First Grade Explores “6-7”

A pair of 1st grade teachers embraced students’ fascination with the “6-7” meme by creating novel curriculum.

Beth Joebgen and Assistant Teacher Baylee Breisch saw an opportunity on the horizon. One of the many items teachers attend to as part of their daily routine is working with students to count the days of school as they pass, and the 67th day of school was imminent. 

The 6-7 meme is alive and well in Parker’s 1st grade classrooms and beyond. Rather than quietly acknowledging this milestone, Joebgen and Breisch orchestrated a series of activities that inspired their students to think about the numbers 6 and 7 in new and expansive ways.

First, students made special visors with the number 67 on them to wear during the day. Teachers provided students with special 6-7 workbooks, including coloring pages, math games and writing prompts like, “When I am 67 years old…,” “I wish I had 67…” and “If I had $67... “

Teachers helped students realize that their classmates are ages 6 and 7. They also knew some SK students were 6 and some 2nd graders were 7. To help them get closer to the numbers, teachers led small groups of students into each SK, 1st and 2nd grade classroom to collect data firsthand.

During each of these visits, 1st grade students stood in front of the class, described why they were there and asked students to raise their hands to indicate their age. Another 1st grade student then moved around and touched each of the raised hands while counting aloud so that a peer could record the results for review and subsequent analysis.

With all the data collected, teachers helped students organize all they had learned about distribution of students ages 6 and 7 in these classrooms.

Whether they were counting, reading, writing, tallying or visiting classrooms to collect data, these students had enough 6-7 and smiles to fill a class day and more.

Enjoy photos from the 67th day of learning in Joebgen’s 1st grade classroom here.