Winter Writing

The writing activity is very simple and was inspired by Savvy Teaching Tips (a fellow Canadian!) and her wonderful winter mini booklets.

We brainstormed all sorts of winter words (weather, clothing, objects, food) then orally rehearsed how we were going to write them, using the frame " ____ is here" or "_____ are here". The children then wrote 8 lines using the words of their choice (see the pic below).

I felt this was a worthwhile activity because everyone was successful (even my neediest child completed this writing independently).

The kids had practice spelling "are" and "here" (two sight words) and were able to put their own creative stamp on it.

Most of our writing is journal writing, where the children choose their own topics. But for a directed writing activity, I thought this one was particularly worthwhile. Have a look!

Winter is here writing activity for Grade 1

Here's our writing template.

DOWNLOAD: WRITING TEMPLATE

Subtraction Bingo

In Math, we played subtraction bingo. The kids had LOTS of meaningful subtraction practice and were fully engage for 25 minutes!

They sat at their tables in groups of 4. Each child received a different Bingo sheet (I made 4 different kinds). A rekenrek sat at each table, plus a bunch of counters, and a set of Power of 10 cards (10-frame cards).

One child had the cards and another child held the rekenrek. The first child turned over two cards and said "I have a 4 and a 6. 6 minus 4" and the child with the rekenrek worked out the difference and said "2".

Even with the easy ones I insisted the kids use the rekenrek just so they'd have more practice seeing how numbers look in reference to 10.

When the answer was solved everyone put a counter on one of the square with the matching number (in this case 2) and the play rotated one child.

It continued around the circle like this until there was a Bingo! Some groups played the game several times.