What have we been up to?

As we continue to learn the expectations of the classroom, we have slowly began adding some academic components to our day.  Here is a little peek into what we've been learning.

Writer's Workshop 

In Writer's Workshop the children are building their confidence as writers as they are are acquiring new skills.  They have been writing teaching pieces and have been studying books of famous authors such as Donald Crews along with becoming independent writers.  I've been so impressed with their stamina  and the growth that has already been made in the 5 sessions we've had!

Here is a list of what our mini-lessons have been about this week:

- How to picture a topic in their heads
- Representing a topic through drawings and words
- Learning what to do when we think we are done

This is a chart that we have started to create that we'll be using throughout the unit.

 Fundations

To help reinforce the letters being taught each week, we've been having Fun Phonics Friday.  On Fridays, the children have been practicing writing letters in sand and in shaving cream along with forming them with playdough.

Math

We've been working with 5 frames and 10 frames, math tools that will help build their number sense.  We've also been building numbers 1-5 with fingers (math hands) and we've been practicing writing these numerals on whiteboards.

Here are some math stations the children have been exploring for the past 2 weeks:

Spill Five Beans

 In this activity, the children shake 5 bean counters, counting the number of red bean counters and recording the number of red beans on the record sheet.

Beat You to Ten

In this partner game, the children take turns spinning the spinner, counting out the number of cubes, and placing the cubes on the game board. Play continues until one player covers all 5 cubes exactly.

Which Numeral Will Win?

At this activity, the children spin the spinner, finds the numeral spun on the record sheet and traces over the dotted numeral in that row.  Play continues until one row fills completely.


Building Numbers with Playdough

Just like with the letters, the children are creating numerals 1- 9 using playdough and then creating balls to be placed in the 10 frame that matches that numeral.

 Read Aloud

We read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, which focused on kindness. It's about being a bucket filler and not a bucket dipper.  After the read aloud, the children drew a picture of what it meant to be a bucket filler and a picture of what it meant to be a bucket dipper.  Ask your child about their drawings (it's in their Friday folder).

Four Winds

On Thursday, we had our first Four Winds workshop, which focused on spiders.  Our parent volunteers brought in live spiders for the children to view with a magnify glass.  They also learned about the word adaptation and what spiders do to adapt to their surroundings.  They learned the different parts of a spider and how a spider is different than an insect.  The children went on a spider hunt outside and then played a game called Spider Vibrations.  We end the workshop with a fun filled spider snack.  Here are some pictures from the workshop:

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