SmartBoard Smarties

We are back to business fun as usual - no testing, no emergency drills, a full 5-day week, and a working projector for the SmartBoard!  Woo hoo! The three days without it last week really put a damper on our learning and fun.  How did anyone teach without such cool, engaging technology? Of course we have lots of other ways we learn in our classroom that don't involve much technology, but here is a little explanation of why I value our SmartBoard so very much....

We meet for whole group literacy and whole group math at the SmartBoard everyday. During literacy, we use the SmartBoard to follow the letters as we say our letter chants. We work on the letters of the week by playing games on starfall or Lakeshore software games. I  

 During whole group math time, we go through our calendar math which changes every month.  For September, I am introducing patterns using red and green apples.  See that light green square just above the blue tag for Monday? It's really a reveal button.  The students figure out which color should come next then we click on it and it disappears to reveal that day's apple and date. We drag it into place, figure out the day of the week and complete and read the sentence at the bottom.

 Next, we add to our days in school.  We do as many exercises as the number of days we've been in school. (I am a strong believer that you gotta let the kids MOVE their bodies - and often)! Counting the days in school is also teaching us how  numbers are based on groups of ten. For the next several weeks, we are focusing on how teen numbers are made of one group of ten with some 'ones' left over.  We watched this music video from youtube to get a good grasp on this concept (and we will continue to watch it for several weeks to come).
   The next page on  September's calendar math is teaching us how to compare numbers.  The students touch the dice, which roll and land on a number and the student writes them in the boxes.  Then we talk about which is higher, greater, or more and the student selects either the >, <, or = symbol to place in between.

Next we play an online math game.  The last few weeks we have been playing Curious George's Apple Picking or a ten frame game. We finish up our group math time by going over the worksheet they have waiting for them at their tables.  Sometimes I leave the answers on the SmartBoard if it is a brand new skill. Other times, I erase what we did together to see if they can master it on their own.

Then the students complete the work on their own at their tables. 

 

Moving on, our centers were lots of fun this week.  The students used the ipads in the Number Work center. They played a (free) app called "Math Slide."  A number is shown on the screen and the students must slide a representation of that number into the center screen. We worked on representing 1-10 with tally marks, on our fingers, on dice, and even dominos in the All About Numbers packet that your child brought home in their folders last Friday.  This week they played alone to become familiar with the game without pressure, but the game can have up to 4 players.  So the next time they play this game, the students will share one ipad and play together.






The students played with the train set in the Blocks area (we rotate each week between foam blocks, legos, trains, and Lincoln Logs).  Landan made a really cool track this week! The puzzle center was a little different this week. The students assembled pegs to giant foam letters which they could then use to spell their names or (attempt to) put in alphabetical order.  In the Math Games center, they worked with counting bears and ten frames. Each ten frame had a sentence that told how many bears and what color of bear to use.  The students rolled the dice and filled up that many spaces. The students really enjoy working with the bears.

In the Letter Work center (which will eventually turn into the Word Work center), the students used rubberbands on geoboards to form capital letters. They thought that was pretty cool. (And not a single student shot one across the room - on purpose at least:)

While the students are at their free centers ('free' means the tasks are done independently without direct teacher supervision)), a third of the students are working with me in their guided reading groups.  We read new books on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the students reread the books to me and then we have a phonics/letter lesson.

For the last two weeks, we have been discussing our community; the places we go and the community helpers we see there.  We made charts which we made and read, and reread as a whole group. The Magic Fishbowl of Questions, introduced last week, asked the students where to find certain words, sentences with 6 words, the sentence that told us who we see at the hopital, etc. I tell ya, I really think there is magic in that bowl.  The students are SUPER attentive for those questions.

We wrapped up the week with our favorite day - Fun Friday.  We read the story, Me on the Map, which explains the relation of our community to our whole world.  I then used Google Earth on the SmartBoard to demonstrate further.  We began by looking at the whole world, and showed how it can spin and turn like a ball.  We located our country and zoomed in to find our state, then our town, and then...Garth! As you can imagine, the students thought that was WAY cool.

Finally, we squeezed our tables together and made a craft to help drive the concept home.  

So it was quite a learning and fun-filled week and we had a blast.  It is so exciting to be a part of  your child's kindergarten year. I just love teaching them new things and seeing their eyes widen when they discover new things on their own.  These are two very special and wonderful classes. 

I leave you with a few miscellaneous pics from playing "4 Corners" for the first time, Green Day, hearing screenings, and birthday bracelets (from Ben).  Enjoy the weekend and wear purple on Monday!