Hello all!

I must apologize that the website was not updated at all last week.

 

In an act of timing that can only be described as “are you serious?” “COME ON” and “You’ve GOT to be kidding me”, as the children were arriving last Monday for their first day of school, I was being wheeled into the operating room to have my gallbladder removed in an emergency surgery.  I am extremely disappointed that I missed the first week of school with the children, as it is such an important week.  Rest assured we will be working double-time to make up for it!

 

So this morning we started off talking about school expectations.  As a class we came up with a description of the perfect classroom and what that looks like.  Students came up with a fantastic list that included these:

The perfect classroom …..

Is clean, and quiet when appropriate
Tries their best
Works together, helps each other
is on task, following directions
are good sports, KIND
are responsible – picking up after yourself
Sets an example for the younger students
Sets goals, and follows through
Is honest
Has a positive attitude
Is safe (no fires!)
Respects others (EVERYBODY)
Follows directions
is inspiring

 

This is a list that our own students came up with.  I must say, I was quite impressed.  We then put on some skits showing what good groups look like, and others showcasing what NOT to do in groups.  The students did a great job with this.  Ask them about their skit!

 

Next we played some introduction games, and got to know each other.

Finally we spent some time sorting out supplies, talking about organization, and how they should organize their supplies.  It is IMPERATIVE that starting tomorrow students have at minimum these supplies:

3 composition notebooks (preferably one blue, one black, and one yellow)

3 single subject spiral notebooks

1 3-ring binder

Dry erase markers

We really have to start moving through things in order to catch up, and not having supplies will just create more of a delay.  Please make sure students have these items tomorrow!

 

The entire day couldn’t just be about procedures of course, and we managed to fit in some really great talk about Base 10.  We discussed how the number system we use today came to be, and we worked ourselves through the same process that the creators of the system worked through thousands of years ago when designing it.  Essentially we reach an issue when we start counting TEN of anything.  The reason for this is because in the base 10 system, we can actually only count to NINE using each of our numerals:

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

So what do we do when we get to that TEN of something?

Well, we start making groups!  We take all TEN of those objects, and instead think of that as ONE group of ten.  This is facilitated by the place value system, which shows that the VALUE of a digit is denoted by its PLACE in the number.

so ’10’ means we have 1 ten, and 0 ones.

’98’ describes 9 groups of ten of something, and then 8 more ones of something

100 describes something as 1 single group of hundred, 0 tens, and 0 ones.

It’s really a fascinating solution to the problem of limited numerals (just 10 of em!) and a really neat counting system.

Tonight students should answer these questions about our lesson:

How do we count things?
What are the numerals we use to count things?
What is base 10?
Why is it called that?
How did it come to be?
What is place value?

 

We had an absolutely fantastic day up to this point.  We finished the morning on negative 10, which meant we got ten extra minutes of recess.  We then seemed to stumble a bit in music, only getting one of a possible three paws.  I told the students that being tired is not an excuse to stop being the perfect class.  I expect much better tomorrow!

 

At the end of the day we also discussed our reading logs.  Basically I expect students to read books they enjoy each day.  They received a reading log which they should fill out and get signed tonight.  They only need to write the title of the book they read, as well as get a parent signature verifying that they read for 15 minutes.   Students must read a minimum of 25 minutes per day, but for now I am allowing them to count 10 of their in-class minutes towards this goal.

 

SO, tl;dr

Answer these questions about the base 10 system:

How do we count things?
What are the numerals we use to count things?
What is base 10?
Why is it called that?
How did it come to be?
What is place value?

 

Read for 15 minutes and get your reading log signed.

 

Not a bad night, I don’t think!

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter