The whole enchilada... or maybe just half! Fractions in Kindergarten!

We have been working on fractions in math, specifically half and whole. I love connecting math and other content areas. Here are some activities I use for this unit:

Activity 1
For this unit, we used a lot of literature. To start our fractions we defined half and whole. Then we created our very own pizza's with our partners, here's a picture of the finished product.

When they finished decorating they had to write about their whole pizza, their half of the pizza, and their partner's half of the pizza.

Drew and I have one whole pizza. On my half there is pepeorny [pepperoni] met [meat] and cheese. On Drew's cnadenbacn [Canadian bacon] and peprony [pepperoni]. 

Gracyn and I have a hol [whole] pizza. The hol [whole] flavr [flavor] is piprone [pepperoni] meet [meat] in [and] chese [cheese]. My half ov [of] my pizza flavr [flavor] is meet [meat] in [and] chese [cheese]. My partnr [partner's] half pizza flavr [flavor] is piprone [pepperoni] meet [meat] n [and] ches [cheese]. 

Activity 2
The following day we read a book call Whole-y Cow. With this book we discussed how we write fractions. After each page we would discuss the picture and that there is a whole and a part. Wholes go on the bottom- because they are the bigger number and the big number has to hold up the small number. Parts go on top because they are the small number. We reviewed that parts cannot be bigger than the whole. Then we drew our own half and whole Whole-y Cow's!

Activity 3
Later in our week we read a book called My Half Day, this book is also in Spanish and is a series of math books. I love this series because it puts math into real-world situations. For instance in this book he wakes up and imagines that half of his head is shaved, then he starts to think about what it would be like if everything was only half. (There is also My Even Day and My Odd Day, if you are interested in more literature to incorporate math skills. I will include a list of other books as well at the end of this post.) Anywho...after reading this book we discussed what it would be like if normal things in our lives were only half. We did a role playing exercise for this! You could also have them create a book. How fun would it be to make a script/ book and then have them act it out and record the skit?!


Activity 4
Today we read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and made a small book to discuss halves and whole that I found at GrowinginPre-K and K. After we made our books, the kids in their learning groups created their own books in the similar style of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...only in our version we give a mouse half of a cookie. Check out Laura Numeroff's books, she has a lot that can be used for many different types of lessons. I love them for half and whole as well as cause and effect. Her books are also great for sequencing lessons, retelling, and comprehension in ELAR.

Check out our Haiku Deck stories!

         

Words in the Great Outdoors!

Outdoor word work is so much more than side walk chalk! Here are some supply ideas:

• Chalk (most common) - there is an endless supply of ideas out there for chalk. Your child probably has endless ideas of what they could do with chalk! Swing on over to The Home Teacher to see some great sidewalk chalk activities!

• Sticks- use sticks and build the words/ letters.

• Leaves- use leaves to build the words/ letters.

• Silly string- 1) use silly string to write words 2) write words with chalk and then tag the word said with silly string.

• Fly swatters- swat words that are written with fly swatter.

 (now just imagine this outside!)

• Pebbles/rocks- use pebbles/ rocks to spell words and letters.

• Sand/ dirt- use a stick or finger to spell words in the sand/ dirt.

• Water/squirt guns- write with the guns, tag the words that are already written, for rhyming words (or any other spelling rule)- spray the beginning sound to erase it and change out the word to another word in that family.

• Hopscotch pad- chalk out a hopscotch pad or if you want to make it more permanent paint it, hopscotch spell the word or recite the alphabet as you hopscotch.

• Cardboard letter tiles (think of this like giant Scrabble pieces) - cut cardboard squares (about 1ft x 1ft) and write letters on them like Scrabble. Then use to recite ABCs or spell out words.

• Jump ropes- use the ropes to spell or jump rope and spell the words.

• Paints- paint the word on a stone then you can hide the stones around the yard and have a scavenger hunt.

Intro Activities to Outdoor Learning

(Let me preface this with stating, none of these ideas are my own genuine creations. As a teacher we beg, borrow, and steal from anyone with a good idea we think may work. These are off of other blogs/ Pinterest/ moms that I know/ my own childhood...etc.)

Measurement/ Classification Scavenger Hunt

Chalk number lines + imagination = a whole world of possible math thinking going on!

