Cause and Effect...Equals means....equals...(a.k.a. "THE SAME AS")

Love these smiles!!! Happy learners!

Above pic:Student is identifying cause and effect.  She underlined in green the effect, and in blue the cause.  

The students this week have been rocking the reading comprehension strategy of identifying “cause and effect”.  This can be difficult for students because many times, authors will write about the effect first and we later find out the cause.  The effect is what happened in a situation and the cause is why it happened.  To add movement to this strategy, we would throw our hands up in the air and loudly say “WHAT HAPPENED?!” when talking about the effect.  For the cause, we would put our hands on our hips and say, “WHY?!  Tell me the cause!”   We use clues in pictures and texts, and our own experiences to help us identify the cause and effect.  Many times we talk about cause and effect in our everyday life and don’t even realize it.  Most people want to know what happened and why.   I was soo shocked to see how well student s picked up this concept.   Students were then given two options for the writing portion of our Literacy Workshop.  They could either write a sentence explaining what they know about cause and effect or they could try to create they own sentence that had a cause and effect within it. Check out two of our writer’s reading what they wrote!  I swear these boys came up with these sentences all on their own, they came over to me when they were done and wanted to share!  I was helping other students! 

Above video: "Effect is what happened.  The cause is why it happened.  I go to school because I like to learn." 

Above video: "My sister is asleep because my sister is sick."

 

A teacher’s work, much like a parents, is never done! :)  The last two weeks I had the pleasure of attending two after school workshops for Math.  The presenter spent a lengthy part of the training discussing equality.  What does the = (equals sign) mean to our students?  Most students believe the = (equals sign) means “give me an answer” or “answer goes here”.  When in reality the = (equals sign) means “the same as” or “equal to”.  Even at the young age of kindergarten we need to start teaching students this.  Research shows that the number one reason students fail algebra is because they do not understand what the = equals sign means.  And I have to say I think my own Math experience would have been easier, if I had learned to look at math equations the correct way.  The longer the students are exposed to the = “equals means put answer here” way of thinking, the more difficult it is for them down the road to understand complex concepts.  I know it may sound silly to worry about it in Kindergarten, but it truly is important.  We are building these children’s foundation and understanding of numbers and math.   To be able to look at the equals sign for what it really is, showing that whatever is to the left of the equals sign must be equal to whatever is on the right side of the equal sign.  We can show this in a variety of ways. 

To begin teaching our students this, we have started a TRUE vs. FALSE math station.  Students helped me decide whether different math equations were indeed true equations or false (not equal) equations.  Initially we started with an easy one 8=8.  All the students agreed, yes this was a true statement, what was on the one side of the equal sign was definitely the same as what was on the other side.  We then moved on down the line in difficulty and I was getting all different kinds of responses.  I was able to capture two students at first thinking that the equation was FALSE (not equal) and then realizing wait a second, it is a TRUE equation.  

Let me tell you in the beginning of this lesson, even writing 5=2+3 made the students really unsure!  They are use to seeing it written like 2+3=5.  But that what is soo amazingly wonderful about these young people, they are open to learning and easily able to change their way of thinking.  (VERY UNLIKE the poor high school kids who have been trained for 9 years to think “equals means put answer here”, then it is a little harder to get them to wrap their head around the fact that equals means “equal to” or “the same as”.  I like to tell the students that they can be the same even if they don’t look just alike!  Meaning  3=1+1+1.  Even though one side of the equals sign has one digit and the other side has three, they all equal three if you follow the operations making it a true equation.  Believe it or not, the students were getting it!   

Check out video and pictures of other Math happenings this week. :)

Above video is students partner teaching what makes up a group of tens.  

Back by popular demand....FRUIT LOOP SUBTRACTION!  We start off with a whole number, students grab that many fruit loops and put them on their plate.  Then we take away part(into our bellies), and are left with??? Students always show me with fingers how many we are left with and I record it on the board.  

This was 10-4=6!  Our whole number was 10, we took away four and were left with six!

Reviewing sight words on smart board.  Students tap each cookie and the cookie gets a bite taken out of it to reveal one of our many sight words!  It's a big hit. :)

Have a fantastic long weekend with your family!  This weekend may be busy for many families, so don't worry if you don't have time to get to the homework!  It's just there in case you would like your son or daughter to practice their skills!  Take Care!

Mrs. Kressin :)

Tens and Ones...Compare and Contrast...

This week the students have been working hard at decomposing and composing numbers into groups of tens and ones.  We have been “counting on” from our group of ten so it’s faster!  Instead of counting each dot by itself up to ten, we can recognize that there is a group of ten, and “count on” from there.  Check out the videos of students doing a great job, decomposing numbers into groups of tens and ones and “counting on” to see what we have altogether.  The students have a solid foundation that one group of ten is made up of ten ones. 

For Literacy Workshop, we have been diligently practicing our skills of comparing and contrasting!  Students have been analyzing posters and texts to find “signal” words that let us know that we are comparing how things are alike.  For example, the words “too and both” can signal to good readers that the author is comparing how two things are alike.  The cat and dog BOTH have four legs.  The word BOTH signals to the reader (DING! DING! DING! In our heads!)  that the author is comparing!  There are also “signal” words for when the author is trying to contrast something.  It could be two items, it could be a feeling, etc.  The words “but, and while” can signal that the author is trying to show a difference in two things or feelings.  Some homes are small, WHILE other homes are big.  The word “WHILE” signals good readers that the author is trying to contrast and show a difference in two things.

Students then spent the last half of our Literacy time, creating 2 or 3 sentences that either compare or contrast any two topics of their choice.  Some of the students’ responses were, “I like chocolate chip cookies, BUT I like oatmeal cookies even more.”  “Lions and Tigers are both carnivores, but they can live in different habitats.”  “Grace is my friend.  Chloe is my friend, too.”  Etc. (Obviously the spelling was a little different than I wrote them, but they weren’t too far off!)  

Students enjoying some fun friday time!  

I wanted to extend a thank you to all of those who were able to come to the Open House.  It was so great to see how excited the students were to show everyone all of their hard work!  Thank you!

P.S. "I added some old "inferring" videos to the previous blog that I wasn't able to add earlier!  Check em' out!