Math Bowling

My first graders love to play this. I used it as a math station. I used foam pins and a foam ball (borrowed from PE)  but you could also use something smaller like plastic cups and make it a table top game. I liked that it was large motor. The more i can keep my kids moving and involved the better they do. I taped 10 X's on the floor so they would know where to reset up the pins after they knocked them down.  Students had to bowl once and then do the math and complete the picture on their "score card" For example if they knocked down 3 pins they would color in 3 of the circles and write 10-3=7. I provided the 10 to get them started but later on the sheet I had them write the whole equation.

Score Card TpT






* Addition- You could also use the back side,
change the minus to plus and also play this as
addition.

 __+ __ = __

Common Core Widget!

Just watched the video that shows how to add the Common Core Widget to my blog. Super Easy! During student teaching I had to write out all my lessons and align them to Common Core and cite the standards my lessons met. This would have been helpful as a quick reference.

How To Add The Widget


Check out the new widget --------------------------------->

Link to the Common Core web page

Money Book Bags

There are 19 Money book bags- I only used 10 of them as part of my lesson however the extras were available to students during math stations or for fast finishers.

We completed a Math Expressions unit a few days early so we took some time to do a mini social studies unit on Money. Math Expressions uses coins A LOT in first grade. The book bags were a way to continue to explore money from a social studies point of view. We all began with a venn diagram comparing pennies, nickels and dimes. We looked at color, value, president, the year the coin was minted, shape and size. Students then worked in pairs to complete the book bags. After reading we regrouped and brain stormed a list of money vocabulary - value, cost, mint, coin, dollar, penny, nickel, dime, quarter, spend, save, buy, cash, bill, sell, bank and price.

Students also had the opportunity to create their own coins or dollars. Originally this was only for specific books but I ended up having all students do this during a Math Station. We talked about what we see on coins and dollars- a year, a president, a building or other symbol.

Book Bags TpT

Book List 
A Dollar for Penny - Julie Glass
A Dollar = $1.00 - Carey Molter
A Penny= 1¢ -  Carey Molter
A Nickel = 5¢ -  Carey Molter
A Dime = 10¢ -  Carey Molter
A Quarter = 25¢ -  Carey Molter
The Penny Pot - Stuart Murphy
Benny's Pennies - Pat Brisson
All About Coins-Pennies
All About Coins- Nickels
All About Coins- Dimes
All About Coins -Quarters
Ice Cream Money-Sharon L. Young
The Class Store- Sharon L. Young
Twenty-Five Cents- Sharon L. Young
The Shopping Trip-Sharon L. Young
Dollars- Mary Hill
Quarter- Mary Hill
Making Money- Sharon Holm

Fantastic Scholastic!!

My students receive Scholastic News but even if your school doesn't get a subscription for each student you can still read them online or by projecting them on the smartboard. There are even ways to interact with the online version and the site will also read the text aloud.

Here is the link to the first grade magazine but there are magazines for grades Pre K to 6th as well as subject specific magazines for middle schoolers.
Scholastic News Online 
All the issues back to Sept 2010 are archived. If you are looking for a group read for a themed unit this is a great place to check out!
Archived Issues

Free book downloads from Scholastic and the Institute of Medicine. Victors Garden focuses on healthy eating. 

Victors Garden

Animal in Winter- Book Bags

 I used these book bags this fall with my first graders to accompany my "Animals getting Ready for Winter" unit. 11 books and one weekly reader. Students partner read, tally "no excuse words" or site words, and created a picture of an animal from their book and classify it as a hibernator, migrator, sleeper, or active.

Book Bags TpT


Books 

Migration (non-fiction) Robin Nelson

           

Squirrels (non-fiction) Melvin and Gilda Berger

            

Bears (non-fiction) 

Melvin and Gilda Berger

Robins (non-fiction)

Melvin and Gilda Berger

Whose Forest Is It? (non-fiction) Rozanne William

           

When Winter Comes  (non-fiction) Pearl Neuman

            

Under the Snow (non-fiction) Melissa Stewart---------------- Beautiful pictures would work well for a read aloud.

           

Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit (fiction)  

Melvin and Gilda Berger 

--------------- Beautiful pictures would work well for a read aloud.

            

Busy Animals (non- fiction) Lisa Bullard

            

Animals in Winter (non-fiction)  Henrietta Bancroft

Animals in the Woods  (non-fiction, weekly reader)

The Migration (non-fiction) Sandra Iverson