Here are a TON of number identification, classification, sorting, addition, subtraction starter ideas in this pic!

In the pic above, I would suggest activities like these:

• Bull's Eye- adjust the numbers inside for the learner's age. Throw the sponge and that learner must do that many jumping jacks, find that many items in the yard, count to that number, give an equation to equal the number...use your imagination!
• Sorting- this could be a great, fun scavenger hunt. Like the pic shows you could use stones OR colored plates/ bowls/ buckets/ towels, etc. They could be natural object being found or objects you've placed intentionally.
• Number lines- I love number lines! I like the bike pick above. This could be where you have a number caller and a biker/runner/ skater/ you name it-er...the number caller says a number and that person uses their mode of transportation to move over that number on the number line. 

Use found objects to create shapes...then take the simple shapes even further to create pictures. This is a fun thing for students when we learn about shapes. We will look at pictures and identify what shapes it takes to make that picture (real photos). Then using construction paper shapes students make their own pictures. They can do this with found objects in the yard as well!

Experiment.

Have fun.

Research- Pinterest is great.

I am beginning outdoor centers this week in class. Each post in this series past the intro will be from the classroom. Going to be a fun time! Check in next week!

Outdoor Challenge!

For the last 10 weeks of school (so this starts NEXT MONDAY- 3/31/14) cut out technology and encourage your family to do outdoor activities instead- at least during the school week. I know rain will come since it's spring, so I will include rainy day suggestions as well. I encourage you to share the experience in the comments of how this goes for you during the last 10 weeks of school.

Outdoor Learning

Saturday I spent the majority of the day outside, I even did my grad school work outside. With all this nice weather coming our way it had me thinking of just how much kindergartners and elementary aged students just prefer to be outside. Really most of our world's biggest minds did a lot of their work outside.

Reflect with me on some of the great leaders of our past:

Henry David Threau- a naturalist and abolitionist who wrote about the wrongs of slavery and the world around him. Some of his most famous pieces include A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and (Thoughts from) Walden- were written while in nature, as was most of his work.

Robert Frost- I think we all remember having to memorize The Road Not Taken... recite with me "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both. And be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth..." I will forever associate that poem with Mrs. Geiger's 8th grade English class.

Nathaniel Hawthorne- The Scarlet Letter goes into such rich detail about the nature in the state of Massachusetts that when I visited Vermont over spring break, the drive from Boston to VT just made all the imagery in Hawthorne's writing alive. I could just imagine that patch of woods next to the river, tucked away from civilization being where Hester Prynne lived. Visiting Boston for the first time over spring break, I could see the book come to life as I walked The Freedom Trail. (I know it wasn't set in Boston, but the buildings are the same.)

Abraham Lincoln actively played outside and taught himself everything he knew. He educated himself so well, while absorbing nature that he was able to become a lawyer and the president.

George Washington was a great leader and soldier, but first and foremost was a farmer and surveyor. He knew the land, understood it, and felt he was one with it. His bond with nature forged his character!

During the Renaissance in both Europe and our own Renaissance periods, people were often found outdoors working because it yielded so much more production.

Most ivy league and well established universities are surrounded by nature and have extensive grounds that they keep. Year round you find students sprawled across the yards of those universities in study groups, independent study, in self expression, or even my own university had a stump that people could stand on and freely express anything they wanted from that stump. 

Examples of those who actively believed in learning through nature or doing work outdoors lead to more productive work is extensive. This philosophy of learning stems from Maria Montessori- http://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/History-of-Montessori-Education/Biography-of-Maria-Montessori.aspx- , an educational theorists who (very simply put) believed learning should be done at the learner's pace through exploration. This is largely why in my classroom I don't require students to work in a dedicated place- yes we have tables and they do have assigned spots, however they only go to those areas when they are being redirected or it is a whole group learning time. The remainder of our day students may complete the tasks I give them via free roam (that's what we call the period of independent/ partner/ small group tasks). Only if they don't meet our agreed upon contract rules for this period can they be asked to go to a preassigned area. This rarely happens though! It's unique. It's challenging. It's EXTREMELY chaotic. However, I've seen so much improvement in my students this year that seems to be a direct result of the process. They are most importantly more responsible because they have to be or the privileges are revoked.

