The Napping House

We played a game called attribute block matching and the children were able to use visual cues to match the blocks by one attribute. An curious twist happened with one pair of children...the "big" card was covered by a "big" pile of attribute blocks of all sizes and colors. Interesting thinking!
We read the lovely book The Napping House with a counting interest....after constructing (cooperatively) a poster of the sleeping animals, people, and flea on the bed, we answered counting questions....such as "how many noses?" and "how many legs?"
The counting jar is in use, as well as answering "yes" "no" questions for attendance. The children spontaneously constructed a very long cube tower, and measured each other with it. The tower was made, initially, to measure me, but I was only 89 cubes tall :o)
Until Next Time,
Michele

So much writing this week! We wrote the number "5", we wrote our names for an attendance activity, and we wrote numbers or pictures to "record" our count for the counting jar. The children practiced "che che koolay", a counting game from Ghana, and are prepared to perform it for the assembly audience. We made apple crisp (mathematically, of course) with the first graders on Monday, which started our week off to a delicious start!

Attributes, and Working Together

This week we tried working with partners, which was quite different from our individual choice times, but the children handled the change very well. A Button Match game was introduced, which involved matching buttons by 1 attribute. Depending on the players, the game could look like "war" or a button bakery. We practiced writing our "4" with a poem and with wooden pieces, and added a new twist to our attendance stick, which involved comparing the number tower that we made together with a number tower that will always be 10. The counting jar continues to be a popular choice, and I have heard children checking with each other regarding their "counting"...."would you tell me when to stop?"
Until Next Time,
Michele

Buttons, and a Counting Jar....

Counting, and Attributes.

This week we added a new activity to our math routine, The Counting Jar. The children learned to independently count the objects in the jar and create their own set of objects from a tray of counters to match the jar's.

We discussed "ways to describe a button" and the children all came up with words that we deemed were "attributes". We will learn a new game using the buttons that is concerned with matching the buttons by at least 1 attribute.

We practiced writing our number "3"s and on that very rainy Wednesday we had a creative work time, coloring, cutting symmetrically, and working independently. The children are finding comfort in our routine and are ready to discuss our work at the end of each session now. We discovered that if we feel rushed, we can talk to the teachers and perhaps take a moment to catch our breath before moving on to the next activity.

Our math time was pre-empted this Thursday(there goes our routine!!), and so we will journal next Thursday.

Until Next Time,
Michele