Writing Addition and Subtraction Problems

We have been busy working on computation in kindergarten math! Today we took the idea of the game "Growing and Disappearing Train" and added a step. We wrote number models, or number sentences to go along with the game. Writing on dry erase boards with dry erase markers made writing equations so much more fun!

We've been working on creating our own story problems with Dr. Seuss books, too!  If you have three yellow fish and two blue fish, how many fish do you have all together?  Five fish!

Every day we work on coming up with an equation to make ten.  Today's number is 3.  Each day I use the number of the day and ask:  I have three and I need to get to ten.  How many more do I need? The class calls out 7! Then we write 3 + 7 = 10. 

These are things that are quick and easy to do at home, too!  When driving in the car, encourage your kiddo to come up with story problems like:  Two ducks are in the pond.  One more duck flew to the pond. How many ducks are there now?  Also, practicing writing number models is fun to do, too. Maybe you don't have a dry erase board, but maybe you have paper and pencil, a chalk board, or other way of writing.  Maybe while cooking dinner your child can practice writing equations like:  I put in one cup of milk and one cup of water.  How many cups did I put in?  1 + 1 = 2.

Happy adding and subtracting!

100 Days of Kindergarten

I whipped up this little video during indoor recess today.  It's one of my favorite things about kindergarten!

Math Update

Hello!

My 2016 resolution, starting today, will be to take more pictures than I did during the first semester. For some reason I feel like I have to have pictures to go with all of my blog posts, and since I don't have any recent photos, I feel like it's been hard to update.  I'm going to get over it!  :)

Here's what we've been up to in math, and I'm sharing what you and your child can do at home, if so inclined.

Counting
We love counting in kindergarten!  We count by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s and we count backwards by 1s as well.  I'm so happy with our progress so far with counting, and I have to think that there are lots of families working on counting at home.  Thank you!  It's paying off!  Here are some videos we like to use in class to help get us moving and counting at the same time.  When my own boys were younger, I'd play these videos at home to get the wiggles out on these cold, winter days.

Count to 100 by 1s with Jack Hartmann

Count by 10s with Have Fun Teaching

Count by 5s with Have Fun Teaching

Count by 2s with Have Fun Teaching

Count back from 20 with Have Fun Teaching

Number Sense

We've been doing lots of things to help us develop a strong number sense.  One of the games we have played this week is called Top-It.  It's like the card game War that you might have played when you were younger.  What I love about Top-It is that players practice both number identification and they decide which number is greater.  We're using the terms greater than and less than when playing Top-It.  It's easy to play at home, too!  You can use a deck of cards; just remove the face cards.  For students who could practice with larger numbers, write larger numbers on index cards and play the game.  Which is bigger:  36 or 63?  On days where it's harder to get outside, this game might be a fun way to pass the time and your child is practicing number sense at the same time.  

Another game we like to play is called Guess My Number.  Here's how you play:  Say "I'm thinking of a number that is a teen number with a 5 in it."  Your child should guess 15.  Another example:  "How many legs does an insect have?"  6!  "Now add ten to that number."  16!  "I'm thinking of a number with a 2 and a 7."  27!  "What other number has a 2 and a 7?"  72!

Measurement
We work with a calendar every day in math.  We've learned that calendars are a way to measure time. We work with knowing all of the days of the week and the months of the year, in order.  We practice knowing which day is yesterday and what day tomorrow will be.  In addition, we talk about what happens in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening.  When my children were younger we would talk in the car about what day is today, what was yesterday, etc.  We sequenced our events of the day, too.  The measurement of time can be tricky for kindergarten students, so any practice they can do helps solidify their understanding of time.  In upcoming weeks we'll be talking about how clocks measure time.  If you want to get a jump start on it, we'll be learning about telling time at the hour and half-hour.

There's more coming up with measurement, so stay tuned!

Money
Learning the different coins can be tricky for many kindergarteners.  We've been talking about the coins casually and observing their attributes.  We'll get into more specifics soon, but in the meantime, having your child sort coins at home will help him or her recognize the differences between the coins much more quickly.  Here are some videos we like to watch, too:

Penny, You're the One!

Nickelish!

Dime and Dime Again!

Quarteriffic

Look for more math updates to come soon!

Working on Predicting

One of our focuses in reading lately has been predicting what might happen in the text.  When readers make predictions, they are focused on what is happening in the text.  Readers are able to take what is happening in the book, add it to their background knowledge and make a prediction as to what happens next.

We've been talking about predictions that make sense, and boy have I been impressed!  The class seems to get that making a prediction that actually might happen is key.  We've been working on knowing that it's okay for predictions to be wrong--we just have to make sure we find out whether our predictions came true in the text.

Readers can make predictions using any book, and we make predictions on every book we've read. When reading all of the gingerbread man books, we were able to predict what might happen based on knowing the other stories we've read.  These books were a few of our favorites in helping us learn to make predictions while we read:

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey is a great book to work on predictions while reading the text.  If you are familiar with the story, you'll know that the actions of Sal and the Little Bear mirror each other, which makes it easier to make connections and predict what will happen next.

Wolf's Coming by Joe Kulka is another book where students can easily make predictions based on what they already know.  It has a surprising ending which makes checking our predictions fun because then we can go back and look at the clues we might have missed.

Suddenly! by Colin McNaughton is just a fun book.  We were able to make many correct predictions, especially when we noticed the author's style and pattern.

