Kacsko's Kiddos: Color Me Gak

Boy, did we have fun this week-

though we started the week off feeling kind of blue.

Okay, not really - it was just blue day. First thing on Monday, we made an anchor chart about things that are blue and the students wrote about things they have that are blue.

We learned how to spell and read the word blue using this music video from youtube. And we put the word together using this game online.

We also made anchor charts about the new letters of the week: Cc and Dd.

We review these and add on to them everyday after we play a game that teaches us about their sounds. (We always use the letter games from starfall on Mondays to get us started). The students talk with their teaching partner about things that begin with the new sounds.

And we check our mailbox and find two things everyday that start with the new sounds of the week. More about that next week......

Moving on.....We had a science theme this week: mixing colors to make new colors. We began the week by reading the story "Little Yellow and Little Blue" by Leo Lionni. Then we read "Color Dance" by Ann Jonas. We wrapped up the week with the BIG book of "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

We made another anchor chart on mixing colors which made them more familiar with the new sight word, 'is.' (Our other sight words were 'am' and 'blue').

We referenced this anchor chart when we played Mix and Paint with Curious George on the Smartboard.

Then the students got to mix the colors in real life on Fun Friday. Each student got their own handful of homemade gak. It is the easiest, quickest recipe EVER. Make it on a rainy day (or the snow days that I pray we don't have). Your child will love you forever. The students used any combination they wanted of the red, yellow, and blue markers placed on the tables to color their gak. Some stuck to just two, but most couldn't contain their excitement and just used them all and ended up with a lovely shade of grayish-brown. It was a fun learning experience for sure!

There were other fun learning experiences in math this week. We have been learning about circles. The students learned a motion chant about the properties of circles. We did a circle hunt on the Smartboard (they tap the circles and they disappear). Then they did a circle hunt around the room. I do the whole "Riddle me, riddle me, ree. I see something you don't see and its shape is a circle," thing, and then the students look all over the room, finding as many circles as they can (as secretively as they can). Then we meet back at the carpet and they get a chance to guess. They LOVE this. So it will definitely be something we do often as we are learning about the shapes.

The students found out about our pet alligator this week, too. Each day, as part of the calendar math time, we say this chant:

Alligator, alligator

Time for lunch

Find the biggest number and

Munch! Munch! Munch!

Then a student comes to the board and touches the interactive spinner. The student puts that many circles (alligator treats) in the ten frame. We spin again and do the same for the other ten frame. Then we compare the amounts and put the correct alligator mouth in the middle to show 'greater than' or 'less than.'

And we can't forget about centers. Outside of recess and PE, its our favorite time of the day! Here's what we did this week.

Raced letters a,b,c,and d to the top

Played with the wooden, magnetic trains

Sorted pom-poms by color using oversized tweezers (also built up fine-motor skills)

Pinned clothespins to match amounts (again - fine-motor bonus)

Read books and worked on phonics in our reading groups

Added in increments of 0,1,2, &3 as we raced our partner to 20.

And to top it all off - we earned all of our brownie points (from whole group participation) so I brought in real brownies as the promised reward. Except for they looked a lot like Oreos. (Who knew CVS didn't sell Little Debbie brownies?). As you can tell, the kids didn't mind at all.