First Graders are Smart!

I think I may be rare in the fact that I LOVE calendar time. Ever since purchasing the Calendar Companion from Cara Carroll my calendar time has been so purposeful and beneficial for my kiddos. Last year I did something similar to this, but way scaled down.

My absolute favorite thing to do is find different number sentences to equal our number of the day. We started off very slowly with manipulatives and worked our way up to using the hundreds chart to guide us. We've been doing this happily now for most of the year. Students were comfortable finding addition & subtraction problems on then own and then BAM, one of my students gave me a number sentence with 3 parts!

All the students looked at her in aw and decided to cheer "ohh, ahh, looking good!" Ever since then my kiddos have been obsessed with making number sentences with 3, 4, and sometimes 5 parts. It's easy to become frustrated with a struggling student or a concept they're not getting but this really made me stop and admire how smart they really are. Take a look at some of their rockin' number sentences!

And because I have not blogged in a while, I'll add in some cute portraits we made of MLK Jr. along with their dream written below it. I'm not very fancy or organized so there was no template, I just showed them his picture and an example and let them have at it. : )