We are back in the swing of things in Room #7. The Hastings Heroes in our classroom continue to practice and remember all of our routines! Here are a few snippets from our week!
Because last week was a short one, we continued our Math stations.
- Counting Collections – Similar to a math launch activity the mathematicians participated in two weeks ago, students again counted various collections of objects. At this station, each person picked a bag full of some type of manipulative and then counted how many there were. After recording that number, paying special attention to directionality of his/her written numbers, he/she could choose to count another! Everyone really took their time when counting, using learned strategies to ensure that they had 1:1 correspondence!
- One More, One Less – In this activity, the children were challenged to name a number that was one more or one less than a given number without counting. The kiddos started with a cube train of any length (e.g., 10), and continued to add or take away cubes and name how many cubes were in their train after each addition or subtraction.
- Pan Balance Activity – This week, the students measured a specific number of particular items on the pan balance and then determined which one was heavier! Everyone loved predicting which item would be heavier, and they were often correct! The kids’ favorite aspect of this activity was choosing their own comparison!
- Top-It – This partner card game is similar to the card game, War. Each student put down a number card, and together they decided which number was the lowest. The child with the lower number card won and took the two cards. The kids LOVED playing this game!
- iPad – Park Math – At this popular station, the boys and girls 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!
- 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!
- Roll, Write, Count – Another counting on activity! After rolling a die (a teen number die, a 20’s die, or (!) a 30’s die – challenge!!), the mathematicians wrote that number on the snowman. Next, they counted on and wrote the next four numbers! Tricky work, but our math experts rocked it! They even used tools around the room to ensure that all of their numbers were written in the expected way!
We are also working on our “noticings” and “wonderings” when viewing various pictures. I highly recommend the book How Many? by Christopher Danielson. In it, there are various pictures of food items. When the students see a picture, it sparks conversations, thinking, and wonder. To learn more, borrow the book from your public library!
We are finishing up our pattern books over the next week. The writers in Room #7 were given editing checklists to fix and fancy their finished work! Oh, how far they have come since September!
In Reader’s Workshop, the boys and girls are working on using their persistence, or perseverance power when reading unknown and tricky words. They now know that if one power is not working to decode a tricky word, they shouldn’t give up! Instead, they should use another, and another, until they are finally able to read that word! Practice this at home too!
Before break, we began to explore the different stances that help students be “Brain Growers,” also known as students with a growth mindset. After reading The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, a wonderful story that supportively portrays the sometimes frustrating process of translating ideas to reality and shows how a new perspective can help problem solve and rekindle enthusiasm and joy, the class and I had an excellent conversation about the importance of sticking with a task, even when it gets tough. Together, we defined the word “perseverance” and thought of things one can say to him/herself in order to keep persevering and never giving up! We also made a chart where when students are perseverant, I can quickly write it on a sticky and add it to our perseverance chart! In this manner, the boys and girls will be able to physically see how they are perseverant. A letter went home on Friday documenting the work the Kindergartners will do in regards to growth mindset. If you have any questions, you know where to reach me!