New Chapter

A school bus passed us this morning while we were out walking the dog. It felt so strange in a way, to not be driving into work myself, full of anticipation. 

Teaching has been such a huge part of my life and I’ve been so blessed to be able to do that at New Hope. I have so many happy memories there and LOVE these little ones to pieces. When I found out last fall that I’d be having a little one of my own, I couldn’t imagine leaving the New Hope teaching family, but as Jason and I prayed through it, God gave us both undeniable peace and clarity that this would be the start of a new chapter. Instead of loving and guiding and pouring into 6 year olds, I’m now loving and guiding and pouring into a 3 month old. I love my new job, but boy do I miss these sweet ones!

In the spirit of happy memories and fresh starts, here are a few photos from last school year that brought a lot of smiles. 

 // From our Number Party 

(Everybody dressed as a number between 1 and 10… we had a number parade.. it was all numbers all day!)

// Harry Gary turned even the most skeptical of first-graders into book-loving readers

//“Fruits" of the spirit...

// Geometry art: all triangles green, all squares blue, all circles orange, all rectangles red… then we got creative!

// Learning about the lifecycle of a pumpkin.

// Ready to bake and eat some pumpkin seeds!

// Field trip to the farm!

// Learning about ordinal numbers with a game… the best kind of learning.

// President presentations and some students even dressed up.. they were fabulous!!

// 100th day of school!

// Learning about fractions by turning our classroom into a pizza kitchen!

// Using animals to tell fraction stories

// Learning about the spinal chord

// And the importance of vertebrae (aka donuts) in protecting it...

// ...So we can bend!

. . . . .

I sure will miss seeing these sweet faces, but am beyond blessed to have been entrusted with the incredible job of raising this precious one: 

Thank you New Hope Christian Academy for blessing me with the opportunity to serve within your community. These have been some of the most rewarding years of my life. And thank you parents who entrusted your little ones to me and showered me with such love and support as I transitioned into this new role of being a parent myself. Your kindness will never be forgotten.

With a Joyful Heart, 

Mrs. McCuistion

Homework: Finding a 10 to Add

I cannot thank you enough for all the feedback lately about math! It's so helpful in guiding students' learning and hopefully, by taking a little extra time now and building a strong foundation students will be able to really excel as they get into more complicated math in upper grades. I will admit that upon first seeing an addition problem done this way I thought it was so unnecessary to take so many extra steps to solve such a simple math problem. However, after observing Singapore Math in an upper grade it all made sense!! By having a good understanding of 10s and 1s and how to manipulate numbers, these students were able to do extremely complex math equations mentally!! Meaning, without a pencil and paper! I was so impressed! So if it is any comfort, there actually is a great reason for all these extra steps and it will, believe it or not, serve to simplify math when your student is in higher grades. 

I can also tell you that this is one of the most difficult math concepts that my first graders will be expected to master all year long... so hang in there and thank you so much for all the support you have already been giving!

Now down to business. The purpose of this post is to hopefully shed some light on the steps we are taking and why. Let me start with this example:

Of these 4 math problems, which seems the easiest/simplest to solve?

Most people (and ALL of my first graders) said the last one, 10 + 3, would be easiest.

Now, because you are not in first grade, you know that all four problems actually have the same answer, but this is a big discovery for a lot of first graders! Many students are still trying to grasp that 9 + 4, 8 + 5, and 7 + 3, are all "secret codes" for the number 13. Even as we are solving a problem I will ask students several times is the answer to the code is still the same? And of course, is should be a yes. 

Here is an example of a problem that I'll walk you through:

5 + 7... are there any groups of 10s in this problem? No. Can we make a 10 by moving some of the 1s around? YES!

Now, the way we decide which number is going to become a 10 is by deciding which number is already closer to 10, which in this case is 7. I would then ask students "how many more does 7 need to make it a 10?" Because we cannot add a 3 to the problem without changing the number, we have to pull 3 out of the 5. 

And if we pull 3 out of the 5, there will be an extra 2 left over.

So our math problem has now changed from 5 + 7  to  2 + 3 + 7.

Next we are ready to make a 10! I circle the 3 and 7 because they make 10, so now I have 2 + 10. 

