If parents would like to volunteer, stations is an activity that I like to plan for when they are here so the children get more focused adult help and attention.
Today the children explored some of the manipulatives we will be using throughout the year to learn about math concepts. Stations is something we do once a week; there are different "must-do" activities the children rotate through for a certain amount of time. These are different than our free-choice center time and allow the adults in the room to work with a small group of students. If parents would like to volunteer, stations is an activity that I like to plan for when they are here so the children get more focused adult help and attention.
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To begin Groundhog Day was read the story "Wake Up, Groundhog". We talked about what we know about shadows, here are the children's ideas:
Our discussion lead to the conclusion that everything has a shadow, but the children wondered if earth has a shadow. Some thought yes, others thought no, and some wondered if we could even know because the shadow would be in outer space. We then created a class graph to depict our predictions on whether Balzac Billy would see his shadow. After counting the predictions, we watched a video online showing that Billy did not see his shadow... could we really have an early spring? This post is a little late... but as I always say, better late than never! I wanted to thank Arianna's mom, Miss Roberta, and Zack's mom, Miss Jackie, for spending time with us last Thursday. Having an extra adult in the room gave us an opportunity to teach the children to play different board games. This is fantastic, because now the kids know how to play these games and can do so with their friends during center time with minimal adult help. Board games are an excellent way to reinforce numeracy or literacy skills while also giving children the opportunity to work on their social skills. Here are some photos from our games day. The kids had so much fun doing these! Taylor even asked me if it was a party :) On Tuesday we read one of my favourite books - "Setting the Turkey's Free". It's a great story for retelling (which focuses on oral language development, which is a precursor for writing and understanding stories) and connecting to art. We were busy all week creating our own turkeys, which will be going home tomorrow. We also use used grocery fliers to create our own 'Thanksgiving plate'. This activity incorporates fine motor skills (cutting and gluing), while working on sorting and classifying and developing vocabulary. Each child shared their 'plate' with the class when we were finished. For our community circle, each class member shared what they were thankful for. Here are our thoughts: Morning Class "I'm thankful for...
Afternoon Class "I'm thankful for...
Roll-A-Turkey
For this math station, children rolled a die and added the corresponding detail to their turkey body. This station helps children learn to subitize - which is recognizing number sets at a glance (meaning they can look quickly at a die and know they rolled a four without having to count the dots). You can help your child with this skill at home by playing board games with them. Noodle NamesFor this activity, children were given a strip of paper with their name already written on it. Their job was to cover the letters with white glue and place coloured noodles on top - creating their name written in noodles. We do this at the start of the year to familiarize children with their names - some kiddos come to kindergarten already printing their names, others are beginning to print their names, and others need practice recognizing their names. This task also gives the adults in the room an opportunity to observe a child's: fine motor skills, their understanding of left to right progression, possible sensory aversions, and letter formation knowledge. Name Sorting, Counting Letters, and Class GraphOn Friday each child was given squares of paper with the letters in their names written on them. Their job was to use these letters to build their name. Some children were able to do this without looking at their written name, others needed the support of having their written name in front of them. Both is fine, children all come in to kindergarten at different places on their literacy journey :)
Next, we glued these letters on a page to spell our names. We then counted how many letters are in our names and tried our best to print the number from looking at the ones written on the board. Today we will create a class name graph which will be displayed in our bootroom. Photos to come soon... |
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