November 9th

Math seems to be the time that I remember to get my camera out the most. I will try to take more pictures of our literacy and writing time, I promise!

We talked about probability this week. We practiced using the terms certain, possible, and impossible. I read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to the students and we discussed things that happened that were possible and impossible. The students then recorded in their journals some possible and impossible things.

The next day we took a deck of cards with just the 2’s through 10’s and the students took turns pulling cards and discussing if the it was certain that the next card would be higher, possible that it would be higher, or impossible for it to be higher. This is a higher order of thinking so I was very impressed with how the students did!

They also took some colored “beans” and shook and dumped them and recorded if they landed all the same color or different colors. This is where we talked about how it was a higher probability that they would be different, however it was possible to all be red or white.

Recording that the beans landed as different colors

 

We did some work with addition and subtraction concepts this week. For majority students this is an introductory skill; however some were ready to start recording number sentences on whiteboards.

The students started with the growing train game. Starting with no cubes they rolled a dice (with just 1, 2, or 3 on it) and they added that many to their train. This helped them understand that when we add we get more.

The next day we played disappearing train game. The students started with 10 cubes and then rolled the dice and subtracted that many from their rain. This showed that when we subtract we take away.

Great addition sentences!

Adding 3 to the train

Starting a subtraction problem

 

 

 

I did manage to snag 2 pictures from our literacy time and writing.

We have been talking about different types of houses so this week students looked through books to find 6 types of homes. They then drew those homes and labeled them. We have also discussed doing our best work so that anyone that looks at our picture can tell what we drew.

 

 

Stick house, Apartment, Igloo, Farm, Houseboat, Clay house

Apartment, igloo, barn, ?, clay house, houseboat

 

In writing we have been talking about Veteran’s Day. We labeled a big picture of a soldier with characteristics of Veterans. The students came up with: fought for our country, brave, care for people, keep us safe, save people.

The next day the students wrote thank you letters to the Veterans for all that they have done. We finished up by making our own soldiers. They turned out wonderful so check them out when you come to conferences next week!

Thank you for your fighting. Thank you fro the fighter planes.
Thank you for (the) Air Force. Soldiers are nice.

Apple Orchard

Walking past all the apple goodies

Listening in the barn

Learning about different farm products

Corn and soybeans

Feeling the wool from the sheep



Where the apples get sorted

One room school house

Learning about the seasons

Tasting sweet and sour apples



 



Corn pit!!

The best I could find for the class picture.
Next time I won't take my picture into the sun. :)

October Wow!

Wow! October was a long and busy month.  I know it is a looooong post but if you make it to the end there will be a treat for you. :)

Math

With our math times I try to incorporate as much hands on as I can. I believe that Kindergarten students learn best by doing, however there is a lot of modeling that happens before they can do on their own!

One thing we are working on is sorting objects in two different ways (shape and then size, or color and then number of sides). We started this activity by going on a leaf hunt. Each child brought a leaf inside and then we discussed ways we could sort the leaves: color, size, number of points, ripped/whole, shape. After this discussion we glued our leaves into color and size sorts.  You can sort at home using silverware, their toys, or their clothes!

 

 

 

During the first trimester we have been working on number identification through 20 and ordering numbers through 20. During one math session the students worked with a partner to put their number cards in order 0-20. Then we worked on number identification multiple ways. I called out a number, asked for a number that was one more or one less, and I clapped a number that they then had to find.  You can work on this at home by finding and reading number in the house, have your child put magnet numbers in order, or give them a number to type into your cell phone.

 

 

The last math activity (that I took a picture of!) was using spiders to measure classroom objects. The students not only worked on measuring, but also on writing their number correctly.

Reading

Our inquiry project for our Lead21 unit (Homes and Families) is comparing how homes are alike and different.

We started by looking through home books and text coding things we thought were a “wow!” or that made us wonder something.

 

In order to answer this question we have also been looking at books that show homes around the world and talking about how they are the same or different from our homes here in Ankeny.

