I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely May flower calendars your children made. The students loved working with a variety of materials to craft the beautiful forsythia calendars. Everyone also created their May self-portraits. This month, students drew themselves using white chalk on black construction paper. I have noticed how much pride the Kindergarteners are taking in their self-portraits. They are thrilled to have them displayed for all to see!
This week in writing, the students worked on a special surprise project for Mother’s Day! We hope you appreciate all of the kiddos’ hard work and inventive thinking! Enjoy your special day!
Math
· Egg Math – One leftover station from our chick unit! At this center, students practiced their addition skills by adding together various combinations of eggs to make 8!
· 2 Ten Shapes – For the second week in a row, each child took a ten frame and one other shape and wrote the total number of cubes needed to fill both shapes (always a teen number). Next, the kids rolled number cubes to determine how many Unifix cubes to take away, and finally, recorded the corresponding number sentence. This multi-step process required a lot of brainpower for the children to complete!
· Snap-it – Working with the number ten (or more), students made trains of cubes. They then “snapped” their trains at various places. Putting part of their trains in front of them and placing the remainder behind them, students worked to figure out how many cubes were hidden. In this manner, they 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!
· 3 Towers of 10 – This partner game is all about adding! Each person picked a cube color and rolled a die. After taking the specified number of cubes and putting them together, the student colored the recording sheet correspondingly. The game was over when there were three towers of 10 cubes! Lastly, each child recorded his/her number sentences!
· Addition Top-it – At this partner game, students turned over 2 cards and added the numbers together. Whoever had the greater sum, won the cards!
· Bump – A new addition partner game! 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!
· iPad – subtraction app – At this oldie but goodie iPad game, students worked to finish subtraction number sentences!
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 next few weeks, the students will come in every day, water their plants, and watch them grow! Additionally, the kiddos will be recording their plants’ progress as well as noting what seedlings and plants need to thrive and grow in their Planting Journal. Very exciting times in Kindergarten!
We have been reading many books about plants, seeds, and flowers. In fact, we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Soon after, a special delivery letter arrived! Mr. McGregor, a character from the book, had written our class! Wowza! He asked the boys and girls a lot of important questions about gardening, plants, and how to take care of those plants. We decided to write a letter back to Mr. McGregor to answer his questions. The kiddos did an excellent job naming plant needs, environments where plants will flourish, and reasons why plants have roots! Way to go, Kindergarteners!
In class, the children are learning about the structure of words and how some words are related to each other. This recognition helps them notice endings and begin to understand subject-verb agreement in sentences. We’ve been focusing on adding “s” to a verb to make it agree with a third-person subject. For example, the sentence “I run home” becomes “She runs home”. The cherubs did a great job listening for the differences to determine what sounds right!
Enjoy your weekend, everyone, and Happy Mother’s Day!