Thanksgiving Count and Write! Assessment

Do you ever have those teaching days where you get to school in the morning and you think, "what am I doing with my kids today?" No? Just me? Oh well. Monday morning was definitely one of those days. I knew what we needed to do in Math, just not exactly how we were going to do it.

We've been working with the CCSS standard of counting and cardinality- focusing on writing numbers 0-10. And since it's Thanksgiving and turkey is on everyone's mind, I created this:

Quick, easy, to-the-point. My kids loved it! And I loved it because it was very telling as to which kids can count and write their numbers and which kids need some help. I used it as a summative assessment, but you could also use it if you're reviewing numbers 1-10 or however you'd like. It's available in my TpT store for just $1.50! There are other Thanksgiving items as well, so be sure to check it all out!!

Apple Unit!

The week before Fall Break I taught my "Apple Unit." Pretty much everything we did was about apples! And it made me want to integrate more thematic units into my daily lesson plans. Maybe a pumpkin unit in a few weeks?

We tasted 3 different types of apples and made a graph to see which was the class favorite. Here they are getting their samples:

And the taste testing begins!

After they tasted each piece, I gave them a picture of an apple to color according to which was their favorite:

I wish I had a picture of the finished graph! Red delicious were by far the class favorite, followed by Granny Smith (surprised me!) and Yellow delicious in a distant 3rd place. We love making graphs as a class and I love how great my kids have become at interpreting the data and drawing conclusions.

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of our experiment when we "dissected" an apple. But we talked about the parts of an apple and then the kids labeled their own. They did great with it and were stretching out some tough words- flesh, skin, etc.

Next up- best part of the unit, applesauce day! We talked about the steps to make applesauce:

1. wash them 2. cut them 3 cook them 4. eat them

 1. wash 2. cut 3. sprinkle (because we "sprinkled" in cinnamon and sugar) 4. eat

 1. wash 2. cut 3. sugar and cinnamon 4. eat

Then for a fun math activity, we read 10 Apples Up on Top and made our own version. This was a great end of quarter assessment for me- which kids can write and put in order numbers 1-5 and those who still need help. 

We had a great apple-filled week! Tomorrow I return to school after a week-long break. And dare I say it? I'm actually ready to go back because I miss my kiddos!

Fish Eyes

Wow, can you believe I've been back to school for a whole month already? Let me just tell you, I was more than ready for this long weekend! It's a little bit of a bummer that the first weekend where I don't have any plans, my fiance is out of town for a boy's weekend. Oh well, luckily our schedule is free next weekend and we can enjoy each other then :)

We have been super busy in my classroom for the past month! For the most part, I have a very "high" class so I'm having to think up new ways to challenge them. I'm also trying to come up with more authentic tasks, something that our district is really pushing.

In math we've been focusing on numbers 0-5, so I thought it would be fun to read the book Fish Eyesby Lois Ehlert and then make illustrations based on the book. 

My kids loved the book! And it was a great introduction (for the ones who were ready) for the whole "plus one" concept. We'll revisit that in a few months. But still a great way to challenge those students who are ready for it. I quickly made a sheet on the computer for kids to draw a set of fish to match the number. I put the numbers in order, but I think I'd like to see how the kids do with numbers out of order. Next assignment?

**note- I started this blog post over a month ago! So sorry for the delay- things have just been crazy busy. Starting school, moving in together, wedding planning, etc. I'm hopeful that I will be more on top of things soon :)

Counting on with magnets

A while ago, I found this on Pinterest:

Source: geocities.com via Clare on Pinterest

They are great! I immediately printed them out and they have been a huge hit in the magnet center! I have a few sets of magnetic numbers (picked up from my local dollar store) that the kids use. It is really helping them with their counting. A huge part of math this year is being able to "count on". As in, start at 6 and count on- 6, 7, 8... My kids are doing so well with it! Here it is in practice:

I have some cookie sheets that I use in my magnet center. That way, the magnets stick AND they are contained in one spot. So much easier to clean up! If you click on the first image, it should take you to my Pinterest page and you can get your own copies. I recommend printing them on cardstock and laminating them, that way they can be used over and over again :)

Pumpkin Patch!

The week before Halloween, my class (and all the K classes at my school) made the traditional fall trip to our local pumpkin patch. We are learning about how plants, seasons, the weather, etc. move in cycles so this was perfect. This farm does a great job of really teaching the kids how the pumpkins start as seeds, then grow and then the seeds inside grow more pumpkins. They even learned why bees are important! Such a great trip. Can't wait for next year.

Here we all are. It's impossible to get 17 kids looking in the same direction, but this is the best shot. Check out little miss poser on the right :)

In the corn maze. They had places to do crayon rubbings of animal prints to see which animal had "stolen the pie". We never did figure out who done it, but I was just glad nobody got lost!!

In the pumpkin field, picking out their pumpkins.

And back in the classroom. It's hard to tell, but I'm weighing our class pumpkin. We also measured it to see how tall it was (7 inches) and made a "can, have, are" chart about pumpkins (sorry, no pic of that. but it turned out cute!)

And finally, carving the pumpkin and scooping the guts out! We started counting the seeds, but I cut them off at 100. Great moment to introduce the concept "more than." Our pumpkin has MORE THAN 100 seeds! It most likely 300-400.

I took the seeds home, washed them off and roasted them in the oven. The next day we did a little taste test. We made a graph and and analyzed our data. Turns out 12 kids like pumpkin seeds, 4 do not (1 was absent that day).

All in all, a great trip/series of lessons. There are so many fun things to do with pumpkins. Can't wait until next year!!

p.s. since I was roasting the pumpkin seeds, I figured I'd roast the pumpkin as well. Smash in the food processor for a while = homemade pumpkin puree! yum

math journals

This week I introduced math journals to my kids. These are just some spiral bound notebooks I got at Staples for about $0.12 a piece. The kids got to pick what color they wanted and then decorated them with stickers! They were so excited. Here they are decorating their journals:

We have "worked" in our math journals twice now and both times it has been great. The kids love it because it's pretty much the one time I let them lie down on the carpet. They get 2 crayons to use (so I can distinguish between problems) and have shown some great creativity! So far it's just been "draw me 3 balloons, write the number 4, etc." type of problems. If you have any suggestions for using math journals in Kindergarten, I would love to hear them!

Roll and Write

Whew, I am exhausted! I have to submit lesson plans on Friday for the week ahead (which means I can't wait until Sunday night to write them) and they are way more detailed that I'm used to. I know it's making me a better teacher, I just have to keep reminding myself.

I wrote my math plans for next week this evening, and came up with this cute game. I can't take total credit because I got the idea from my district pacing guides, but I did make the sheet that goes with the game. You can find a copy HERE. My kids love dice so I know they'll like playing this "game". I am thinking I will pair them up, that way they'll also practice taking turns. Maybe even turn it into a Bingo type game where the person who fills up the sheet first wins a prize? We'll see.

p.s. I got to use some of my fun new fonts! The words are "Smiley Monster" and the numbers are "MTF Cutie Patootie" (I had to switch because the Smiley Monster 4 is a pointy 4 instead of an open 4) Both are free online, just do a Google search.