Exploring Counting, Continued!

We explored counting and relative amounts when we read the book Chrysanthemum and counted up all of the letters in her name. We made towers of cubes representing the letters in our names, and then played comparison games, and filled in papers that showed shorter or longer.

 We played an inventory "game" which motivated the mathematicians to open mystery bags, count up the objects inside the bags, and record their results. Some children chose more than one bag to count up!

Until Next Time,
Michele

And the Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins

We are exploring the book And the Doorbell Rang  by Pat Hutchins.  Everytime the doorbell rings, the children have to share their cookies out fairly. Today we practiced sharing "one for you, one for me;" and we made sure to share out the cookies evenly. We will try to act out the story with props in the coming days. The children all realized that each time the plates would have fewer cookies-and checked my work dividing the cookies up evenly.

The book brings to life for the children the combining of groups, even numbers, dividing, counting out even groups, and anticipation. What will happen if more children show up? Can we divide the cookies?

Until Next Time,
Michele

Literature and Math Work Together!

Literature adds an element of creativity and familiarity to our classroom work. The K mathematicians were very proud of their work as they constructed a book based on the Donald Crew Book Ten Black Dots ! Creating the book required choosing a number from one to ten, gluing that  number of dots to the page,  and coloring a picture to include the dots. The children then told me their stories; I think that their favorite part was when we read the pages together as a group!

Until Next Time,
Michele