Well, spring has sprung both inside and outside Room #7. We have officially begun our unit on planting, and the kids are pumped. The boys and girls and I have chatted a lot about the differences that are occurring outside due to the change in seasons. This week, the cherubs were able to sow their very own seeds! From beans and radishes, to marigolds and sunflowers, the children each received a few seeds to plant in their individual planter. Over the course of the coming weeks, part of the students’ daily routine will be to water their plants and watch them grow! Additionally, the kiddos will be recording their plants’ progress as well as noting in their Planting Journal what seedlings and plants need to thrive and grow. Very exciting times in Kindergarten!
Math stations this week are mostly about geometry! We are investigating shapes, both 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional. Have your child try to find the following shapes in the real-world; they are everywhere: cones, spheres, prisms, cubes, and cylinders. Ask them to tell you about what we found in the classroom!
- 3-D Shape Color - The boys and girls did an outstanding job recognizing what each shape was called at this center and then coloring that shape accordingly!
- Geoboard Designs – At this center, I built a variety of designs and shapes on a geoboard for the boys and girls to observe and copy. This station really helped them be more analytical about the various parts of a design or shape and its position on the geoboard. The kids thoroughly enjoyed this station, especially when the designs got super complex!
- Geoblock Match-up – This week, the students observed some three-dimensional geo-blocks. We talked about how these blocks have faces. The faces are common shapes that the students see every day (squares, triangles, and rectangles). In this game, the students received a geo-block game board. Their job was to reach in the basket, pick out a block, and determine if any of the faces matched a shape on their board. The complicated part of this game was that many of the shapes had different shaped faces. For example, some triangular shaped geo-blocks had rectangular faces as well. It was tricky!
- Recording Designs and Creations – At this inventive station, the boys and girls learned to analyze positions and notice lengths and quantities. The cherubs created designs using various pattern blocks and then copied those designs by gluing down paper shapes that matched the blocks. It was most important that they built with the blocks first and not simply created a design using the paper shapes. In this manner, the challenge in this task was in the reproduction. Everyone came up with really neat and sometimes complex designs!
- Wall Game – At this center, the kids worked with a number from 6-15. After arranging a vertical line of cubes of that number, a teacher “walled” off a portion of their line so only a certain number of cubes was visible. The children then predicted how many cubes were over the “wall”. What a fun way to see the different number combinations!
- Bump! – An oldie, but a goodie! Working with a friend, each student took 10 cubes of the same color (e.g.: Player 1 = green, Player 2 = blue). Next, Player 1 rolled the two dice and added them together. That player then put a cube on the circle with the matching sum. The game continued in this manner; however, if someone achieved a sum that was already marked, that player could “bump” the cube off the game board. Players could also “freeze” a number by rolling the same sum twice. Once a cherub used all ten cubes, the game was over! So much fun!
- 3-D Shape Books - Is it a cone? A cylinder? A prism? At this station, the boys and girls cut and pasted the matching 3-D shape to its correct page. Then, they had to draw a real-world example of that shape (e.g., an ice cream cone) and write a sentence about the shape! This was super tricky work and they excelled at it! Way to go, Kindergartners!
It’s that time again: a new self-portrait! This month, students used white chalk on black construction paper to create one-of-a kind portraits of themselves. I challenged the cherubs to remember all by themselves each of the different parts they needed to include! They were up to the task! Come check out the finished products if you get a chance!
The boys and girls are really up for creating their how-to stories. I am so excited to see their hooks, or introductions, as well as their closings. The tips and warnings, labels, and step-by-step instructions are incredibly clear, and moreover, the kiddos are super eager to teach each other! We will be working on how-to stories up until Spring vacation – I am learning something new every day!
Happy Mother’s Day to all! Enjoy the weekend – hope there’s a break from all the rain!