We’ve been listening to rhymes in our classroom. Your child may have mentioned the songs we’ve been singing and the poetry we’ve been reciting together. They’ve been enjoying rhymes and songs, which have helped the cherubs listen to the sounds of language, especially rhyming words. And, as they notice rhyming words, they begin to learn how words work, such as: Some words have end parts that sound alike – they rhyme. Hearing these sounds helps the children realize that words are made up of sounds and assists them in distinguishing individual sounds so they understand that letters and sounds are related.
We’re having fun with songs and poems, and the children can hear the rhymes. In fact, sometimes they can even predict what the rhyme will be. Eventually, they will hear individual sounds and will be able to connect them to letters.
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. Your children think about:
- Writing true stories that happen to them
- Visualizing their story so they can draw all the details
- Labeling their pictures
- 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)
- 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!
On Thursday, the students learned about buddy lines. Buddy lines help the students when comparing the amount of different objects. For example, when looking at a graph, sometimes it’s difficult to tell which column has more in it. However, if one draws a line from one item to the next until one can no longer draw anymore, that person will be able to discern which has more or less, and how many more or less. To practice this skill, the students partnered up and worked with each other’s names. After lining up their names, they drew buddy lines from one letter to the other and then finally determined whose name had more letters and whose name had less. The cherubs had a blast during the activity and can’t wait to use buddy lines in their everyday lives!
Math Centers:
· Roll a Tower – At this independent station, a cherub rolled a die, built a tower with enough cubes to match the number rolled, and then placed the tower on the game board in the corresponding column. The child kept rolling the die and building towers until an entire column was filled and a number had “won”! The boys and girls got so excited to see which number ended up winning!
· Build a City – This partner activity had students building towers depending on the roll of the die. When their game was over, they had built a “city” of skyscraper towers! This week, the cherubs had an extra challenge. They connected all their towers, counted and decided which one had more cubes and which had less. If students had trouble counting that high, they compared the 2 towers by standing them up next to each other and comparing which one was more or less and by how many!
· Dumptruck Numbers – At this repeat station, the boys and girls picked a dumptruck workboard with a specific number on it. Next, they placed that amount of cubes “inside” the dumptruck. To ensure they had counted like a mathmatician, the kiddos then checked their work and counted again! We are challenging ourselves in room #7 with higher numbers!
· Finger Count Fun – At this station, students worked on number recognition in two different ways: recognizing how many fingers are held up and showing a specific number on their hands!
· Spin and Sort Pattern Blocks – Given a spinner with the following options: 3 sides, 4 sides, and 6 sides, the students sorted the shapes on their sorting mat. In this activity, everyone had to identify which shapes had that many sides. They also received continued practice naming the various shapes.
· Pumpkin Seed Counting – Similar to last week’s mini ten frame book, students used star stickers to represent each number in their book. Lastly, they received practice tracing each number!
· One More Bingo – This Bingo-esque game required students to roll a die and then figure out what one more was than the number on their die. For example, if a student rolled a 6, one more is 7!
During Learning Labs this week, I introduced a project for our Math Center. At this center, students worked to complete unique pumpkin glyphs. Last Friday, students painted their very own pumpkins, mixing yellow and red to make orange. This week, they created jack-o’-lanterns out of these pumpkins. The students individualized their pumpkins according to the rules of the glyph. For example, if a student is a boy, he cut out circle eyes. If the student has 2 syllables in his/her name, then he/she cut out a happy mouth. The students will continue with this project next week, but they had a blast working to construct pumpkins that reflected parts of their own identity!
Last week, Mrs. Grubbs and I introduced the idea of being super flexible, or Superflex, with one’s thinking. This week, Room #7 boys and girls learned about an Unthinkable that can compromise one’s flexible thinking: Glassman…dun, dun, dunnnn! Click on the Social Skills Curriculum page to find out more about this tricky fiend and how our Kindergartners are learning strategies to defeat him!
Have a wonderful and restful long weekend!