Saturday, September 27, 2014

Comparing Attributes

collecting data



"shoes" and "not shoes"

what's the same about that group?

we all have grey!



taking attendance

writing "3"






This week, we began a "question of the day" activity, which is a question that gives us an opportunity to write our name in a preferred space, and then look at a whole picture of data. We grouped ourselves this week as well according to such attributes as "shoes, not shoes" and "pictures on clothing, no pictures on clothing." For this activity I would group the children and they would try to guess what attribute I had used for my rule. We worked hard to write the number "3" which is quite different from "2" and there was such a sense of accomplishment and success when that pencil made the second curve! We continue with free play with materials, but we are  slowly adding more formal activities.

Until Next Time,
Michele

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Moving On to Attributes and Number Recognition!

We started the week with a literature based activity:We read the book  Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews and then created our own pages with ten black dots. What was the focus of learning?
  1. planning ahead
  2. telling a story with numbers
  3. spatial relations
  4. counting to ten with one to one correspondence (I gave the children more than ten sometimes so they had to check my counting!) 








We also continued to have free play time with math manipulatives: when the children are comfortable with the materials they tend to be able to use them constructively with directed activity.




 We also talked about attributes this week, and matched buttons by at least one attribute.

Brilliance!

Michele

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Establishing Routines, Exploring Materials

The Kindergarten Mathematicians met this week and learned about the routine of our time together. We arrive in the classroom, take attendance, and then move on to a workshop time, then it's back to the rug for wrap up and a story or number game. We talked about our dreams for learning this year, and I've posted them here. Typically I introduce this topic by talking about math and what it means, and then we move on to talking about our own ambitions. The group is quite diverse in it's interests, as you'll see!  Each week I will chronicle our learning in this blog. Enjoy!
 Until Next Time,
Michele