And there you have it! 

Here is another example:

 

Again, the goal is to make a 10 and I'll use 9 because it is already closer to 10 than 4. To make 10 I have to add 1 to 9. Again, I can't just add a 1 without changing the number so I'll need to pull that 1 out of the 4. When I do that there will be an extra 3 left over from the 4. 

Now my problem has changed from 9 + 4  to  9 + 1 + 3.

 

Because 9 and 1 make 10 I circle those and add them together. That make a 10 and 3 extra ones. 

10 + 3!

. . . . . .

AND HERE IS YOUR HOMEWORK!!!

I told students today, that by completing these problems the way we've been practicing they can earn 

2 BONUS POINTS on their next math test! I just need to see all the steps!

8 + 7

9 + 2

6 + 5

7 + 6

9 + 8

8 + 5

Good luck and I can't wait to see your work!!! Let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I can clarify!

Spelling Strategies

I spoke with several of you in conferences about sharing some strategies you can you use at home to help your child learn their spelling words. Here is a video that will hopefully help to explain the first two. Try one, see if you like it, and let me know! And as always, please feel free to contact me with any questions at all!

***Also, I forgot to mention this in the video, but it will also help tremendously if your child says each letter out loud as he/she is writing it... especially for those of us who are very auditory learners!

Operation Christmas Child

I know it's still October, but believe it or not, Christmas is closer than you think and this year the students at New Hope are getting a jump start on the giving! We're participating in a project called Operation Christmas Child and need your help to do it. There were two notes that went home today about how you can help (one from the school in your child's purple folder and one from me in your child's blue folder). Check out these short videos to learn more and see first hand the impact that something as simple as a shoebox can have to spread the love of Christ.

Happy End-of-the-First-Quarter!

My! Is is October already!? This first quarter has flown by and will all the business of report cards and awards and special events I, sadly, haven't been updating her as much as I'd like. Not to worry... I have several posts that will be going up over the next week so things should be back to normal very soon!

Here is the first group of many way-cute pictures that I've been holding hostage for too long now! These are from our Fall Fest/Field Day that celebrated the end of the first quarter. Boy was I worn out after this one, but it was a blast!

Check back soon for updates on:

:: project pumpkin ::

:: field trip photos ::

Rocket Math and Highlights

Some exciting things have happened this week in 1D! In reading, I introduced students to a little little homemade reading tool. I created the "reading window" towards the end of last year for a few students who found reading (especially longer passages) particularly challenging. I noticed that these students would often skip lines or mix up words with other words nearby. I created these using colored tab dividers for notebooks from the dollar store and a box cutter. Students last year who used these showed GREAT improvement - even late in the year. So this year, I decided to give every student the opportunity to use one. Each student got to choose their color (they range from teal to yellow) and now keeps their reading window handy in their book pouch.

For several students, the reading window was a great help and they reported that it helped them "just focus on the words" they were reading.

. . . . . . .

Another exciting change this week had been the activity of the humming birds in the courtyard! My class is fortunate enough to have an incredible view of the garden. In addition, the humming feeder hangs right outside of our classroom window.

I now present to you an illustrated version of what happened today during our usual "recess" time:

It rained...

... so we sat under the awning overlooking the garden, journals and drawing supplies in tow...

... and kept an eye on the humming bird feeder. This is what we saw:

. . . . . . .

And now a I leave you with perhaps one of the most exciting bits of news this week (drumroll please!)... We are launching Rocket Math!!! Rocket math is just a tool I use to motivate students to learn their math facts and compete with themselves for improvement in # of facts and speed each week. 

My class will take their first test this week and practice rounds begin on Tuesday. I went ahead and sent home flashcards with the students today in a colored pouch so they can get a head start. If you are curious about which facts will be on the test, just check the page labeled "Math Facts" in one of the page protectors in your child's blue folder - it tells each fact that students will be tested on per set. We will begin with Set A next week and students can progress to the next letter set and gain more flashcards when they are able to answer 40 facts correctly in just 2 minutes. 

Several students today were asking how to study their math facts, so with the help of a first-grader, I made this video to hopefully demonstrate a method that will work for your first-grader as well. Hope you enjoy!