Hi everyone, it's Becky again! Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party! Although we had a snow day on Tuesday, it was still a busy first week of 2015!
On Monday we jumped right in to comparing numbers using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols. I, like many first grade teachers, turn these symbols into an alligator and teach my students that the alligator eats the greater number. I actually love teaching this because I have a fun alligator song that we sing OVER AND OVER to help them learn this concept. I can thank my good old summer church camp, Hartman Center, for teaching me this song that I altered for this lesson! And lucky for you, I recorded it so share with you all! Maybe it will help your students learn this concept too!
After learning about the symbols and singing the alligator song many times, it was time for an activity! Each student got a sheet looking like this.
They rolled a die two times for the first number (ex. a 4 and a 6 =46) and wrote it in the first box. They did the same thing for the number in the second box. The students then looked at the number and decided which symbol belonged in the middle. I had them lightly draw it in so I could make sure it is correct before they cut and glued their alligator symbol on the paper. (The alligator patterns were made by one of my awesome teammates.) The students then wrote out the equation on the lines below. They had a great time with this, and I think it turned out so cute! If you would like a freebie of the recording sheet, click on the image above!
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We also set some 2015 New Year's Resolutions! My kids loved A Cupcake for the Teacher's new years hats! They wrote their school promises to go along with them.
I also took Mrs. Ehle's Kindergarten Connection's suggestion of showing my kiddos the Kid President video and having them think of ways they could make 2015 awesome for other people! They had some cute ideas!
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On Thursday, we had another enjoyable morning using QR codes in our classroom. We are learning long A words, so I pulled out the codes from my Long Vowel QR codes bundle and away we went scanning, reading, and writing long A words! Our assistant superintendent was visiting our building, and he even got in on some of the code scanning action! For more information on these, check my post on QR codes here!
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Finally, I don't know what I'd do without GoNoodle during these extremely cold days with indoor recess ALL THE TIME! I will admit that I'm the first one who wants to stay inside for cold weather, but I also know that my twenty-four 6 and 7 year olds need to get their pent up energy out! We are loving GoNoodles new InDoor Recess Mega Mixes! They have 3 different options of mixes that are 12, 14, or 15 minutes long with fun videos and brain breaks to get the kids moving! I know we will be continuing the fun in the coming weeks since it doesn't look like the weather is going to turn warmer anytime soon!
Be sure to check out all of the other awesome bloggers and their activities on the Five for Friday linky!
