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 one 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!
As Martin Luther King, Jr. Day approaches, Room #7 read a few books about this wonderful man who helped to change America over forty years ago. As we read about his life, the climate of America, and his renowned “I have a dream” speech, the students asked thoughtful, insightful questions. We discussed how the United States has changed for the better as well as how unfair it was back then for people of color. We were even lucky enough to hear his famous speech at the beginning of All School Meeting.
The children and I have been working on saying and hearing the middle sounds in words. This is helping the class develop an understanding of how words are put together. Next week, the cherubs will receive a visual to help them during the writing. In this manner, they will quickly and easily be able to identify what the vowel is!
Why do we reread? That’s exactly the question Room #7 has been exploring during our writing block. To introduce this skill, I used a very familiar tool – the pencil! The pencil is a very useful and magical tool because one can use it to both write a little, and read a little, one just needs to flip it over either way. In this manner, students can stay on track and remember what they were trying to write! The Kindergarten writers also named some other important reasons to reread their work:
- To make sure the writing makes sense
- To check that the sentence has an uppercase letter at the beginning and a punctuation mark at the end
- To ensure there are spaces
- To confirm that the pictures and words match
- To double-check to see if the words look right. Does the beginning/middle/ending sound of the word being said match what is being written?
Have a marvelous long weekend!