitely not be blow away by the wind. Again, it is also nice to already have something prepped to take outside.

 

Match Up or Add Up: Throw the bean bags to match the number. Great for early number identification. You could also have to throw the bags to add up the numbers to make a certain numbers i.e. if you wanted to make 8, you would have to throw the 3 bag on the 5 mat. 

 

Spelling Pass, Letter Pass, Counting Pass: Have kiddos stand and face each other and pass the bean bag back and forth. Every time they catch the bean bag, they have to say a letter from the word they are spelling i.e. if the word is cat; kiddo 1 says "c" and passes, kiddo 2 says "a" and passes back, kiddo 1 says "t", kiddo 2 says the whole word and starts a new word. This would also work well with kids saying the alphabet from A to Z or counting. 

 

How to Make Your Own Bean Bags: Click on the picture below for the directions on how to make bean bags for your classroom.

 

If you don't want to make your own bean bags here are some cute Letter and Phonics based beanbags from Brookstone. These would be great for spelling words, sorting consonants and vowels, as well as matching upper and lowercase letters.

 

That cat is too cute for x-ray!

 I love these. I didn't even know these existed. These would be so great for a math station or a shape hunt.

 

 Tell me you thoughts! How would you or how have you used bean bags with your kiddos?

Priscilla