I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing break, whether you are traveling or enjoying a “stay-cation”! Here are a few highlights from the week!
The cherubs and I have been concentrating on saying and hearing the middle sounds in words. This is helping the class develop an understanding of how words are put together. The long vowel sounds, which sound like their letter names (a, e, i, o, u), are the easiest to hear. First, we listened to the sounds without looking at the letters, and, later we began to compare words and connect sounds with letters.
Kindergartners are taking a break from Math stations this week for a new unit entitled Bunk Beds! This unit begins with the story of a PJ party – a sleepover during which eight children play, moving up and down bunk beds, teasing and tricking the babysitter who imagines she is losing and then gaining children.
The unit introduces the arithmetic rack, or rekenrek, as a powerful model and tool, to help act out the story. The rekenrek is a calculating frame consisting of two rows of ten beads with two sets of five in each row. The five-structure of this apparatus supports the development of part-whole relations in early number sense. In this unit, the cherubs move the beads on the rekenrek to illustrate and develop an understanding that eight can be named in many ways, for example 7 + 1 = 5 + 3 = 4 + 4. The kiddos absolutely adored exploring with their very own individual (and smaller!) rekenreks. They did an extraordinary job showing the different combinations to eight and were able to explain adeptly that no matter what combination of numbers they used, it still equaled eight.
At the end of the week, the boys and girls of Room #7 made their very own bunk bed stories choosing a target number that was just right for them. They loved the creativity aspect of this project, obviously enjoying the mingling of Math and English Language Arts! We made another class book! Additionally, as their stories were read, we used the class-size rekenrek to model the changing arrangements. Next week, we will go back to station work, but stay tuned because this unit will continue!
I am so proud of the writers in Room #7! They have all been working amazingly hard on stretching out their true stories across 3 (or more!) pages. They have been incredibly thoughtful in planning how they will include as many important details into their stories so they are brought to life. Their who, what you did, where, and how you felt checklists have really helped them with this endeavor and they are excited to make their readers picture exactly what happened. We will continue this important work over the next few weeks, continuing to hone in on stretching out words as well!
Enjoy your week! It’ll be March (!) when we come back!!