Teaching Money

Two blog posts in the same month--WHOA! What is going on?! ;)

So one main thing we have been learning about in my classroom lately has been MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.

We have been looking at money for a few weeks now, studying the features of each coin and its value:

Here is a money chart I made with a previous class:

We have also done many activities to make equivalent sets of coins:

I have some kids that can count coin collections by 2s, 5s, 10s, 20s--and then I have kids who cannot point out a nickel. With such a wide range of knowledge, I have to make sure that I have good, quality activities that meet the needs of all levels of my learners. Since I teach math in small groups, I am able to easily differentiate for the different levels.

In the Math with Technology station, my students have been playing these games:

Here are our FAVORITE money videos to watch:

And today I created this fun little station activity to use next week!!

In SWAP!, students will match cards that have the same value. There are 5 sets of cards that include 3 levels of play.

 *BONUS* Each set of cards also includes a QR code version!

Check out SWAP! here:

And since St. Patty's Day is coming up, now is a good time to check out this fun, little activity:

It is part of this pack, which includes MORE money activities:

Adios! :)

This Week in 1st Grade

Last week was NUTS:

Superbowl Sunday: Cold weather and precipitation
Monday: 2-hour school delay due to icky weather
Tuesday: Regular school day
Wednesday: Regular school day
Thursday: Snow day!
Friday: Snow day!
Saturday: BEAUTIFUL, warm weather.
This week's forecast: Cold and snowy! Aah!

Texas has not had all of the extremely crazy weather that some of you have experienced this year so far, BUT we still have had some! So, as you may have already guessed, this week will be for catch-up for 1st grade!!

MONDAY
Phonics/Spelling: Review combination or and introduce combinations er, ir, and ur. On Wednesday and Thursday in small group, we will add "Park the Car" with the new combinations to our list of activities. Friday will be r-controlled vowels BINGO! :D

Reading/Writing: Penguins research project--we have been researching penguins for the past three weeks. This week we will learn about main idea and informational text features. We will use the text features to answer specific questions. My GT students will be starting a mini-research project on penguins as the class continues research together. I whipped this up for them (and will share with you very soon):

We will also begin our own informational text book about penguins--fun stuff!
Math: Numeration 51-99 unit--this week is all about reviewing how to represent numbers, and comparing and ordering two-digit numbers. Station activities will come from this unit:

We will also view some of our favorite money videos to review coins and their values:

I also found this one today that I will introduce to them (they will LOVE it):

Science: We have been busy studying weather and clouds. Last week, we sorted cloud pictures to learn the terms clear sky, partly cloudy and overcast. After looking at clouds in the sky and reading Little Cloud by Eric Carle, we will make a cloud foldable similar to the one pictured below (from Pinterest). Instead of cloud types, we will make a visual representation of clear sky, partly cloudy and overcast.

We will also begin learning about what makes seasons! Here is a GREAT video we will watch that shows one year in 120 seconds, specifically how the trees look during each season.

Then, we will make our own season trees like the one below (from Pinterest), except we will be doing all 4 seasons on one page.

Social Studies: We will continue learning about landforms! We have already discussed types of landforms and where to find them. This week, we will use Google Earth to explore different landforms in the world (and on Mars!).

Finally, we will write about our favorite type of landform. Here is our writing paper (click on it to download it):

Well......time to finish preparing for the week. Thanks for coming by! I hope you have a good (and normal) week! :)

Money, Money, MONEY! Part 3 of 3 {Jam-Packed Post!}

Welcome to the final installment of my Money, Money, MONEY! series. This installment is jam-packed with munee (as the kids like to spell it)!! In case you missed missed parts 1 and 2, click below to hop on over:

Part 1

Part 2

Math Centers Pack

Let's revisit the list of questions my students came up with at the beginning of our money unit:

We spent part of one lesson answering the question, "How much money does 100 quarters make?" Well, I brought in 100 quarters from home (which was amazing enough for them!) and we investigated!

I pulled out the bag of quarters and let the student who came up with the question take charge of the counting. Before we counted, we discussed the best way to count them. We talked about how making 10s in this case would not be a good idea because that will not make counting the dollars easier (kid language). We decided that since 4 quarters make $1.00 then we should make stacks of 4.

They were excited and surprised to find out that 100 quarters makes $25.00!

Money + Classroom Management = Success

My students desks are divided into 4 groups. Up until a few weeks ago, the groups were simply called Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, and Table 4. In the middle of the money unit, I changed the group names to coins in the hopes of helping with coin recognition (and to just switch things up a bit!). Here is a poor photo of the group labels (sorry, forgot to get a close-up!):

The groups earn tally marks for whatever I feel like following directions, working quietly, getting along, keeping things neat and tidy, etc. At the end of the week, the group with the most tally marks gets to eat lunch in the classroom on the following Monday! Here is where the group points are recorded (nothing fancy):

The daily points are on the left and the total number of points are kept on the right. Some days I forget about rewarding points. Oops.

We also have a class piggy bank they have started to earn money for. Now, I REALLY wanted to start this piggy bank on a particular day and I didn't bring home poster board to make the cute little piggy, so I had to improvise! I made the piggy and bank top out of construction paper and taped it to felt. (I wanted felt because velcro sticks very nicely to it and that is important since we will be exchanging coins frequently.) The main purpose of this bank is to practice counting money and exchanging equivalent amounts. We exchange pennies for nickels, nickels for dimes, and dimes and nickels for quarters!

We set a goal of 25 cents for our first reward. The reward they decided to work for was a class reading party. Well, they earned it Thursday and we had our party on Friday, our last day before spring break!! (Worked out perfectly!!) The students brought blankets, a pillow, and books from home and spread out around the room to read. We read books from home, books we have published, library books, and books on the iPads and iPods. First we started off by watching Duck! Rabbit! on Tumblebooks.

Here they are enjoying it!:

I also made them a snack to munch on out of our leftover 100th celebration snacks (goldfish, marshmallows, and pretzels). 

After reading for about 45 minutes, we concluded the party by watching Chicken BIG on Tumblebooks.

I leave you with Mr. Moneybags McGee! I never show my kids a sample when we create things because I am big on creative expression and individual interpretations of the project so I simply told them what the parts were and had them put them together how they saw fit. I am elated with how they came out!

Check out this guy! Haha! Love the freckles!

Whew! I am finished! I'm going to go start my spring break now!! Thanks for coming over!

Stay tuned for these upcoming posts!! Hoping to post all of these sometime in the next two weeks:

• 100th Day Festivities
• Seuss Week
• Calendar Math Mini-series
• Fun With Parts of Speech

And if you haven't heard about Amanda and Stacia's 300+ Followers Giveaway over at Collaboration Cuties, you MUST head over to check it out!! They are FABULOUS bloggers with super ideas (and some of my new blog buddies!) AND the giveaway prize includes a smorgasbord of products from them and some other great bloggers. The giveaway ends in a few days, so be sure to head right over and check it out!