We are doing a variety of family-themed projects this month. Thank you to those families who have already sent back the Helping Hands paper. We are beginning on Monday, so please do send them in! In addition, keep the family photos coming! Room #7 is working on a top secret holiday gift that needs those pictures! Thank you for all of your help with these activities!
With a new month comes a new self-portrait! For December, the students did a stellar job capturing their faces with colored pencils! They added awesome details to their portraits by including hair decorations, blending colors, and adding items from shirts they own! I loved seeing how different each picture is and noticing the improvements the children are making from month to month. Stop by to take a peek at your child’s beautiful work!
Math stations this week were all about measuring, more and less, and a little bit of addition! The cherubs are doing such an excellent job with all this difficult work!
· Exploring the Pan Balance – Last Friday, I introduced the balance to the class. They loved predicting what items would be heavier than others and were amazed to see when 2 different items balanced each other out. During Math stations, the students explored the pan balance with a variety of materials (e.g.: dominoes, counters, pompoms, etc.) to see which was heavier, which was lighter, and how many more or less of a material it took to even the balance out. The kiddos loved this station!!
· iPad – Park Math – At this popular station, the boys and girls of Room #7 got to try out a new activity within Park Math! In the game, the students have to figure out how to balance a seesaw. On the seesaw are different amounts of cute mice. Through trial and error, the kids either added on or took away mice to balance the weight! What a great connection they were able to make to our pan balance as well!
· Count on 1 More – Independently, students turned over a number card and represented that number with buttons on their “work board”. They then counted out one more in their head and used counters to represent this number on their “work board”.
· Missing Teen Numbers - Let’s fill in those missing teen numbers! Given a starting and ending number, the cherubs filled in the missing numbers and paid extra attention to forming their numbers correctly!
· Dot Bingo (to 12) – At this newish station, students rolled two dice to determine on what number they needed to focus. This week, the numbers were greater, going all the way to 12! Next, they put a marker on a representation of that number (e.g., picture of fingers, the numeral, the dots, OR what it looks like on a ten frame)! In this manner, the cherubs were able to notice that one can represent numbers in a variety of ways! First one with five in a row won!
· Race to Trace – At this independent station, students had a deck of ten frame cards. Each card represented a different number, from eleven – twenty-two. As the children turned over the cards, they had to find the numeral that matched that number and then they practiced writing it. Students received a lot of practice recognizing what various higher numbers looked like when represented on ten frames!
· Shrinking Number Monster (with a NEW twist) – Although this is an oldie but a goodie, the students loved returning to this station for the new recording sheet. Not only did the kiddos have to determine one less than the teen number they rolled, but also one more! This required extra hard thinking to understand how many eyeballs were needed to either remove or add. As an extra challenge, the boys and girls could choose to complete this activity without using the eyeballs! Plus, higher dice were included for those who really yearned to stretch those math skills! Way to go, Kindergarteners!
During one of our whole group instruction times, the class began to learn about how teen numbers are constructed of tens and ones. We began this important work 2 weeks ago when I asked students to represent teen numbers using just their fingers. They quickly figured out that they need 2 sets of hands (2 cherubs) to represent those numbers. The students then practiced representing those double-digit numbers together and then writing the corresponding number sentence.
This can be a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around. This week, the boys and girls learned a fun song to help them remember:
The teen comes first,
The teen comes first,
I know why it works that way...
The group of ten comes first!!
We discussed how you can “break” a number into its group of tens and ones. For example, when one breaks the number 19, one represents it like this: 10 + 9. We practiced breaking numbers using dry erase boards and markers. The kids really enjoyed the work! There’s also a fun song that we listened to similar to our teen number song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uedvwH6Ay18
I have been working with the children’s names at school to help them understand some significant features about print and how it works. One of the most important keys is that first and last have particular meanings when applied to print; for example, the first letter of a word is on the left and the last letter in a word is the farthest to the right. We highlighted beginning and ending letters of the cherubs’ names in different colors so students could visually see and notice the difference.
Additionally, as Room #7 learns how to read, we’re listening to the ending sounds in words and connecting them to letters. The children are learning about last letters in words as they listen for, say, and recognize the consonant sounds at the end of words and attach the sounds to these letters. They are understanding that
• Some words sound the same at the end.
• You can connect words that sound the same at the end.
Moreover, as they read during Daily Five, the students are learning how to problem-solve unknown words by paying attention to BOTH the beginning and ending sounds, and if they match the word they said aloud.
The boys and girls in Kindergarten are working extremely hard on their pattern books. It is just phenomenal to see how much growth they have made in such a short amount of time. They are getting excited for families to come in next Friday, December 12th from 8:30-8:45! If you are able, come and check out all the different types of pattern books they have created: one pattern, a pattern with a twist, and seesaw patterns! We look forward to seeing you there!
Have a restful, relaxing, and lovely weekend!