Mrs. McMahan's Class Blog

Top of the Mornin' to Ya!

2012-03-16T09:50:00.000-04:00

This is me...Linus

I am pretty handsome,
Don't you agree?
Check the writing paper location
For your next note from me!

What's the Question

2012-03-11T16:22:00.000-04:00

The answer is 12. What could the question have been? Let's see how many different questions can all equal 12!

Bears and Squirrels: 2-digit Adding

2012-03-04T19:14:00.000-05:00

Remember that expanded form is when you stretch a number out by its place value parts and turn it into an addition sentence?
134 is the same as 100 + 30 + 4.

Explain how you can use expanded form to solve this problem: 24 + 61 =

What is another way that you could solve the same problem?

Owls- Comparing Fractions

2012-03-04T19:01:00.001-05:00

Jake had a pack of 12 markers. He used 1/4 of the markers to color a beach scene. Alli also had a pack of 12 markers. She used 6/12 of the markers to color a sunset picture.

1. Did Jake use more markers or did Alli? Explain how you know.
2. Give your own example of a time you've used fractions in your real life.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

2012-02-26T14:32:00.001-05:00

This Friday, March 2nd, is Dr. Seuss' birthday! Click the links below to watch an informative video and to see Tim Tebow reading "Green Eggs and Ham." There is also a video of Justin Bieber reading "The Cat in the Hat." Then post a comment telling us your favorite Dr. Seuss book and why you like it!

http://sni.scholastic.com/SN2/Newsletter-Links/WatchAVideo1

http://youtu.be/jejfpWYlCR0

http://youtu.be/8jV_VaKW4Tw

Valentine's Day Word Hunt

2012-02-14T07:10:00.000-05:00

Use the letters from "Valentine's Day" to see how many new words you can make. Post all the words you come up with as a comment. There may be a prize for the person who finds the most, so don't forget your initials!

Picture Update

2012-02-12T19:29:00.001-05:00

Here are a few pictures from school lately.
Dental hygienist visit:

The "wild monkeys" after the Boosterthon pep rally:

A little work with iPads:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why Was 6 Afraid of 7?

2012-01-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

Because 7 8(ate) 9! Haha, get it?

This week you'll need to write your own math story problems. It could be addition or subtraction, but it has to use the numbers 8 and 9.
Owls, you may want to try a multiplication problem!

Owls- Money!

2012-01-22T18:21:00.000-05:00

Start by going to our class website and clicking the attachment at the top of the home page. The powerpoint will let you learn more about money and practice making change.

Then, solve this word problem. Leave a comment that states your answer in a complete sentence. Feel free to explain how you solved!
Mary has a 5 dollar bill. She goes to the store and picks out a candy bar that costs $1.28. She also gets a chocolate milk that costs $2.35. How much total money does she spend and how much change does she get back?

$100.00

2012-01-16T18:59:00.000-05:00

This Friday will be our 100th day of school! If you had $100.00, what would you do? Where would you go, what would you buy, would you share it? Be detailed in your answer.

Tell Us About Your Break!

2012-01-05T07:09:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had a very nice Winter Break! I am happy to see you again for the start of a new year. Write a few sentences telling us all what you did over your break. Where did you go? What did you see? Did you make something? What games did you play?

Holiday Stories

2011-12-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

Choose 2 story problems to solve. Type the number sentence and the answer in a complete sentence. Here is an example of what your comment might look like:
9+4 = 13 There are 13 cookies in all.

Bears and Squirrels:

1. There were 12 ornaments on the tree. The cat knocked 5 ornaments off. How many ornaments are left on the tree?

2. I bought 7 candy canes. My brother bought 10 candy canes. How many candy canes do we have in all?

3. We had 15 presents. The Grinch stole 8 of them. How many presents do we have left?

4. My snowman had 11 buttons for his mouth. When he started to melt, he lost 9 buttons. How many buttons does he have now?

Owls:

1. Tacky has 14 penguin friends. He has 27 friends that are different kinds of birds. How many friends does Tacky have in all?

2. The Grinch stole 54 presents. When his heart grew, he returned some of the presents, but also kept some for himself. If he returned 45 gifts, how many did he keep for himself?

