Week 6

Well! This was the week before break! Yayyy! To be honest, I have to think back and remember what we did this week because I am writing this post quite late. One of the things I remember really well is the fact that I picked up math as an area of focus this week! On Thursday morning I woke up with a brilliant idea of making our own ten frame in the classroom, not filled up with dots....but with CHILDREN! Once we filled up one whole ten frame, I would tie them up with yarn to visualize a group of ten. Seriously, this idea just came to me and I felt like I needed to do it that day. So I did! And it went really well! I gave each child a number (there are 19 kids and then my mentor teacher was number 20) and placed out some felt squares in the shape of two ten frames on the floor. For those of you who do not know what a ten frame is, see picture below:

So basically I called each child up numbers 1-10 to fill up the first ten frame and then I tied the group up with yarn! Then we continued on with our teen numbers 11-20 and I kept reinforcing that we had a group of ten and then some more. How many more? 2? 10 and 2 makes what? Children were rather engaged, but I think if I were to do it again, I would maybe use manipulatives on the carpet squares and have children sit around in a circle so they could see the ten frames without being in them. I am still glad I did the interactive piece first though. I also got to use arrow cards! Arrow cards are...revolutionary:

These help children realize that the 1 at the front of a teen number means one ten. They are great tools to start teaching students about place value. The common core says that Kindergartners should be able to:

Work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.NBT.A.1 Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each composition or decomposition by a drawing or equation (such as 18 = 10 + 8); understand that these numbers are composed of ten ones and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones.

This week we also did a lot with our new Post Office. The children are writing letters to one another within the classroom. We have a Post Office area in our room, complete with a mailbox, 1 cent stamps, envelopes, and a letter related word wall so children can write words like "Dear," "To," "From," and "Love." They LOVE it. It gets them really excited to write and read too. This hits on our non-fiction book reading, as we shared informational texts with children about the post office. Some of the books we read include "The Post Office Book," by Gail Gibbons, "Letters from Felix," by Annette Langen, and "A Letter to Amy," by Ezra Jack Keats. In regard to informational text, Kindergartners should be able to:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

I love the idea of the Post Office and I think I will integrate something similar when I become a teacher. It really gets kids excited to write!