This week, we talked A LOT about teen numbers, both how you form them as well as what they mean (e.g., 11 is 10 + 1). This will take a lot of practice, but once the skill is cemented, students will have a more solid number sense of what constitutes a number. It can often be tricky to remember which number comes first in the teens. In order to help the students recall how these numbers are formed, we listened to and sang a new song. Go to the following link to hear the fun rap! You can even sing it at home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W5aYi3lkho&safe=active
Afterwards, partners worked together to order numbers one through twenty, and they even noticed some patterns that popped up when seeing them in a line!
Math stations:
- 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 had to choose which dice to use (1-6 or 4-9) dependent on what they needed 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!!
- Pattern Block Puzzles – At this station, the students had the opportunity to explore relationships among shapes and determine how many ways the shapes could be arranged in a specific space. Using pattern blocks, the children filled in a particular puzzle shape in different ways and recorded the number of blocks used each time! Everyone became very creative with this station – definitely a fan favorite!
- Give the Next Number – We are beginning to talk about one more and one less. At this center, I laid down a number card. Students then had to think what number comes next! It was a great way to go over teen numbers as well as one more!
- Teen Puzzles – The kiddos concentrated on putting together a variety of puzzles. On the bottom of each puzzle were the numbers 11-19. This station had the students recognizing those numerals and putting them in consecutive order! The pictures also helped them to check their sequencing!
- Grow and Shrink with Ten Frames – This activity appears to be just a simple counting game, but it is one that allows children to begin to see relationships between numbers. Using our 10 frame manipulatives, the cherubs represented a number and then had to choose to either “grow” or “shrink” their manipulatives to represent the new number. This station was even trickier this week because the numbers are getting greater! The kiddos are really developing their number sense with this station!
- 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!
We are finishing up our first unit in Readers Workshop! The readers in Room #7 have worked very hard to read their storybooks (fiction) and learn about the world books (nonfiction). They have discovered many strategies to help themselves "read" the words and retell the stories, but most importantly, they LOVE reading! On Friday, the entire Kindergarten celebrated by parading into the office and showing off their favorite books, one in each genre. Everyone was so proud, and they deserved to be! Next up, the kiddos will discover the super readers they have within themselves! I can't wait to begin!
Room #7 is full of writers! They are writing up a storm! It’s amazing to see how much they are writing. For the past few weeks, the cherubs have been working hard to remember what good writers must do to create. Here’s a list they came up with. Your children think about:
- Writing true stories that happen to them
- Visualizing their story so they can draw all the details
- Labeling their pictures
- Being a Rock Star Speller (how many letters can they write for each word)
- Revising (Yes! Revising! “When you think you’re done, you’ve only just begun.”)
- Solving problems – The boys and girls are independently attempting to solve problems as they arise while they work (e.g., need a new piece of paper, not sure what to write, writing words they don’t know)
- Being independent and the “boss” of their own writing!
- Using their circle words
And that’s just to name a few! This week, everyone focused on practicing something new that writers do: stretch out their words and write the corresponding sounds! In Writer’s Workshop, the kids are working diligently to identify as many sounds as they can. In order to do this, they stretch out their words like a rubber band so that they can hear the sounds. If they can identify what sounds they hear, they write them down. This is tricky work, and your writers are off to a fantastic start! Way to go, rock star spellers!
We had a very busy and fun week! Enjoy your weekends!