Lots of awesome things are happening in First Grade!  We have started doing number talks and I love them.  This is the first year I have done them and I am so impressed by the things they have come up with on their own. 

We started on the first day of school with number one and now we are on number 8.  All I say is show me a way to write the number ________.  They do all the rest of the work.  They have already come up with equations like 100-95= 5 and 10-15=5 (on the fifth day of first grade, WOW!).  They know that they can write numbers as ten frames, tally marks, with money, on a clock, number words, dots, etc. 

This will help them with their number sense and mental math.  It is huge what taking 10 minutes out of your day will do to help your students learn about numbers.  I plan on doing more number talks along the guidelines of the book, Number Talks

http://www.amazon.com/Number-Talks-Children-Computation-Strategies/dp/1935099116

as the year goes on.  I encourage you to try them and see how it goes.  I'm sure you will be impressed with the impact it has on your students and the different ways they look at problems.   

Check out these blogs for more information. 

http://oceansoffirstgradefun.blogspot.com/2011/09/number-talks.html

http://simplyfirstgradefun.blogspot.com/

http://firstgrademagic.blogspot.com/2011/11/number-talks.html

Have a great week in First Grade!

Nicole Berg

Well...School has started and I'm one week down. My first grade superhero classroom is turning out pretty cute thanks to Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and my husbands help. I still have a couple of things to do to finish up but right now here's what it looks like.

This is the view as you walk into my classroom.  I have 4 sets of desks with 6 students in each group. 

 My mom made me those CUTE chair bags for my students to store things like folders, notebooks, flashcards, ear buds, etc.  In this pic you can also see my whole brain teaching rules (which worked out great this first week), my super student bucks (from Kelley Dolling at Teacher Idea Factory) , and my Happy Birthday display that's not finished. 

 This is the view of my gathering area with my rocking chair.  On the floor are my tubs that the students put their supplies in.  I find this to be a very easy way to sort the supplies during Open House. 

 This is my CAFE board with my superhero labels (from 3rd Grade's a Hoot). 

 This is where I am going to put my "WOW WORDS" (sight words).  Underneath are my book tubs for my Accelerated Reader books.  I spent time this summer labeling all my books with a sticker on the outside of each book to hopefully have them stay more organized this year. 

 Another view of the classroom.  I got rid of my desk so I bought some organizational items this summer that you can barely see in the back. 

 The orange board will be my classroom helpers board but for Open House it was my helpful hands board.  Parents could take a hand with an item to donate to the classroom.  This helps with some of those items that you need but aren't on the supply lists.  You can also see my mailboxes and my student supply shelves.  Also underneath the orange board are my students book tubs to keep all their books they are reading for Daily Five. 

 I made these superheroes with my Cricut cutting machine. 

 This is outside my classroom and it's my "I'm super proud of" wall.  Each student has a place where they can hang up items that they are super proud of. 

 My husband made me these awesome superheroes on the computer.  They are in the hallway outside my classroom. 

 My aides desk is behind those three cabinets.  One cabinet has math tubs, one supplies for the kids, and the other one has working with words items. 

 This picture shows where my math wall is going to be, my student computers, and my teacher computer with my filing cabinet.  This is where I choose to included my small group instruction table as well. 

 Here is my Superhero behavior board that matches my cafe signs (from 3rd Grade's a Hoot). 

I taught summer school two weeks before school started for the students going into second grade so I had to hurry up and transform my room after that.  I will post pics after I finish the classrooms jobs, Birthdays, and Wow words walls.  I also have a focus board that isn't really visible in the pics that will have the standards that we are working on that week.  Thanks for taking a tour of my classroom and I look forward to seeing you back next week for another post on the happens in my First Grade Superhero classroom!

Nicole Berg