October review - updates from the classrooms

We wanted to share with you a few things we loved to use teaching math, science, reading and writing units last month from each of our classrooms.  We hope this will help explain a few of the terms you hear the teachers and students use (such as "buttering our popcorn words").  Please enjoy this little review of our October Units and some of our favorite teaching tools from last October.

In Ms. D's class they really got into their math centers with October inspired counting activities.  This is a super cute and super easy way to make counting fun for your child.  All you need are some paper plates and some spider rings.  These are great to use any time of year!

Ms. D also made a quick and easy upper/lower case letter match.  You can find these cute cut outs at a teacher store, at the dollar store or you can make them yourself with construction paper.  The kids love it when their "work" is made into fun learning centers like this!

This idea helps the student learn one-to-one correspondence (knowing that the number symbol for 1 equals only one spider on the web and being able to do this for numbers one through ten).  We will be introducing teen numbers this month so the fall and Thanksgiving themed activities will be coming out during center time!

 

In Ms. Boatright's class the students demonstrated their understanding of the life cycle of pumpkins by creating this super cute pumpkin, flower, leaves and seed mobile.  They then decorated their classroom by hanging their science mobiles from the ceiling.  Ms. Boatright's room started looking like fall harvest!

This activity helped the students develop fine motor skills by cutting and gluing the mobile pieces.  They also had to problem solve how to sequence the order of the life cycle correctly.  This was very meaningful after our field trip to the pumpkin patch where they got to see the life cycle of the pumpkin in the garden.  The students had to follow multi-step directions, listen closely, understand vocabulary and look closely at  the first letter of the words to place them with the correct picture (the seed and the word SEED, the leaves and the word LEAVES, the flower and the word FLOWER and the pumpkin and the word PUMPKIN).  The students also got to cut out and create their own pumpkin recalling the different shapes pumpkins can be (oval or circle).

 

In Ms. Allen's class you can see how the students "butter" their popcorn words after they have learned them.  They add the yellow "butter" after they have practiced the words and found them in books and in their daily poetry which she places on sentence strips and places in the pocket chart.  The students use Wiki Stiks to find the popcorn word(s) of the week in the poem.  The students also started learning about word families in October.  You can see her "AT" family cat with the "AT" family words!  Ms. Allen has word family pictures for all of the word families the students will learn in kindergarten and they are placed around the classroom for the students to use during reading and writing workshop.

Ms. Allen also created this wonderful anchor chart for the students to support their learning in Writing Workshop.  "When you think you are done you have just begun" is something all of the teachers say when the students say they are finished with a book they are writing.  When they are writing at home refer to this chart and ask them the following questions: can you add more pictures/details to your book?,  can you add words to your book? (really a great way to practice popcorn words and to start sounding out words), OR if they are really done and have added details and words (if they can) ask them if they are ready to start a new book.

 

In Mrs. O's class they students spent October learning about their new reading super powers (this unit was taught in all of the Kindergarten classes).  Mrs. O made this super cool reading anchor chart showing the students how to use their new super reading powers.  They can think about the story, use their Eagle Eye to look at the pictures to figure out a tricky word, they can take a picture walk to think about what they story is about and try to think about words they can expect to see in the text, AND they can use their super reading finger to tap under each word one time to stay in place and on track in the text.  I bet you didn't know she was such a great artist!

This is Mrs. O's word wall.  Each classroom has one.  You can see that Mrs. O has added all of the popcorn words her students have learned so far this year.  She also has all of the color words they have learned up there.  The students are learning how to use the word wall during writing workshop to help them write pattern books.  The word wall will keep getting fuller and fuller as the students learn more and more words this year!

 

In Ms. Arrendale's class the students finally were able to explore the fall items brought back from the pumpkin patch field trip during their science time.  They were able to compare and contrast these fall fruits/vegetables to the pumpkin they carved.  They were able to estimate the number of seeds and graph fall items during math.

The students were taught how to use a magnifying glass to observe and study the inside of the pumpkins and other fruit/vegetables.  The children were encouraged to use descriptive words to explain what they were observing.  They also created an anchor chart using descriptive words to describe a pumpkin after they used the magnifying glass to study the pumpkin closely.

