digraphs, composing and decomposing numbers, >,<,=

Between last week and the beginning of this week, we have been reviewing everything that we learned prior to break and the entire second quarter.  I was pleasantly surprised that the students were still masters of most of the learning we had accomplished before break.  For phonics we have been working hard at blending (putting together sounds and words) and segmenting (breaking apart sounds and words).  We have worked on the digraphs “th, sh, and wh”.   The students get excited now when they see “sh” , I hear, “Mrs. Kressin look its sh which says shhhhhhh.” J  They are such quick learners!  If you want to see some fun movements for each digraph, ask the students to show you at home! J (Like I said in the previous blog, I am still trying to figure out why this blog site won’t let me upload pictures and videos like I use to, but when I do I will be adding some FANTASTIC videos.)

In Math the students have been working on composing and decomposing numbers.  When we are decomposing numbers we are putting them into groups of tens and ones.  Many students can look at a number now, say 56, and tell you that they will need 5 groups of tens and 6 ones.  Their learning was accelerated by competition.  The entire class raced against Mrs. Kressin to decompose 105 blocks into groups of tens and ones.  It took them a couple tries to beat my original time, but they prevailed!  One thing I try to constantly remind the Kindergarteners is to believe in themselves.  Sometimes at this age (some people are this way at any age but…) students are quick to doubt their ability.  (i.e. “we’ll never beat Mrs. Kressin…”)  I always tell the students they can do anything they put their mind too, it will just take some practice!  I have been decomposing blocks into groups of tens and ones for years! (haha…not exactly true, but I also have some fantastic problem solving skills, that they will develop in years to come. J)  Anyways, I love watching their confidence soar in every aspect of their life, as well as with their math and reading skills. 

A few minor changes have been made so some of our centers.  One of the favorite math centers is “building cups” I had always asked the students once they built their towers to use “math talk” to discuss which tower had more cups or less and in turn which number was greater than or less than.  Now I don’t have the students discuss this, they have to write the statement on the board correctly labeling it with >,<, or + symbol.  Here is a picture of the students working at this center.  They found that 28 is less than 30. (28<30).  If the students need help remembering, they know that the alligator always eats the bigger number. J