We kicked off the month with the always fun and interactive, gingerbread unit! The kids enjoyed reading many different versions of the gingerbread man and even got to decorate their very own gingerbread cookie!
Below is a picture of a sequencing activity that the class worked on after reading, The Gingerbread Boy.
This year was the first year I read Jan Brett's, The Gingerbread Baby. It was a huge hit! I would highly recommend adding this book to your personal library..such a fun and cute twist on a classic, holiday story! Below is another picture of a sequencing mini-reader we worked on together. We will be spending a lot of time working on sequencing the remainder of the year. The ability to comprehend and retell a story is an extremely important skill needed for kindergarten.
After reading about gingerbread men all week, we summarized some of the things we read about and made a craft to go along with it. I must apologize for the craft looking a little on the spooky side! I'm still trying to figure out why they ended up looking like clowns. Teacher oopsie :).
The only way to end a week about gingerbread men is by eating gingerbread! Everyone enjoyed decorating their cookies and sneaking in some M&M's :).
Below are some pictures from our December centers. The kids will be working on: beginning letter sounds, greater than/less than, addition, non-standard measurement, numbers 1-20 recognition, number writing, tallying and sight word games.
Last week we started our "tallying" math unit and we will continue with it the next two weeks. We are using popsicle sticks to help make this tricky concept a little more hands-on. Not only is tallying challenging because it involves some unusual steps, but it also requires the ability to count by fives. We learned a short poem/song to help us remember when to "slash" the group of tallies. We also played a game called, "show me the tallies" (I write a number on the whiteboard and they have to show me the number in tally form with the popsicle sticks).
With all this work, we had to throw in a little fun :). Below is a picture of a student who is working on a "countdown to Christmas" chain.