3. We made 17 gingerbread cookies, 12 chocolate chip, and 25 sugar cookies. How many cookies did we make in all?

4. I brought 104 candy canes to the party. 59 candy canes got eaten. How many candy canes are left over?

Skip to My Lou- Bears and Squirrels

2011-11-27T20:30:00.000-05:00

We have been practicing skip counting. Use what you know to fill in the missing numbers below:
1. 8, 10, ___, ___, 16, ___, 20, ___, ___, ___
2. 70, ___, 50, 40, ___, ___, 10
3. 10, ___, ___, 25, 30, ___, 40, ___, ___, 55

4. Why is it important to be able to skip count?
5. If you are counting place value rods, what are you skip counting by?

Thanksgiving Plans

2011-11-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Leave a comment telling us what your family is doing to celebrate Thanksgiving! Remember to only use your initials. I'll go first!
My husband and I (and the dogs)are driving to South Carolina to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. We will stop in Columbia first, which is where my brother and his wife live. We will stay with them on Wednesday night. Then we will drive down to Charleston on Thursday to have a Thanksgiving feast at my grandma's house with lots of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. On Friday we will probably do some shopping to see if we can get some good sales. Then Saturday will be busy with football! We are planning to go to the South Carolina vs. Clemson game since by brother works for the SC Athletic Department and can get us tickets. But, we'll mostly be cheering on the Tide as they play Auburn in the Iron Bowl!!! It should be a fun break and I am excited to eat and relax!

Owls- Regrouping

2011-11-06T15:45:00.000-05:00

Sometimes when you add, you have to regroup. Explain what regrouping is and when you have to do it. Also, explain one strategy you use to show adding with regrouping.

Owls- Addition Strategies

2011-10-31T15:38:00.000-04:00

1. Use the problem 15 + 7 to explain (in words) how to use the "make a ten" strategy.

2. Explain another way or another strategy that you could use to solve the same problem.

Bears and Squirrels- Study the Graph!

2011-10-31T15:35:00.000-04:00

Use the graph to answer these questions:
1. What type of graph is it?
2. What is the most popular pet?
3. How many people like cats best?
4. How many more people like fish that frogs?
5. How many people like cats and frogs?
6. How many people took this survey?

Where Should I Trick-or-Treat?

2011-10-23T14:57:00.001-04:00

I'm all set to go trick-or-treating on Monday, but I only have a little time. I will only be able to go to 3 houses! Write a persuasive paragraph convincing me to come trick-or-treating at your house! Remember not to beg, but instead give me good reasons why your house is the best. You are welcome to work on this blog post at home!

A Mathematical Venn Diagram- Owls

2011-10-17T22:51:00.000-04:00

There are several different types of graphs. A Venn diagram is one type of graph that is good for displaying certain kinds of data. Use the Venn diagram below to answer the questions.

1. How many people have only a sister?
2. What does John have?
3. Who has no brothers or sisters?
4. Which students have both a brother and a sister?
5. How many people took this survey?

Fractions of a Set- Bears and Squirrels

2011-10-17T22:20:00.000-04:00

Tommy's mom made 4 cookies. Tommy ate 1/4 of the cookies. Jack's mom made 4 cookies too. Jack ate 1/2 of the cookies. Who ate more cookies and how do you know?

Owls- Graphs!

2011-10-09T20:14:00.000-04:00

Use the graph to answer the following questions.

1. What type of graph is this?

2. How many people like oranges the best?

3. Which fruit is liked by most of the people?

4. How many more people like bananas than pears?

5. How many total people are represented by this graph?

Squirrels and Bears- Fractions!

2011-10-09T20:08:00.000-04:00

A fraction is part of a whole. Answer the 4 questions below.

1. What fraction of the circle is colored?

2. What fraction of the apple is shown?

3. What fraction of the cake has been eaten?

4. If my pizza was cut into 8 slices and I ate 4 slices, what fraction of the pizza did I eat?

More Shapes and Some Time

2011-10-02T20:40:00.000-04:00

Squirrels- Name 4 3-D shapes and give an example of where you see that shape in real life.

Bears- Choose a 3-D shape and write some clues to describe it. Don't tell the answer because your other group members will commenting with what they think the shape is.

Owls- Explain why the numbers "60" and "24" are important to learning about telling time.

