On Wednesday we had our superintendent visit the school.
She came by to visit our class with my principal and… she started to cry! I went over to ask her if everything was ok and she said that she was overwhelmed by the obvious time and effort we are putting in to create a positive learning environment for the kids.
Guys, it was the most rewarding compliment I have EVER received!! We were so proud as a team!
Since I don’t have a picture of the visit per se, here is a picture of our most current math board. Interactive math boards are a big push in our board! I’ll blog about mine in more detail another time 🙂
This week our close reading was on “Ice Bear” by Nicola Davies.
We first charted our schema, moved misconceptions as we read the book and wrapped the week up with charting what we learned.
My high kiddos worked on prompts from the text during their independent writing time. They are getting SO good at responding to text!
Here is one example!
(I learned that polar bears eat seals. I also learned that polar bears blend into the snow.)
I am working on giving descriptive feedback more frequently.
Here is a sample.
I’m planning to make one with just the wand (for a wish), give the positives orally and then have the written feedback that they can refer back to as they improve their work.
I went to a workshop a couple of weeks ago on administering the PRIME diagnostic tests (I’m not sure how common this is but it is a big push in my board) and creating centres that help students practice the skills covered on the PRIME test.
I came away with some GREAT ideas!
Here are 2 centres I finally made this week!
For this dot counting centre, students spin the CD and identify the number that the arrow is pointing to when it stops spinning. Then each player covers the space if they have that number.
This one is great for 1:1 correspondence, subtilizing, counting in groups and recognizing that the dots can look different but can still be the same number.
This next centre works on putting numbers in order and using number lines.
This first one is easier.
The students put the numbers in order from 1-9 on the number line…
and then they can open it up to check if they are in the right spot. After they could do this, I only gave them 4 numbers at a time to see if they could put numbers on a number line without having all of the numbers there.
Once students were fluent with numbers 1-9 we moved on to this one!
This one is almost exactly the same is question #2 on the PRIME. I ask the student to put the numbers on the number line and to also tell me why it would go there.
Again they can open and check for the answer!
I put the extra numbers for this one on the back.
I first used these to assess their current ability with number lines (since I did the PRIME diagnostic back in November) and next week I will pull guided groups that need practice and when I’m not using them for guided groups I’ll put them out as an independent learning centre 🙂
If you would like the templates for these centres, click on the links below to download them for free!
Sidenote: So I went to this PRIME workshop in February.. and one of the tasks during the workshop was to come up with our own centre idea on a PRIME centre planning template. Then the presenter would photocopy the templates and we would all get a copy of each other’s ideas. When the presenter came back with our papers she said to me… “Yukari.. do you have a blog?”. I replied yes and she said “Is it A Pinch of Kinder? Omg you basically planned my whole 2D shape unit for me!” lol! I was so flattered though and it was kind of exciting to meet someone who knew about my blog in real life 😉
This week we focused on skip counting.
We had been counting by 10’s to 100 on ten-frames for our “How many days have we been in school?” portion of our calendar, so the kids were already pretty familiar with counting by 10’s.
My placement student sat with the kids and bingo dabbed 10 dots on each ten-frame to create these counting by 10 posters!
My ECE worked with other kids to do handprints for counting by 5’s!
Then they cut out numbers from flyers to label them.
Finally my placement student also worked with the kids to create these counting by 2’s pictures!
She got them to hold two fingers up on one hand and then hold the corresponding puzzle piece with the other.
They turned out so cute!!
And it has already been a GREAT resource for the kids for skip counting!
If you are looking for a fun video to practice skip-counting by 5, check out the video below.
Then we brainstormed and came up with things that come in pairs.
I drew them quickly and then we practiced skip counting them by 2’s.
Just in case you can’t tell what they are suppose to be they are..
ears, mittens, socks and shoes.
A lot of my kids were making fun of me for the shoes..
they said it looked like hot dogs!! lol
When I picked the last person to share something to go on the chart (the sneakers) one of my kids started having a fit that he didn’t get a chance to share his idea! Since he is one of my brightest I told him I could put out some paper and he could make it for me on his own. Then a whole bunch of kids said they wanted to do it too! It was awesome to see them taking initiative and they worked so hard at the centre! Proud teacher moment for sure 🙂
Here is what one of my girls came up with.
She drew pairs of socks.
Here is the kiddo that I originally put out the paper for. He drew pairs of hands, socks, snakes and twins! At first he didn’t have any of the black parts though so I told him to go back and make sure there is 2 things in each bubble so that we are counting by 2’s.
And he did. Love it when kids actually apply feedback!!
I love sharing lessons and activities that have worked well in my Kindergarten classroom to provide you with engaging ideas and to help you cut down your planning time!
Check out my story below to learn more about the why behind A Pinch of Kinder.