In Ms. Arrendale's class they students drew different types of Jack-O-Lantern faces using the basic shapes on write-on/wipe-off boards and voted on the face they wanted carved into the pumpkin.  This was the finished product using squares, semi-circles, triangles, ovals and rectangles.  The students also wrote about their trip to the pumpkin patch in writing workshop.

 

 

We hope this little glimpse into our daily classroom activities helps you facilitate conversations that will help reinforce skills they were exposed to during last months lessons.  We had a great time teaching all of our kindergarten kids last month!  Fall is a great time to expand on their math, language and science skills.  We will update you each month with a monthly classroom update post to keep you informed.  Now that you know how to "butter" your popcorn words get a yellow highlighter and have your child "butter" some popcorn words in magazines, newspapers and junk mail you receive at home.  It is a fun and meaningful way to practice those popcorn words!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading a Level B Book

Most of you have read with your child from their reading bags that get sent home over the weekends. The students will be moving up levels as they learn more about how to decode words.  Some of you may see books in their bags that have level B books in them.  Level B books follow a pattern like level A books, but there is a "twist" at the end.  This means the last page of the book does not follow the pattern on the previous pages.  This lets the reader focus on the text and learn that not all books will follow a pattern.  The higher the level, the less it relies on the pattern to support the reader.  This also makes the young reader focus on the text, the letters and the pictures to decode unknown words.  Teachers introduce this concept by teaching the young reader that level B books have a "twist at the end".  We do this to let the reader know when they see level B on their book they need to look for the pattern to change on the last page.

We are posting a new video to show you what a new level B reader may sound like during the reading of a level B book.  You will see the typical mistakes a level B reader may make when reading and how you can address these mistakes at home.  We also start working on comprehension strategies early to teach the young readers to be able to identify characters, setting, what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the book.  The goal is that the young reader will be able to recall these details without using the book itself.  If the young reader can recall details without using the book as support this demonstrates that the reader is comprehending the book.  We hope these videos are helpful when you are working with your child at home.  Thank you for helping your child become a strong reader!  Your support is critical in helping them master the skills needed to become life-long lovers of reading!

 

 

Learning Math - Fall Style!

Here are some pictures of ways you can use the fall resources (such as pumpkin seeds, Indian Corn, leaves and seeds) to make learning foundation math skills fun and meaningful for your child.  Not only will you be teaching your child important math concepts such as sorting, counting, graphing and categorizing, you will also be making lasting fall memories.  Enjoy this post and enjoy your child and the beauty of the fall season.

These students have taken fall leaves they collected and are working on sorting them into categories.  The first time they sorted by color.  Then they counted how many items were in each set.

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These are close up shots of how they sorted the leaves into categories.

 

 

Next they worked together to graph each group in order to determine which leaf category had the most, least, and if any groups had equal amounts.  They determined that the green leaf category had the most leaves.

 

You can find fall cut outs, foam pieces and other small items cheaply at local craft stores, dollar stores and at the dollar spots in department stores.  The students worked in small groups of four or less with the items to sort, categorize, and eventually graph their items.  The children had to work together to decide how to sort the items.  Some groups sorted by color while others sorted by shape.  They had to work together to decide how the items should be categorized.  They worked hard to problem solve and work together to make decisions while participating in this activity.  Some groups then counted how many items where in each group strengthening their number sense.

In this activity the students used items collected in nature (Indian Corn, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds) to sort, count and categorize.  Each Kindergarten class has been working on these skills over the past two weeks.  Using items found in nature during the fall months also gives the students a chance to explore the natural world and obtain a better understanding of the life cycle of plants.  These concepts were introduced during our Pumpkin Unit of Study and will be reinforced during the school year.  The students were also encouraged to use descriptive words while working with these items so they can become better at using descriptive words (adjectives) in their writing.  The more experiences they have with real items at this age the stronger their writing skills will become as they become writers.  Go on Nature Walks, to the zoo, museums, library programs or other activities that will expose your child to new experiences and vocabulary.  Encourage them to describe what they experience and to keep a journal they can write and draw in during these (or right after) trips.

