8 Days Under Our Belt and We are Reading to Partner, Creating Shapes, and Learning How to Use our Math Boxes!

Hello Friends,

Well, we have 8 days under our belt and we are S-L-O-W-L-Y starting to settle into a routine. I have a pretty lively class this year, so I think it might take a little longer to get there, but we are on the right path!

This week, we practiced Read to Self and Read to Partner. My kinders actually did a wonderful job sitting EEKK and sharing a book. We still need to work on reading together quietly, but I know we'll get there!

In Math this week, we have been learning about basic shapes. We are using our observation skills to find shapes in our world and then creating a book that shows that shapes can be many things. The children are first practicing drawing shapes on whiteboards and then when they feel they have it down, they are transferring their knowledge to construction paper and creating a picture with their shapes. For only being in school 8 days, I think they are doing great! I actually found, too, that my active, little kinders were able to concentrate on this activity which created some peace and harmony during our math time......

I also introduced "Math By Myself" this week. I have enough boxes for each child in my class to have one box. It was Free Explore and it will be Free Explore again next week. I want them to have a chance to discover what is in each box before we use the manipulatives as tools. I let them find a special place in the classroom to explore their box. Most made the choice to sit on the carpet. I told them if they made the choice to open their boxes on the carpet, it was still Math by MYSELF, so the items in their boxes were not to "play" with the items in the boxes around them!

It was fun to walk around and see what each child was doing with their box. Some children were just playing. For example, one little guy was building a tower with the hexagons in the pattern blocks and another little girl was creating "families" with the dog counters. Others were sorting by shape, size, and colors while another little guy was creating addition and subtraction stories! 

I am thrilled that we have established some routine in these 8 days..... hopefully, the 3 day weekend won't set us TOO far behind!

If you are interested in my "Shapes Can Be Many Things" packet, you can find it by clicking the image below.

Until next time!

Blessings,