Ten Yellow Dots Can Be

The children explored the numbers to "10" this week, which happens to be the number of children in our class. Each day we took attendance, and we've added interlocking cubes to make an "attendance stick" to count how many children are here, how many children are in our class, and how many children are absent. The children discovered patterns, similarities and differences in color preferences, and how to wait very patiently while their neighbor added a cube.
Our math choices became a little more thoughtful as we discussed what we noticed about pattern blocks, color tiles, buttons, and our other choices.
We sang an echo song, Che Che Koolay, which required paying attention, counting off, and singing out loud. We also read Ten Black Dots again, and wrote our own book about Ten Yellow Dots, which required counting 10 and creating and coloring a page, which was then read out loud.
This week, we wrote the number "2" in our writing books, and our calendar work ended on the last day of September, amazingly enough.

Until Next Time,
Michele

My Math Journal!

The children are excited about their learning and will record their observations each week in a small journal.

Learning the Routines.....

The K mathematicians worked this week to learn the routines of our math group. We begin our session with an "attendance" activity, how many students are in our class and how many students are here each day, as well as how many students are absent. We played a "count off" game that the children embraced and enjoyed. Each week, we will have a number practice writing session, using the curriculum "handwriting without tears". The children explored math manipulatives in free play. The free play sessions that we engage in now will lead to more refined games with rules and turn taking in the future.
We also explored the calendar this week, and shared what we noticed about the calendar, then counted up the days to today. The children are familiar with the order of the days of the week, and will be practicing reading the calendar.
The children ended their "math" week with journal writing.
Until Next Time,
Michele

Our first week of K math was a week of learning the routine of "math", and the first graders helped us to learn! We counted up the fruits and vegetables from the Dress Up Corner in small groups, wrote down the numbers, and reported to the whole group. The children graphed the results of our counting, which involved adding together numbers (!) to construct a horizontal bar graph. We had a chance to explore math manipulatives during free choice time, and finally, on Thursday, we learned about our Math Journals, which we'll have each week to fill with math ideas and happenings from the week. The children completely embraced the idea of recording numbers, copying the graph, or drawing pictures of themselves at work. A great start for these very motivated mathematicians!
Until Next Time,
Michele

Just a Beginning

Hello!

This blog will serve to keep you updated regarding the happenings in Kindergarten Math each week. We'll share pictures, units, and everything to do with our math class.

This week, we are spending time with the whole K-1 class and practicing the skills of group work, counting together, graphing, and survey taking.

Until next time,
Michele