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!
With all the inconsistency snow days bring, it has been difficult to dive into our opinion unit. This week, the boys and girls have done a tremendous job expressing their opinions on various topics! Not only were they (finally!) able to finish their pieces on who their favorite Mo Willems character is and why, but also began and finished what their favorite seasons are as well as their favorite animals. As the week progressed, I challenged the students to write at least three reasons for their opinion and then illustrate them! The boys and girls paid special attention to their illustrations, making sure to incorporate their reasoning into their pictures!
Next week, we will spend some time learning about persuasive writing, a difficult genre for younger minds. To help cement this concept, the kiddos will write letters to the Bus Driver (from the Mo Willems’ Pigeon books) persuading him to either allow Pigeon to drive the bus or not! Stay tuned!
Math stations:
· Fix-It Strips – At this center, students continued to work on the tricky idea of “changing numbers.” Independently, the kiddos received a fix-it strip. Using cubes, they created an organized pile that represented their first number. Next, they changed that pile to match the second number. Lastly, they articulated if they added or took away cubes and how many cubes they needed to make the change. The cherubs have really gotten the hang of this station – they challenged themselves by doing this activity with teen numbers! Holy Moly!
· Up and Down the Ladder – At this small group game, the cherubs took turns rolling a pair of dice. The roll on each die determined the number of Room #7 kids to put on the bunk bed. For example, if a 5 and a 2 were rolled, the players took the pictures of seven kiddos and placed five of them on the top bunk and two of them on the bottom bunk. Next, Player Two picked an Up and Down the Ladder game card and everyone rearranged the seven children’s pictures on the bunk bed according to the card’s instructions. For example, if the card said “1 Up the Ladder,” the kids moved one kid picture from the bottom and placed it on the top. Using dry erase boards, each player recorded the corresponding number sentences! The boys and girls really enjoyed rearranging their pictures on the bunk beds to play the game!
· 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. Fabulous work, cherubs!
· Which is Longer? - Using a variety of materials, kiddos compared them to see which was longer. They had to really focus to make certain everything lined up so that their answers were accurate!
· Dr. Seuss Addition Mats: 1 Fish, 2 Fish – Using animal manipulatives, Room #7 mathematicians created various addition number sentences!
· 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 complicated 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 new iPad game, students worked to finish subtraction number sentences! More and more boys and girls are challenging themselves by moving to a higher, more tricky level!
We are finishing up magnets this week. The kiddos of Room #7 have been working hard on this unit. They have all learned the difference between attract and repel, what a magnet’s force can pass through, how strong a magnet can be, etc. They have truly enjoyed experimenting with the various types of magnets during indoor recess and Learning Labs as well as building various 3-D shapes with them! Way to go, Kindergarteners!
On Wednesday afternoon, Room #7 went on its winter Big Backyard walk! The boys and girls walked around the school, looking for signs of winter such as animal tracks, snow (there was tons of that!), animal homes, evergreen trees, and trees without leaves! Everyone had a great time finding these items on their scavenger hunt list! Ask your cherub what his/her special discovery was! I apologize for not taking pictures! I had my camera with me and just completely forgot!
The kiddos are learning to solve new words by making connections to words they already know. In class, we’ve been changing the first letter or letters of a word to form a new word, such as cat to bat. This understanding is helping the children take words apart as they read and spell as they write. Challenge your kiddos to do this at home as well by practicing with the word families we’ve already reviewed in class (-at and-ay). Have some fun with it!
Enjoy your weekend!