Square Biz!

I am showing both my age and my love of R&B in particular Teena Marie. However, of course this is not a music blog, it is an elementary school teacher's blog about classroom life in first grade and how I love teaching to my particular beat. As in previous posts, my title does reflect the content. This week in class it is all about solid figures and plane shapes. Hence, the title Square Biz. I was very happy on Monday when we began our lesson to hear that many of my students knew the names of both the plane shapes and the solid figures. For the students who did not, we have been doing a lot with our vocabulary cards to match the shape with the name. I also sent home a letter asking families to go on a solid figures hunt. Students were very excited to bring in items from home and present them to the class. Each days lesson included a computer lesson using both Brainpopjr.com and Educationcity.com, and a create a solid figure activity that the students LOVE! They asked me at the end of class today which figure are they going to make from tomorrow. Our math program provided templates, however I found the precut figures by Lakeshore - Fold a Shape Classroom Kit to be much easier for little firsties to do. I also altered the reproducible activity sheets to match the First Grade Common Core standards by focusing on the vocabulary, comparing attributes, and making sure students know the correct names of the figures. We also discussed why and how these are different than plane shapes.

We also did some solid figure sorting worksheets, and classifying with graphic organizers. We will extend our lesson by building plane shapes with marshmallows and topics and playing a what is my solid figure game with musical clues. I also love a good game of I Spy and since first grade classrooms are full of things, I Spy for solid figures will be  a lot of fun for Friday. Today as my ticket out the door, I did a quick round with the solid figures. It also allowed me to differentiate quickly. Students who needed help with solid figure identification, I just asked them the name of the solid figure for them to exit. Students who were more fluent with this standard were asked if a figure could stack, roll, slide, and they had to explain why. It was a great way to wrap up what we had learned today and keep their minds fresh on the topic for homework tonight.

We are talking "Square Biz," this week and so far it is going just fine.