December Board Report
First Grade 2016-2017
Fact Fluency and Doubles
Strategies
The past few weeks we
have spent a lot of time on
learning addition strategies
to assist with adding
numbers up to 20.
The
students
are
currently
working on learning their
doubles facts, and recognizing “near doubles” which are doubles facts plus one or two
more. In order to work with near doubles, the students need to have their doubles facts
down pat, and we are working on them in a variety of ways! The students are learning The
Doubles Rap, a song and video from YouTube that was put together by a group of
elementary teachers. We have been singing it and acting it out, and I hope to work with the
students to create our own video of the students performing the song! The students used
their iPad to “cast” from our Origo site to their own device. They were able to use the Big
Book tool we used together as a class to create their own doubles math problems on their
iPad. We have also been playing a lot of games with doubles and near doubles, and the
students will be bringing these home to play with their families soon.
Communities in Nature
As we have been continuing to read about communities and working together, we have
discovered that it is not just people that live in community groups. Animals in nature also
work together, and we have been reading about some of the ways in which they do this.
Many animals hunt in groups, take care of their young in a family way, and protect
themselves by staying and living with large groups of their own kind. During reading groups
we learned about the Meerkat Family, and the students were able to identify facts about
how the meerkats work together to survive and thrive. We plan on continuing our study of
animals in nature with a more in depth look at a very popular animal this time of year – the
reindeer! During this study the students will learn the differences between reindeer and
white tail deer, the migration of reindeer, and facts about reindeer. This study will culminate
with a short written research product.
Box Tops Winner!
Thank you to all the family members near and far who were able to send in BoxTops for our
first PTO Box Top Collection Competition. Many of our first grade students brought in BoxTops
from home, and every little bit helped our class to win the Pizza Party! Thank you for all your
help – and keep collecting!