Welcome back! It’s been a bustling week, and the kids are raring to go! It was great to see their shining faces after February vacation, and everyone is settling back nicely into our routines! Our days have been full, and the excitement is high! Here are just a few of our highlights from the week!
Math stations over the next few weeks will center mostly on addition and subtraction! The boys and girls are cementing their knowledge of these two tricky operations!
- Measuring Beads – We have been talking about different ways one can measure and the importance of having a standard way of measuring objects. This week, students measured various sized beaded necklaces. What fun!
- Snowman Addition – Given a snowman sheet, students rolled dice for a starting number. Students then put that many buttons on their snowman. After they recorded their beginning number, the kiddos rolled again. They recorded that number and added that many buttons onto their snowman. Finally, they counted how many buttons they had in all and wrote that number. What a fun way to practice addition!
- Measuring! – Before vacation, the boys and girls worked as a whole class to place 19 different objects in order from shortest to longest. They learned that one needs to make sure the objects are lined up at the bottom to determine which is longer or shorter. Later, at this station, the cherubs were each given a tub of 5 different objects – pencil, crayon, marker, eraser, and a spaceman. First, they put them in order from shortest to longest, paying close attention to ensure they were lined up correctly. Next, they recorded their answers by drawing their objects, and lastly, they labeled them. This was tricky work with many different steps!
- Snap It! – Working with numbers six to twelve, students made trains of cubes. They then “snapped” 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. Fabulous work, cherubs!
- Top it – Using new domino cards, this partner card game is similar to the game, War. Each student put down a number card, and together they decided which number was greater. The child with the greater number card won and took the two cards. As an extra challenge, the boys and girls could choose to engage in Addition Top-it where they added the two cards together. This is super tricky work, but the cherubs used the skill of counting on to help them work through it! They LOVED playing this game!
- iPad – subtraction! - At this iPad game, students worked to finish subtraction number sentences!
- Bump! - An oldie, but a goodie! Working with a friend, each student took 10 cubes of the same color (e.g.: Player 1 = green, Player 2 = blue). Next, Player 1 rolled the two dice and added them together. That player then put a cube on the circle with the matching sum. The game continued in this manner; however, if someone achieved a sum that was already marked, that player could “bump” the cube off the game board. Players could also “freeze” a number by rolling the same sum twice. Once a cherub used all ten cubes, the game was over! So much fun!
We started a new unit in Writing this week – opinion and persuasive writing! We have been talking a lot about opinions – what they are and the importance of giving a reason to support that opinion (e.g., 100th Day books – what are 100 things you want and why? What are 100 things you do not want and why?). To begin this unit, the kiddos brainstormed and identified problems in school and at home. Then, they had to dig deep and become problem solvers – what are some possible solutions for those problems? Stay tuned for more!
In Science this week, the boys and girls were introduced to two new types of magnets: button and bar! We chatted about their differences and then proceeded with an experiment. What does it look like when magnets repel each other? After the whole class experiment, the scientists of Room #7 went back and recorded their findings! One student even made the connection that oftentimes, when magnets are concealed in plastic, their power is less. Great noticing! They are so intrigued by the world of magnets!
The class continues to learn to recognize common word patterns. This recognition helps the children learn about writing words and solving new words as they read. As the children break down words into patterns or parts, they can easily hear the break between the first part of a word and the rest of the word, such as h-ay, pl-ay. The pattern we’ve been studying is the –ay ending in words. Can you name any?
Have a lovely weekend!