Math Stations with Boulan Buddies

Today children were able to recieve small group practice with different math skills.  We joined with the other Kinderplus class and headed to the cafeteria where there were 4 different math stations.  The kids were split into groups of 3-4 and partnered up with a Boulan Buddy.  The Boulan buddies took thier groups to each station for 8-10 minutes and provided small group support to reinforce the math concepts.  The Boulan buddies were very encouraging and helpful as the kids practiced. 

 One math station helped children to practice the concept of place value. The children used popsicle sticks to make bundles of tens and then count how many were left over.  This is often a very challenging concept for kids, we will continue to practice place value in the months to come. 

At another station children were using stacking cubes to build numbers in different ways.  For example they built the number 6 by using 3 blue and 3 green cubes.  They also used 4 yellow and 2 orange, etc.  Many children were surprised at how many different ways they could build a number. 

We reinforced coin recognition by playing a roll a coin game.  Children used coin dice and graphed how many times they landed on each coin. 

Boulan buddies read different math stories to the kids and talked about what concepts the books were about. 

Wood and Paper

This week we started our new science kit Wood and Paper.  Throughout this kit the boys and girls will be exploring different types of wood and learning where it came from, and observing properties of each kind of wood.  They will do the same with different kinds of paper.  To launch the unit boys and girls participated in a Visible Thinking routine called, See, Think, Wonder.  They were given different samples of wood and then participated in a class discussion of what they were observing, what it made them think and what questions did they have.  We also went on a hunt for things made of wood around the classroom.  They were surprised by how many things we found!  In the pictures below, you can see that the boys and girls have different wood samples.  They are using water droppers to test what happens when you drop water on the wood.  We noticed that with some wood samples, the water bubbled on top of the wood, while other samples absorbed the water quickly.  We then tested to see if the wood pieces would sink or float.  We are learning how to make predictions, look very closely and talk about our observations and to think of why certain things that they observed happened.  I am proud of our scientists!

Snowmen at Night

Today our Boulan Buddies came today and helped us make a snowman project that went along with a series of snowmen books we have read in class.  We have read the Snowmen at Night, Snowmen at Christmas and Snowmen All Year.  These stories are very fun because they tell what snowmen do while everyone is sleeping.  They drink hot cocoa, go sledding, have snowball fights, play baseball, etc....  Today children had to create a snowman according to the number of letters in their name.  Each letter was one snowball and then one extra for the head.  After they created their snowman they did a writing response as to what they would do at night if they were snowmen.  Our Boulan Buddies help us with the project.  All of the snow-girls and snow-boys are on display in our kindergarten hallway. 

The Mitten

Throughout the year we read several plot rich stories with a strong sequence of events that lend themselves perfectly to retelling activities.  Last week we read several versions of the classic tale, The Mitten, and were able to build our comprehension by retelling in different ways.  Children engaged in sequencing the characters in a SMART BOARD activity as well as got to watch short video clips about each animal from the story.  We created a huge mitten outline on the carpet using yarn and used masks to act our the story for each other.  The boys and girls also made their own mittens and animal pieces and practiced retelling the story independently during reading workshop.  They are bringing home these pieces today, have them tell the story for you!

Money, Money, Money

This week we have been learning about the penny and nickel.  The boys and girls have had exposure to money through our daily calendar but today we went more in depth with the coins.  We read books about the penny and nickel and learned about different characteristics of the coins, how much they are worth, where they are made, etc.  The boys and girls counted and added coins together in a smart board game.  Then each child got out their own bag of coins and we did various activities with the penny and nickel.  We sorted our coins into piles, looked to see when our coins were made, added different amounts of pennies and nickels, and identified different features of them.  We will be assessing the children later in the month on the penny and nickel.  They will be required to identify each coin and tell us the worth.  By June children are expected to also know the dime and the quarter.  You can support this math concept by using coins with your child at home.  Ask them to count change with you, sort coins, help figure out how much something might cost, play pretend grocery store, etc.  Have fun!