Students sorted the seeds and kernels before starting to create graphs.  The purpose of graphing is to help the students visualize the mathematical concepts of greater than (more), less than (less) and equal to (same).  Graphing allows the student to visually record these concepts.  This helps when they start learning about place value (10's, 100's, 1000's), fractions and decimals.  This also helps the students start to learn groups of 10, counting to 100, addition/subtraction and multiplication.

Students graphing their items that were sorted into categories.

 

 

 These students are working independently with a handful of items.  Students mentored each other during their independent work.  Mathematical vocabulary was used during their discussions.  Many were asked to explain or justify why they classified the items the way they did.  Most students classified by type (pumpkin seed, corn kernel, sunflower seed).  Others divided the corn kernels into multiple categories by color (dark, light, mixed) and counted them as separate categories.  When doing these activities at home always ask your child to explain or justify their reasoning for sorting or classifying items into categories.  This helps them use logic and rich vocabulary to explain their thinking which is a critical skills needed in all academic areas.  Their explanations are often fascinating and we learn so much about each child from those conversations!

 

This child found a different way to graph his information.  He then taped one of each item at the bottom of his graph so others could understand his data.  He also wrote the numeral next to each item before he removed the items from his paper.  He wanted to "see" his graph after he had to put the items away so he created his graph in a way that he could take the activity home with him.  As teachers we like to leave many of our activities "open-ended" so children can express their learning in different ways.  We encourage you to do the same at home. 

This child created her graph on a write-on/wipe-off board.  We encourage you to have one of these at home along with some dry erase markers.  It will save you a ton on paper, it is easy to clean and can be used almost anywhere!

The last fall math activity we would like to share with you is this easy to make pumpkin math game.  One of the teachers found this idea on Pinterest (we don't know how we taught before Pinterest came into our lives, lol) and it only took five minutes to make.  Take orange paper and a black permanent marker and cut out random oval/circle shapes.  Draw on faces using basic shapes.  Make sure the mouth is extra big to accommodate many candy corn (at least up to 12 if you are using two die or larger if you want to use 3 die).  Have your child roll the first die and place that many candy corn on where the top row of teeth would go.  Next you, or your child can roll the second die and then place the number of candy corn that correlates with the number on the die.  Now ask your child to add together the top row and bottom row of teeth (candy corn) and give you the sum (the total).  Try to use the correct vocabulary (using words like sum for total).  You can also use the following language.  "The total number of candy corn teeth in our pumpkins mouth is 11.  11 is the whole.  11 is made up of two parts.  The first part is 6, the second part is 5.  The whole is 11.  6+5=11."  We are teaching the children math vocabulary such as adding, sum, total, part, all together, more than, greater than, less than and equal too.  You can expand this activity by asking your child which number is greater, 6 or 5?  What comes after six?  What comes before five?  What would the total be if we add on more tooth to the mouth?  What would the total be is we had one less tooth in the mouth?  There are lots of ways you can expand your child's math knowledge by just asking a few more questions during any math game you play.

The students had a ball playing this game.  We did have to talk about germs, not eating the candy and taking turns when we play a math game before we started this activity.

These two students thought it was too funny when they each rolled a one on their die.  They also thought the pumpkin face was funny with just two teeth!

We encourage you to play math games with your child.  Have them identify numbers at the grocery store or gas station.  Have them count how many red lights you go through on a drive to run errands.  Play high/low with playing cards.  You both flip a card at the same time and the person with the high card (or low card if you want to play that way) gets both cards.  Play until one person is out of cards. The person with all the cards wins.  You can have them count how many coins are in your pocket, count how many letters are on the cereal box or have them count how many letters are in their name.  All of these math games will make them stronger mathematicians and will help them love learning math!

 

We hope that sharing some of these ideas will encourage you to "play" math at home.  Please share with us any great math games you play at home!  Enjoy playing with your child.  Thank you for all you do to help support your child mastering the skills we are working on in class.