We will continue talking about making predictions all year.  When reading at home, see what predictions your child can make and don't forget to see if he or she was correct.  Happy reading!

Comparing and Contrasting Two Stories

We're working retelling stories that we've read during our read aloud or shared reading time.  After we've retold the story, we're able to compare the story to another story we've read.  I've been impressed with how well this is going as a whole group!  Yea!

One of the stories we read was Sofia and the Sunflower.

It's about a girl who plants some magic seeds which turn out to be giant sunflowers.  She decides to climb up the sunflower and finds a castle in the clouds.  What does this story remind you of?  That's right!  Jack and the Beanstalk.  We read that story next, and we were able to come up with many story elements that were the same or similar in the two texts.  We made a thinking map to show our thinking:

Recently we read two gingerbread men stories:  The Gingerbread Man retold by Jim Aylesworth and The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires.  Here's our thinking map for those two tales:

Comparing books helps us develop as readers in many ways.  First, we get to practice retelling a story with the characters, the setting, and the main events in order.  Also, we get to practice making connections between stories.  Making connections helps us remember what happened in the text and consider the text in new ways.  Lastly, we as readers get to respond to the texts and discuss them with each other.  It's always great when readers can see the book through another's point-of-view.

We'll be connecting between texts often in our class.  When reading at home, ask your child if he or she can think of a book that is similar to the one you are currently reading.  Discuss the similarities at home!  Happy reading!

Handwriting and Phonics in Our Classroom

Soon you will see papers like this coming home:

We're using it for both handwriting and phonics.

Handwriting
We're learning how to write all of the letters, both upper and lower case.  When we write a letter, our target is to write the letter correctly.  We'll know that we've hit the target when the letter is the right size and the right shape.  The right size is the tricky one for most kindergarten students.  The two lines you see might be different than what you are used to seeing.  The top line is actually the mid-line, and the bottom line is the bottom line.  Some letters, like all of the capitals, go above the mid-line (that top line).  We talk about "bumping"the lines so that our letters will be the right size.

We're transitioning to primarily using lower case letters in our writing.  When you see these papers, you might see a lot of letters I've written with a marker.  It might look a little overwhelming sometime with all of the marker marks, but I'm just trying to demonstrate how a letter should look on this page.  I know we're in the practice phase of handwriting, and I want students to visually see what the letter should look like in both size and shape.  Kindergarten is a time to establish good handwriting habits.  It may seem like I'm being picky, but I'm trying to set good examples.

Phonics
This paper is also a way for us to practice our letter sounds and spelling words.  On the top row with the triangle, I say a sound and the students write the letter that makes the sound.  On the second row with the square, we practice saying and spelling words.  I will say a word and the students will repeat it.  Then students stretch out the word to listen to the sounds they hear.  Then they write the word writing the letters that correspond with the sounds they hear.  The last two rows (the heart) is where we practice handwriting and sight words.

Most of the days we do this paper, we complete it together.  I have an identical paper that the students help me fill out.  This way, students can check their work against the class copy.  They are encouraged to make corrections as needed, and everyone knows each answer before we move on to the next sound or word.  So when the paper comes home, you might just notice marker marks made by me to help correct handwriting.

Sometimes you'll notice a score at the top.   About once a week we will do the same routine but students will not be able to check their work against the class copy.  It will be taken as an assessment to help me know how well the students are picking up on the letter-sound correspondence and how well students are figuring out how to spell simple words.  Doing this helps me know when it's time to move on to a new letter or concept and when it's time to reteach certain letters and sounds.  This time is similar to a quiz.  I want to know what the students can do independently.  The score on the top will show how many sounds / letters and words your child got correct.  Since we don't have grades in kindergarten, I won't be recording the scores as an A or a B.  I put the score on there so you would know two things:  1.  The paper was done independently.  2.  How your child performed.  Remember, since I'm looking at handwriting, too, it might look like your child missed a letter or a word when really he or she didn't.  If there is no score on the paper, we did it together in class and your child could see all of the answers as we went along.  I'm really happy with our progress so far!

Last week I sent home alphabet cards in a baggie for your child to keep.  Feel free to use these with your child to help learn letters and sounds.

Apps for Math

There are lots of fun apps for learning or practicing math.  Let's dive right in with some of my favorites in no particular order!

 Base Ten Bingo
(currently $1.99)

Base Ten Bingo is a great way to practice visualizing numbers and be ready for first grade math.  I love how it's differentiated, too.  This app is part of ABCya.com's family of apps, so if you and your child like this one, maybe you'll find others you like as well.  

 Beat the Computer (from Everyday Math)

(currently free)

Everyday Math is our math curriculum for Carmel Elementary, so any EDM apps would be great.  Beat the Computer is one of my favorites because who doesn't want to be smarter than a computer?

 Math Seeds for Kindergarten
(either $7.99 or there is a free version)

Truth be told I don't remember if I have the paid version or the free version, but this is one of my favorite math apps for kindergarten.  Why?  It's because of the variety of math skills offered.  Typically apps for kindergarten math focus on number sense or computation, but Math Seeds has activities for practice in measurement, money, data, fractions, grouping, sharing, and more!

 Todo Math

(currently free)

This app seems engaging to many kindergartners. Check out the daily challenges.

Top-It (for Everday Math)
(currently free)

Another Everyday Math app . . .  easy way to practice addition.

As always, I recommend that you check out the app first before you give it to your child.  A website I like using as a mom to check and see if media is appropriate for my own sons is commonsensemedia.org.