Room #7 boys and girls have been busy bees these past week. Read on to find out some highlights!
In our math unit, students are focusing on shapes – learning their names, understanding their attributes, and describing the differences among them. Students are also finding out about teen numbers as well as exploring the concepts of addition and subtraction.
- Build a Staircase (to 9!) - This week, this fan favorite got even trickier!! Not only did the kiddos use number dice to increase their number recognition but also had to build the staircase to 9! They needed to choose which dice to use (1-6 or 4-9) dependent on what was required in their staircase. Working with a partner, the boys and girls of Room #7 took turns rolling a die. They then stacked cubes together to represent that number. Once the partners finished building their staircases (1-9), they took turns rolling the die to disassemble them!!
- Teen Puzzles – The kiddos concentrated on putting
- Mix It Up! – This fun game could be played either with a partner or independently! Given a deck of number cards from 10-20, the students mixed up the cards and put them back in number order. It was really cool to watch them problem solve to make certain the numbers were in the correct positions. Additionally, the cherubs often sang parts of our teen number song to assist in this tricky work!
- Shrinking Number Monster (with a twist!) - Another favorite, students rolled dice to determine how many “eyes” belonged on their monster work board. They then took away one eye, recounted them, and this week, wrote the number that was one less! This was tricky work that required a lot of thought!
- Give and Take – At this station, Mrs. Bellaire hid a specific number of cubes under a tub. Then, she lifted the tub and either added a cube (or two!) or took one (or two!) away! Next, the boys and girls wrote the numeral that represented the number of cubes under the tub. Finally, they counted to see if they were correct!
- Spin and Write Teen Numbers - Using a spinner with all of our teen numbers represented in 10-frame form, the kiddos spun, then practiced writing that number on their board. They always had to remember: “Numbers in the teens start with a ONE!”
We are finishing up our unit on narrative writing! This week, the writers in Room #7 worked on publishing their favorite piece. In order to do this, they each received an “editing” checklist where they went through their piece to decide if they could read their writing: Did they stretch out the words? Did they use finger spaces between words? This is hard work! The students are committed to it, though, and determined to make their writing the best it can be! Up next? Pattern books after the Thanksgiving break!
We revisited rhymes this week as I noticed that many of our cherubs were having a difficult time identifying and naming rhyming words. They love to play with rhyming words. Together in our classroom, we listened to and identified words that rhyme, or sound alike. I made sure to emphasize that the words sound the same at the end. Many kiddos were confusing rhyming with words with the same beginning sounds. After clarifying, we did some rhyming matching games! You’ll notice that your child has brought home a sheet of rhyming pictures to cut apart and match by rhyme. Also, you may want to play other rhyming games with your child. There are several
quick ones to play:
• Say two words out loud and invite your child to repeat them.
• Say a series of rhyming words such as dog, frog, log, fog. The child sits when she hears one in the series that does not rhyme: dog, frog, log, fog, hot.
Playing over and over again can lead your child to hearing and connecting words that rhyme, which will help them solve words when they read. Additionally, any rhyming books are good rhyming books! Have your cherubs identify any rhyming words that they hear! So fun!
Enjoy the weekend, everyone!