Students really enjoyed reading Bremen Town. I divided them into two groups and randomly assigned parts. Students enjoyed reading the play and singing the chorus. We have been studying early American history. Students made dream catchers and necklaces. They completed a "clicker quiz" using a set of classroom responders I earned by completing a technology project with the state department of education. Students played games with an Indian theme during math center time. On Thursdays, we have time to have rotating centers for mathematics practice. This week students played the pumpkin pie game. I labeled pie plates with numbers from 12 to 21. I made about 48 pumpkin cut outs with numbers from 1 - 10 using 1 and 2s multiple times. Students take turns choosing pumpkins to place on the plate. The student placing the last pumpkin that adds up to the number on the plate wins the plate. The winner of the game is the one with the most pumpkins.
Students are working on understanding regrouping so they played a game with a number cube. The student rolls the number cube and takes that many ones. He continues rolling and taking ones until he has ten and can regroup or trade for a ten stick. Play continues until he can trade or regroup to a 100 block.
Students played a board game, I constructed, that has trails to follow leading to an Indian dwelling. At various places on the trail are drawn feathers that are color coded. Students roll two cubes, decide which cube to use, and which trail to follow. If they land on a space with a feather they take the matching feather. The winner of the game has the highest score, determined by the number and color of feathers they collected.
Another group of students played an Indian Stone Game. To play this game they roll three stones with special markings and determine their score by matching the marks to a chart. They continue adding up their rolls until someone reaches 100 or they move onto the next activity.
The last center or station is the computer. At this station they play whatever they choose on firstinmath. They are doing well since our class has scored the most electronic stickers and we have the firstinmath trophy in our room.
All learning teams rotated through all learning stations. It is motivating to students and allows them to practice their math skills and cooperative skills.
