More with Mittens
We continued our learning about mittens and The Mitten during Reading. We read a second version of The Mitten and compared the two stories to look for similarities and differences.
We also reread Jan Brett's version of The Mitten, but with a twist; this times the children used their own mittens and characters to tell the story along with the reading.
After our readings, we even made our own version of The Mitten! Check it out below...
This theme carried over to Math. We made a mitten matching game to help us practice with number sequencing and numeral identification. We also did another math problem involving mittens.
A Range of Arrangements
In Math, we also worked with arrangements. We worked with “ quick images” where the children were shown an arrangement briefly and had to rebuild and/or describe it. We worked with arrangements of six, creating lots of different arrangements. Later, the children experimented with arrangements of five to ten tiles. Finally, the children worked in pairs with some of their own arrangements; they challenged their partners to recreate the arrangements they had created themselves.
Building Balances
In Discovery we've been earning lots about balance and balances. After using a pan balance in various ways, the children got a chance to make their own balances! They worked in pairs to complete a "shopping list" of parts they'd need. Later they worked with their partners to build the balance and try it out!
Balance All Around
We also went on a balance walk around the school. We looked for objects that we could balance, such as a cone shaped water cup and a mat in the gym. We tried balancing them in different ways, such as turning the cup upside down and spreading the mat out. This helped us realize that bigger bases made things easier to balance. We finished our balance walk in the library looking at a mobile and noticing how parts of it were balanced.
Visitors and Special Days
We've had lots of special events and visitors during the month of February!
100 Days of Fun
On February 12th we celebrated the 100th day of school. We had some wonderful parent volunteers come in to help us put together a snack of 100 different items. The children used 10 frames to group their items and count by 10's.
We also sang songs, did Math activities, and made 100th day glasses. The children also drew and wrote about their favorite thing from the first 100 days.
We also celebrated Valentine's Day. The children got to make their own Valentine's Day bags to collect all their valentines. We had lots of fun passing out our valentines and reading these special notes from out friends.
Birthday Celebrations
We finished these last few weeks with two birthday celebrations, one for a member of K105 and one for Dr. Seuss, and both were lots of fun. For our K105er, we had our usual birthday routines of guest readers and a birthday jar. On Dr. Seuss' birthday we read one of his most famous stories, The Cat in the Hat, and made our own hats. Dr. Seuss will be our author/illustrator of the month for March, and though he was also picked for October he has so many great books I thought it was worth a repeat! Stay tuned for our K105 version of another one of his texts.
Safety First
We also had a visit from one of our Lincoln firefighters. He taught us all about fire safety, including how to crawl under smoke and how to stop, drop, and roll. The children had a chance to practice both techniques. Later the firefighter showed us some of his gear so that children would be familiar with it if they ever needed help from a firefighter.
Even More to Learn and Explore
Learn and Explore continues to be a favorite time of day in K105. Along with many of the other favorite activities, the children have recently become more interested in playing games. This even inspired the creation of a game by one of the students, and classmates joined in to play.
Check out more pictures from the last few weeks below...