In math, we've been talking a lot about how number partners join together to make a new number. I made these partner hearts to use for a cooperative activity with my students (which also tied in nicely with our current emphasis on friendship).
Each student had half of a heart with a number of dots on it. Their assignment was to first, count the dots on their piece, and then to find the person who had the missing piece to their heart. Then, together they needed to decide what number their two pieces made when joined together. I created a simple worksheet to help visualize that process, where they could draw their heart and write the number sentence that matched their partners.
To wrap it all up, each partnership shared their number sentence so we could review some of the different number partners out loud as a class. It was a fun way to explore the concept of number partners and addition.
Why I Love This Book: This simple book is perfect for helping young kids to think about different kinds of maps. The text and illustrations are presented as if they were created by a child. I think this approach makes it especially engaging to kids, and is a perfect backdrop for text-based connections. I also love the variety and creativity of maps used, from the "Map of My Bedroom" to a "Map of My Day" to the "Map of My Heart." This book is a great addition to a study of maps in the classroom, and could easily be used with students throughout the primary grades.
Our awesome art teacher did this project with us last week. She showed the students how to fold paper and glue it together as an accordion-type book. I decided to leave it as an open-ended activity and let them choose how they wanted to fill up the pages. I love how open-ended activities can help students to feel successful and be creative, no matter what level they are at. Everyone's book was different and their individual creativity really shined. I loved all of the results, and what's even better is the kids loved it too. They were all so proud of their books! Some were even carrying them around at recess and showing them off to other kids. It was great. :)
It's always an adventure to "interpret" Kindergarten sound spelling...have fun!
While some young children may find it easy to make friends, most are still learning and developing the necessary sills to interact in a positive, social way with their peers. I did a small unit on friendship at the beginning of the year with my Kindergarten class, but felt like the season of Valentines was a good time to bring the subject back up again in more depth.
I definitely feel that teaching and modeling social skills is an important part of my job, as doing so will help them to be more successful students and allow my classroom to continue to be the safe, happy community that I want it to be. My hope is that every student feels a sense of safety and belonging at school, and helping everybody to develop positive friendship skills is one way to encourage that environment.
One of my favorite friendship activities is friendship art. It coincides perfectly with reading this book, which also happens to be a part of our language arts program. Each table group gets one piece of paper, and they work together to create a picture. The rules are that everyone can contribute something that they like to the drawing, but they need to use their own space in the picture to do it. We also talked about the possibility of working together to make a drawing (one person does the tree trunk and the other person draws the leaves) and we decided that it was not nice to make fun of someone else's contribution to the picture.
Each picture turned out differently, and each group worked together in different ways. It also turned out to be a great teaching moment for some of the students who had difficulty sharing the space and getting along during the process. :) All in all, it was a successful activity and every group was excited to share their creation with the class.
More friendship ideas and activities to come!
P.S. We had a fun Valentine's Day Celebration yesterday. I came away with so many yummy treats and cute Valentines. I felt spoiled!
I loved some of the creative ideas--- a couple favorites were Rolos wrapped up like dynamite for "You're the Bomb" and a bunch of glue sticks for "You're the glue that keeps our class together!"
Why I Love This Book: This is such a great book for discussing friendship and the idea that everyone can have something to contribute in a classroom setting. In the story, a boy named David begins to draw a picture of a tree, and one by one his friends in the class have ideas of things that they could add to the picture. David gives a great example to young students as he chooses to share his picture with his classmates, and allows them to each add something to his drawing. In the end, it becomes a class picture and everyone is happy and proud. The text is simple, the illustrations are colorful and engaging, and the message is clear to kids as they read this story. My students wanted to make their own class picture after we read the book...which was perfectly aligned with what I had planned to go along with this story. A great read for the classroom!
Today we celebrated our 100th day of Kindergarten- which means I am 100 days through my first year of teaching. In some ways I can't believe how fast the time is going by. I've been thinking about the nervous excitement I felt pretty much every day during the first few months of school. Everything was so new, and even though I have had a lot of experience in classrooms and working with kids, this was my first time doing it all on my own. It almost felt unreal to finally be running my own classroom after so many years of education and preparation.
100 days later, I still feel that feeling of nervous excitement sometimes, but most of the time it just feels normal to be a teacher in my own classroom. I'm learning so much and constantly working out the kinks, and I love it. I even felt a bit sad today, realizing that we are more than half-way through the school year now and eventually I will have to say goodbye to my first Kindergarten class. But I've got plenty to keep us busy between now and then. There's so much more to do before this year is over!
As part of our Hundreds Day Celebration, we read this book:
And did some writing:
A lot of students wrote that they wanted to eat 100 Jellybeans, because they had jellybeans in the book we read.
It made me happy to see that some students wrote about learning to share and be kind this year.
Yesterday was our Kindergarten field trip to the Planetarium. Field trips are always such an adventure! We had a lot of fun exploring the space exhibits and watching two movies in the theater. I am sure grateful for all the parent volunteers who helped to manage the kids. We could not have had such a great experience without them! What a great way to wrap up our little unit, and lay a foundation for future learning.
Today we learned a little bit about groundhogs, and how they come out of hibernation at times during the winter. We heard that this year the groundhog did indeed see his shadow, which means 6 more weeks of winter...although, here in Utah we haven't had much of a winter so far, so maybe the next 6 weeks won't be all that bad. Also in honor of Groundhog Day, we spent some time exploring shadows. In centers this week, the kids made shadow puppets by outlining shapes on black paper and gluing them to Popsicle sticks. Today we used the overhead projector to see what kinds of shadows we could make with the puppets. It was some good, learning fun!
Enjoy some cute groundhog artwork, that also reflect some of the things we learned!
I have two adorable nephews who are in the toddler stage of development right now. It is really fun to be a part of this time of exciting growth and change, especially as an aunt who doesn't have to worry about the parenting side of things. The other day I witnessed something classic. My husband was playing with one of our nephews-- I'll call him Nephew--and was teasing him a little bit with a toy. At first, Nephew was all smiles, but very quickly that happy toddler went from "this is a fun game" mode to "you have my toy and I want it back now" mode, which in turn led to a small, toddler tantrum. My husband later remarked to me how Nephew used to like playing little games like that, and it's interesting how that has changed. It made me think of a handout I got in college called the Toddler Property Laws. They are as follows:
Toddler Property Laws
If I like it, it's mine.
If it's in my hand, it's mine.
If I can take it from you, it's mine.
If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
If I saw it first, it's mine.
If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
If it's broken, it's yours.
It sort of reminds me of this...
Not exactly a "sharing is caring" sort of mentality...but that feeling of ownership and possessiveness is all part of the process of healthy development as toddlers begin to form their own identity and assert their independence. Although teaching children to share with others is good and important, at this age it is not realistic to expect them to be able to do it fully...or for very long...or even at all. Their ability to share will come later, but for now it's okay for them to hold the world in their hands and believe that it's all theirs. In doing so they are building an understanding of themselves in relation to everything around them- and that is a foundation they will build upon for the rest of their lives. Years down the road as that understanding is built with confidence and security, they will be able to separate themselves from tangible objects, and sharing will be easier for them to handle...most of the time. :)
