Bridges Grade 2 Advice for Unit 1

Hello all. You’ve probably read the Number Corner entry already. I’m happy to be your long distance consultant, continuing for some of you and new to the rest.

 

I hope this reaches you before school starts. I’ll start with Getting Ready to Teach Bridges, a document where we’ve tried to list everything we could think of so you can get Number Corner, Sessions and Work Places ready before the first day of school.

 

Be sure to check out the most current items we have developed for Bridges on the Support section of our website, such as the Parent Pages, Supplements, Practice Books and much, much more.

 

If you are using the CCSS or a state supplement, check the Unit 1 Planner to see if it calls for Supplement Sets D2 or D7, all Measurement activities. Remember, there is a new Unit Planner located around the 11^th page of your supplement showing you where to insert these activities. The CCSS supplement requires the insertion of 8 Sessions using D2, Mea­suring Length in U.S. Standard Units.Call or write if you are having any trouble with how supplements and Bridges works.

 

 

 

Sessions 3, 4, & 5: (omitted in some state supplements due to insertion of other activities) Here are two boys who have just finished constructing their beetle glyphs. If you’ve never made glyphs before, I think you’ll enjoy this activity. These sessions will tell you a lot about your children – can they follow directions, sort and work independently? The students will be able to learn about each other from this fun and different sort of activity. Here is a student writing out her clues.

 

Session 7: "Race You to 25¢" was played mid-year in first grade, and if your children had Bridges in last year, they played games in a similar format.

 

Session 14: Math Bucket Sorting Here is a photo of two students doing a similar activity with sea creatures.

 

Session 15: Which One Doesn’t Belong? They have done similar activities in K and 1st grade Bridges, so this may also be familiar to the children. Be sure to have the children figure out a way to eliminate each of the four items.

 

Session 17: "An Hour or Bust!"  Again, they have played a similar version in first grade. The thing to stress is that we start coloring in at the 12, moving around the clock without skipping any sections of the pie. Otherwise you may find children starting to color at random places on the clock!

 

  

Session 19: "The Churn Dash Quilt" On the left is a nice-looking version from a second grade classroom.  On the right check out this one I got from my former teaching colleague, a SpongeBob SquarePants Churn Dash Quilt!

 

Sessions 19, 20 & 21 can be eliminated if you got off to a very slow start, but be sure to get them in the second year you teach Bridges! They are replaced in the CCSS Supplement with measurement activities.

 

     
 

Assessment: Clearly in the teachers guide, Session 1 is a pre-test for the unit and Session 23 is a post-test using the same items. As you are setting up your room and making files for each student, consider making a separate manila folder for each child to hold the pre- and post-tests for each unit along with any Number Corner Student Book pages you save. Now my a little personal anecdote. I had faithfully taught my first graders Bridges all year, proudly sending them on to second grade. The second grade teacher, new to Bridges, administered the pre-test, and proceeded to show me the great number of children who didn’t know what a pattern was! In fact, they have been out of school for 2 1/2 months and didn’t usually have to record patterns out of the blue as found in this format. After drawing out a few sample patterns on the board and talking about what one could use to illustrate a pattern she found that most, in fact, ! So quickly sketch something like square, circle, rectangle and tell the children you want them to create something different from your example.

 

Work Place notes: The yellow pages detail each set of 6 Work Places. Your first set consists of the math materials you will be using throughout the year in what we used to call Free Exploration or Discovery. When the author designed the program she intended it to have 6 Work Places out, a set of lessons, and then have all six replaced at once with a new set. She has since told me that when we eventually update Bridges, the Work Places will be “rolled in” as each whole group lesson that has a related Work Place is completed. If I were teaching second grade this fall I would follow this pattern. In an attempt to analyze why so many teachers have trouble getting all seven units in, I plotted out the second grade work over the course of a year using the calendar of a local school district. Here it is so you can see where each Work Place is introduced. As you introduce each new Work Place, take out the oldest (lowest number and letter) and put the new one in its place. (An exception might be when the oldest is still popular and a higher numbered one seems past its prime.) This document will have to be adjusted for your school start time, differences in school year length, in-service days, supplements, etc., but will still give you a sense of how you are keeping on track.

 

The book suggests stapling the Work Place Planner on the outside with Finished and Unfinished Work pockets inside. I personally preferred stapling the planner inside the folder on the left side, telling the children to always put unfinished work in the front of the right hand pocket. I just had too many planners getting ripped and shredded when they were on the outside.

 

Work Place 2C, Match the Beetle Game, works best if the clue cards have been typed by the teacher, as some second grader’s handwriting can still be somewhat indecipherable in September. This is a good Work Place for you to camp out in for a while.