The Pattern Museum

We celebrated our traditional pattern museum this week. The kindergarteners were very proud of their work and able to explain their pattern work to a variety of interested visitors, including preschoolers, teachers, our first grade friends, and administrators. Exciting times, and now we know that the kindergarteners are pattern experts.
Until Next Time,
Michele

Patterns and more Patterns.....

We learned a new game, called "What's Next"; the children make a pattern and cover up the last few spaces with cups, and then there is some guessing!

 We have learned how to construct (and invent) a variety of patterns, including AB, AAB, ABB, ABCD, and etc; learning the components of pattern making.

 The children constructed and acted out arrow patterns- up, down, side to side.

Until Next Time,
Michele

Patterns, Continued

 We are putting together all sorts of patterns now; two color patterns, shape and color patterns, patterns to make a picture and 1-2 patterns. The children are clear about making patterns and noticing what repeats in each pattern, and are able to extend patterns by placing the block or color that comes next.

Until next time,
Michele

Beginning Patterns!

We are learning to look closely at how things are "arranged" and deciding whether they are a pattern or not. We read some books that are "patterns", in that we could predict what would happen on the next page. (This is the House that Jack Built and Over in the Meadow are examples of books that are predictable and written as a pattern! ) We looked throughout the school for patterns, and made 8 cube trains that were either patterns or not patterns. We played "what's missing?" with a grid of 9 items and a scarf to cover everything, and practiced making patterns with various materials.
There's more to come!
Until Next Time,
Michele

what's missing?

is this a pattern?

Ordering and Comparing, and The Napping House

 We have finished up our unit about numbers, ordering numbers, and comparing amounts. We have learned to record our answers with paper and pencil, and the children work independently to complete their work.

 We read The Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood, and we made a picture with all of the characters and then counted "how many" (eyes, feet, legs, noses....) and recorded our data.

Next up for us is our Pattern Unit! Exciting days ahead. 

Until Next Time,
Michele

Comparing Lengths and Amounts; longer, shorter, more, or less.

Our activities this week were about comparing; we read Chrysanthemum and then counted the letters in her name and in our own names. We played a grab and count game that let us compare two grabs to see which hand held more cubes, and recorded our results. Finally, we had a "longer" and "shorter" classroom hunt, and the children measured their tower of 10 cubes against a number of objects and sorted them according to "longer" and "shorter."

 And now, a word about dot to dots. You may have noticed a few dot to dots lately coming home with your children. Sometimes something grabs a student, in this case all of the students, and we need to run with it. In the kindergarten classroom, it's dot to dots, so I decided to look closely at what happens when the K's are completing dot to dots:

• counting one to 40 or more
• numeral recognition
• number order
• place value 
• fine motor control
• focus and persistence
• figure ground visual perceptual skills(locating numbers on the page that are not one next to each other)
• some helping behaviors and conversations 

Even if the page is not completed accurately, there's a lot of time and attention spent looking for numbers, tracing lines, and trying to figure out the picture.

Until Next Time,
Michele