Kinder Loving Kare: October 2014

Well, as many of you know school has been in session and I have been in full throttle ever since! This year will be packed with planning events for our school's Spirit Committee, TOT/Eagle Patrols, doing homework, planning a wedding, oh yes...and creating fun packed lesson plans! However, let's stick with our fun packed lessons for now.

This year I have a small group of students with such wonderfully exuberant personalities! They definitely keep me on my toes and challenge me to come up with fun and engaging activities. Our center time is an awesome time for each of them to gain a hands on experience of what we are learning in class. My students love discovering new centers. Just the other day, as I explained how to do a few math centers, one of my students said, "Ms. Yarde, I love the way you teach!" I sweetly smiled and said "thank you" as I sung the happy song and did the happy dance inside my head!

Here are some of our math centers:

This center was introduced early on within the school year to help identify numbers that are the same.

This was another early center activity that we have switched so far. I felt that it was so appropriate early on because we had so many August birthdays this school year (including mine :)).

I introduced this counting center this week that I found on teachers pay teachers. The kids love using little acorn pieces as counters!

We have really dived into the meaning of greater than and less than. For some reason, grasping the concept of less than can be a pretty daunting task. That is why I introduced this center. Students grab a handful of two different colored cubes, sort and count, and then circle the number that is less.

This is another greater than/ less than activity (which focuses on less than) that one of my students within my small group suggest I introduce as a center. It was a big hit, I guess kids really know what they like when it comes down to learning!

Here is a fall color, count, and graph center.

In honor of our apple theme we have a number order center and...

a "how many apples on top" counting center.

Here are some of our literacy centers:

We use magnetic letters to place letters in the correct order, spell our friends names, and to spell sight words.

It was a challenge helping my students fully understand that we do not make pancakes with play dough any more! I tell them that was so pre-k. Finally we are using the play dough the way kindergarten students are supposed to :)

I believe thy are beginning to get the hang of it....

This is apart of my big book center. Students are able to read/recite the chart and find the letter that the chart represents. Students can also find new sight words and use wikki stix to circle around them.

This sight word center was just introduced this week to help practice reading and writing our sight words.

Although our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme is long over, I believe this is an important skill to master. So I haven't been able to part ways with this particular center.