So I called my darlings together to have a meeting. I wrote "Fake Reading" and "Real Reading" on the board (i'm 95% sure I stole the idea from pinterest... ). I told them some of their classmates were not really reading, they were pretending... Then I asked for examples of what the "Fake Reading" looked and sounded like. Surprisingly, it was the culprits themselves with most of the answers!! haha. We listed flipping pages, talking, playing with clothes and shoes, wiggling around, and playing with the book. Then we listed what "Real Reading" looks and sounds like. Then we talked about which things we should be doing. It was a very good discussion.
Later when we "Read to a Friend" it went MUCH better! Yay! The magic trick to having them read quietly was to have them put their hand on their throat and whisper so quietly they couldn't feel their throat moving. It has worked brilliantly! We call it "a true whisper".
Then today during writing I introduced the conferencing aspect. We have a sign up on the board and 3 kids can sign up at a time. When one is finished they erase and the someone else signs up. It was HILARIOUS! They all wanted one-on-one share time (sweet firsties!) so it looked a lot like vultures circling a carcass! They kept hovering and staring at the board, just waiting for someone to erase their name! I don't think any of them got any work done. I hope tomorrow will go better. But, it is adorable to see how excited they get about it.
ALSO- today I was showing them a game for Math Workstations and we played as a class. It's called Save the Whale! It practices number bonds to 10. The poor whale is trapped in a ditch and you have to make the pipe long enough to pour water into the ditch so he can float out (hilarious premise.). So the pipe is x units long and you have to find the one to make it 10 units long. No joke- 3/4ths of my kiddos were getting it right on the first try! What?!?! Genius children. Now granted, it does have tic marks so you can count and figure it out- but I did NOT point that out. They just figured out. I was so happy/speechless!
Ok. LAST thing. NUMBER BALANCE MAGIC!!!! If you don't have this magical tool, please consider purchasing one. Our lovely Math in Focus comes with one (but we bought an extra as the MiF is back ordered....).
This thing is pure first grade MAGIC. You put a hanger (or tag as I called them today... sometimes I have NO brain...) on a number to represent the whole. Then you put hangers on the other side to represent the parts. Ex. whole:6 parts:2 and 4. When you do, the whole thing equals out. And all of my kiddos clap! EVERY TIME! I really felt like a magician today showing it to them. I get the feeling that number bonds are going to be a *snap* with these kids. Love it!
