Lobster Tails and Whale Tails

Students are moving from using lobsters to help them count by 10's to using whales to count by 2's. We are learning all about whales in another integrated study of math, science, and literacy. Did you know that each whale has 2 flukes? If you aren't sure what these are, be sure to inquire with your child. We have created a whole class growing pattern using hand sketched whales, have counted by 2's in a number of different ways, read all about whales, and learned a new song along with Mrs. Wrigley's community of math learners. Make sure you check it out, and just for your information, we've improved in our singing of this song immensely since the recording!

Throughout this unit, we continue to learn about telling time.  Students have been using the bean clock to learn to tell time. Each bean represents a single minute, allowing students to see in a concrete way that each number on the clock face marks another group of 5 minutes (or beans). Counting minutes on the clock face provides a natural context for counting by 5’s and 10’s. As they become more familiar with the clock face, students might start counting from a landmark position, like the 6, rather than starting from the 12, to find how many minutes have passed.



First graders are continuing to practice counting the value of coins. We have shifted our focus to counting in terms of groups as opposed to individual amounts. Students continue to also think in terms of groupings as they solved lobster number problems.

Throughout number corner, we are continuing to focus on 3 dimensional shapes, probability, temperature, and using different ways to show given numbers.  

Here are some frequently asked questions provided by the Math Learning Center:

Q:  Why do you spend time having students make their own picture problems?
A:  In this unit, students learn about different sea creatures and create picture problems about
them. Then, students solve one another’s problems. When mathematical problems are
embedded in a context that students understand well and find interesting, students can draw
on their familiarity with the context to make sense of the math they are learning. Sea creatures,
with their different numbers of legs and other body parts, lend themselves well to solving
problems involving equal groups, a major theme of this unit.

Q:  Why are time and money part of a unit on sea creatures?
A:  The topic of the unit is sea creatures, but the mathematical theme is equal groups. Sea
creatures’ bodies, coins, and the clock face provide three different ways to represent equal
groups (of 2, 5, and 10). We want students to move beyond counting one by one when solving
problems. The scenarios and problems in this unit encourage them to begin counting equal
groups by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. It’s a more efficient way to solve many problems, and it’s also a
precursor to understanding place value and to calculating efficiently in our base ten number
system.