Jack and the Beanstalk

February Week 1

This week in math we learned about measurement. They catch on to this pretty quickly, so we don't spend too much time on it.

To make it fun, we use the Jack and the Beanstalk story. :)

First, of course, we read the story.

Beanstalk Craft

Next, to get them talking about the story, we made a picture of Jack up in the clouds. We also did a little writing in our journals to tell whether we would climb the beanstalk, and what we would do once we were up there.

 

Giant Hand Measurement

We now do math in small groups in my classroom. That way, kids get more 1:1 attention and we get done faster, which means more time for play!

We estimated the unifix cube height of the giant hand (and our own hands traced inside), and then checked if we were right.

Above is an example of a child's estimates.

Giant Foot Measurement

I made a mistake with this one- I made the "Giant Foot" too small! Some of the kids had bigger feet than the template. They didn't mind though!

The children found tracing their feet challenging, but their estimates greatly improved the second time around.

Thanks to Fairy Dust Teaching for these ideas. :)

Meeting Standards Through Play

One of my goals this year is proving to admin that we don't need worksheets to meet standards! One of the ways I'm working toward meeting that goal is by documenting how kids are learning through play.

The easiest center to do this in has been the reading center, where kids love playing teacher. 

Here, children are repeating an activity we did whole group earlier in the day- ordering the events from the Jan Brett story, "The Mitten."

 

 After that, they decided to see how many numbers they could fit on the whiteboard. :)

 

Over in the art center, a few children were writing letters to Santa. Authentic writing!

Another day in the reading center, a higher level girlie was teaching her classmates how to write morning messages. They were practicing so many skills we'd learned both formally and informally- spacing, capitalization, sight words, and sounding out words.

Here is a simple poster I put together to hang in the hall (that hopefully my admin and parents will read)! I'm planning on putting together many more.

I need to work on making time simply to observe the kiddos at play, and collecting more documentation of meeting standards in the other centers. Dramatic play and blocks are the hardest for me! But I know there is a lot going on there!

Unit 1 Math Centers

Here are the math centers I use at the beginning of the year. At this time we are studying counting, comparing and ordering numbers 0-5 (K.CC.4). I keep my current centers in tubs labeled with numbers, and store the unused centers in Ziploc bags.

 

Tub 1: Lakeshore Learning's Bug Sequencing Puzzles

 

 Tub 2: Lakeshore Learning's Count & Link Kit

 

 Tub 3: Lego and Number Card Match

 

 Tub 4: Number Puzzles (I think I got these through Scholastic Book Clubs!)

 

 Tub 5: More Number Puzzles!

 

 Tub 6: Pegboards (I like to keep at least one center open-ended!

 

Tub 7: Number Dot Cards and Pom Poms (to match up and count)

 

For now, 7 is enough! I will leave these out for the first three weeks as we learn the rules and routines of workshop time.