We made it! It’s vacation time! We had a wonderful week; the kiddos truly enjoyed observing our chicks and were head over heels with them. 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! We were all sad to see them go!
Read on for a few more snippets of our week!
We continued the stations we began last week this week. With the half days and “Week of Inspirational Math” (WIM) activities, the students needed more time to finish their important work. Read on about the WIM activities after the station explanations.
- Combo Toss – 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.
- Tub Game – At this center, students received practice describing a number by its parts. This week, the students worked with the number 10! This was a challenge, but a fun one, where they had to figure out how many cubes were underneath the tub! They then said the corresponding number sentence. For example, if I put 5 cubes under the tub, they had to discern how many more would equal ten. Lastly, they named the corresponding number sentence!
- Worm to 5 – At this partner game, students worked with numbers to equal either the number 5. The goal was to cover all the spots along the worm. The kiddos had to choose 2 circles to equal the target number. This station was great to work on different number combinations!
- Attribute Spinner Game – We have been talking a lot over the last two weeks in Room #7 about attribute. There are so many attributes (or characteristics) by which one can sort: color, shape, size, thickness, number of sides, etc. Using 2 different spinners, one for thickness and this week, one for color, students spun and then had to find the corresponding shape. This is a great way for kiddos to use their math vocabulary and practice identifying the various attributes.
- Dot – Addition – a new fun game! This center is all about discovering different ways to make numbers! Given various gameboards and Dot Addition Cards, students were required to find cards that combined to make one of the numbers on their gameboards. Next, the players recorded the corresponding number sentences. First one to fill the gameboard won!
- iPad – subtraction! - At this iPad game, students worked to finish subtraction number sentences!
- Snowman Addition – Even though it’s spring, we are still playing with “snow”! Choosing between one or two dice, students added together buttons for their snow people. They then wrote the corresponding number sentence! Fun!
For the past 4 weeks, Room #7 has been working on one open-ended, critical thinking Math activity per week. This unit is all about developing a growth mindset! Each Friday we did a different math task. On the first day, we talked about how everyone is a math person, and sometimes math can feel really hard- but this is when our brain is growing! On the second day, the mathematicians learned about making mistakes--mistakes are where the new learning goes and questions are important to help with that learning. Given various dot patterns, the students colored in how they saw groups within those visual arrangements. It was great to discuss how everyone saw the groups differently. On the third day, we revisited the power of ‘yet’ and when you believe in yourself, it changes what you can do. They were introduced to a game of Tic-Tac- NO! This game is the opposite of the classic Tic-Tac-Toe, and students endeavored to fill in puzzle grid with no more than two x’s or o’s in a row. What a challenge! Strategy and trial and error were important to think about, and we heard a lot of “I can’t get this….yet!” These were super important words to say because the mathematicians were resilient, bounced back, and continued to persevere. On the fourth day, teamwork and collaboration were stressed and that again, and most importantly, everyone is a math person!! For the activity, Wiggle Worm, the worm needs to move through each square on the board without moving diagonally. The 1 indicates where the head goes. We will continue to revisit all these ideas throughout the year so that our students realize that we are all math people and it is a fun, open, creative space. Math is messy where mistakes are valued because it leads to new learning and understanding.
Over the week, the boys and girls of Room #7 worked hard to finish up their how-to stories. They worked really hard to incorporate as many aspects included in this type of writing: tips, warnings, lots of details, labeled pictures, hooks, or getting the reader excited, arrows, speech and thought bubbles, and closings, etc. They are all very proud of their work, as am I! To celebrate all of their writing, they read their finished how-to stories to their book buddies. They got great feedback from their third grade buddies and enjoyed showing off their writing! Way to go, Kindergartners!
The class explored the difficult concept of tattling versus telling this week. Through the humorous, cleverly creative words of Julia Cook, A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue gave us the opportunity to address the time-consuming tattling-related issues. The book generated a discussion to help our cherubs understand the differences between unnecessary tattling and the necessity of warning others about important matters! We talked about how it is tattling if it’s a problem that is NOT dangerous and one can solve it him/herself. It is telling if the problem is dangerous. The class brainstormed a bunch of ideas. Think of some more at home! One other resource for continuing this important conversation is the book, Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a BIG Deal by Jeanie Franz Ransom. Happy reading!
Have a wonderful April vacation! See you in a week!