In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday this month, Room #7 read The Cat in the Hat! During Learning Labs, students made their very own Thing One or Thing Two, using just a little paint and their handprints. Later on in the week, we brainstormed a list of events that might happen if Thing One or Thing Two came to each of our houses! The kiddos were incredibly responsible, insisting that they wouldn’t let in the “strangers” OR that they would call their parents or siblings to make sure it was okay! Additionally, the Kindergartners suggested they would play “safe” games inside the house so no grown-up would get angry! Very cute! The students wrote down their clever ideas to accompany their art work!
This week during Math, Room #7 continued their work with number combinations using a new context: apple boxes. Children investigated the number of unique combinations for five apples of two colors, green and red, and recorded the combinations for a grocer who is confused about how many arrangements there can be. In contrast to the bunk beds investigation in which children can easily imagine someone going up and down the ladder, now they must exchange. That is, instead of moving a counter to another group, the counter must be removed and replaced. This action is more difficult.
To reinforce this trickier skill, cherubs worked to discover the various possible arrangements, and then we explored their findings as a whole class. The unit ended with a Part-Whole Bingo game. This game will be played throughout the remainder of the year as a way for children to extend composing and decomposing strategies as they establish equivalence, for example representing 7 as 5 + 2 or as 3 + 4, or even as 2 + 2 + 2 + 1.
The kiddos of Room #7 used their prior knowledge from the Bunk Bed unit to help them understand this new Apple Box unit. They really did a great job grasping the importance of how many red and green apples they are getting, not how the apples are arranged!
This week, the cherubs learned their very last Alphafriend! They now know all their letters, letter sounds, and tons of words that begin with letters of the alphabet! Please feel free to keep all of their hard work in their consonant books at home!
Sometimes, people can let worries get the best of them. When this happens, one knows that the Unthinkable, Worry Wall, has invaded one’s brain! Yikes! In order to introduce this pesky Unthinkable, we read the book Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes and talked about all the worries the main character demonstrated during the story. We discussed how most of her concerns were so small that she didn’t need to worry about them at all! Check out the Social Skills tab on this Website to see what strategies the kiddos can use to help defeat Worry Wall!
The cherubs are trucking along with their how-to stories and doing a fantastic job! This week, the students acted out the steps in their stories with a partner to ensure that all the pertinent parts of each step were included. The boys and girls have learned quickly that it is super important to be very specific when teaching their readers how to do different tasks! Ask your cherubs the steps in their how to story!
During Daily Five this week, Room #7 discovered the final center within this workshop: Read to Someone (Buddy Reading)! Everyone was beyond excited to learn about this new activity. To start this venture, the class and I talked about partner etiquette! We discussed how to sit (EEKK – elbow to elbow, knee to knee) so that both Kindergartners can each see and hear the book, how to read (a whisper or 2 inch voice!), and how to take turns when reading with a partner. We will officially begin this new way of reading next week as well as exploring what it means to “Check for Understanding” to ensure that both partners are listening to the content of each other’s books! The kiddos are super excited to begin!
The children are learning to separate and identify a number of sounds in words, and they are beginning to connect initial sounds and letters from one word to another. This is going to help the children figure out words sound by sound as they read. It will also help them keep track of their reading of a whole text like a story book. Together, we’ve been snipping out one sound and replacing it with another, which helps the class use knowledge of one word to write or read another.
Here’s a game you can play at home that’s easy, and the children love playing it and learn a lot from it.
• You say a word and ask your child to change the first sound. So if you say mop your child might way hop, stop, pop, drop.
Again, this is a game that can be played anywhere, anytime – try it in the car, at the park, while taking a walk. Say it – and play it!
In class, the cherubs are also learning that each letter in the alphabet has an uppercase, or capital, and a lowercase, or small. As they match the uppercase and lowercase letters, the children are noticing how some look similar, such as S and s, and some don’t, such as E and e.
Have a fabulous weekend! I hope it’s full of lamb days!