Our chicks have hatched! Room #7 was very lucky to have experienced this learning opportunity and also to have had the chance to come in contact with some very cute, chirpy, and fluffy chicks in our classroom this week. The boys and girls were over the moon with excitement! Learning about the embryos and how they develop from an egg to a chick has been a thrilling, and educational, time!
The Kindergartners in Room #7 produced the most magnificent self-portraits this month. We went a different route for the month of April! To celebrate all the reading that we have been enjoying, the kiddos created self-portraits that show themselves reading their favorite book! This was a multi-step process that required much planning on their part. The results are nothing short of adorable, fun, and totally original. Pop on in to see your cherub's work of art!
Here are our math stations of the week – we are chatting a lot about geometry and number sentence, and also chicks, of course!
- Egg Weighing – With a partner, cherubs took turns weighing various plastic eggs with Unifix cubes. They then recorded their answers. Finally, they had to decide which color egg weighed the most and which weighed the least. Everyone LOVED this station!
- Snap-it (with white boards) – Snap It! – Working with numbers six to twelve, students made trains of cubes. They then “snap” their trains at various places. Putting part of their trains in front of them and placing the other part behind them, students worked to figure out how many were hidden. In this manner, students are learning to describe a number by its parts. For those tricky high numbers, students used invisible buddy lines as a strategy to determine the hidden number. They then wrote the corresponding number sentence!
- Fix-it Strips – At this center, students encountered a new and tricky concept of “changing numbers”. Independently, the kiddos received a fix-it strip. Using cubes, they built a tower that represented their first number. Next, they changed that tower to match the second number. I asked them to articulate what they did by telling me if they added or took away cubes and how many. Excellent work, cherubs!
- Number Arrangements – At this station, the boys and girls explored various designs they could make using about 10 toothpicks, depending on each student’s individual skills and comfort level. After some experimenting, they then glued their creations on to a piece of paper. Finally, they subitized and wrote down the groups they recognized. So fun!
- Combo Toss, Part 2 – This game provides a visual display of the number combinations that make up each sum from 1 to 10. With a partner, a cherub rolled 2 number cubes and built two stacks of cubes to match the numbers rolled. He/she then placed the two stacks in a column of the game board according to the sum of the numbers rolled. For an extension, as the students built their sums, they wrote down the corresponding number sentences! This was an extra challenge that the Kindergartners were excited to face!
- Ones-Ladders - At this center, the boys and girls picked an activity sheet that challenged them. Then, they filled in the missing “rungs” on the ladder with consecutive numbers! Each rung had different visible numbers, so the cherubs had to think very carefully to figure out which numeral came before and after!
- Fill the Hexagon - With what different shapes can you make a hexagon? At this center, everyone picked pattern block shapes to determine how to fill in their hexagons. This center really inspired the kids to think critically and carefully to see where they could fit each shape!
In the next two weeks of writing, Kindergartners will be working on writing letters to people about things they wish they could change. We began last week when students brainstormed things at home and school that they wanted to alter. We will be tackling world problems this week as well. The writers of Room #7 have latched onto this style of writing. They are challenging themselves to use a variety of writing styles to accomplish this. Not only are they identifying the problem they wish they could change as well as providing two (or more!) reasons why, but they are also working to include a fix-it solution and a story as to why this is a problem. As always, I am encouraging independent writing where the students reread to ensure it makes sense! We have a lot of world changers among us!
Room #7 is full of Alphafriend experts! They celebrated the learning of all their letters with an Alphafriend party on Friday! It was so fun to see what letter everyone dressed up as. Plus, we had a blast singing the songs and playing various games!
Enjoy the weekend!