Feather Background

Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

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.

Displaying photo.JPG

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.

Displaying photo.JPG

Check out our Haiku Deck stories!

         

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Technology and Apps

I just wanted to give y'all some apps and sites we use in the classroom that can be great tools at home as well!

iPad:

  • My Story- Book Maker for Kids: in this app, kids create stories and can record their voice telling the story. We have used it to make books about our group, books about colors, and books with our class members' names in it.
  • Whiteboard app: We use this to practice writing names, sight words, letters, and spelling.
  • Haiku Deck: This is similar to My Story-Book Maker, but you can't record your voice.
  • Letter and number tracing apps: These are great for muscle memory and practicing writing the letters in the correct format.


Websites:


Software used at school:
  • iStation: we use iStation throughout the week for reinforcement and for our assessments. Each student has their own login. Students can login online at home, if parents download the software to their home computer. It is free. http://www.istation.com/

  




Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Kissing Hand and A Pocketful of Kisses




http://www.haikudeck.com/p/bQMHkQHgSm/digby-and-chester-share-things

Here is a Haiku Deck we made today! The kids spelled most of the words and helped pick the pictures. This Haiku Deck was created after reading The Kissing Hand and A Pocketful of Kisses. The students shared what the two books had in common and then created their picture book on Haiku Deck showing what the two books had in common.

Enjoy!