 

Finally (for those of you who made it to the end of this post!) I have uploaded a video of the students reading their Lead21 poem for the week. We practice this poem every day and this was our first time performing for another class. It turns into a bit of a round at the end, but that is probably because we were lined up in front of another class.

Enjoy!

Week of October 8th

Our math this week focused around the “tricky teens,” those numbers that students struggle with the most. We spent a day making an anchor chart that showed you needed all 10 of your fingers plus more of your friends’ fingers to make a teen number.

            Another day was spent making teen number chains. Each group started with 10 blue links, to make the 10, and added on a certain number of black links, to make the ones. We talked about how each teen number has 1 group of tens and a specific amount of ones (15= one group of ten and five ones).

            We will continue working on reading, writing, and creating numbers in the teens during calendar math and throughout mini-lessons.



 

 

For our inquiry project in reading we have been learning how apple trees grow. This week the students watched a short video of the life cycle of an apple tree and then diagrammed their own apple tree life cycle.

As a culminating project for Unit 2 of Lead 21 students worked in small groups to create collages of each of the 5 senses. They were able to write words, draw pictures, and cut pictures out of magazines to represent their sense.

Tracing hands for "touch"

 

Drawing lips for taste

A skunk for smell :)

 

Our day in (some) pictures

We start our day off with lots of songs to get the kids moving and their brains working before we even start our morning.

The kids have started writing the morning message with me, once they get into that routine I will try to post some pictures of what I have them doing.

The kids doing one of our morning songs.

 

During our whole group time in the morning we have a phonological warm-up (beginning sounds, syllable clapping, or alphabet activities). We also read the poem that goes with our unit and work on a reading comprehension skill.



 

Working in a poetry journal

 

While I pull small groups for reading the kids are working at their table jobs. The students rotate through 4 different jobs, 1 each day. Once they complete their table job they get their bag of books (browsing bag) and read at least 3 books from it. They are then able to go to their station.

I don’t have pictures of table jobs yet, but here are some of our stations!

 

Big book station- they can read the book and build words
from the book.

Listening station- I have book on CD for the kids to read
and listen along to.

Poetry station- The kids highlight words they know, put the poem strips
in order, and illustrate poems in their poetry binders.

Word work station- This is right by our word wall so students can practice
copying words that we know. They can write on whiteboards, stamp,
or build with cut out letters.

Writing station- The kids can write stories, lists, letters,
or work on words on whiteboards.

ABC station- This one is car tracing a letter. There are
lots of alphabet games to choose from. As the year goes on
I will add word family and word games to this station.

After reading is done we have science. This unit was on using weight to observe objects. I try to make our science hands on and practical for the students.

For this activity we picked two different objects in our classroom and made predictions about which one weighed more. We then recorded our findings in our science journals.

 

Our afternoon starts off with math. We have a calendar time where we talk about the date, the day of the week, months, and the weather. We practice counting and do a couple of math songs.

Most of the time when we do math we record in our math journals, which stay at school, however many of you saw this math paper come home.

The kids had to use multiple skills to complete this activity. They had to read the number I gave them, write it correctly, and correctly count out the number of stickers (1 to 1 correspondence).

 

 

 

 



After math we have writing. We have been working on putting in beginning and ending sounds in our words, though I do encourage students who are ready for some middle sounds to add those as well. I work with small groups during this time in order to instruct at student levels.

I encourage students to think of the letters on their own and not rely on a teacher to tell them the “right way” to spell a word.

Below are two samples of writing to show the range of writing we have already in kindergarten.

Things that are orange: Orange, car, couch

 

Orange, crayon, pencil, box

We end our day with math games. During math games students are working on a specific math concept, but they are also learning some major social skills. Playing fair, taking turns, knowing how to win and lose appropriately are just some of the skills math games teach.

The game below is called “Cover All” and works on number identification (with dice), counting, and one-to-one correspondence.