"+" Day!

Students in room 230 started off the day with a winter art project.  Using Q-tips, we made dots to create the beginnings of a snowman.  

We didn't quite finish this project, but hope to tomorrow. 

The main event for our day was going to the middle school for Madi-Gras.  Seventh and eighth graders along with their math teachers prepared a celebration of Greg Tang, our visiting author.  Our first stop was the Greg Tang Living Museum where "Greg Tang" told us about some of his math tools and games.  

Note..... this isn't the REAL Greg Tang.  We'll see him tomorrow!

practicing a helpful addition strategy.

Next we assisted with creating a few math murals.  Mrs. Derengowski and Mrs. Barney explained these activities to us and helped us get started.  

 

 

Then we enjoyed doing some of the activities including some math poems from Greg Tang's books with a group of 7th graders.

                            

                         


                         

                          

                            

 

                     

Finally, we played some of Greg Tang's math games with a group of eighth graders.  

All of the games and activities can be found in Greg Tang's Books (also available online) and/or on his website under the various links.  

http://gregtangmath.com/

THANK YOU, Middle School Students and Teachers for creating such a FUN math afternoon!  You definitely got us excited for our time with Greg Tang tomorrow!  

First graders, what was your favorite part of Mathdi- Gras this afternoon?  Was there a game you enjoyed, an activity, or something you helped create?  Post a comment to share with all of us.

Parents, if you'd like to purchase any of Greg Tang's books, Mr. Scott has a few extras.  Get in touch with him or Ms. Thomsen ASAP (especially if you'd like to have them signed).  Hopefully a few of you were able to hear Greg Tang speak this evening.  It was a treat to hear him this morning when I saw him.

Our Last Mystery Reader of 2013

On our final day before break we enjoyed a visit from another Mystery Reader.  Here were our clues:

• I am a boy's mother
• I have two cats
• I have lived in CA, WA, MD and one other country
• I speak two languages
• I am from Japan

Recognize who this person is?............ Max figured this one out fairly quickly and guessed it was his mom, Mrs. S!

This visit was a little different because Max did most of the reading for us.  However, he didn't read in English, he read in Japanese!  Mrs. S provided the English translation so we could understand the story. It was so neat to hear Max reading in a different language and to see how Japanese is written in the book.  

Mrs. S. and Max showed us a VERY fun game using origami sumo wrestlers.   

Everyone who wanted got to try it with a friend.

Finally Mrs. S. gave everyone a little goodie bag.  She told us that one of the bags had a special gold coin and whoever got the coin would receive a special prize........

Quentin found it!

Instead of keeping the prize for himself, he was very thoughtful and generous and shared it with all of his classmates and teachers!  

Thank you, Mrs. S and Max for a great Mystery Reader visit!

First graders, what did you enjoy most from this Mystery Reader visit?  Post a comment to share with all of us.  

Happy New Year!

Happy 2014!  I hope you have enjoyed the holidays and your winter break.  It's been so nice to have this time with my family and friends.

We shared some great times together during our week before break. Here's some photos from that week!

Polar Express Day!

Students in my LA class listened to Mr. Scott read one of my favorite holiday books, The Gingerbread Pirates.  We then went back to our classroom to make (and eat) our own gingerbread cookies.

Friends in my math class practiced their addition and subtraction skills by learning about fact families and making gingerbread fact family houses!

It was so enjoyable to share the holiday season with our first graders!  I'm looking forward to seeing you on Monday to hear all about your break.