SO, I am about to begin a series of blogs based on outdoor learning. This learning will be structured but out of your control- so if you like holding the reigns take a deep breath and just try to experiment with me! We are creating leaders! We are creating independent children! We are creating deeper thinkers! So, with these blogs to come there is a challenge involved... can you handle it?

Challenge: For the last 10 weeks of school (so this starts NEXT MONDAY- 3/31/14) cut out technology and encourage your family to do outdoor activities instead- at least during the school week. I know rain will come since it's spring, so I will include rainy day suggestions as well. I encourage you to share the experience in the comments of how this goes for you during the last 10 weeks of school.

Easy Math Centers

I don't believe in worksheets. They are not engaging and don't require the student to use their brain in higher levels of thinking. If you would like to use a worksheet, please supplement it with hands-on activity!

That being said, centers in my classroom use few supplies. I like to keep my centers this way so that we use objects that are commonly found at home. Why? Well when we use a deck of cards, dice, dominoes, chopsticks, clothespins... the student will see it at home in their environment and remember the activity. This way the student is more likely to recreate the center at home. So, here are some examples of centers my kids use for math practice:

Shown above: In this math centers student use ice trays and fuzzy balls or pom poms. 

• Beginning of the Year (BOY):The student rolls a die and places that many fuzzy balls into the ice tray to develop number sense.
• Middle and End of the Year(MOY/EOY): The student rolls a die and writes the number down and puts that many pom poms in the ice tray. Then the student flips a coin- heads = addition, tails = subtraction. The student writes the symbol. Then the student rolls the die again. This gives the 2nd number. The student writes it down and completes to problem. 

Shown above: In this center the students pull sticks with simple addition and subtraction problems. If they get it right they keep the stick. Wrong, then the stick goes back in the container. This container once was Lysol wipes :)

Shown Above: In this activity students give the sharks teeth.

• BOY: We use this as number sense. The student rolls a die and places that many teeth on the shark.
• MOY/ EOY: The student rolls a die and writes the number down and puts that many teeth on the shark. Then the student flips a coin- heads = addition, tails = subtraction. The student writes the symbol. Then the student rolls the die again. This gives the 2nd number. The student writes it down and completes to problem. 

Shown Above: Students place 10 counters at the top. Then student selects a number sentence card (4-3). The student brings 4 counters down into the box. The student takes 3 away and places them in the cup. What is left in the box is the answer.

Shown Above:

• BOY: We use this as number sense. The student pics a rocket ship and places that many clothespins on it.
• MOY/ EOY: The student selects 2 ships and puts the clothes pins on them. Then the student writes the number sentence and solves the problem in this one we only use it for addition.

Shown Above:

• BOY: We use this as number sense. The student pics a paint sample and puts that many links on it. At home the links could be paper clips.
• MOY/ EOY: The student selects 2 paint samples and puts links on them then writes the number sentence and completes the problem. Again, I only use this one for addition.

Shown Above: My kids LOVE this center. I've just labeled the bottom of cups with different ways to show numbers. The students match the cups and build a tower for each number, so there's a tower for 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, and so on! IT IS A HIT! The can is just a decorated Pringles can :)

Thinking Higher! Did you ask any good questions today?

Growing up, my family ate dinner every night around the table together. My mom is an elementary teacher and my dad is a principal so we grew up in an educational home where everything was a learning opportunity. I was very fortunate. At dinner each night my dad would always as my sister and I if we asked any good questions that day at school. At the time I hated this part of dinner. Now, as an adult and an educator I realize just how important it is to ask kids if they asked any good questions! But for them to ask good questions, we have to model what good questions are! 

So, new to the Kingdom, a higher level questions wall! We are very excited about this. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, I've divided questions into 3 levels. Lowest level is blue, middle is green, and highest is pink. I'm excited to use these with the kids. My thought is to ask questions from blue on Monday and Tuesday, green questions on Wednesday and Thursday, and pink questions on Thursday and Friday- this way they are taking our week's learning and pushing it further each day. I encourage you to try it in your classroom or even at home! Why shouldn't we ask some challenging questions. So, did you ask any good questions today?