Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Cause & Effect, More Money and Open House–Oh My!

So earlier this year I pinned a wonderful activity from one of my all time favorite blogs EVER – Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemmons – by Amy Lemmons!  Her class used A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon to study cause and effect.  You can download her materials by clicking the link above – where you can read more about how to do it.  I just wanted to share how ours turned out – they look GREAT!



Have you noticed that in the Common Core there is no 1st grade standard that deals with money?  THEN, have you noticed that the ONLY 2nd grade standard that deals with money states:


2.MD.8 – Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, using $ and ₵  symbols appropriately.


When I first saw that standard and realized there were no 1st grade standards that dealt with $ – I thought something was wrong…since then I heard someone call the Common Core standards –outcome statements – which is obvious when I think about it – by the end of second grade students need to be able to do x,y, and z.


BUT, in order to be able to successfully solve word problems involving $ there are so many skills and strategies that the students need to learn – and the common core doesn’t help with Task Analysis. 


So I’ve been working on doing a task analysis of what skills and strategies the kiddos need to have to be able to succeed with this standard…which is good practice for all the other standards. 


Currently we are working on making money and using the part/part/whole (fact family) strategies to do this.  Click here to see the post on that.  Right now we’re doing some whole group and independent practice, but I hope to start in the next lesson or two pulling groups of students to practice making change for real, the trick is counting up…so we’re practicing.  Blue is where they add up (start at cost and add up until you reach $ paid).  Pink is where they add up what the change equals...they rock if there is a color code at the beginning!


Tomorrow night is our open house.  We’re pretty close to finishing up our projects and making our classroom look presentable.  I am so impressed with my kids – they are hard workers and becoming so independent!  I’m going to miss them next year while I figure out 1/2.


Cheers!
Mrs. Castro Pin It

3 comments:

  1. I was just discussing the lack of money in common core with my assistant principal today. I teach kindergarten and money is not in the common core but I can't imagine not teaching it. So I'm doing some money this week. It's hard to know what to do in those situations. I like this idea of the common core being outcome standards. That's a good way to look at it. Love your Bad Case of Stripes girls. Look great.

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  2. I hate teaching money SO MUCH. Just wanted to share that. :)

    Marvelous Multiagers!

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  3. Just FYI there's a reason money isn't there. Students are developing an understanding of unitizing through first and into second grade and while they are developing this idea, models need to physically represent the quantity. Meaning a "ten" needs to be physically ten times larger than a "one" and so on. Money does not support this understanding and works in contradictory to it. That's why it's added later. :)

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