Oh, thank you for coming Friday! It has been a long, exhausting week. Not because of students or family....it just has been a long, busy week. So now I can sit back...smile that it is over...and reflect a little.
#1...Bus problem solving. I had posted about a new book that Natalie and I are trying out this year that really challenges our first graders through word problems--orally, written, and by creating their own. You can read more here. We continued using the bus theme this week by turning the bus into a tens frame. We worked on ways to make 10. We added the number of people on the bus and the number of seats that were still available.
#2 More story problems. Last week we had started the story problems by acting them out. We literally made a classroom bus with chairs. But this week students had to solve the problems independently with a bus and some lima bean people, while I read the problem orally. Here are some examples of what they had to solve (remember...these are my struggling students in Sept of first grade)...
"Eleven children were peering out the windows of the bus, eager to get home to play. Seven got off at the first stop. How many were still on the bus?"
"It was a good day at school but the children were tired and eager to get home to their families. Before the last stop, the driver had eight children on the bus. Now there were only three. How many had gotten off?"
"A mom was waiting for the bus to return from the night program. It was so dark when the bus pulled up that all she could see were eight tired eyes gazing down at her. How many children were on the bus?"
(comes from "Posing and Solving Problems with Story Boxes" by Donna Burk and Allyn Snider, 1994)
We put them up to this challenge and they could do it!! I can't wait to see what happens next :)
#3 This week I got to wear my Math shirt!
#4 and 5 is a FREEBIE. It goes along with all the math "stuff" above. It is a tens frame with equations. And a second one with a missing number.
You can find these here too:
