Want a new and fun way to teach Multiplication to your students? Maybe a more visual and artistic way? Look no further than Waldorf Multiplication Wheels! My philosophy is that a picture is way better than words and a video is even better, especially when learning a new foreign concept.
This is a video of one of my first graders, age 6, successfully completing and begin to conceptualize what multiplication really is. Wanted to preface this with his age simply because he struggles with some of the math but grasps the idea behind the wheel quickly and readily!
Interested in giving this a try in your classroom? You can buy the my set of Waldorf Multiplication clocks online right here! My kids absolutely BEG to do these in class and think it is the best thing ever. I am a firm believer that we make multiplication too hard with all our fancy terms and crazy ways of doing it. Bring it does to earth for your little scholars, teach it the way they learn! Let me know how it works in your class!
Do you need a new way to help your students with phoneme segmentation, blending and all around phonemic awareness? Look no further! I came upon this idea from a lady at a LETRS training and fell in love with it but couldn't find any work mats that I adored. So I made my own!
My packet includes 8 different variations to meet all your learners needs. Some had just a box and line. Some had the box, line and space to write and some have phoneme boxes (3,4,5 phonemes).
So how do you use them? I put the work mats in transparencies so that they can be used over and over as well as be written on. Here's what I do...
Give students a work mat of your choice as well as counters (cut up felt, construction paper, unfix cubes. try to make them different colors)
Students should put the counters in the large box. For lower students give them the amount of counters as there are phonemes in the words. For higher students given them 5-6 counters.
Say a word for the students, this could be a spelling word or a word with a digraph etc.
Students should repeat this word back.
Students segment the word into individual phonemes while bringing down the counters.
After all the counters are on the arrow, the students say each sound and then blend the word.
You can ask children to tell you the first sound by touching the counters, medial sound etc.
A few weeks ago I took the plunge and purchased brand new literacy centers from First Grade Fun Times. This was my fifth go at new centers during the past 13 weeks with my first graders and honestly I was expecting another failed attempt. I went ahead and just bought the November set and started the last week in October (since we take a full week for Thanksgiving), it took two days before I was completely sold and went ahead and bought the amazing bundle.
Please excuse my 19.99 carpet from the drugstore. First year teacher here!
I have been in no way shape or form paid for this review so here are
my real unbias thoughts! All photos are from weeks 1-3 and the videos
are week 2 or 3, the kids had never seen the centers in the videos as I
wanted to show how self explanatory and straight forward the centers
are.
I am lucky enough to have access to a school color
printer, but was pleased to see that each center had both a color and
BW option. To save ink I printed a few of the centers in black and white
and used crayons to color them before laminating. A totally reasonable
and great option if you do not have access to a color printer or just
love to color. :) These centers do take a fair amount of prep in my opinion, but I also print, cut, laminate and re-cut each piece so they last. I'm sure it would be much easier to skip the laminating!
My goal in using these centers was to create something that would
last not only through the day but also stay organized and work next year
as well! When I printed and laminated each center card and activities I
simply placed them in a baggie labeled "November Centers, Week X, Day
X" and then placed all the small baggies in a huge gallon bag labeled
"November Centers." Such a quick and easy way to stay organized and make
things work not only this year, but next year as well. Makes all the
laminating totally worth it!
My kiddos LOVED this non-fiction reader included in the centers. These books were the perfect level for my babies as well. I was a little worried as literacy is a *little* bit of an issue where I teach, but I was thrilled to see that the story was geared perfectly to about a 1.3-1.5 grade level.
Each day has 4 centers, a reading center, writing center, fluency center and word work center. This works perfectly to what the state of Mississippi wants us doing and works well with Daily 5! I love that many of the reading center activities can be done with the childrens own book, such an easy way to differentiate (especially since we use heterogeneous groups).
This sight word word search is used every Monday throughout the November centers. The children loved it and it was one less thing to explain!
One thing that always fell through in my class during centers was having children actually DO the centers. They would forget what to do, finish too early, get distracted and just cause mayhem. These centers are perfect for at least 20 minutes and completely engage every child. Most of the centers have child friendly directions either on a directions page or on a worksheet. My children were easily able to remember my demonstration and use their own instincts and reading skills to figure out what to do next.
Although some centers can be completed individually, there are centers that are to be done in groups. For example this game of turkey BINGO! One child will call out a word (such as sob seen above) and the other children place a marker on the vowel on their BINGO board.
Another favorite is that the centers came with a check off sheet for the children to mark off as they went to each center. A great way for them to gain independence over their work! My groups are also color coded (green group right above and blue group in the picture above that). Students also have folders the same color as their group name where they put all their center work. I go through this work at lunch and students complete anything not done as an early finisher throughout the day.
The skills in each center are perfectly aligned to our Journey's curriculum and a great way to students to get hands on review. For example above they students pick a picture (such as six), place it on the turkey and then build the word. I had my students also write the word in a sentence because I am that teacher. ;) My kids also ADORED the tic-tac-toe reading and I was THRILLED to see it pops up again in the December centers!
The following are two videos of my students doing these centers for the first time with no direction at all. The first video is one of my higher students (who clearly overthinks at the end ;)) and the second is one of my lower students.
Phew! I know my voice in those videos, long day in our classroom. haha ANYWAY, just wanted to show these centers in a hands on way and sing the praises of First Grade Fun Times for revolutionizing the way we work in our class. Head on over to buy the bundle today, I promise you won't regret it!
