Graphs

Grade 1 students created graphs. They worked in groups, decided what is that question that they would ask others, which kind of graph they would use to present the data that they collected and did it. They showed a lot of enthusiasm asking other students and teachers what is their favorite color, animal, food or do they have a pet. You can see the graphs on the wall next to our classroom. Come and take a look and your child can explain to you if you have questions.

Grade 1 opened a Store

In Math we started to learn what kind of money we use in Estonia. When I asked students to write down what kind of notes and coins of Euros they have seen I got very interesting numbers. Have you seen notes of 4 Euros and 8 Euros and 15 cents or 7 cents? The best practice for recognizing the Euros and addition, subtraction is to use it in real life. Students had an idea that we could create a store and here it is. We have our own Grade 1 store where you can buy sweets, food items and from shampoos to bath oil. Students themselves set up the store and wrote the prizes.Now they are practicing how to add up all the prizes of items that you are buying, how to give exact money to the cashier and check if she/he gave the right amount of money back.I can tell it is very popular store at the moment. A lot of costumes come here. If you need anything please stop by at our store!

Fractions

Can you recognize a fraction? Can you model a fraction? Can you match a fraction picture with number? Can you create a fraction? These were our questions for that week. We did various activities to be able to recognize common fractions, model, match and create fractions ourselves.When you use fractions while cooking show it to your child as well. When you cut a cake or a pizza ask him/her which is bigger one half or one fourth and how big piece he/she would like to get.

Fractions

Since we learned how to divide objects it was easy for students to identify equal and unequal parts of a whole.
We looked into how many pieces the whole is divided into. Is it divided into 2 equal groups or 3 or maybe 8? We looked at cakes, circles, squares, groups,sandwiches, fruits etc. It made us all very hungry at the end so we had to stop. 
When I asked students what a word fraction means Evan raised his hand and said,``Fraction is a part of something. `` Then we discussed where people use fractions and why? Here students find out into how many pieces the whole is divided into and show some parts of a whole.

Here students think how to make a whole using different blocks and into how many equal parts to divide the whole?

We continue to explore fractions after the holiday.

Hundred Days

In august when we started school we started counting school days. I told students that we will reach the 100th day of school at some point. Everyone thought that it will take a long time and it did however we reached the hundredth day February 7th.
We did some Math activities on that day that were related to the number 100.
Students were trying to put together puzzles with 100 pieces, add numbers to 100, count by 10`s, 5`s and 2`s to 100,make groups of 10s,write 10 things they like.
At the end of the day we had pizza and we watched a video.
The next day they asked me ``What are we going to do when we reach 200?``
I told them,`` I do not know what you are going to do but I`ll be at home and have a vacation. We will not reach 200 days of school.The school year will be over before we reach 200. `` That was a bit of disappointment for some student.

Capacity

This week we measured capacity of various containers.
We wanted to know what a capacity is and where do we use it?
We found out which container holds more, which the same and which less than a star container. We ordered the containers by its capacity and we looked for pictures of objects that can hold more than 1 liter and less than 1 liter.
Ask your child to help you when you are cooking and using cups or spoons to measure the ingredients.

Area

Grade 1 student wondering how big area a pillow covers? They are measuring with blocks. What is the area of your hand and foot? How many square units?

Estimate and Measure

This week we were busy estimating and measuring the length of objects in our classroom. As you can see we used non-standard units to measure the length.Lotte and Bruno did not mind at all that they were measured as well.We found out what object is longer, what is shorter and what is the longest. We compared the length of the students arms and legs. We will continue to measure next week.

Symmetry

What is a symmetry?
Where can you find symmetry?
How can you make symmetrical designs?
These were our wonder questions for this week in Math.Students looked for symmetry in class and around the school, they used pin boards and rubber bands to create symmetrical designs, drew own shapes at least with one symmetry line and created designs also with pattern blocks. Evan had a good idea to make a display of all the designs on the windowsill. He asked me for a piece of paper where he could write his name as the real artists have and others followed his initiative. Then we had a small exhibition in class where the art pieces changed every day.