Getting Outside for Math Time

We headed outside to each choose a set of 5 leaves. Some children chose sets that were all similar, some gathered very different leaves, and each child had a chance to describe their leaves.  We decided how we could group the leaves all together, or which "attribute" we would choose to group by.  There were many ideas including color and size, and we settled on "shape" and then graphed our leaves. When we added up the total, we found we had collected 38 leaves.

Until Next Time,
Michele

Number Knowledge

We are exploring numbers; we continued to count the letters in our name and added all of the children's names together PLUS Chrysanthemum's name, and we found out that there are 156 letters all together.  Kindergarten math is all about the experience of working together, showing our work, and having open ended play time with materials.

Until Next Time,
Michele

Using our Number Knowledge

We began to formalize our work in kindergarten math this week, and even sat down to write some numbers and solve a counting problem in our workbooks. The children have had a good length of time to explore materials independently, and now with the connections that they have made we can begin to ask questions, describe, and discuss such things as attributes and number order.We've worked together in a group to complete projects, and have started to complete tasks independently.

taking attendance

working together to describe a button

free choice with materials

 The counting jar is an individual activity that the children participate in. The jar holds a certain number of objects, and the children create a set of buttons with that same number of objects.

Our first writing page!

completing a workbook

 We read a book called Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, then created our own name lines and counted up how many letters that we each had. Chrysanthemum has 13 letters in her name!

Until Next Time,
Michele

Experience in Math, and a Counting Book

 We read a book called 10 Black Dots by Donald Crews, and then counted out our own black dots and created pages for a new book. Counting and creating gave the children an opportunity to choose a number, check their count, and then create a picture with that number of dots. The pages were very creative!

 We spend time with math manipulatives every day, choosing activities and exploring the materials in free play.

We've added a new activity to our classroom, the Counting Jar. The children count out how many cubes are in the jar, and then create their own set of buttons to illustrate that number. We check their bags of buttons to see if the child is counting with one to one correspondence, if they are adding choices like matching colors or sizes, and if they have followed through with an activity independently. 

Kindergarten Math is all about hands on experiences in learning. As the year progresses, our play will become more formalized and their might be rules and cooperative activities that need to be completed.

Until Next Time,
Michele

Here We Go Again!

We have started to meet for Kindergarten Math, and it's very exciting and new to us. We have a schedule to follow: circle (take attendance), choices (materials at tables) and reflect (meet up again). We are exploring materials in free choice time to begin with, and this will continue each time a new topic is introduced. The Kindergartners are learning to cooperate with each other, make choices, use their time wisely, and they are also becoming familiar with the materials that they will use in learning games in the future.

Until Next Time,
Michele

We're Ready to Move On!

We've spent the last few weeks reviewing our knowledge of numbers, writing numbers, and completing dot to dots (special requests!). The kindergarten mathematicians used their knowledge of numbers to 20 to create towers for each number, and then we counted up ALL of the towers we made and found out that we used 210 unifix cubes!

Writing the number 210 was the best part. We revisited our "kindergarten math dreams" as well, and discovered that we are very skilled in math. We learned what we had set out to learn, and even more.

Until Next Time,
Michele