I began writing my blog post a week ago but yesterday I realized how grateful I am for all of the family support we are receiving at school for this class. And thus, that became my title. You are supporting our class in so many ways: we have helpers for animal care twice a week, snacks for the class when students are fading after lunch, as well as instructional support in the math cabin. I know you are all helping our community in the way that works for your family, whether it is tangible and in person, or intangible and from afar, and I am grateful. You are your child’s first and most important teacher and children thrive when we work together.

It has been a little over three weeks and we are beginning to get into a rhythm. The first few weeks are all about establishing routines, creating relationship, and learning each others rhythms; along with a good dose of math exploration. The first and second graders are a fun group and due to the large size there are opportunities for many friendships and interpersonal growth. The Montessori setup in Language Arts seems very well suited to this group and the personalities of Orchard students in general. The room is large, airy, well organized and provides an environment in which the students can work on various activities while teachers support them or pull aside one or more students for direct instruction. I’m lovin it!

A few seconds in Language Arts

In math, we have set up our job charts and the older students have been leading by performing the jobs familiar to them from last year as well some new ones: attendance, calendar, graphing weather and temperature, and keeping track of how many days we have been in school using money and popsicle sticks (groups of 10, place value). Bodhi was thrilled to be our first math quizzer as this was one of his favourite jobs last year (ask your child about the math quizzer role). As a class, we have been playing a game called Fits The Rule, in which the students try to determine what the rule is for three numbers I provide by guessing numbers which might fit the rule. We have begun our sharing circles and the students practiced sharing compliments and appreciations. Tara is assisting our class on Mondays and Thursdays and Tovia is assisting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We are also lucky to have Rylee (Penny’s mother) and Leelia (Harrison’s mother) each helping once a week.

In terms of curriculum, the students worked together on some problem solving investigations. First grade students were asked to determine how many chickens we have at Orchard School and then to figure out how many feet altogether our chickens have. They used manipulatives, tally marks, and drawings. Since they had originally used the photographs by the alpaca corral to count how many chickens, and two chickens had died but were still represented in the photos, the students were obliged to physically count the chickens and then come up with new answers. First graders have also been doing lessons from our Everyday Math curriculum, practicing proper pencil grip and number formation, filling out a September calendar, and playing math games such as Top It, Shut the Box, and the Penny Dice game.

Second graders did a similar investigation answering the question ‘if all the adults in our households were to come to school, how many feet would be in our class’. It was a fun question because it was not a standard two adults to every house (I have four adults in my house) and thus, it was more complex than just doubling and led to some interesting mathematical processes. We have completed lessons from Everyday Math curriculum which included reviewing number grids and their patterns, discussing coin values and coming up with various coin combinations for a given value, playing Top It, Addition Top It, and Domino Top It. Students resumed work on their number scrolls and some have begun to work on task cards.

Please take advantage of math opportunities as they come up in your lives and thank you for reading.

Math and Gratitude

Language Arts

Math