Day 35

I found out today that some of the kindergartners can already count by 5s!  That is really handy as we are studying about nickels now.  We also could count the number of fives days we have had and it is 7.  It may not mean much to them right now but they saw multiplying in action during calendar and counting time today.  We will start playing the ant go marching 5 by 5 in math center time.  Should be a fun way to practice counting by 5s.  Picture lots of insects to count and boys and girls who like insects and you can see how much fun they will have.

I just got their number notebooks put together today.  Each morning we will find out something about math problems during guessing time.  Today we tried it together-I asked the question, "How many cubes can you pick up in your hand?"  So we all guessed and I modeled how to figure it out with their help.  We wrote down our guesses and compared them.  Then we tried it out to see how many were white cubes.  When they use their notebooks,  I will give them the chance to try to figure problems out on their own and write down their answers in the notebooks.  The problems will go along with where they are in math right now.  We will do patterning problems for awhile.  When adding starts to make sense we will use what they know about adding, too.  I am excited to see how much this helps them with thinking through math problems.

The kindergartners were pretty excited about learning how to put sounds on either side of letter light a to blend together to make words.  We did it together with the help of the small letter people called Moveables that they use on their map.  Then we tried it at the word shop where I worked with them as they moved the letter people together to blend the sounds together and read the words they had formed.
To celebrate this great day, we have opened the lending library.  They each picked out a book to read with you.  They go along with the a that Ms. A says when she says a-choo (or the a in apple).  I sent home a note to help you know what to do with the book and when to send it back and get a new one. I will let them read their book to me and that will give me a good idea of how they are doing.

Besides all that,  we saw the rain start to float- or rather snow started to fall this afternoon.  That was very handy for talking about snow in science class.  They told me that rain in God's tears.  He has alot of extra  that He puts in clouds.  When it gets cold enough it melts into snow.  (I suggested freeze might be a better word for it but all our ideas are worth talking about!!)