We love stories in Grade 1 and certainly don’t need an excuse to read them – but Book Week was certainly a chance to celebrate old favourites, inspire some new interests and even create our own.
A Grade 1 author shares her work.
A World of stories in all our languages,
Our helpful words and helpful hearts make our class a great learning community to belong to,
Maths at the moment is all about Fabulous Fives.
We all use our fingers to count – and research tells us we DO want children to do this… we want them to be able to develop ‘finger discrimination’, and to build a strong visual representation for number. Playing games with fingers and then counters is a great way to help children instantly recognise patterns with 5 and then within 10. These are the first steps in learning the all important basic facts!
Here’s an idea to try for fun.
Practice making finger patterns for the numbers 1 to 10. The focus is on grouping ( ie saying ‘ 5 and … rather than counting up). Ask the children to show you 5 for example, and then to show 6, can they explain what they did to make it? What would 7 or 9 look like – how do they know?
Add to the challenge by getting them to put their fingers behind their back and imagining the finger patterns.
We continued our inquiry into Who We Are by working across Grade 1 to explore the different communities we are part of, how we contribute to them, and the responsibilities we have in belonging to them. The story “What if Everybody …?” sparked some terrific reflection.
