Room #7 is full of busy bees! The kiddos have been hard at work; keep reading to see some of the highlights!
We started a new unit in Math this week. During this unit, students are working a lot with 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.
· My Teen Counting Book – Room #7 has been working hard on their teen numbers! At this station, students focused on writing their teen numbers and then filling in a 20-frame with stickers to match the number they were working on. Kids received a lot of practice counting to ensure that they had the correct amount! This was also an awesome station to strengthen those fine motor muscles!
· Spin and Graph – After spinning a pattern block spinner, students graphed how many times the spinner landed on a particular shape! As an extra challenge, they used invisible buddy lines to see how many more shapes the “winning” pattern block had than the others!
· One More Game – This Bingo-esque game required students to roll dice and then figure out what one more was than the number on their dice. For example, if a student rolled a 6, one more is 7! Next, they found a representation of 7 on their Bingo board. 5 in a row won!
· Great Monster Race - This is an independent activity with a Halloween twist! Here, students had to roll dice and trace the number their dice had landed on. The students continued rolling and tracing until a particular spooky image won (e.g., a ghost, a haunted house, a witch, etc.)!
· 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 working both to recognize those numerals and put them in consecutive order! The pictures also helped them to check their sequencing!
· Find a Match – In this Memory-esque game, students looked under a tub and counted all the cubes. They then tried to find the tub with the matching quantity of cubes! The cherubs had a lot of fun with this game, and it was great counting and memory practice!
· 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!
The cherubs are beyond excited to practice a new component of the Daily Five! This week students ventured into Work on Writing (as well as Read to Self) and loved the choice aspect of this “station.” Many kiddos were busy at work creating all different types of lists! Ask your child what he/she chose to do! Additionally, the students are loving Read to Self even more because they are now “shopping” for their own books to read! This practice allows them to experiment with a variety of texts and think about whether or not each book is a good fit!
In Writer’s Workshop, the class has started to learn about writing 3-page stories. After reading Creak! Said the Bed, the class and I talked about how the author, Phyllis Root, instead of writing a one-page story, did an excellent job of spreading her tale out amongst the pages of the book. She accomplished this by including many details so that the reader felt as if he/she were there. Next, the boys and girls practiced verbally telling their stories, stretching them out amongst 3 pages. This is difficult work! We will continue creating 3-page stories to gain practice in storytelling – using details and breaking the story apart into a beginning, middle, and end! Try telling stories together at home for fun!
As it is a new month, the kids created gorgeous, one-of-a-kind self-portraits using oil pastels. As usual, they concentrated on including all the features of their faces into their pictures. Many even included extra details by adding intricate and festive designs to their shirts. Come on by Room #7 to sneak a peek at the cherubs’ handiwork!
I hope those of you who were able to come to the Publishing Party enjoyed your kiddos’ hard work! They were excited to share it with you! Have a wonderful weekend!