Some Measuring and Some Shapes

2011-09-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

*Note- This is again a blog for class time. Make sure you post a comment from school before you add anything at home.

OWLS- Look at the objects listed below. Tell what tool and what unit you would use to measure each (tools- ruler, tape measure, yard stick, meter stick units-centimeter, milimeter, inch, foot, yard, meter).
1. pencil 2. couch 3. soccer field 4. around a basketball 5. your height

BEARS and SQUIRRELS- List 3 objects that you see in our classroom and tell the shape of each one.

What's the Story?

2011-09-18T20:55:00.000-04:00

*We will work on these questions in school. Please do not comment from home this week. However, you may make additional comments or respond to a classmate's comment from home.

Squirrels and Bears- Solve the story problem below. Then explain how you knew whether to add or subtract.

The Falcons scored one touchdown for 7 points. Then they got another touchtown for 7 more points. How many points do the Falcons have all together?

Owls- Describe a real life situation when you would need to add or subtract. For example, I was expecting 20 people at my party, but 3 called to say they couldn't come. I had to subtract to figure out that only 17 people would be coming to my party...20-3=17.

Story Problems

2011-09-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

Owls- Write one addition story problem. Make sure you use appropriate vocabulary and end the problem with a question. Then, other members of your group can solve your problem!

Squirrels and Bears- Read this story problem and show how to answer it!

Kara got 7 silly bands from her sister. I gave her 5 more silly bands. How many silly bands does Kara have in all?

Math Response

2011-09-11T21:50:00.000-04:00

Please write a comment responding to your group's journal prompt. Don't forget your initials!

Bears- Write 5 subtraction sentences that all equal a difference of 8.

Squirrels- Write 2 subtraction sentences that both equal a difference of 7.

Owls- This problem, 14- __= 9, is missing a value. Write the 4 number sentences that make up its fact family. How can understanding the fact family help you find the missing value?

Favorite Apples

2011-09-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

This week, the topic of our poem is APPLES! As you probably know, apples come in three different colors- red, green, and yellow. Comment on this post telling us what color apple is your favorite and if you can, tell us why too! We'll tally the results and create a class graph at the end of the week.

Dolphins and the Earth

2011-08-24T16:52:00.000-04:00

This week, we've talked about dolphins because they are the topic of our weekly poem. We've also been studying the earth in Social Studies and have learned a lot about maps, continents, oceans, and where we live.
With your group, write a comment that tells us an interesting fact you learned about dolphins or the earth!

Group Letter Challenge

2011-08-18T16:10:00.000-04:00

Two days ago, you each made a page for a class book. Your page included lots of nouns that started with the first letter of your name. Now, I'm challenging you to think of as many NOUNS as you can for a different letter. Work with your group to create a list for your assigned letter.

Green- B

Red- F

Blue- N

Pink- R

Black- T

Get to Know You Questions

2011-08-18T16:02:00.000-04:00

I am very excited that so many of you are interested in our blog and are wanting to participate! Feel free to leave a comment to answer these questions about yourself:

1. What activities do you do or sports do you play?
2. What is your favorite food?

Remember to sign your comments with your initials!

Class Question

2011-08-16T06:48:00.000-04:00

Count the number of students in our class. How many boys are there and how many girls are there? Are there more boys in our class or more girls?

Math- What's Wrong?

2011-08-14T09:43:00.000-04:00

Sam tried his best to put the numbers below in order, but he made a mistake. Can you spot his error? Explain what is wrong and what Sam can do to fix his problem.

20, 24, 27, 29, 30, 23

So Excited!

2011-08-14T00:08:00.000-04:00

Wow! I hope you all are as excited as I am for the first day of school. I think we are going to have a wonderful year. Thanks so much to all of you who came out for Sneak Peek last week. It was a pleasure meeting so many of my new campers and their awesome parents and families! I hope everyone enjoys their last weekend of summer break and that you are all rested up for a great first week of first grade!
Just for fun, here are some pictures of our classroom:

Welcome to 1st Grade!

2011-06-21T12:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our 1st Grade class blog! This will serve as a place for us to post messages and responses. Everyone will have opportunities to reply to posts and to read each other's responses. This will be a great way for us to share our thoughts and ideas. I'm looking forward to a very exciting year!