Bridges Grade 1 Advice for Unit 2, Sessions 15-25

Work Places 2  Planner B is added in Session 16, on or inside their Work Place folders. Flap the new planner over Planner A, as children will be working off both planners for a while.

Sessions 20-22, “50 or Bust!” can be an activity that may not come easily to some first graders, but notice you play it three times or more. The cards provide a visual model to help them figure out totals. When you're playing the whole-group lesson, have Unifix cubes in trains of 10 handy and remember to change pen colors with each new round.

When you play “50 or Bust!” for the second time on day 2, play the game twice, the first with the cards up and the second time with the cards facedown.

You introduce the Work Place Ten & More after session 20. This is one of the rare Work Places that doesn't have a similar whole group lesson preceding it, so plan on demonstrating it before you send them off to work.

 

If you are still considerably behind at the end of November, you can leave out Sessions 23-5, but be sure to read the notes on page 30 in your Getting Started book about combing two problem-solving activities.

Sessions 23 & 24, Crab & Sea Star Picture Problems, is an example of sessions that can take three, or perhaps even four days to finish. I could usually get 2 or 3 Picture Problems done in a day. It is vitally important to take the time to allow children to see each others solutions.

After your class shares solutions to the Crab & Sea Star Picture Problems, children create their own in Session 25.

Lastly, the Interview at the end of Unit Two (blue pages) has addition and subtraction assessments that requires you to point randomly to various problems, not going through them row by row! If you are pressed for time, try to assess the students you are most concerned about first.

You could have the third assessment on pattern done by an instructional assistant, able parent helper, or in small groups with you, perhaps during Work Place time.

For teachers who like the integration of subjects, read the green pages at the end of Volume One. I especially like the Pocket Chart Poems, using the methods of Robert and Marlene McCrackin from their book “Stories, Songs, & Poetry to Teach Reading and Writing.”