Introducing.... MRS. JONES!

Well, hello, hello, hello!

I have been a half-human for far too long! I have been scraping my way along while trying to be the best teacher, fiancee, blogger, I could be... all the while I was going crazy trying to juggle the many important life events that have developed over the past three months.

Well.... I am back! Relaxed and refreshed and with a new name... Mrs. Jones to be exact!

Meet... ME:

 YAY!

I have spent the past 20+ months preparing for that special day above and it was everything I had hoped for and more. Parker and I were fortunate enough to be surrounded by our loved ones on this special day and it couldn't have been more beautiful.

To see more pictures and details of the special day, feel free to visit my personal blog:

Late Nights and Lattes.

For now, I am heading to sleep to rest up and prepare for work as Mrs. Jones on Wednesday! My students need me well-rested and prepared after such an emotional adventure!

I am excited to be back soon with teaching ideas and tips and I thank you all for your well wishes during these memorable moments in my life!

xoxoxo,

Mrs. Jones

8

Recognizing, Representing, and Ordering Numbers to 120

These past couple weeks have been spent building our number knowledge!

We are practicing recognizing our numbers, representing our numbers with pictures and manipulatives, and ordering our numbers all the way to 120!

We started with out numbers to 20. I had students cut out these simple number cards, order them, and represent each number using cubes:

After much practice with our 120 charts, we started ordering numbers 1-120 which was MUCH harder for my kids! I use numbers cards 1-120 and the students must pull 4 at a time and put them in order. At this time in the year, I allow my students to use their 120 charts as reference. A few weeks down the road, we will be trying this again without the 120 chart and instead we will rely on place value and our number sense to order the numbers.

Some of my lower groups are still working on identifying and representing numbers 1-20 so we we've been using 10s frames to help us quickly identify our numbers:

A little memory matching fun!

We have also been practicing our number words using spin and graph! Students work with a partner to spin the spinner 10 times and tally their results. After they tally, students graph how many of each number they landed on. The graphing page contains the number words for students to read instead of the numerals! This group was working on the numbers 1-8, while my higher groups were working on numbers in their teens:

They are getting it and I am loving it! They have been working SO hard and while I cannot wait to go on my honeymoon next week, I will miss these little sweeties!!!

If you are looking for any of the games/activities above, they are available in my Numbers to 120 unit:

2

Pattern Fish!

My students have been learning about patterns this past week!

We talked about patterns around the room, patterns on the 120 chart, labeling patterns, and pattern units. It was A LOT of pattern talk.

I actually had never taught an explicit pattern lesson until this year, but these little ones needed it!

After we did plenty lessons making patterns with cubes and labeling them, my new first grade team showed me this fantastic book:

[Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris]

On each page of this book, there are underwater creatures with all sorts of patterns on them for the students to find, identify and label (ABAB, AAB, ABC, etc.). At the end of the book, there are also plenty of extension activities for your students to continue practicing patterns!

When we finished reading the book, I gave each of my students 2 blank fish and they got to draw their own patterns on them. They cut them out and we added them to the top of our whiteboard:

 

^^Really bad lighting, but you get the idea^^

I don't have the fish template, since one of my teammates gave it to me, but I did a quick search and found the following options for you if you want your kids to complete this fun and easy activity:

Fish Pattern (1)
Fish Pattern (2)
Fish Pattern (3)

Tomorrow is Friday - YAHOO!

Oh... and in case anyone is counting... I am 15 days away from "I DO!"

:) :) :) :) :) :)

1