Academic Centers

Every afternoon the students are paired together and they complete "academic centers". These centers build upon what we are working on in the classroom. The centers also change every few weeks depending upon the material. I love center time for three huge reasons:

1. It is a GREAT way to differentiate a child's work.

2. I meet with my "small group" (a time where I meet with two students at a time). 

3. The students learn how to problem solve and work in a "team" setting.

I could go on and on about how valuable this time is, but I will spare you the chatter and just show you how great they are :).

Below is a picture of two students playing a letter name/phonics board game.

Here is a child working with bears on completing AB, ABBA and ABC patterns.

Number 1-20 number recognition is a lot more fun when you are fishing for them!

These two are working on color words while playing a game of memory.

This group is working on letter formation with allergen free playdough (greatest creation)!

Color words are a lot more fun to learn when you get to stamp them out!

These are only a few of the great centers we are working on. 

Check back this week for even more :).

Fun with Ten Frames!

As a teacher, I find that ten frames are the greatest teaching tool in math. Not only are the kids learning how to subitize, but they are also learning how to slow themselves down while counting items (one to one correspondence). For the next two weeks we will be working with ten frames. We have spent the last week learning what a ten frame is and how to count each circle within a ten frame to find the amount. This week the students will continue working on that skill, however they will also learn what to do when they are given the number first as opposed to the circles.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I See Colors Everywhere!

For the past two weeks we have have learned all about our color words. We spent the week focusing on the Brown Bear, Brown Bear story series which is all about the color words. It is also a great series for teaching fluency. We learned how to use the word wall in our classroom to help us spell things, as well as the color anchor charts. Below is a little snapshot of some of the fun things we did in class :).

We used a die that only had color words on it. The kids really enjoyed learning their color words, all while playing a game with a friend!

Below is the project we ended the unit with.....our crayon friends! Each student responded to the prompt, "My favorite color is ________". Aren't these the cutest things you have ever seen? 

Happy birthday, Jill!

Happy 5th birthday to this little gal, Jill! I love that your cute, chevron leggings match our birthday backdrop :)!

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Happy 5th birthday to this little cutie, Luke! We hope you had a wonderful day :)!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Happy 5th birthday to this little fella, Ryan! We enjoyed celebrating YOU today :)!

Tuesday's Talk

If you had a chance to take a peak at the blog this morning, you probably noticed that I gave you a "sneak peek" at what I introduced to the class this morning. Today was our first day of poetry journals! Each child received his/her own journal with a poem of the day in it. For the next two weeks our journals will contain poems all about colors (as we are learning about color words). We will only use our poetry journals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (of course we start off schedule!). These journals will expose the students to new and old sight words, while working on fluency when reading. They really enjoyed their first day with them!

Red

Red is a stop 

sign.

Red is a rose.

Red is an apple,

And a funny, clown's nose.

Below is a picture of the math activity for today. This week I introduced a lesson on the different ways numbers can be represented (dominoes, dice, etc.). This is to work on the skill of subitizing (Illinois Early Learning State Standard). Subitizing is "instantly seeing how many." From a Latin word meaning suddenly, subitizing is the direct perceptual apprehension of the numerosity of a group. 

In this activity, the students were paired up and used one die to play the game. Eventually, the class will play this game using two die (or dice) to work on subitizing and addition.

Sneak Peek!

Today we started something new and exciting! Below is a "sneak peek" at something your son/daughter started this morning. Swing by the blog this afternoon for more details on what we are doing with these fun, little notebooks this year!

An Applelicious Week

Last week we wrapped up our two week apple unit. The class really enjoyed diving into the literature and interacting with the material through crafts, writing and science experiments. Below is a picture of the book we read to kick off our apple unit.

We read about where an apple comes from and documented the seasons of an apple tree. We learned what a label is and why we label things. We practiced this skill through labeling the parts of an apple.

Although in my "teacher brain" I would like to think the class enjoyed creating a web and learning about labels (wink, wink), I think the most enjoyable part for them was being able to dissect an apple :). 

 

Below are two pictures of some students working on their apple math and science journals. They loved using new science and math materials!

We wrapped up the unit with an apple art project. We read our last apple story and talked about the different ways an illustrator can represent an apple. In the story we read the illustrator used quilts. We loved observing the pictures!

I think we can officially say we are now apple experts :)!

A BIG Thank You!

I just wanted to send a HUGE thank you to everyone for making my birthday such a special day. I enjoyed all the beautiful flowers and reading the notes from the kids. Again, thank you for bringing such a big smile to my face. You all made turning 27 extra great :)!

"I Can Create a Meaningful Picture"

The first day of writing can be a terrifying thing (for both the students and the teacher!). Sometimes there are tears and many cries of "I can't". In order to address these concerns, our writing unit starts with a very simple lesson entitled, "I can create a meaningful picture". In this lesson, students are introduced to the very first step in the writing process: creating a picture that tells a story. The students are taught that words have meaning and the meaning behind the words can be depicted in a detailed picture. They did a great job on their first day! I'm very proud of my little ones!

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!

What fun would the start of the school year be without Mr. Seaholm being challenged to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? Last week a student challenged Mr. Seaholm to complete the challenge, and sure enough, Mr. Seaholm did just that. Enjoy the pictures :).

Squares, Triangles and Circles Oh My!

As a teacher, shapes can be difficult at times to teach. The majority of the class can name most of their shapes and draw the shape with little to no assistance. However, being able to name the sides and vertices is not always as easy...and that is where the fun comes in :)! 

We spent the past two weeks learning all about circles, squares, rectangles, triangles and hexagons. We focused on mastering the many different attributes of each shape and all the different places outside our classroom that we see these shapes.

We prefer our pizza cut in triangles ;).

They really enjoyed creating their hexagon dinosaurs, with a little help from "Heidi Songs".

Here is the inspiration for our dinosaur project:

Check out our cute, little square MONSTERS!

Next week we will start our numbers 1-10 unit. We will work on learning how to write the numbers, as well as learning how to subitize and decompose a number.