It's snowing outside right now for the first time this December. My first graders are going to be so excited tomorrow. I can guarantee that I hear the words "it snowed last night" at least 15 times before 8:15! I love their excitement for the little things in life. We do calendar each day and discuss the weather. It was getting to the point of a bit boring and needed to be spiced up. So now we are graphing the outside temperature each day during this time. During our calendar time a weather widget pops up and tells us the current temperature, wind speed and some other info. It also tells us if there is a severe weather alert and they love clicking that and learning about what weather is headed our way. Back to the graph, we brainstormed what increments to make the graph knowing that we had only a certain amount of space and finally decided to use increments of 5. Then we shared ideas for a title and came up with one that mixed lots of ideas and got the point across about what the graph showed. Now each day we talk about where to make the line to show the current temperature. At first it was a challenge for them to understand where we would put a number like 52 since we only wrote 50 and 55 but after some discussion and review we have made lots of progress with this. We are then taking turns speaking like meteorologists and stating something true from looking at the graph. They hold the microphone and share their fact. They love it! Also right now in math our focus is on two-digit numbers so what a better time to reinforce this than the temperature (thank goodness it hasn't been below 10 degrees-for many reasons!!) each day. We talk about how many tens and ones are in that number and then if it is greater than or less than another temperature on a different day. I think we could spend 30 minutes just on this section of calendar. Our handwriting time has been cut a bit short on some days because they are just so excited about the weather. The discussion we have during this time just amazes me each day. My goal for January would be for each student to make their own graph-deciding what increment and title, filling it in each day and then we can have discussions about how the graphs might look different but still tell us the same information.
I'll try to keep track of how many "it snowed" comments I hear and let you know. :)
RJ had to put his snow boots on and go out in his pajamas at 6:30 this morning! Snow is EXCITING:)
ReplyDeleteThe first snow is always so exciting for students in any elem. grade. When I was teaching @ WES we had the large window with a view of our courtyard and the flakes would swirl and get all of us excited about all the fun learning that could occur connected to the first snow fall. How exciting to have such a great lead into your day of learning and during a brain break turn on the winter music or take a silent power walk throughout the building for a few minutes. I'm so thankful to hear from other teachers about the joy of making your students your priority. Thanks for sharing your passion for teaching.
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